What’s for dinner?

To conclude our day of food, I thought I’d show what happens when the Other Half, a vegetarian, says “a pile of veg would be okay for dinner”.

A quick search through the freezer threw up broad beans and peas from last summer, plus the last parsnips from last spring.

A journey out to the hayshed resulted in eight Edzell Blue potatoes, while a rummage through the store cupboard shelves turned up the last of the summer’s butternut squash.

At the same time, I had the last shank from the Saddlebacks out thawing on the worktop.

How to tie them all together?

Well, we all like roast potatoes, squash make me think of the southern states of the US and the broad beans went well with good cheddar, of which we happened to have a block.

So, some sort of Tex-Mex pork shank for the boys and I, a vaguely southern influenced roast squash to make best use of the oven while the shank and potatoes were cooking, and then mix the other vegetables together with some butter and grated cheese to make “a pile of veg”.

I preheated the oven to 180C and got out a large, shallow casserole dish for the pork shank.

To give it the flavour I wanted, I used a mortar and pestle to grind up four garlic gloves, a tablespoon of paprika, two teaspoons of cumin, a teaspoon of finely diced oregano, a quarter teaspoon of dried chillies (this was for the boys, otherwise I would have made it hotter), a good pinch of salt, a dash of Worcestershire sauce and a big splash of red wine vinegar.

This was worked into a paste. I rubbed the shank with vegetable oil, then smeared the paste all over the shank and popped it into the casserole dish.

A couple of glugs of red wine from the cask we found a couple of weeks ago also went in the pan. (Only a couple as that was all that was left!)

The lid went on and the shank then went into the oven for an hour, being turned at 30 minutes.

When the hour was up, I removed the casserole dish from the oven, removed the lid and poured in a can of tomatoes, which I chopped coarsely.

The lid went back on and the shank went back in the oven for another hour, again being turned at 30 minutes.

While that was cooking, I peeled the Edzell Blues, cut them into very large chunks and blanched them in boiling water for five minutes. (Do not boil Edzell Blue potatoes for long as they will dissolve!)

With 50 minutes to go on the shanks, I popped a baking tray with a little oil in it in the oven and let it heat up for five minutes. The potatoes were then popped into the oil and the tray went back in the oven.

At 25 minutes to go, the potatoes were turned over and another baking tray with oil in it went in the oven. Once the oil had heated for five minutes, I threw in the peeled and rough cut pumpkin pieces, sprinkled them with a little brown sugar and fresh ground nutmeg, and popped them in the oven.

I then put a large pot of water on to boil.

When the shank was done, I removed it from the oven, turned the heat up to 230C to finish off the roast vegetables and put the casserole dish on the hob.

The frozen broad beans, peas and parsnips went into the boiling water, the shank was removed from the casserole and the sauce was reduced over a medium heat.

I then cut and pulled all the meat and skin off the shank (the skin is very gelatinous and delicious in my opinion but some might prefer to discard it), before returning the coarsely chopped meat to the pan.

After that, it was just a matter of draining the boiled vegetables (which had cooked for about five minutes) and tossing them in butter, grated cheese and pepper; removing the roast vegetables from the oven and serving everything out.

The OH got her pile of vegetables, while the boys and I had Stonehead’s Vaguely Tex-Mex Pork Shank with Vegetables.

Delicious! Especially when served with home-brewed stout and cider.

Oh, and here it is…

The pork shank as it came out of the oven, before being deboned and having the sauce reduced.

And served with, from left, butternut squash roasted with brown sugar and nutmeg, roasted Edzell Blue potatoes and “pile of veg”.