Smoked Pork with Mash, Gravy and Fried Corn
yo… smoked pork, gravy, mashed taters, fried corn n oakra
A plate built out of a smoke that happened two days ago, and better for it. The pork is cured, which is why it stays pink to the edge under the black.
The mash is skin-on and deliberately rough — lumps are not a failure here, they are the texture. Smooth mash is for restaurants. And it gets a well pressed into the middle for the gravy, which is not decoration: it keeps the gravy where you put it instead of running into the corn.
The corn is the part nobody expects. Fried hard in the pork fat with sliced okra and chilli flakes until some of it catches and goes brown.
- Feeds
- 4
- Hands-on
- 40 minutes
- On the stove
- 30 minutes
- Needs
- Smoked pork, already cooked
What you need
The pork
- 2 lb smoked cured pork, sliced thin — shoulder or loin, already smoked
- 2 tbsp of its own fat, or butter
The mash
- 3 lb Yukon Gold potatoes, skin on, cut into chunks
- 1 stick butter, cut up, cold
- 3/4 cup whole milk, warmed
- Salt and a lot of coarse black pepper
The gravy
- 3 tbsp pork fat or butter
- 3 tbsp flour
- 2 1/2 cups pork or beef stock
- 1 tsp soy sauce, for colour and depth
- Black pepper
The fried corn and okra
- 4 cups corn kernels, fresh or frozen, thoroughly dried
- 10 okra pods, sliced into rounds
- 2 tbsp pork fat or bacon fat
- 1 tsp chilli flakes
- Salt
How it goes
1 — Potatoes on first, started in cold water
Skin on, cut into even chunks, covered in cold salted water and brought up to a boil. Cold start means the outside is not falling apart by the time the middle is done. Twenty minutes to a knife going in with no resistance.
2 — Dry them in the empty pan
Drained, then straight back into the hot dry pan for a minute, shaking. The steam coming off is water that would otherwise end up in your mash.
3 — Mash rough, butter cold, milk warm
Cold butter first and mashed in, then warm milk a splash at a time. Stop while it is still lumpy and the skins are in visible flecks. Heavy on the black pepper.
pro tip — Never a blender or a food processor. Potato starch whipped at speed turns to glue, and there is no coming back from it.
4 — Make the gravy in the pork fat
Fat and flour in a pan, cooked together for two full minutes until it smells like biscuits rather than raw flour. Stock in a splash at a time, whisking, then the soy and a lot of pepper. Simmer until it coats a spoon.
5 — Dry the corn before it goes near the pan
This is the step that makes the difference. Wet corn steams and stays yellow and dull. Spread it on a towel and press it dry, especially if it was frozen.
6 — Fry the corn hard, okra with it
Fat screaming hot in a wide pan, corn in a single layer, and then do not touch it for three minutes. When some of it has gone brown, stir, add the okra and chilli flakes, and give it another four. The okra goes bright green and keeps a little snap.
7 — Warm the pork, do not cook it
Slices into a pan with a spoon of fat over medium heat, ninety seconds a side. It is already cooked. You are taking the fridge off it and crisping the black edge.
8 — Plate it with the well
Mash first, pressed into a mound with the back of a spoon and a hollow in the middle. Gravy into the hollow. Pork fanned alongside, corn heaped next to it.
Two days after the smoke and it is better than it was on the day. That is the whole argument for cooking too much. LFG.