Steven Lamb
MORE RECIPES
Migas; Slow-cooked turkey legs with bacon and prunes; Pheasant pie; Woodcock with wild mushrooms; Pork burgers with mace and thyme; Tagliatelle with lamb’s liver, pancetta and sage
SOURCING
devonrose.com; greenpasturefarms.co.uk
Lard is rendered pork fat, i.e. fat that has been melted down and re-solidified. The ‘raw’ fat is usually taken from around the belly of the pig or from the seam of back fat running along the loin.
As a cooking fat, lard can be heated to relatively high temperatures without burning, and gives incomparable flavour to everything from potato cakes to a fry-up. You can also tie pork back fat around lean meats, such as venison, to keep them moist while roasting (a technique called ‘barding’). But lard can be an ingredient in its own right – doughy, fruit-studded lardy cake being the most obvious use. It makes good ‘shortening’ too, creating a unique, melt-in-the-mouth texture in pastry. As it’s a source of saturated fat, lard is often avoided, although the link between saturated fats and heart disease is now being questioned. It’s worth knowing that lard has less saturated fat than butter.
In Italy, the cured, aged lard from the little village of Colonnata has achieved cult status, but lardo is a delicacy you can easily create at home by curing a clean slab of back fat in a fragrant mix of salt, pepper, juniper, garlic and herbs.
Unfortunately, the standard blocks of lard on the supermarket shelf do not come from free-range pigs (see Pork). A few farmers are now producing ‘pastured’ lard but another option is to render lard yourself. Get some free-range pork back fat from your butcher, cut it into cubes, and put it into a casserole dish. For every 500g fat, add 100ml water; this will evaporate as the lard melts but initially helps moderate the transfer of heat to the fat so that it renders gently and evenly. Put the dish in a very low oven (100°C/Fan 80°C/Gas ¼) and leave to melt over an hour or two. Let it cool a little, then pour into suitable containers. It will keep in the fridge for a couple of months, or in the freezer for a year.
Lard gives richness and flakiness to the rough puff pastry for these fruity treats. Makes 8
FOR THE PASTRY
400g plain flour
A pinch of salt
100g cold lard, in roughly 1–2cm cubes
100g cold butter, in roughly 1–2cm cubes
FOR THE FILLING
150g currants
40g butter
2 tbsp marmalade
75g caster sugar
½ tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground allspice
TO FINISH
1 egg white, lightly beaten
2 tbsp demerara sugar
To make the pastry, combine the flour and salt in a large bowl. Toss in the lard and butter until coated. Stir in enough ice-cold water (about 250ml) to bring the mixture together and form a very rough, fairly firm, dough (the chunks of fat should still be visible).
Transfer the dough to a well-floured surface and shape into a fat rectangle. Roll out to form a long rectangle, about 1cm thick. Fold the furthest third towards you, then fold the nearest third over that (like folding a business letter). Give the pastry a quarter-turn, so an open edge is facing you.
Repeat the rolling, folding and turning process a further 4 times. If the dough starts to feel soft, chill it between foldings. Wrap the pastry in cling film and rest in the fridge for at least an hour, or up to 24 hours.
For the filling, gently heat all the ingredients together until the marmalade has melted and the butter is bubbling. Leave to cool.
Preheat the oven to 200°C/Fan 180°C/Gas 6 and grease a baking sheet. Take the pastry from the fridge, roll out to a 5mm thickness and cut out 16 circles, 10cm in diameter. Stack up the pastry trimmings and re-roll to cut more circles as necessary.
Top 8 pastry circles with a generous spoonful of the spiced currant mix. Top with the remaining pastry circles and crimp the edges to seal. Flip each cake over and flatten slightly with a rolling pin. Brush the surface with egg white, sprinkle with demerara sugar, then snip a ‘V’ in the top of each with scissors. Place on the baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes, or until golden and puffed. Eat warm or cold.