Roast Pork with Prunes and Apples
Pork with prunes and apples is Central European Christmas cooking, which is also where the classic partner — braised red cabbage — comes from. The cut is smoked-and-cooked pork belly with the skin on: picture a thick unsliced slab of bacon, or ask a butcher for a smoked belly joint. It gets fifteen minutes skin-down in a little water in the roasting pan first, then a short blast at 230°C (450°F) so the scored skin puffs and crackles.
Three things that are easy to get wrong
- Score the skin about 1 cm (1/2 inch) deep — through the fat, never into the meat, or the juices leak out and the crackling stays flat.
- Sprinkle the sugar thinly, and only after you turn the meat: it glazes with the pan juices, but any excess burns fast at 450°F.
- Keep the rum and lemon juice on the fruit rather than the pork; 40 ml (just under 3 tablespoons) is plenty to plump 450 g of prunes.
Brandy or plain apple juice stands in for the rum — most of the alcohol cooks off anyway, and the aroma is what remains. If the skin hasn’t colored after ten minutes, run the broiler for a minute or two, shielding the fruit so it doesn’t dry out. Carve the belly crosswise into thick slices and spoon the apples and prunes alongside: they double as side dish and sauce.
Part of European cuisine — 103 more recipes in the section.
You might also like
Ingredients
Instructions
Score the skin on the piece of pork belly crosswise to a depth of 1 cm (about 1/2 inch).
Pour a little water into the bottom of a roasting pan, place the pork skin-side down, and cook for 15 minutes.
Cut the apples into slices.
Turn the meat over, sprinkle with sugar, and arrange the apple slices, prunes, and cinnamon stick around it.
Sprinkle the fruit with lemon juice and rum.
Roast in the oven at 230°C (450°F) until a crisp crust forms - about 10 minutes.
Transfer the roast and fruit to a platter; serve with boiled potatoes and braised red cabbage.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.