Pork Pot Roast with Vegetables and Spices

Meat

1. For the pot roast to come out juicy, the pork must first be fried in oil on all sides until browned. In the leftover oil, fry all the vegetables the meat will be braised with in the pot. For a tasty dish, all the ingredients should be browned first. Although most often the rule is “just put it in the pot”: everything goes in raw, a little liquid is added, and you simply wait until the dish cooks itself.

2. Trim the leftover fat and bones from the pork.

   

3. Heat the butter and vegetable oil in a frying pan.

   It is best to brown the meat in a mixed fat: half real butter and half vegetable oil, sunflower or olive.

4. Put the prepared pieces of pork into the oil. Fry over high heat on all sides, turning from time to time, until a golden crust with a pleasant color appears.

5. Move the browned pieces to a separate plate for now.

   

Vegetables

1. Peel all the vegetables: onion, carrot, sweet pepper. Separate the head of garlic into cloves, but do not peel them.

2. Dice the carrot and fry it for a few minutes in the leftover oil.

3. Cut the onion into large wedges and add it to the carrot. Add the garlic cloves there too. Fry everything, stirring, until the onion is soft.

4. Add the sweet pepper cut into rings or strips.

   

5. Keep frying, add salt and all the spices; they will not be added to the pot separately. As for the spices, add a quarter teaspoon of ground coriander, a few peppercorns each of black pepper and allspice, 1-2 cloves, a couple of pods of dried chili, a little sweet paprika and a bay leaf.

6. Fry everything together for 2-3 mins. The vegetables will soak up all the oil that is left.

   

In the pot

1. You will need a ceramic pot of a suitable size. An important point: the pot with the food in it must go into a cold oven, so that both heat up together. This prevents the ceramic from possibly cracking because of uneven heating.

2. Put half of the prepared vegetables with spices on the bottom of the pot and level them with a spoon.

3. Next, add the pieces of meat.

   

4. Press the browned pieces of pork down a little, to leave room for the rest of the vegetables and the liquid.

5. Cover the meat with the remaining vegetables and pack them down slightly.

6. Pour about 150 ml of hot water or meat broth into the pot.

7. Cover the pot with the lid and put it in a cold oven.

   It is better to set the pot not on a metal baking sheet but on a rack or a glass dish. That way the sides heat more evenly and the bottom does not overheat.

   

8. Turn the oven on and let it heat to about 200°C. Braise the pot roast for about an hour, maybe a little more, until the meat is fully done (soft and easily pierced with a knife).

   Do not stir the vegetables and meat. All the ingredients heat up fairly quickly and cook almost at the same time. Nearly all the liquid blends with the oil and meat juices, and the taste is incomparable.

   

Serving

1. When the meat is ready, take the pot out of the oven.

   Note that the lid may have a hole for steam to escape. Try not to put your hand near it, as a burn is guaranteed.

2. It is better to set the pot not on the sink or a metal stand but on a ceramic plate, to avoid temperature shocks. Pots are most often brought to the table on a plate too. Be sure to add a spoon for serving the meat onto plates.

   Meat roast in pots hardly needs a side dish. But if you like, add baked potatoes, fresh vegetables and bread. Pickles, herbs and sauce are optional.