Scrumptious South Africa

I spotted a pile of beautiful prune plums in my local supermarket yesterday, and thought I’d share this recipe for a prune-plum relish.  (This is an older recipe from my main blog Scrumptious South Africa; I haven’t got back into my cooking groove yet as I’m still shaking off the last vestiges of flu).

Have you ever tasted a fresh sweet prune? That is, a prune-plum before it’s dehydrated and turned into a soft and wrinkly black sac? My local veggie shop is full of these little jewels, which are sweet, with a dense yellow flesh and a slight muskiness. I bought a big box of them, hoping they’d be devoured by the kids, but this variety of plum doesn’t have the eating appeal of the peach-sized, ruby-juice-running-down-your-chin, late-season plums on the market now.

At the same time, I was pondering how to cook yet another slab of lovely pork neck. Remembering that prunes and pork are a wonderful combination, I turned the prune-plums into a sharp, sweet, relishy chutney flavoured with preserved stem ginger, and then slow-roasted the neck in a spicy oriental glaze. A delicous combination, equally good hot or cold.

You can use pork fillet for this recipe, but you will need to reduce the cooking time. Similarly, ordinary plums will do for this recipe, although they won’t hold their shape the way muscular prune plums do, so you might want to reduce the amount of liquid and, again, shorten the cooking time.

You will need to make the prune relish an hour or so in advance of making the pork.

Glazed Roast Pork Neck with a Gingery Fresh-Prune Relish

For the prune-plum relish:

2 cups (500 ml) prune plums, or similar, washed
½ cup (125 ml) dark sugar (muscovado or treacle sugar)
½ cup (125 ml) white wine vinegar
½ cup (125 ml) water
one 2cm by 2cm piece of preserved stem ginger, finely diced or squashed (I pushed it through my garlic crusher!)
1 T (15 ml) ginger syrup, from the jar of preserved ginger
1 t (5ml) powdered ginger
 

For the pork and its glaze:

1 large neck of pork

a little olive oil
½ cup (125 ml) of the cooked prune-plum relish and syrup (see above)
4 T (60 ml) rice wine vinegar (ordinary white vinegar will do)
2 T (30 ml) honey
1 T (15 ml) good soy sauce (eg, Kikkoman brand)
1/2 cup (125 ml) mirin (or dry white wine)
3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
a thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, grated
freshly ground black pepper

First make the relish. Halve the prunes and remove the stones. Set aside. Put the sugar, the vinegar, the water, the stem ginger, the ginger syrup and the powdered ginger in a saucepan, set over a medium heat and bring to the boil, stirring now and then. Tip in all the halved, pitted plums and ingredients and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes, skimming off any foam as it rises. When the juice has reduced to about half a cup of thickish red syrup, turn off the heat and set the pot aside to cool. Watch the pan carefully, because a sugary syrup like this burns quickly.

To roast the pork, preheat the oven to 200°C. Put the pork neck or fillet in a small roasting tray, brush with a little olive oil and season well with pepper (but not salt). Roast the pork for 30 minutes at 200° C, or until it is beginning to brown at the edges, remove from the oven and drain off any excess fat by tilting the roasting dish over the sink. Turn the oven down to 180° C.

In the meantime, make the glaze. Take a half a cup of the plum relish you’ve made and place it in the goblet of a food processer, or a liquidizer, along with all the remaining glaze ingredients. Whizz to a paste (not too fine: a few little flecks of prune are nice). Add more pepper, if necessary, but don’t add any more salt: the soy sauce is salty enough on its own. Pour the glaze over the pork, and cover the dish 

with foil or a tight-fitting lid.

Roast at 180° C for an hour, turning once during that time. Now take the foil or lid off the dish, turn the heat back up to 200° C, and roast for another 30 to 45 minutes, basting frequently, or until the juices are thick and glossy, and the pork is cooked through. (If in doubt, turn the meat over and cut a slash through the thickest part. If it’s bloody and pink inside, put it back in the oven for another 10 – 15 minutes). Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 20 minutes.

Cut into thin slices and serve hot or cold, with the prune-plum preserve.

Serves 6.

Find more of my original recipes at Scrumptious South Africa

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© Jane-Anne Hobbs 2007-2011. You may not reproduce this material without my written consent