Slow Cooked Sticky Plum Pork

 

A lot of the old nursery rhymes involve plums. Plum pudding, plum bread and plum pie to name but a few. They must have eaten a lot of plum in those days. I wanted to make something with plum but I was not in the mood for any of those things. Flicking through my old nursery rhyme book, I came across:

To market ,to market,

to buy a plum cake;

Home again, home again,

Market’s late.

 

To market, to market,

To buy a plum bun;

Home again, home again,

Market’s done.

 

And the classic:

To market to market, to buy a fat pig;

Home again, home again, jiggety jig.

To market, to market, to buy a fat hog;

Home again, home again, jiggety jog.

I know that plum and pork go together so this inspired me to make plum pork in my Romertopf. A Romertopf (“Roman pot”) is a traditional German clay cooker. My old 70’s, clay, slow cooker is one of my favourite kitchen items. It has never produced a bad meal. I don’t know why I think it creates such a superior flavour to a modern, electric slow cooker, but I do. It traps the flavour and moisture in a more complete way. I bought mine at an op-shop for three dollars but if you haven’t the fortitude for that, they are available to buy online (If you want one and don’t have one already).

After scouring the Adelaide Central Markets for some (actual) free-range pork for this dish, I found some magnificent “Heritage Berkshire pork, bred free range at Freeling, SA, grown by the Schuster and Amery families. Producer of the year, 2012, delicious produce awards”. Sold at Feast Fine Foods along with free-range chicken, beef and lamb, it was exactly what I was looking for. I am a big believer in quality ingredients. I think that if you start with fresh, good quality ingredients that the end result will always be tasty.

 

Sticky slow cooked plum pork

This recipe could not be easier. I happened to be lucky enough to have my cousin Carina’s last ever (she has since cut down the tree) bottle of plum sauce in the cupboard. You can use any decent plum sauce. After soaking the Romertopf in water for twenty minutes, place pork in it. Drown the pig in liberal plum sauce. With lid on, place in 180 degree oven for three and a half hours. Kick back; have a glass of wine.

Once cooked, you can eat this pork in whichever way you like. I chose to make Asian style rolls (this time), I reckon roast potatoes would go nicely. You could turn it into pork-pies. The extra liquid could be used for making excellent gravy; the list goes on.

Asian style slow cooked pork rolls:

Shred the pork. Place pork in roll, top with bean sprouts, shredded carrot, coriander, fresh chilli and/or whatever takes your fancy – enjoy, you deserve it.