Cooking with Victoria Blamey

1. Clean the Iberico “Presa” Pork Shoulder of any sinew or excess fat and cut into 3” rounds.

2. Place the rounds into a hotel pan or shallow baking dish, add in all of the ingredients, cover with tinfoil and cook at 250 F for 2 hours.

3. When ready, cool down in its own liquid and reserve until needed.

1. Sauté the onion in a large and flat rondeau pot in coconut oil or any flavorless oil. Cook slowly and caramelize gently until a golden color has been achieved and the onion is nice and soft.

2. Toast the spices in a separate sauté pan and add into the onion. At this stage the garlic can be added as well. Add in the tomatoes and keep cooking slowly until they breakdown entirely.

3. Break the dry chilis with your hands and throw into the rondeau, plus the braising liquid, tomato water, tamarind paste and apple cider vinegar. Let this cook out for a couple of hours stirring occasionally.

4. Once it reduces and becomes a thick, luscious sauce remove from the heat.

5. Remove the braised pieces of pork shoulder and set aside. Reserve braising liquid.

6. Placed a good amount of sauce into a cast iron flat vessel, like a Staub or Le Creuset. Add in the blanched romano beans, and any other vegetables that you would like to pair with it. Cover with tin foil and heat up in the oven at 400F for 8-10 min max.

7. Meanwhile reduce 300 mL of the pork cooking liquid until it becomes a glaze. Warm up the pork in a separate pot with some cooking liquid and finished in the glaze when ready to plate.

8. Remove the cast iron from the oven and place the glazed pork randomly onto the sauce. Finish with fry curry leaves and a touch of the oil where the leaves where fried. Enjoy by itself or with naan, or rice as a side.

1. Clean the shiitake mushrooms with the help of a brush.

2. Slice the fresh mushrooms very thinly (2 mm) but not translucent since you want to make sure the mushroom has texture when you bite into it. Once mushrooms are sliced, placed neatly into a sous vide bag, making sure they are not on top of each other. Add in about 10g Daidai per bag and a touch of yuzu oil. Seal the bag and cook at 100C for 25 min. Cool down in room temperature water, don’t ice. Set the bag aside.

3. Fillet the Baja Kampachi and separate loin from belly. Keep the bones and rinse under cold water to remove any traces of blood.

4. Pat dry and place the bones, dry shiitake mushroom, any mushroom trim, the kombu and cover with filtered water. Gently make the broth at a very low temperature, only small bubbles surfacing slowly, for about 2 hours. When ready, remove from heat and cool down completely. Set aside till needed.

5. To make the dressing, combine the dashi, daidai, yuzu kosho, fish sauce and white peppercorn.

6. Slice the Kampachi thinly making sure to use belly and loin in equal parts. Placed onto a serving bowl, season with coarse salt and a small amount of arbequina olive oil.

7. Open the bag of mushroom and place them one by one carefully onto the fish, layered neatly so you can hide the fish. Finish with a couple of tablespoons of the dressing and a few drops of arbequina and white peppercorn.