Cobbling Together Dinner

Seeing as I’m out of action training-wise at the moment I decided to play in the kitchen yesterday and cook up a delicious hearty autumnal casserole with potato cobblers as a topping. It turned out to be really nice so I thought I’d share the recipe here as I made it up as I went along and its perfect now that the nights are closing in and we need some warming comfort food.

Ingredients

3 Pork Loin
1 tbsp Olive Oil
1 onion
2 leeks
2 sticks of celery
3 carrots
2 apples
200ml Apple Juice
200ml Chicken Stock
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1tbsp of lemon juice
1tbsp Cornflour
Sea Salt (Herb Sea Salt if possible)
Black Pepper
1 tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
1tsp honey
350g potatoes
250g self-raising flour
100g butter (chilled and cubed)
125ml milk

Method

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C
  2. Chop the onion, leeks, celery, carrots and apple into rustic chunks and place into a large casserole dish.
  3. Add the apple juice to the casserole dish
  4. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan
  5. Chop the pork into 2cm chunks, add it to the pan and fry until browned.
  6. Place the browned pork on top of the vegetables in the casserole dish.
  7. Return the frying pan to the heat and add the lemon juice, chopped tomatoes and chicken stock to the frying pan. Simmer for a few minutes then pour it over the vegetables and pork in the casserole dish.
  8. Season with salt and pepper and place in the oven for 1.5 hours

While the casserole is in the oven you can make a start on the potato cobblers.

  1. Peel and chop the potatoes and boil for 15 minutes until they are soft.
  2. Mash the potatoes well and leave to cool
  3. In a large bowl use your fingertips to work the butter and flour along with some coarse herbed sea-salt into a course breadcrumb texture. If you don’t have herbed sea-salt just use salt ad some dried herbs of your choice. Mixed herbs will be fine.
  4. Add the mashed potatoes and rub together with the flour and butter mix
  5. Gradually mix in the milk until you have a soft smooth dough
  6. Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface and mould / roll into a thick cylinder about 25cm long and 5-6cm in diameter
  7. Cut the cylinder into 10-12 disks and mould them into smooth cobbler shapes

We can now get back to finishing off the casserole and topping it with the cobblers.

  1. Remove the casserole from the oven, and place it onto the hob so that it continues to simmer.
  2. Add the balsamic vinegar and honey and stir through the casserole.
  3. Mix the cornflour with some cold water and pour it into the casserole, stir and simmer until it thickens to a glorious glistening sauce
  4. Taste and season as required.
  5. Now gently place the cobblers on top of the casserole and return it to the oven for about 30 minutes or until the cobblers have risen and browned.

You should be presented with lovely fluffly cobblers with slightly crispy tops and some caramelised sauce where it has bubbled up over the edges of the cobblers. Below will be a hearty warming rich casserole of chunky melt in the mouth vegetables and tender chunk of pork. Unfortunately, it smelt so good that I forgot to take any photos of it once it was finished as I couldn’t wait to sit down and start eating it.

Serve with some broccoli and a chilled bottle of white wine. Just perfect for a chilly autumnal evening.

4 Responses

  1. Avatar forComment Author mum says:

    Perhaps you should publish a cookery book, well illustrated of course, to help fund the race entrance fees?

  2. Avatar forComment Author Emily says:

    This sounds amazing!

    • Avatar forComment Author Alan says:

      Funny you should comment on this today… We have friends coming over for dinner tonight, so seeing as this was so nice last time I cooked it, I’m cooking it again today. We didn’t have any leeks though so I’ve added an extra onion, and I’ve chucked in some celeriac and parsnip this time too. Soon the house will be full of the delicious smell of Pork Casserole with potato cobblers.

      Looking forward to a glass or two of cider with it as well. It should be the perfect dish for such a wild autumnal day.

      Al.

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Alan Cole

Alan is a Freelance Website Designer, Sports & Exercise Science Lab Technician and full time Dad & husband with far too many hobbies: Triathlete, Swimming, Cycling, Running, MTBing, Surfing, Windsurfing, SUPing, Gardening, Photography.... The list goes on.

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