Country Pork and Parsley Cobbler

Submitted by -Sylvie-

"As we're heading towards autumn again I started to go through my 'Winter Warmers' recipes and thought I should share this one, a warming casserole dish and one pot meal. I found the recipe some time ago in a low cholesterol and low fat cookbook. I usually leave out the celery and add more leek and carrots instead, as I don't like celery. (UK tomato puree = US tomato paste, swede = rutabega and you can use sour cream or creme fraiche instead of the fromage frais, if you can't get any.)"

 

• Ready In: 2hrs 25mins
• Ingredients: 17
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• 1 lb boneless pork shoulder, diced
• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 1 small swede, diced
• 2 carrots, sliced
• 2 leeks, sliced
• 2 stalks celery, sliced
• 3 2⁄3 cups boiling beef stock
• 2 tablespoons tomato puree
• 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
• 1⁄4 cup pearl barley
• salt, to taste
• black pepper, to taste

• Cobbler Topping

• 5 ounces plain flour
• 6 tablespoons low fat fromage frais
• 3 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
• salt, to taste
• black pepper, to taste

directions

1. In a skillet, heat the oil and fry the pork until lightly browned.
2. Add the vegetables and stir over a medium heat until they start to color lightly.
3. Pour into a large casserole dish and add the stock, tomato puree, parsley and pearl barley.
4. Mix well.
5. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
6. Cover and place in a preheated oven (180 C/350 F/Gas 4) for about 1-1 1/4 hour, until the vegetables and pork are tender.
7. For the Cobbler topping, sift the flour and baking powder with seasoning into a large bowl.
8. Stir in the fromage frais and the chopped parsley.
9. Add enough cold water to mix a soft but not sticky dough.
10. On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough until it's about 1cm thick.
11. Cut dough into 12-16 triangles.
12. take the casserole out of the oven and raise the temperature to 220 C/425 F/Gas 7.
13. Top the casserole with the dough triangles, making sure the edges overlap.
14. Bake uncovered for another 15-20 minutes, until the dough has risen and has turned golden.

Reviews

[ellie_]

Great winter recipe which is very open to adaptations based on the veggies that are on hand. I made a few subsitutions with good results by using one beet instead of the swede (which I wasn't sure what it was exactly), baby carrots and 1 1/2 onions (in place of the leeks--the grocery store has been out of them). I also used one can of beef broth and one can of V-8 and skipped the tomato puree. I wasn't sure how much flour to use so I used 1/2 cup flour and 1 teaspoon baking powder. I also didn't have any fromage frais (I also wasn't sure what it was) so I used whipping cream in its place. The only change I'll make next time to this recipe is adding a bit of thickner to the cobbler while it is cooking, but that may have been my fault by skipping the tomato puree and using too much broth/juice. Thanks for sharing!