Sticky Pork and Plum Pie

I spotted this pork on Sugarlace last week and thought it looked amazing. And amazing it was!

The pork spare ribs are cut into chunks and coated in a thick marinade of garlic, ginger, chilli, five spice, pepper, brown sugar and kecap manis. You then bake covered for about an hour turning the pork over a couple of times. The pork is then put in hot pan to caramelise - but be careful they pop, I had whole pieces pop out of the pan! I then poured the remaining sauce from the roasting dish and reduced to a paste before putting all the pork back in to get covered in extra glossy caramelised goodness. Just top with some spring onion. I served with some rice and steamed chinese veges.

It was one of those dishes that you cannot stop eating, very moreish indeed.

Since we had a guest over lastnight I decided to make dessert, plum pie. We bought some plums on the weekend and they were very ripe. I made a sweet pastry base using wholemeal flour. I have never used straight wholemeal flour for a sweet pastry, it was harder to roll out and the final product was a little less delicate. It also gave the tart an almost rustic flavour, which in this case I think it actually complimented the plums quite well.

For the filling I halved the plums and mixed with some sugar, flour and cinnamon. This was placed in the uncooked pastry shell topped with some more pastry and baked until brown, about half and hour I think.

The pastry crisped up beautifully and the amazing plums were perfectly cooked. It was a winner!