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A delicious juicy pork roast with sage and apples. Perfect for autumn.

The basic idea is to cook a pork roast in its own steam, supported by some steaming apples.

Get Braeburn apples. Don’t fool around with another variety; Braeburn have the perfect mix of sweetness and acid, have a lovely flavour, are crisp when raw, and can hold a nice consistency even over 90 minutes in the oven. Take my word for it: get Braeburn. One per person, and an extra one or two in total. More if the apples are small.

Peel, remove the core, and cut into chunky pieces. Quarters or eighths work for me. Set aside.

In a saucepan, mix and melt one tablespoon of honey with juice from 1/4 lime per person. Add one star anise and 1/3 clove (per person). Bring close to the boil, keep it there for a few minutes, then pour over the apples. Let the apples marinade for a while. Toss them over a few times.

Prepare the pork meat. I use a leg or shoulder roast, but remove much of the fat and skin. Now rub the meat with a generous amount of sea salt flakes, crushed black pepper and dried sage.

Put the apples with all their spices and juices into a 2 inch deep roasting dish. Place your spiced meat on top of the apples, then seal the whole thing as good as you can with tin foil. You might want to punch a small (small!) steam hole into the top for venting.

Preheat your oven at 170 C (340 F). Allow for 30 minutes per pound of meat cooking time, plus 20 minutes extra. When removing it from the oven, allow to stand for ten minutes before you open the tin foil. When you do open the tin foil, take care not to scold yourself at the escaping steam.

Serve with good quality egg Fettuccine, which you toss about with lots of melted butter and plenty of quickly fried-up fresh sage.

Cut the pork, serve pasta and the apples alongside. Enjoy with a crisp white wine and a couple of friends.

First, a word for the IMP, the International Moussaka Police:

I claim no authenticity with this recipe. Some say Moussaka must be made with tomatos, othes say it can’t possibly contain this or that. This is My Moussaka. It tastes good and looks good and I like, and the closest name match is Moussaka. End of.

The following recipe is for a large bowl, feeding 6 to 8 adults. I use a Pyrex dish 220 x 300 mm, 60 mm deep.

5 medium-sized Aubergines
1 kg lean lamb mince (ask your favourite Halal butcher for leg mince)
500 g Greek Yogurt
1 yellow onion, two gloves of garlic
2 egg yolks

Nutmeg, ground Cinnamon, Sumac (optional), Salt, Pepper, Chilly flakes, Olive Oil

Wash the Aubergines, trim both ends, then cut lengthwise into slices 12..15mm thick (a thick slice of bread). Brush a good amount of olive oil onto both sides of each slice, the sprinkle with chilly flakes, salt and a pinch of nutmeg.

Put this into the oven under the grill, ideally in a combination of circulated heat and top grill. Pretty hot, 190..200C, for as long as it takes. When the aubergine slices develop a nice colour with distinct dark brown spots, you’re done (turn around half way, about 10 minutes the first and 6 minutes the second side).

Meanwhile, put the meat into a large non-stick frying pan on a fairly high heat. Boil away the excess water and crisp the meat. You may need to add olive oil, especially if your meat is really good and lean. Finely dice the onion, crush and chop the garlic. When the meat is crisping up, add onion, garlic and a good splash of olive oil.

Season this with a lot of ground cinnamon – start with a heaped teaspoon. I’m serious. A good teaspoon of Sumac (a fruity Arabic flavour) if you can. Crushed dried Cranberries might serve as an alternative, or just forget about it. Add salt, chilly, pepper and more cinnamon to taste.

Lightly oil the dish, and layer aubergines and meat in an alternating fashion, in vertical layers (not like a lasagna, but have the aubergine slices stand up). When all is layered, you should see alternating stripes of aubergines and meat on the surface.

Now add crushed black pepper, a pinch of salt, a pinch of nutmeg and a teaspoon of lime juice to the Greek yogurt. Also add two free range egg yolks. Season to taste with more nutmeg. Whisk with a fork, then spoon the mix on top of the meat stripes.

Finally, sprinkle some more crushed black pepper and nutmeg flakes over the surface, just for the good looks (optionally, add breadcrumbs), and pop into the oven at 170 C until ready. If your ingredients were still hot, this won’t take more than 12..15 minutes, just until you can see the whole thing bubbling away and the surface beginning to colour.

Enjoy!

 

Some dishes feel more French than others. Here’s a household favourite which feels particularly French, and we ate it while cycling in the Pyrenees.

Rabbit stew in a mustard sauce, served with green beans and prunes.

You’d have to butcher a rabbit unless you can buy readily diced rabbit.

Get the beans going first, as they need more time than the rabbit stew. Clean the green french beans, wash and rinse. Fry some tiny bits of bacon, a small and finely chopped onion, then gently steam the green beans in just a tiny splash of water. Add a twig of thyme.

When the beans are about 10 minutes on their way, shallow-fry a handful of dry-cured bacon. Add a small and finely diced onion, and a crushed small clove of garlic. Then add a bit of olive oil and the meat, which you tossed in a mix of one tablespoon of white flour and one table spoon of mustard powder. Add crushed black pepper. Fry and stir until it colours nicely, then add a glass of dry white wine and stir-in a large teaspoon of nice hot mustard.

Put the lid on and allow to simmer for 10 minutes, then season to taste using salt, black pepper, nutmeg, and more mustard.

Add two tablespoons of prunes to each portion. Simply use the canned stuff, with a bit of the syrup.

Serve with fresh white bread.