I awoke this morning to the smell of spicy, slow-roasted pork. This wonderful recipe results in caramelised, melt-in-your mouth meat that I usually serve with red cabbage and roasted potato chunks. But I digress.
One of the amazing things is that the recipe calls for a 4-6 kilogram (9-13 pound) rolled shoulder of pork. That’s one big chunk of meat. It may be OK if, like my dad, you can head out into the bush and shoot yourself a wild pig. My meat source is more pedestrian and pork shoulders at my butcher come in at around 1.5 kilograms. Besides, this size is all that we can fit in our cast iron casserole dish. One day I may splash out and get a Le Creuset French Blue Big Momma French Oven to go with the smaller Le Creuset pieces we already have but, at close to A$500, that day is a way off.
I’ve heard that Kmart offers a very functional, budget-priced cast iron French oven. Can anyone give me a report?
3.35pm update: After a little more surfing, I’ve found this link to a Martha Stewart raw cast iron dutch oven – does anyone know if it is available in Australia? Also, www.cooksillustrated.com did a review of cast iron dutch ovens and rated the Chefmate product from Target very highly but it is no longer available in the US. I wonder about Australia. (Both these products only have a 5 quart capacity so the Big Momma still beckons!)
Amy says
My Le Creuset is one of the few things I really miss and I know is in storage in NZ. I sometimes think about getting one for over here (or something similar)… but there’d be no room in the kitchen. I struggle to store the one pot and one pan as it is!