A hearty autumn dish, full of colours and aromas
ingredients for 4 servings (cost about 6 € pp with organic pork)
- Salt
- 800 g pork neck
- 2 large carrots
- 8 small beetroots
- 1small onion
- 160 g bulgur
- 800 ml vegetable stock
- 30 g butter
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 12 juniper berries, crushed.
- Zest from half lemon
- Fresh thyme
- Fresh parsley
On late autumn and winter only a few vegetables can survive, especially in northern countries. During these seasons tomatoes, eggplants, zucchini, peppers etc cannot be cultivated in open air, so they are not available at low prices and large quantities. But the world of vegetables is immense, we can always find fresh ones. And in season.
Roots are a great solution for these months. They can be consumed raw as carrot, radish, fennel etc or cooked as potatoes, turnips, beetroots etc. Roots are relatively cheap and can be perfectly conserved in fridge (except the potatoes) for at least 7 days.
So, today we are “going back to our roots”, preparing this dish which can be part of a relatively healthy Sunday menu. After a hot bowl of soup, naturally. Robin Poor, the most famous Greek tv auctioneer didn´t sell his classic and expensive objects to people who don´t eat soup, he thought that they are too uncivilized to possess a precious antique.
We start by the meat.
The day before we cut the meat in 4 equal pieces and we salt it well. We also put some fresh thyme leaves on its surface. We put it in the fridge for at least 12 hours, better more.
The day after, we wash and pat dry the meat. We lightly grease it with oil and we roast it, covered with aluminium foil in a preheated oven at 140 Celsius degrees, till very tender. Count more than 3 hours.
Meanwhile we prepare the vegetables and the bulgur.
We add 3 fingers water in a pot, we salt it, we bring it to boil and we put the special basket for steaming. We lower the temperature and after covering with a lid we start steaming the veggies, each one separated. We start with the carrots, peeled and cut in pieces and we continue with the beetroots (they will need more time). There is no need to peel the beetroots, its skin is easily removable when cooked. When ready, we immediately brush the roots with olive oil in order to keep them attractive and we keep them aside.
We mince the onion and we gently fry it in 2 tbsp butter, taking care not to burn it. We add the bulgur and when it turns golden, we pour in it 500 ml of the vegetable stock, we cover with the lid and we lower the temperature to very low. I cannot give you an exact amount of stock needed, as there many varieties of bulgur, which require a different amount of liquid. Whole grain wheats require much more, it is better to check the bulgur every 5 minutes to check the evolution of its cooking. So, we start with 500 ml and, if we need more, we add later. I remind you that the stock must always be very hot. At the very last moment we finely mince the parsley and we add it to the bulgur.
When the meat is so well cooked that it “melts”, we raise the temperature to 220 Celsius degrees and we remove the aluminium foil. We roast the meat or about 10 min. We take it out and let it rest.
We collect the juices from the pan and we add them in a skillet. If they are too concentrated we dilute them with water or stock and we deglaze. We add the crushed juniper berries, we bring to medium-high heat and we start reducing its volume. When the sauce is thick enough we add the mustard and the zest. We check the saltiness and we keep aside.
We put everything in plates, covering the meat pieces with the sauce and we serve.
