Sunday, November 7, 2010

Winter Warmers Cookalong - Daube of Pork with Apricots & Colcannon

It's the first Friday of the month and that can only mean one thing... it's the Irish Foodies Cookalong.  This also coincided with the end of my first week in my new job, so to say I was knackered was an understatement.  But I'm made of stern stuff and knew there was no way I could miss this Cookalong, which was themed Winter Warmers.

This month, we shall be mostly clearing out the freezers in preparation for the C****mas onslaught, so I found a fillet of pork and decided to make a variation of Domini Kemp's Daube of Pork, but with a big buttery pile of Colcannon.  People, this was heavenly... the pork just fell into big tender shards at the touch of a fork, and the colcannon mopped up the delicious sauce.  I will most definitely be making this again - it's a perfect recipe to make for a large group - my quantities feed 3 people, so just double it for a family meal.


Daube of Pork with Apricots

500g Pork Fillet, trimmed & cut into large chunks
1 large onion, roughly chopped
1 tbsp Rapeseed Oil (or use one that doesn't burn easily)
Salt & Pepper
250ml Red Wine
250ml Chicken or Vegetable Stock
4 cloves Garlic, crushed
300g Passata/Crushed Tomatoes
200g Mushrooms, roughly sliced
60g dried Apricots
200g Tomatoes, semi-dried (optional)*
1/2 tsp Fennel Seeds
1 tsp Dried Thyme


Preheat your oven to 180c/Gas Mark 4

Using an ovenproof casserole dish with a lid, brown the pork in the oil until golden on the hob.  Add the onions, season and allow to cook until the onions start to colour.

Now deglaze (scrape up all the stuck bits) the pan with the wine and then add your stock.


Now it's time for everything else - garlic, tomatoes, mushrooms, apricots & herbs.  Bring this to the boil, stick the lid on and put into the oven for an hour.


After an hour, give it a good stir & remove the lid so the sauce reduces - it will look a bit watery at this stage, but that will change.  Cook for a further hour, check the seasoning & serve - with the Colcannon.



* Don't stress if you've no semi-dried tomatoes.  I had a punnet that had to be used or binned, so I halved them, sprinkled them with salt, pepper, olive oil and thyme leaves and then put them in a low (130/Gas 2) oven for 90 minutes.  They are like little squidgy jewels when done, and I had to hide them for the Daube, as The Hubs kept stealing them to scoff...

Colcannon

3 Potatoes, peeled & cut into large chunks
200g Kale, trimmed & cut into small pieces
Salt & pepper
40g Butter

Boil & mash the potatoes
Cook the kale in boiling salted water for 3-4 minutes until tender - drain well.


Mix the potatoes & kale together, add the seasoning & butter.  Serve with the Daube of Pork

2 comments:

  1. This is one of the reasons I love blogging - even though I have that cookbook, that recipe hadn't caught my eye, but after reading your post about it I'm definitely going to try it. Thanks for sharing!

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  2. I know this is an old post but I'm going to comment anyway - I saw a butchery demo last week and they showed us some lovely cheaper cuts that would be perfect for this: chump end being my favourite. Will def give this one a go x

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