Simmered pork with chestnuts and apaki, sauce from evlogia Plum spread with Hazelnut aroma

Ingredients

• 1 kg pork shoulder
• 1 medium-size onion
• 2 celery sprigs
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 medium-size carrot
• 250 g (8.8 oz) pre-boiled chestnuts
• 200 g (7.1 oz) apaki (smoked cold cut), cut into cubes
• 100 g (3.5 oz) Evlogia Plum spread with Hazelnut aroma
• 130 ml dry red wine
• 50 g (1.8 oz) balsamic vinegar
• 1 pc asteroid anise
• 1 tsp. dried ground coriander
• 6 cardamom seeds
• 40 g (1.4 oz) olive oil
• 30 g (1.1 oz) brown chicken broth

For the sweet potato puree

• 1 1/2 kg sweet potatoes
• 100 g (3.5 oz) butter
• 1 lemon (its juice)
• nutmeg
• salt

Method

 

1. Cut the pork into pieces (60 g each). Cut the vegetables into small pieces. Heat the olive oil in a cooking pot and add the pieces of pork one after the other, allowing them to develop a brown crust.
2. Remove all the meat as soon as it is ready and add the vegetables to fry in the same cooking pot at a medium temperature.
3. Once softened, quench with balsamic vinegar and allow to evaporate. Add the wine and allow it to evaporate again, this time by two-thirds. Add the meat into the cooking pot again, the spices and the chicken broth.

Add water to cover the food and let it simmer.

4. If it is a metal cooking pot, cover it (as long as the lid and handle are oven safe), and put it in the oven at a low temperature (150^o C, 300^o F, Gas Mark 2) for 1 hour and 45 minutes.
5. Once the pork is soft enough, add the chestnuts and fry the apaki in a frying pan. As soon as it caramelizes, bring it into the cooking pot.
6. Simmer for ten more minutes and at the end, add the Evlogia Plum spread with Hazelnut aroma to the food. Stir well to bind the gravy and serve. You can also use carrot zest and peas for garnish (optional).