Pork knuckle, sauerkraut, and apple sauce

Tonight’s meal is all about convenience. I went grocery shopping earlier and saw the slow-cooked pork knuckle in the display case of the meat section, and it caught my eye.

The last time I ate pork knuckle was with Dad in a Bavarian restaurant in Brisbane. The meal consisted of the pork knuckle with a heap of sauerkraut.

When I think of pork I’m conscious of the amount of salt and so I wanted something sweet to balance the meal. I chose some apple sauce.

The convenience factor of this meals is the fact I used a mostly cooked piece of pork, Polish sauerkraut that I bought in a jar, Australian grown apple sauce in a bottle, and potato mash cooked with microwave radiation.

The whole meal took less than one hour to cook.

On the subject of pork, I’ve been reading about the detection of African Swine Fever in Germany. The African swine fever virus causes African swine fever. 

It’s a good thing this pork is Australian and not imported German pork.

Recipe

Ingredients

• Slow-cooked Australian pork knuckle
• Polish sauerkraut
• Australian grown apple sauce
• Potato mash
• Instant gravy

Instructions

• Turn on the oven and heat it to 220 °C.
• Remove the pork from the packaging and dry off the surface with kitchen paper.
• Put the pork knuckle onto a lined baking sheet with the rind exposed.
• Cook the pork for about 50 minutes.
• Remove the pork from the oven and allow it to rest.
• Tear off the crispy crackling and set it aside.
• Dissect away the cooked muscle meat from the bone.
• Slice the meat and place it onto a dinner plate.
• Spoon some sauerkraut onto the dinner plate.
• Spoon some apple sauce onto the dinner plate.
• Irradiate the potato mash with microwaves.
• Place the potato mash onto the dinner plate.
• Boil some water.
• Put a tablespoon of instant gravy powder into a glass jug and then whisk through the boiling water.
• Pour the gravy over the potato mash.

Photographs

The following block is a gallery of photographs. Click on one of them and then scroll through them to check out the pictures in all their glory. 

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Questions

Did you eat the whole pork knuckle?

The packaging suggests the pork knuckle is enough for five people. I ate the whole thing. Yes, I do feel full.

Why not cook everything from scratch? Why be so lazy?

Do you not know me? I’m all about efficiency.

I prefer the word efficiency rather than lazy. By being efficient, I have more time to do other things. For example, today, I watched a couple of movies and relaxed a little.

What’s so good about sauerkraut?

Well, it’s lactic acid fermented cabbage. Lactobacilli elaborate the lactic acid. In a Gram’s stain, especially of normal vaginal flora, lactobacilli are quite beautiful. They appear a deeply and evenly stained violet which is contrasted by the pink background proteinaceous matrix.

The only downside of sauerkraut is the potential for producing large volumes of flatus.

How was the pork knuckle?

It was good. The muscle meat was tender, and the flesh was moist and juicy. The crackling was crisp and not overly salted.

The sauerkraut and apple sauce complemented the pork to a tee.

Final thoughts

• Do you like pork knuckle?
• Do you like sauerkraut?
• Do you agree that apple sauce and pork go together?