St Patrick's Day Pickled Pork

 

There's a fair bit of Irish blood in this Chef from my Dad's side of the family


Though diluted through generations in the Wide Brown Land away from the Emerald Isle, St Patrick's Day is always heralded with a phone call from my Dad wishing me well in a terribly fake Irish accent. I guess with his middle name being Patrick, he just can't help himself :) As a mother of two girls, we had to name the male cat Patrick in Dad's honour, but Pat the Cat was happy to let St Patrick's Day pass by with just an extra cuddle or two


Today's celebratory menu is Pickled Pork, a tasty alternative to Corned Beef and served up with these absolutely gorgeous mini root vegetables I found at the markets this week. Tiny onions, turnips, carrots, beets and dwarf cabbage- how could I resist?

Perfect Pickled Pork

1 piece of Pickled (Corned) Pork
1 large or 2 small bottles of Apple Cider
1 Carrot- roughly chopped
1 Onion- roughly chopped
Parsley Stems
3 Bay Leaves
1/4 cup Golden Syrup
1 Star Anise
6 whole Peppercorns
4 whole Cloves
4 Allspice


Isn't this a lovely piece of meat? Glossy and glistening, just waiting to jump into the pot! Nowadays corned meat isn't as tough and salty as it used to be, and there's no need to pre-soak or change the cooking water halfway through

Now for the extra flavourings- pop in the cider, spices and golden syrup and stir to mix through. Add enough water to just cover the meat

Pop in the carrot, onion and parsley

Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook for about 40 minutes per 500grm, or until lovely and tender. Pull out the meat and allow it to rest for little while to firm up while the veggies cook

Bring the pot liquid to the boil and pop in the whole onions, turnips, carrots and the quartered cabbage. If you don't want to taint everything pink, I advise you to cook the beets in a little pot of their own :)

Serve the pork sliced into nice thick slices along with the cute little baby vegetables. You can make a White or Mustard Sauce (using the cooking liquid) to accompany it all, or just drizzle with some of the cooking liquid to keep it nice and moist- yummo!

So Dear Readers, have you any Irish branches on your Family Tree and do you ever just buy groceries just because they're cute?