Putting a meat dish in the oven for a few hours is a great way to give it depth of flavour and the cook a chance to unwind
Cooking should never be just about the end result. There are too many good stops to be made along the way. Apart from the pleasure of preparing food to be shared, there are also many moments for the cook alone to enjoy. I am never shy to stop, stay close to the oven or hob and take in the scene.
Cooking is generally something we do for others and it is all too easy to forget to keep something for ourselves: those five minutes the cook can have to themselves, knowing that in the oven are layers of potatoes and lamb, a little stock, some thyme and onions, baking slowly, peacefully, until the potatoes are at the point of collapse, the lamb sweet and falling-apart tender.
That is partly why slow cooking those recipes that take a couple of hours of our time can be so rewarding. Its the delight of having something in the bank a dish of pork ribs in a sour-sweet sauce baking until their edges are chewy and sweet; a multi-layered pie of meat and potato a dish whose flavour relies on keeping the meat on its bones as it cooks.
A few stolen minutes of peace and quiet by the cooker, the smell of something you have made in the oven roasting towards tenderness is often reward enough. Sometimes cooking is a joy not only to be shared.
Tamarind pork ribs
Ask the butcher to cut the pork ribs for you, the meatier the better. Tamarind is available in several forms, including the large knobbly pods that look like a dried broad bean. More usually, tamarind comes as a block of paste (it resembles mashed dates but with a striking sourness) complete with its large inedible seeds, or as a ready-to-use paste. The pods will require 10 minutes of your time to extricate the seeds. I use the latter, paste, adding enough to introduce a sour, fruity note to the sauce.
Serves 3
meaty pork ribs 6 (about 1.2kg)
light soy sauce 4 tbsp
maple syrup 125ml
fresh ginger root 40g
black peppercorns 10
garlic cloves 4
ground five spice 1 tbsp
tamarind paste 2-3 tbsp
chilli flakes tsp
water 200ml
sesame seeds 2 tbsp
sesame oil a little
Put a large pan of water on to boil then pack the pork ribs into a steamer basket and cook on top of the water, covered with a lid, for 30 minutes. I find it easiest to do this in two small batches.
Set the oven at 180C/gas mark 4. Remove the ribs from the pan and transfer to a roasting tin, placing them in a single layer, not too tightly packed. In a mixing bowl combine the light soy sauce and maple syrup. Grate the ginger coarsely into the bowl, then add the peppercorns, lightly crushed. Peel the garlic and finely crush it then add to the syrup together with the five spice powder, tamarind paste and chilli flakes. Pour in 200ml of hot water and mix the ingredients together thoroughly.
Tip the sauce over the pork ribs, cover with foil, then bake for 50 minutes. Remove the foil, turn the ribs over in their sauce, and continue baking for a further 45-50 minutes until the ribs are soft, sweet and glossy. Check them regularly towards the end of cooking (its a short step from sweet and sticky to cinder toffee). The sauce will thicken a little once out of the oven.
Warm the sesame oil in a frying pan then add the sesame seeds and cook for a couple of minutes over a moderate heat until golden and fragrant. When the ribs are ready, spoon some seeds over and eat.
Lamb belly boulangere
You could, of course, make this dish with boneless meat, but you would be missing the point. The slow pre-cooking of the lamb, with onions and stock, allows the bones to enrich the cooking liquor while at the same time adding succulence to the meat.
Serves 4-6
lamb belly 1.6kg, bone in
oil a little
banana shallots 4
rosemary 6 sprigs
thyme 12 sprigs
chicken stock 1.5 ltr
potatoes 1kg
Set the oven at 180C/gas mark 4. In a very large pot, sizzle the lamb in a little oil over a moderate to high heat, until the surface is golden. Turn over and brown the other side then remove from the pan.
Peel the shallots, cut into 1 cm thick slices, then let them cook for 10 minutes in the lamb pot, adding a little more oil if necessary, until they are light gold and translucent.
Return the lamb to the pan, add the rosemary and thyme, a seasoning of black pepper and the stock, then bring to the boil. Cover the pan with a lid and place in the oven, leaving it to bake for 90 minutes, until the lamb is tender.
Scrub the potatoes and cut into cm slices. Remove the pot from the oven then take out the lamb and place it on a chopping board, preserving the stock. Tweak the bones from the meat they should slide out effortlessly then cut the meat and fat into pieces. Mix the meat with the shallots from the cooking liquor. Turn the oven heat up to 200C/gas mark 6.
Place a layer of potatoes on the bottom of a large baking dish, then spread a layer of the lamb and shallots over them, followed by a layer of potatoes. Continue layering potatoes and meat, seasoning with salt and pepper as you go, finishing with a layer of potatoes.
Pour the stock over the potatoes, letting it run down through the layers. Bake for an hour to 90 minutes, until the potatoes are golden and totally tender.
Email Nigel at nigel.slater@observer.co.uk or follow him on Twitter @NigelSlater
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