Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

Nearly a year ago, I blogged about Ai-Ling’s fabulous clay pot belly pork. Since then, the dish has become a staple in our house – my boys love it and request it often.

Last week, I tried making a Römertopf version of this recipe and was delighted with the result. The sauce doesn’t thicken in quite the same way as it does when it’s cooked on the hob, but it’s rich and flavoursome nonetheless, and the meat is succulent and tender. Furthermore, like all Römertopf meals, the preparation and cooking process is very simple – all the ingredients are combined cold, laid into the pre-soaked pot, then popped into a cold oven to bake.

From the freezer, I excavated a slab of belly pork and four thin pork chops. Once the meat had defrosted, I put the Römertopf lid and base in a sink of cold water while I prepared the ingredients (the pot needs about 20 minutes soaking time).

After defrosting, the belly was cut into thick slices…

The other ingredients included:

• a fat thumb of ginger, peeled and julienned
• 1 Spanish onion, peeled, halved and sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
• 3 spring onions, chopped
• 2 dried chillies, deseeded (Ai-Ling’s original recipe uses 10!)

For the sauce, I combined:

• 3 – 4 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 4 teaspoons dark soy
• 2 teaspoons light soy
• 3 tablespoons Shaoxing rice wine
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil
• good pinch white pepper

The sauce and other ingredients were combined with the meat…

…then transferred to the wet pot. I placed the chops at the bottom to keep them moist, then layered the belly pork on top. Finally, I poured over two cups of homemade, lightly salted chicken stock (the photo below shows the filled Römertopf before the stock was added). I tried to make sure that as much of the meat as possible was submerged.

The lid went on and the pot went into a cold oven. The temperature was then turned up to 200C with fan.

I left it to bake for two hours in total, checking at the 90 minute mark to see if the seasonings needed adjustment. Ai-Ling suggests adding a little sugar and salt, but I didn’t feel it was necessary this time. If you’d like a thicker sauce, you could try adding a cornflour slurry at the point. I reduced the temperature for the final half hour to 180C with fan (on a whim, really). Remove the lid towards the end of the baking time if you’d like the braise to darken and reduce further (I didn’t), but watch it carefully if you do, as it can brown up very quickly uncovered.

We allowed the pot to rest on a wooden board (never put a hot Romy on a cold surface!) then defatted it slightly by gently mopping up the excess oil with absorbent paper towels (it’s surprising how effectively this works).

The boys loved this version of clay pot belly pork – Small Man went back for thirds!

Over the fence between our house and the neighbour’s, a passionfruit vine scrambles. It’s growing in Mark’s garden, but this year we’ve benefited from these gorgeous purple fruits ripening on our side…

I wanted to try incorporating them into my new tea cake. Like many of our recipes, it’s gradually evolving – this time I reduced the sugar by 20% (Pete liked it so much that I’ve amended the original recipe) and whipped the whole thing up in the food processor (although it works equally well in the mixer as per our original instructions).

• 250g unsalted butter, soft but not melted
• 200g caster (superfine) sugar
• 4 large free range eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used homemade)
• 150g self-raising flour
• 150g almond meal
• 5 passionfruits
• ginger syrup

1. Preheat oven to 160C with fan and line a baking tray with parchment paper (I used a rectangular 30cm x 23cm / 12″x9″ pan enamel baking pan).

2. In the large bowl of the food processor, blitz together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and pulse until combined, adding in a spoonful of the flour if required to stop the batter from splitting. Scrape down the sides as needed. Add the vanilla and pulse again.

3. Stir or sift the flour and almond meal together, then add to the food processor and pulse until just combined. Scrape half the batter into the prepared tray. Cut the passionfruits and scrape out the seeds and pulp. Spread half over the batter.

4. Spread over the rest of the batter, then top with the remaining passionfruit pulp. Drizzle over the ginger syrup.

5. Bake for 35 – 40 minutes, or until a fine skewer inserted comes out clean. Rotate the tray half way through the baking time if needed. Watch carefully to ensure the seeds on top don’t burn. Allow to rest briefly in the tray before lifting out and cooling completely on a wire rack.

I sent half the cake over to Mark’s house, and served the rest at our flaming pig dinner. It was a huge hit all around!