Another glorious spring day today. We had a late breakfast of toast with the last of the homemade blackberry jam, then spent some time in the garden; quite a large portion of which was spent coaxing the rabbit out from behind the shed, where he'd escaped to when he was let out for his regular constitutional.
Needless to say, I was soon back in the kitchen...
An early dinner of roast pork was on the cards, so I parboiled the potatoes for my roasties so that they could be steam-dried and cool when I later tipped them into searing-hot fat (beef dripping, as usual). I also smeared our lovely piece of pork shoulder with cold-pressed rapeseed oil into which I'd stirred crumbled bay leaves (from the garden, dried in the microwave) and garlic. This was put in a roasting tin, atop a base layer of sliced onions (skins left on), squashed garlic cloves and more bay leaves.
To help the gravy along, I also put both halves of a split pig's trotter in the tin under the joint. I use trotters quite often like this with a pork joint, their lovely sticky juices, enhanced while cooking with just a splash of white wine at first and, later on, with some water, make for a superlative gravy. The roasted trotter(s) can also be boiled up again to make a useful stock. Pork-bone stock is, I often feel, underrated. It's almost as flexible in use as chicken stock and makes a particularly fine noodle soup.
To help the gravy along, I also put both halves of a split pig's trotter in the tin under the joint. I use trotters quite often like this with a pork joint, their lovely sticky juices, enhanced while cooking with just a splash of white wine at first and, later on, with some water, make for a superlative gravy. The roasted trotter(s) can also be boiled up again to make a useful stock. Pork-bone stock is, I often feel, underrated. It's almost as flexible in use as chicken stock and makes a particularly fine noodle soup.
To serve with the pork and potatoes, I roasted a dish of carrot chunks, tossed with a very little oil, some dried herbs and a bit of cumin, which goes so well with carrots. The other vegetable dish was a mix of peas and sweetcorn (both cooked 'fresh from the freezer').
So, another weekend is over. Tomorrow brings work for Husband and me and school for the children (although actually JD has a gymnastics competition for most of the day). Monday night means Beaver Scouts for JD, and supper from the slow-cooker for us all. Hope you've all had a really lovely weekend too...
Cath xx
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