Pork Crumble with Asparagus Recipe

I know this isn’t a vegetable recipe but I was trying to decide what to cook with asparagus (as it’s a vegetable that’s at the beginning of its brief season) and our eldest daughter requested one of our family favourite dinners this bank holiday – pork crumble.

Asparagus is a veg that I adore but have yet to grow – it’s not especially tricky, it’s just that we can’t figure out where to make an asparagus bed. We have such an abundance of scutch and creeping buttercup here, and one of the main requirements when planting asparagus is that the roots are in a weed free environment, it’s likely we’ll have to build a raised bed especially for it – and that wont be happening for a while yet! So over the coming few weeks I’ll by picking up asparagus from the supermarket and thinking up different ways to cook it. On this occasion the tougher ends of the stalks were trimmed and the asparagus was simply steamed for ten minutes and served as an accompanying vegetable.

If you’ve been searching for pork recipes then look no further. This recipe for pork crumble takes just 20 minutes to prepare, with a further 30 minutes cooking time in the oven.

Pork Crumble Recipe

Ingredients

450g (preferably) free range pork, diced
1 onion, chopped
100g course wholemeal flour
200ml dry white wine (or cider)
250ml chicken stock
1 tbsp fresh sage leaves (or 1 tsp dried)
100g mushrooms
50g unsalted butter
50g cheese, grated
25g porridge oats

Preheat oven to 200º /400ºF/gas 6

• If you’re not using a non stick pan, heat some oil in a frying pan and cook the pork until evenly browned then remove from pan with a slotted spoon onto a plate.
• Cook the onion in the pan for a few minutes until it starts to soften then add 2 tbsp of the flour, stirring to soak up the juices. Remove the pan from the heat and add the stock and wine , heating until it boils and starts to thicken and reduce. Add the pork and tear the sage leaves into it (or add the dried), mixing until all the pieces are covered. Season to taste.
• Spoon the mixture into a ovenproof dish then add a layer of sliced mushrooms. If it looks a little dry add a dash of boiling mixture to moisten.
• Rub the butter into the remaining flour until it resembles bread crumbs, add the cheese and oats. Sprinkle over the top of the pork mixture evenly.
• Bake in the oven for 30 minutes until golden and the pork is tender.

This dish can be frozen for up to three months – just scatter the crumble mixture over the cooled pork dish, cover and freeze. Thaw completely then bake as above.