Hubby food #1: Pork neck braised in milk, lemon and sage

(serves 6)

One of the great blessings in the past few months has been the change in work situation after getting married, which has given me a lot more flexibility with my mornings and also a half day off every week, which i have taken as a great opportunity to cook something extra special (or at least attempt to) for my hubby :) I wonder if i should be doing something more productive, but this challenge combines 2 of my greatest loves so what could be a better use of my time right? 

So a few weeks ago, i thought i'd try something adventurous. 

It turned out ok, the pork was soft and tender as promised from the recipe, but i think i was slightly traumatised because i was having one of those days in the kitchen when you're just not thinking clearly... a spilt milk incidence, followed by a 'burning milk in the oven' disaster, not quite what Paul was expecting to come home to... but this was more due to poor instruction reading and in hindsight, making silly decisions like putting milk in a cake tin?? :P I'm sure anyone else will be fine though! It actually doesn't take much effort and is one of those meals that you can just leave in the oven, do something else for an hour and come back!

Prep time: 20 min

Cooking time: 1-1.5hrs

Ingredients

600g pork neck

1/2 lemon

4 cloves garlic

10 sprigs sage (or rosemary)

3-4 C milk

salt and pepper
olive oil

Optional (to serve)

1/2 kg potatoes

1 tsp rosemary

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180˚C.

2. Rub the pork with salt and pepper. 

3. In a hot frypan with 1 tsp olive oil, sear all sides of the pork then pace in a small deep tray double-lined with foil.

4. In the frypan, quickly fry up the sage and garlic in the remaining oil and place into the tray with the pork. Add in the milk, grind the lemon rind in and then put in the remaining lemon.

NB. The milk should cover 3/4 of the pork.

5. Roast uncovered for 1hr, then remove and turn pork around and continue roasting for another hour.

NB. You may want to put a foiled tray underneath just in case the milk spills as you take the try out.

NB. It's normal for the milk to curdle as the pork cooks through.

6. Peel the potatoes, cut into bite-size pieces and dress with salt, pepper, olive oil and rosemary. Place in the oven at about halfway (e.g. when turning the pork).

7. Remove the pork from the oven and let it rest for 5-10 minutes. Cut into thick 1cm slices. Strain the remaining liquid and serve with the pork. Add a squiggle of olive oil for extra flavour. Serve with roasted potatoes, and maybe some fresh salad!