Slow Cooked Pork with Sage Polenta

Sometimes all you need is a hunk of slow-cooked meat and when you find you’re in possession of those rare Sundays where you have the time, it’s just a must.  This recipe is from ‘Economy Gastronomy by Allegra McEvedy & Paul Merret which I got from Christmas and as yet, had not cooked from. Thanks to Belleau Kitchen and this month’s Random Recipe Challenge (including the swanky new thing-a-ma-doody), I’ve now made my first dish from it!

It calls for pork shoulder and also pork ribs – I didn’t have ribs, so I left them out but it made no difference as they are for another recipe later on in the book. This book is all about cooking on a budget (hence the title!) so quite often, recipes include additional ingredients for something else etc… Very clever and resourceful!

The quantities below are for 4 people. This is a long-winded process with lots of ingredients but its worth it for something a bit different to your usual roast pork dinner.

Ingredients:

• 800g pork ribs
• 2 onions peeled and diced
• 4 rosemary twigs stripped and stalks thrown away
• 1 tsp dried chilli flakes
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 6 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• 2.5kg pork shoulder – boned but not rolled
• 5  X 200g tins of tomatoes
• 5 bay leaves
• 60g butter
• Small handful sage leaves finely chopped
• 1-litre milk
• 80g parmesan, grated, plus any old rind
• 350g quick cook polenta (not ready-made)
• 400g runner beans or another green veg.

Method (this is cut down from the original slightly):

• Pre-heat the oven to 200c/180c fan/gas mark 6. In a deep roasting tray (eg 30cm X 40cm), put the pork ribs, onion, rosemary, chilli flakes, oregano, garlic and 80ml extra-olive and mix together. Season well with salt and pepper [at this stage, I did all of this minus the pork ribs].
• Season the pork joint with salt in small knife cuts and sit on top of the ribs. Put in the oven for 30 mins.
• Tip the tomatoes into a bowl and chop them up (if not already chopped). After the pork has been in for 30 mins, add them to the tray along with the bay leaves and give it a good mix, then put it back in the oven for a further 30 mins.
• By now the crackling should be ready (there wasn’t really any on mine). If not, leave it in for longer. Take the tray out and turn the oven down to 160c/140c fan/ gas mark 4, leave the door open while you do the next step to cool it down.
• Use a thin, sharp knife to ease off the crackling and set aside.
• Spoon the tomato sauce over the naked fatty pork top, and stir the sauce a bit. Cover with foil and put the tray back in for an hour [if the sauce is drying out, add a bit of water and at this stage, lift the ribs and put aside for the sticky ribs recipe on another page in the book]
• Turn the pork, baste it again with sauce, stir and put back in the oven for a final hour.
• When you take the pork out the oven, take the foil off, flip the meat and baste in the sauce once more. Turn the oven off, but put the crackling back in to warm through on a tray.
• While the meat is resting, put a large saucepan on a medium heat and melt the butter and a tbsp of olive oil together. Fry the sage gently for a few mins before pouring in the milk and 500ml water. Chuck in any bits of Parmesan rind you have too.
• Season well and once everything has come to a simmer, pour in the polenta like rain onto the surface of the liquid, whisking all the time. From here it will take no more than 10 mins to cook. [Oil a baking tray lightly – again, this is for a 2nd recipe]
• Put the second pan on with no more than 5cm salted water for the runner beans. Cover with a lid and once its boiling, drop the beans in for about 4 mins then drain.
• Take the Parmesan rind out now and bin it. Finish the polenta by stirring through most of your grated Parmesan (save about a quarter to sprinkle on at the end). Taste for seasoning, it will need it.
• Spoon the polenta onto each warmed serving plate, [again, there are now some instructions for the 2nd polenta dish] and add 4 thick slices of the pork. [I also added a spoon of the tomato sauce although most of it should be saved for yet another recipe in the book!].

The pork was lovely and tender and the sauce spicy and rich. We had this with mange tout rather than runner beans and the green on the plate was a lovely contrast to the polenta and pork. The polenta was really tasty and could have taken even more sage in my mind. You do have to season it well though as it does have a tendency to be a bit bland.

All in all, a fiddly dish which takes a while to do – it was nice and the pork was great but unless you’re going on to cook the other recipes, there is a lot of wastage.

I’ve entered this into the Belleau Kitchen Random Recipe Challenge!