Comments on: Braised Pata a la Waitrose FOOD Illustrated

By: Marketman

Marketman — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:15:23 +0000

adam, ah, the joyful and delicious results of a string of kitchen mishaps… I love those the best. And yes, I suppose if you start with a pork belly, few things can really go wrong… so glad this worked for you, now I will have to try this with a pork belly! :)

By: adam

adam — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:20:09 +0000

Hello MM. Just wanted to say that by a process of trial and error we replicated this but on the stove top! We could not find nice fresh looking pata in the stores so instead bought about a 1.5kg piece of pork belly. Marinated it first in the sauce and then dropped into the oven. 15 minutes later the oven thermometer failed and started pumping at full blast! So, thinking hats on, we cut the piece of meat in half and transferred to a large casserole dish and placed on the oven top for a slow cook of about 3.5 – 4.0 hours. There was more than enough liquid to keep it cooking throughout. Finished it with a quick 15 mins in the crazy oven (now pumping out at the equivalent of gas mark 10). Sorry long story but in summary YES it does work on the stove top AND it was absolutely delicious. As you wrote this was an immediate favourite. The meat is incredibly tender and very rich. Thanks for posting the recipe.

By: Cecilia

Cecilia — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 01:55:52 +0000

Again, yum, yum, yum … Will definitely try this soon.

By: MrsS

MrsS — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 01:03:19 +0000

Don’t know if this is a stupid question but I’ll ask it just the same. Just wondering why you didn’t use an enameled dutch oven for this recipe.

By: Vicky Go

Vicky Go — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:59:48 +0000

Connie C: I like this “humba” recipe because there’s no measuring involved & yet it comes out OK all the time. I’ve even used different brands of pickled cucumbers & it still works. My MIL said to use “yellow Bean Sauce” as the beans are softer, but that is hard to find. Mostly I use Brown Bean Sauce – a compromise, somewhere between Black & Yellow. I don’t use the black beans in the can – so I just eyeball the amount & 4-5 heaping tablespoons per pot seems to be good. I like this idea of open & dump – it makes things easier! BTW, you add everything in the pickled cucumber can – so there’s sweet & sour notes there already. If you use spicy garlic bean sauce – then you add spice heat w the salty note.