Roast pork with crispy crackling served with nashi pear sauce

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Tonight's dinner: slow cooked roast pork with crispy crackling served with buttered steamed greens, nashi pear sauce, red cabbage sauerkraut and cup of chicken broth.

In a bid to further reduce time and effort in the kitchen, without compromising nutrient-density and flavour, I've simplified to the bare bones my  slow cooked roast pork recipe as follows:

Ingredients:

1 pork belly
Raw apple cider vinegar (ACV)
Sea salt

Directions:

Place pork belly in oven proof baking dish (I used a large rectangular glass Pyrex dish) and add enough ACV to  cover the pork belly but not the skin/crackling. Allow to marinate in fridge covered for 24 hours. Strain the ACV and transfer to the oven and cook uncovered at 80 degrees Celsius all day until you are almost ready to eat (e.g. 8+ hours).

To make the crackling, season the skin with liberal amounts of unrefined salt. Turn on the grill element. Be sure to have the pork a fair distance away from the element (near middle to the bottom of oven) so it doesn't burn. Cook for about 15-20 minutes or until the skin is crispy and golden brown. Transfer pork belly to a chopping board or platter and discard the ACV.

Nashi pear sauce: This is a modern take on the traditional apple sauce. You could of course substitute apples instead of nashi pears.

Steam 3-4 unpeeled cored chopped nashi pears until soft. Place in a smoothie canister or glass jug. Add 2-3 tablespoons of cream (or butter), 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder and puree until smooth.

Any leftover sauce makes a great dessert (eaten hot or cold) or a cold morning tea (eg for kids) dusted with extra cinnamon powder.

To find out why its always a good idea to  eat pork with sauerkraut read the last paragraph of one of my previous blogs here.

Don't forget the steamed buttered veggies and a cup of broth- and you've got all bases covered!

Enjoy!!

...another winter-warming casserole: ox cheek stew

I picked up something different from Kingsleys Meats recently - ox cheeks at the very decent price of $19.99/kg. Ox cheeks (much like beef cheeks) are exceptionally tender especially when long slow cooked as a casserole using my simple but fool-proof 4 fold casserole formula:

1. Pastured meat: in this case ox cheeks
2. Herbs and spices: garam masala (a spice blend from About Life or other organic store) plus unrefined salt and cracked pepper
3. Liquid: beef stock (preferably home made from pastured beef bones) to just cover the meat, a splash of red wine and some tomato puree (from glass bottles not tins)
4. Vegetables: add whatever chopped veggies take your fancy like carrots, sweet potatoes, green beans, potatoes etc. This time I simply added loads of diced garlic and onions.

Place all of the above ingredients into an oven-proof casserole dish (e.g. Le Creuset) or slow cooker and whack in a 80-120C degrees oven and forget about it for 8-24 hours. The temperature is dependent on length of cooking time (i.e. 80 degrees Celsius for 24 hours or 120 degrees for 8 hours). With a slow cooker put on the lowest setting.

Place 1-2 beef cheeks into each bowl and ladle loads of the broth on top. I served with steamed vegetables (like cabbage and zucchini) in the same bowl.

For more casserole recipes click here and here. Kali Orexi (that's Greek for good appetite!).

Lamb neck casserole- a super-cheap and nutrient-dense meal

Many people have a pre-conceived idea that organic meat is expensive. It can be but it doesn't need to be. My rule of thumb is that anything less than $25/kg is pretty good value and the vast majority of the meat I purchase is well under that amount. Occasionally I will buy a prime cut steak that's about $30 or $40 a kilo but that's the exception to the rule. The lesser known cuts (like bones, organ meats, loin chops, chump chops and necks) are typically: (a) cheaper (b) have the bone in which makes them more nutirent-dense as the nutrients come out of the bone when cooking (c) fattier. Yes this is a good thing- and I appreciate it's controversial.

Despite what mainstream dietetics would have you believe, saturated fat from wild or grass fed and finished animals is essential for good health. It's needed for a range of functions including strong immunity and proper functioning of the nervous system, heart, liver, kidneys, lungs, hormones, cells and brain. It's also needed for mineral absorption, anti-stiffness and joint protection.  It provides the most ideal source of fuel for mankind by providing a slow-released steady-state source of energy throughout the day. (d) more flavoursome (because of the bones and higher fat content)

Recently I bought 2 large bags of lamb necks for $9.99/kg (from Kingsleys Meats) and made them into a delicious slow-cooked casserole (befitting of winter). There is white marrow inside the bones which I treat as potent medicine. Here's how I made it:

In an oven-proof casserole dish (e.g. Le Creuset) or slow cooker throw all of the following ingredients together:

1. Lamb necks
2. Herbs and spices: chopped up springs of rosemary and diced garlic, plus unrefined salt and pepper
3. Liquid: beef stock (preferably home made from pastured cows) to just cover the meat and a splash of red wine and balsamic vinegar. If you don't have stock just add filtered water and the slow cooking process will create a stock from the bones in the lamb necks.

Stick in 80-120C degrees oven and forget about it for 8-24 hours. The temperature is dependent on length of cooking time  (ie 80 degrees Celsius for 24 hours or 120 degrees for 8 hours). With a slow cooker put on the lowest setting.

You could add some vegetables in there too (chopped carrots, green beans, potatoes etc) for a complete meal (one-pot wonder). Otherwise just serve with steamed vegetables or salad separately. Leftover meat can be frozen for later use.

I'll warn you that there is a lot of bone in lamb necks but all of the nutrients in the bone come out during the long slow cooking process and the meat surrounding the bone is very tender. If your family members might freak out by all of the bones then take all of the meat and marrow off the bones before serving. My kids are used to my cave-women 'bones and all' style of eating (and I encourage them to suck, gnaw and chew on the bones to mineralise their body).

If you make this casserole let me know how you go! I'd love to hear what lesser-known / cheaper cuts of meats you buy and how you cook them.

I'll be running an organ meats class in mid July so stay tuned! Happy long weekend!