Ginger Piggy

There I was, stood in Cullingworth’s Co-op searching for some chicken fillets. And staring me in the face was a pile of filleted pork legs – at half price.  Missing this chance seemed foolish and a purchased 5lbs of pig meat for £6.50 – a bargain!

But how to cook it? Normally, I’d just roast the meat and be done with it – after all it’s hard to top a good roast dinner. However, a thought (and a memory) struck me on seeing a large, mostly full bottle of ginger beer. White trash ham!

Or rather a variation on white trash ham with ginger beer instead of coca-cola. And in this case with raw rather than cured pork (simply because that was what I had to hand). Essentially the approach is as in the ham recipe except with ginger beer replacing coca-cola and leg of pork replacing gammon:

“...put the gammon in a pan, skin side down if it fits like that, add the onion then pour over the Coke. Bring to the boil, reduce to a good simmer, put the lid on, though not tightly, and cook for just under 2 1/2 hours. If your joint is larger or smaller work out timing by reckoning on an hour a kilo altogether, remembering that it's going to get a quick blast in the oven later. But do take into account that if the gammon's been in the fridge right up to the moment you cook it, you will have to give a good 15 or so minutes' extra so that the interior is properly cooked. Meanwhile preheat oven to 240C/gas mark 9.”

For my ginger piggy I made gravy by reducing half the ginger beer I’d cooked the pork in – with some shallots, celery and fresh root ginger added (plus cumin, coriander, salt and pepper). Or you could make a glaze and roast the pork (having removed the skin) similarly to that described for the white trash recipe. With the other half of the ginger beer I braised the pork for about 45 minutes to give it a roast dinner feel.

I served this with roasted roots (parsnips, potatoes and sweet potatoes) although I’m pretty sure if would be great with pease pudding. If you insist, you can have some green things with the dish – we had leeks but a nice strong savoy cabbage would go well too.

All pretty tasty!

....