Good Porking

a tumbling mess of lusciousness

With the price of Australian beef and lamb going up, we are forced, yes forced to eat more pork! Although pork prices have gone up too, its still far more affordable then beef and lamb. The other easy and cheap option is duck. Its meatier than chicken and far more interesting. I like to do my shopping at wet markets because not only is it cheaper there is far more variety of cuts. With the exception of Imbi market which is really a rich tai-tai's wet kitchen.

A couple of weeks back we had a Sunday roast at home. Sis made roast pork accompanied with a vegetable dish we had at Beatrice's several weeks back - caramelised sweet potato and potatoes with asparagus. Sis tried the Gordon Ramsay recipe by stuffing the pork with garlic and sage. All of us prefered it without as the garlic still tasted very raw and interrupted the porky serenity we so badly wanted to be lost in. It also needed a sweet and tart sauce which there was none as Sis only made gravy. Mum's roast pork is still the best. Its always served with pineapple sauce instead of apple. And mum's idea of gravy is Campbell mushroom soup served thick with extra button mushrooms thrown in. Yummy!

I was delegated with dessert so I decided to try a ricotta and honey cheese cake with a ginger crust from Taste magazine. While I was making it, I was sure it wasn't right. The ginger crust had so little ginger in it. And the cheese filling only had 2 tablespoons of honey. I had to look again to see if this was a diabetics edition or something. Hey I'm all for cutting down the sugar but 2 tablespoons honey is not going to be enough. So I doubled the amount and you know what, it still wasn't sweet enough. And the ginger crust was no where near gingery. Its a very, very subtle tart. Sis decided to make a syrup with dried figs to go with the tart. Much better sweet but didn't quite go together. On to the next recipe I guess...