Three Little pigs went to the Market

So it was my turn to make a holiday 3 course meal this week. I had made the decision to do a slow roasted pork belly after reading this months edition of Delicious magazine. This was going to be my "main event" and I needed to have a starter and dessert (pondering, pondering, pondering) then i saw the new "Donna Hay" magazine which had caramel desserts in it so, not being the best caramel chef i thought why not, give it another go. So dessert was planned in the form of a rhubarb Tarte tatin. After further reading of the "Donna Hay" my starter was chosen in the form of Black bean pork and Wombok dumplings.

Thank goodness for holidays. I had all day to prepare and boy did it help LOL.

To start with made the Rhubarb Tarte Tatin. We have worked out that when I do my caramels I have the stove on too high therefore the caramel turn to toffee. (Yay we have finally worked that one out). The Tarte Tatin is very simple to make - Gently dissolve 3/4 cup caster sugar in 1/4 cup of water. Once sugar is dissolved bring temp up to med and bring to boil till light and golden. Add 50g of butter and 2 cinnamon sticks stir till well combined. Pour caramel into into greased tin and arrange rhubarb pieces into caramel. Top with puffy pastry and fold in edges around the rhubarb, cut into top 3 small piercings. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Turn out to serve.

The Pork dumplings were just as easy. Thinly slice a Wombok chinese cabbage and fry up with 2 crushed cloves of garlic till wilted and softened. Allow to cool. Place 400g pork mince, 1 egg white, 2 tbs of black bean paste and chopped chives with cabbage and mix until well combined. Thanks to Rose for the dumpling crimper machine thingy, it made making the dumplings so much easier. Place a gow gee wrapper on crimper thingy and put a teaspoon of pork mixture on and crimp together. To cook the dumplings I put water into bottom of fry pan and steamed the dumpling for 5-7 minutes and then transferred them into another fry pan to crispen one side. To serve the dumplings I put some Chinese Black vinegar and chilli oil onto plate and placed dumplings on top.

The Pork Belly was again simple yet time consuming (only in the baking). Mix 2 cloves of garlic, 2 tbs thyme leaves, 1/2 tsp caraway seeds, 1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes, pinch of ground cloves in a mortar in pestle. Add 1 tbs of lemon juice and 2 tbs of olive oil, mix into a paste. Rub this paste onto the rind of a scored pork belly. Let this stand for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 220 deg. Arrange some onion slices in a roasting pan and sit the pork on top. Roast at 220 deg for 30 minutes then reduce temp to 170deg and roast for 3 hours. Rest pork belly for 20 minutes. I removed the rind and put it under the grill for a few minutes to crispen up the crackling. I served the slow pork with an autumn salad (baby spinach, radichio, pancetta, red onion, swiss brown mushrooms, roasted hazelnuts, dressing honey, red wine vinegar and dijon mustard, olive oil) and pea mash.

This dinner was very simple to make and very nice to eat. We both enjoyed a glass of sav blanc which went down well with each course. The 3 pigs refers to the pork mince, slow roasted pork and the pancetta (thanks Rose). Look out for next week when the structure of our Wednesday night dinner changes. We are going back to our old ways where we choose an ingredient that must be used for the meal. I have chosen Quinoa for Rose. I wonder what she will decide to make - tune in next week to find out.

I'm going to score this 3 course meal 4.5 wooden spoons - just because.