Silesian Heaven

  • Just back from a short holiday in Wroclaw which is in Silesia, Poland.
  • In a restaurant in the Old Town  I had Silesian Heaven  – Śląskie niebo – which was delicious.
  • Dried fruits such as apples, apricots, pears and  prunes are cooked with pork.
  • I have several recipes for pork with prunes – this has even more fruitiness.
  • This would have been a recipe for the winter months using all these dried fruits.

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  • I looked up several recipes for this.
  • I decided that shoulder pork would be the best option.
  • I used dried apples, apricots and prunes – I did not find any dried pears.
  • The recipe has to be started the evening before by soaking the dried fruits.
  • Some recipes cooked the pork and fruits for the same time BUT this makes the fruits like a thick sauce – this way I think is better.
  • NOTE
  • The prunes and apricots I used were the soft kind now more available –
  • If using the traditional very dried fruits you could adapt the timing of the fruit addition to earlier in the cooking.

Ingredients

  • 1kg of shoulder pork – steaks
  • 250g of prunes, dried apricots and dried apples
  • 750ml of vegetable or chicken stock
  • Sunflower oil for frying
  • Salt & pepper
  • Juice of 1 lemon

Method

  • Cover the dried fruits with boiling water.
  • Leave overnight.
  • *
  • Preheat the oven to GM4 – 180°C
  •  
  • Fry the pork on both sides.
  • Place the pork in an ovenproof dish.
  • Pour the stock over this and stir.
  • Place a lid over the dish.
  • Cook for around 2 hours.
  • Season with salt and pepper.
  • *
  • Add the dried fruits and the liquid.
  • Add more liquid if a lot has evaporated.
  • Stir and put back in the oven for another hour.
  • *
  • Pour the lemon juice over top before serving.
  • *
  • Here served with pearl barley – but buckwheat or rice would be good or  boiled or mashed potatoes or potato dumplings.

Royal Doulton – Burgundy plate

OPTION – To be tried later

  • Use a joint of pork and roast over the dried fruits.
  • Similar to the recipe for Pork & Prunes.