This isn’t a dish for my family as they don’t like recipes that have a meat and fruit combination, which is a shame as I think it would be worth trying. The chilli kick in the base and the coconut in the topping certainly add a lot of interest.
This “Real Chinese Taste” Sweet and Sour Pork was a free recipe handed out by Amoy Genuine Chinese Food sometime in the 70s. No mention is made of cooking it in a wok as I doubt that any non-Asian cooks had one or in fact even knew what one was. Guess Amoy thought they’d better just stick with a frying pan.
This casserole base makes two portions and is a great way to pre-prepare a couple of nights dinners. You can make the base, divide in half and then freeze it. It’s easy enough then to defrost it and add the extra ingredients on the night you want to use it.
After finding the recipe for the Pumped Leg of Lamb I was reminded of another cold meat specialty of Mum’s – Pickled Pork. Like the lamb you don’t see pickled pork ready made any more and you’ll have to ask the butcher to prepare it for you. It’s treated the same way as the lamb and corned beef, pumped with brine and basically you cook it the same way. If you want to modernize it you could cook it in a slow cooker.
This is a bit more modern curry recipe than Mum originally made. Mum made curries using just curry powder and nothing as fancy as red lentils and coriander, but I think this recipe appealed to her as it had pumpkin and cauliflower in it, vegetables she really liked.
Like most Australian families when we were growing up Mum cooked a roast once a week. As there were five of us in the family it was usually a large piece of meat and there was always some left over for school lunches or to have cold with a salad. Another way Mum would use it up was to make Meat Fritters. This recipe has the meat being minced, but Mum just used to slice it and coat the pieces in the batter before frying. And of course we always had tomato sauce with it.
