Kitchen RO

Pork shoulder and belly with braised cabbage

Half a kilo of meat for two portions. The belly renders its own fat, the shoulder browns in it, and the cabbage soaks up everything.

50 min total 18 min hands-on 4.79 in totalhobporkcheap
Portions
Quantities and the shopping list are recalculated
2

One portion

1,243
kcal
33
protein g
113
fat g
16
carbs g
Sodium559 mg / 667
Potassium1,227 mg / 1,567
Phosphorus411 mg / 400
Fibre9 g / 7

Against one meal out of three, at your daily targets. For fibre a full bar is the good thing; for the rest it's the opposite.

Ingredients

Meat
  • 350 g Pork belly
  • 150 g Pork shoulder
Vegetables
  • 500 g Cabbage
  • 150 g Onions
  • 100 g Carrots
Fat and seasoning
  • 15 g Butter
  • 5 g Paprika
  • 3 g Caraway
  • 20 ml Vinegar
  • 1 g Bay
  • 2 g Salt · sodium
  • 1 g Black pepper

How it's made

7 steps

Big screen, one step at a time, with timers. The screen stays awake.

  1. Cut the pork belly into 2 cm strips and the shoulder into 3 cm cubes. Pat everything dry. Shred the cabbage a finger wide, slice the onion, cut the carrot into thin rounds.
    8 min
  2. Big heavy pot on medium heat, no fat added at all. Lay the pork belly fat side down and leave it 8 minutes, until enough fat has rendered to cover the base.
    8 min
    This is the one step that really matters. Medium heat, not high: the fat has to melt, not burn. Start it hot and the belly browns outside while the inside stays raw.
  3. Turn the heat up and add the shoulder in a single layer beside the belly. Don't touch it for 4 minutes, then turn everything and give it 3 more. Lift all the meat onto a plate and leave the fat in the pot.
    7 min
    If you hear a feeble sizzle instead of an aggressive one, the pot wasn't hot enough. Take the meat out, get it hotter, start again.
  4. Onion and carrot into the rendered fat, medium heat. Stir for 3 minutes, scraping the bottom — everything stuck down there is the flavour of the dish.
    3 min
  5. Add the cabbage, paprika, caraway, bay leaf and vinegar. Stir well, return the meat with any juices from the plate, and add 100 ml of water.
    A hundred millilitres, no more. Cabbage releases plenty of water on its own and there's nothing starchy in the pot to soak it up.
  6. Cover and leave on low heat for 22 minutes. The cabbage should soften, and the belly should cut with a spoon.
    22 min
  7. Lid off, high heat for 3 minutes to reduce the liquid. Kill the heat, add the butter, pepper and salt, stir. Fish out the bay leaf.
    3 min
    If it tastes flat, add another teaspoon of vinegar, not salt. Nine times out of ten it's the acid that's missing.

The partner to the oven dish: while the chicken roasts you make this on the hob, and the whole session comes in under an hour.

Two cuts of pork, two different jobs. The shoulder brings the roast-meat flavour and the protein. The belly brings the calories: half the protein of shoulder and twice the calories, so twice as much meat fits on the plate without the day’s protein going up. Together that’s half a kilo of meat for two portions — 250 g each.

No fat goes in at the start. Three hundred and fifty grams of belly gives up more than 150 ml of melted lard. The shoulder fries in it, the onion sweats in it, the cabbage softens in it. That’s why the recipe has one knob of butter at the end and not a drop of oil — the fat arrived with the meat.

Cabbage does the bulk. It soaks up fat like a sponge, so nothing tastes greasy, just rich. It costs a euro a head and keeps a fortnight in the fridge.

Lid off at the end. Three minutes on high heat reduces the liquid and concentrates the flavour. Watery food tastes bland even with exactly the same salt in it.

Photo: Baked Pork and Fennel Sausages, pumpkin with rosemary + garlic, braised red cabbage + Granny Smith apples by avlxyz, licence BY-SA 2.0.