Jani Shepherd
Ingredients
Black turtle beans
Stew
Method
1.The day before, put the bacon hock in a saucepan with the onion, peppercorns, bayleaf, garlic and water.
2.Bring to a boil and slowly simmer, lid partly on, for about 3 hours or until meat pulls away easily from the bone. Allow the meat to cool down in the stock. Refrigerate hock and cooking liquid overnight.
3.Also on the day before, soak beans overnight in a pan of cold water.
4.The next day, add garlic cloves and dried chilli to pot of soaked beans and bring to the boil. Simmer for about 1 hour or until beans are almost cooked through. Drain and season well with salt and pepper.
5.If you are good with a knife, cut as much meat from the pig’s head as you can, reserving the snout, or ask your butcher to do this for you. Cut the meat and the tongue into rough 4cm chunks. Cut the pork chop/steak into rough 5cm pieces.
6.Heat oil in your biggest heavy-based casserole or ovenproof pot; you’ll need one with a lid, for when it goes in the oven. Brown all the pork pieces – including both types of sausage, speck, snout, trotters and pork hock – in batches, removing them from the pot with a slotted spoon onto a large plate or bowl as you go.
7.Add onions and garlic to the pot, stir well and cook over a medium heat for about 5 minutes until onion has softened. Add paprika, thyme and bayleaves and cook for 5 minutes until fragrant.
8.Preheat oven to 160°C fanbake. Remove bacon hock from liquid, reserving liquid. Flake off meat and reserve for later; discard bone.
9.Return all the browned meat and sausages to the paprika mix in the pot. Add the reserved bacon-hock stock to the pot (or as much as can fit in) and cover with a cartouche (a round of baking paper cut to fit inside casserole). Put lid on and cook in oven for 1½ hours.
10.After 1½ hours, add beans, meat from bacon hock and any remaining stock and gently stir.
11.Cook for another hour and check (see Recipe Tips). Skim off any fat and stir in vinegar. Check seasoning and adjust if needed. Sprinkle with torn coriander leaves and flowers and serve hot with bowls of Rio rice and sautéed silverbeet and limes for squeezing.
-Black turtle beans are not to be confused with Chinese black soybeans). They are available from supermarkets organic section, Bin Inn or specialty food and spice stores. -This recipe freezes beautifully so you could prepare it well in advance if you prefer. -You can find pig’s head including tongue from Asian supermarkets or order from your butcher. -This dish is very much about instinct here – if it looks a little dry, add a cup or so of water, or if the sauce seems watery, remove the lid or increase heat slightly and cook for another 30 minutes. The meat should be falling off the bones while most of the sinews should have dissolved into a delicious, shiny mass of meat, bones and beans.
Note
