Roast pork with crackling & pickle veg

Posted by petra08 on September 17, 2012 · 4 Comments 

As much as I love to be away it is always nice yo come home! Perhaps one of the greatest things to do at this time of the year is to go to the allotment and see what has come up and not! This time the butternut squashes have come through. It is one of my favourites, I know I probably say that about most allotment veg but this is truly something I am really looking forward to each year.

Freshly picked

To celebrate the first butternut squash I made a soup and added sweetcorn.

Butternut squash & Sweetcorn soup

1 small butternut squash, peeled and deseeded
2 corn on the cob, corn cut off the cobb and the “corn milk” added last minute.
1/2 tsp Recheado, a goan pirri pirri sauce
Salt
Pepper
Chicken or vegetarian stock, 2 dl for mash and 4 dl for soup

I placed the roughly cubed butternut squash in a pan and then the corn from 1 cob but save the cob for the “milk” later. Add Stock, the pirri pirri sauce, salt and pepper and simmer for 10 minutes, then turn the heat off and let stand for another 10 minutes. Taste and add more salt and pepper if necessary.
Whilst the soup is simmering pan fry the corn from the other cob in a little oil to get slightly toasted and set aside.
Take the corn cobs and scrape them with a knife over the soup and then place it all in the blender. It might be a little messy but well worth the effort as it adds loads of corn flavour. Blend until desired consistency. If you think the soup is to thick add it back to the pan and add more water if wished and also a tbsp of creme fraiche.
Garnish with the toasted corn, some toasted seeds and serve.

The Recheado is a Goan paste and it is hot and sour and perfect to create a balance against the sweetness of the corn and butternut squash. A squeeze of lemon would also work but I like the background heat as well.

There was a glut of yellow tomatoes on the vine so I picked them and made yellow tomato powder, I can’t wait and see if it is very different in flavour from the red tomato powder I made before.

In the supermarket today I could not help but buy a couple of packs of banana shallot onions.
They are beautiful with a distinct flavour and I wanted to try and pickle them.

I flavoured vinegar with mustard and coriander seeds, chilli, salt and sugar and pored over the peeled and cut onions. It is supposed to rest for at least a month so I will have to come back if it worked well or not.

I had an order for roast pork for dinner today and decided to pickle some veg as well with the same vinegar but it would only stand for a few hours. I wanted something sharp to cut through the richness of the pork. I went to the butcher and got some pork belly, one of my favourite cuts. All the fat gives loads of flavour and the meat is so tender, even better that I also made crackling to go with it! It was a proper Sunday dinner.

Pickle veg

I did a spice rub for the pork belly of salt, pepper, ground coriander, ground celery seeds, cayenne pepper and paprika powder.

Pork belly with spice rub, ready to be slow roasted in the oven.

I always cook crackling separate but cook it at the same time.

The roasted pork belly came out a treat but next time I will add a bit more cayenne pepper for some extra umph!

The crackling crackled beautifully and was light as a feather, needless to say there was nothing left!

I set some butternut and sweetcorn mash aside to have with the pork belly and I also steamed veg in stock and white wine, potatoes, savoy cabbage, courgette, carrot, leek, radish and button mushroom.

It was nice and all the veg made the pork belly slightly lighter but I guess I will have to be extra good this coming week, well worth it!

Advertisement

Filed under Allotment/Veg, Butternut Squash, Cabbage, Carrot, Chilli, Courgette, Leek, Meat, Onion, Pork, Potatoes, Recipe, Sancerre, Starch, Tomatoes · Tagged with corn cobs, Goan Recheado Piri Piri Paste, pickle onions, Pork Belly, pork crackling, tomato powder