Pseudo-Christmas Feast

Our lovely hostess with the mostess, Kate, had a 'hand of pork' in the freezer. We arrived at Inverness laden with a plum pudding (made by my clever mum for us to eat Christmas night at Matt's family Christmas, but it never eventuated). Basically, both items were begging me to make a roast meal out of them. A pseudo-Christmas feast with our pseudo-family here in Boort.

First of all Kate and I had to google what a 'hand of pork' is. Turns out it's the foreleg of the pig, sort of like a shoulder of pork...but not. Some further googling had me convinced that I needed to try Jamie Oliver's slow roasted version. 

Kate went to Bendigo for the day, and I got to work scoring fat and rubbing salt into my 'hand of pork' to get some crackling out of my miss piggy. 

Six hours later, some roast potatoes, my friend Ange's recipe for an amazing thing called 'parsnip puff' and an equally amazing gravy made with the juices from the pork - we had our pseudo-Christmas feast. 

The pork wasn't as amazing as I was hoping for (although everyone seemed quite pleased with it). I don't think I wrapped it tightly enough in the foil so it may have dried out a bit. The gravy however was delicious, and after thinking my usual awesome roast potatoes wouldn't work as well due to the low temperature of the oven for the pork, they seemed to crisp up enough. Success!

Boil mum's pudding for an hour, serve with lashings of brandy custard and ho ho ho - meeerrry Christmas...in January?! 

We're off to Swan Hill tonight for dinner at an (apparently) good Thai restaurant with my friend from school, Olivia, and her fiance Andy who now live in Robinvale. Swan Hill is a bit over an hour from Boort, halfway to Robinvale. Should be a hoot!