Initially this was intended as a dipping sauce…. As we have found with a lot of foraged items they have much stronger flavours than their shop bought counterparts. So this is going over a £1.38 rack of Pork ribs!
This was clearly an experiment and we’d not expect anybody in their right mind to have these ingredients to hand! But it’s good to experiment. You never know what you’ll invent for a few pence….
Ingredients:-
260g of frozen foraged Plums
4 large lumps of pickled Chicken Of The Woods
Lacto Fermented Garlic Cloves
A slug of Soy Sauce and Fish Sauce
2 table spoons of Sugar
Enough Tomato sauce to make the sauce wet enough to pour over your meat
Shop bought Mushrooms, fresh Garlic and bought Plums would probably result in something good, but maybe not quite as strong flavoured.
Method:-
(1) Thaw the plums. We used the Microwave but it doesn’t matter if you heat them gently in a pan with a little water.
(2) Simmer the Plums in a little water until you can squash them with a fork.
(3) Press through a colander to separate the stones, keeping to juice, pulp and skins.
(4) Allow to cool so you don’t damage your blender.
(5) Blend everything apart from the Tomato Sauce to a fine texture.
(6) Add back to the pan and simmer for 20 minutes.
(7) Add enough Tomato Sauce to make your sauce liquid enough to pour.
Cheats because we didn't have 4 hours to spare so Sue accelerated the cooking time – see below.... We raided the local Polish Deli and happened across some Kielbasa Jalowcowa which is a type of Polish sausage, usually served as a cold cut. It is made from cuts of lean pork seasoned with pepper, allspice, coriander, and garlic, packed into large casings, and smoked.
Ingredients:-
2 Potatoes pealed, cubed
2 Carrots sliced
¼ of a Swede pealed, cubed
½ a Celeriac pealed, cubed
1 handful of Mushrooms sliced
¼ of a white Cabbage sliced
4 Polish smoked Sausages
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
½ a tube of Tomato purée
1 Red Onion sliced
1 White Onion sliced
Seasoning:-
Mixed herbs
Paprika
Chilli flakes
Garlic salt
Black Pepper
2 cloves of Garlic minced
Method:-
(1) Parboil all the vegetables in salted water.
(2) Place the vegetables in a casserole dish and reserve the salted water.
(3) Add the Onions to the water and season with the Herbs, Garlic salt.
(4) Add the tinned Tomatoes and Tomato Purée and add the mushrooms
(5) Add the Sausage and simmer for 20 minutes or until the sauce has thickened.
(6) Pour the sauce over the vegetables.
(7) Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour at 180c.
(8) Remove the foil for the last 20 minutes.
We served our casserole with Herby Garlic Bread and it was a real 'Winter Warmer' for a cold evening.