Roast pork with gingerbread sauce and apple and cream savoy cabbage

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 1 ½ kg roast pork, piece of your choice
• lard
• 1 bunch of soup vegetables
• 2 onions
• 1 ½ liters of water, more if needed
• salt and pepper
• Gingerbread spice
• 1 honey cake or sauce cake
• 1 shot of red wine, dry
• 1 m.-large savoy cabbage
• 2 apples
• Lard or clarified butter
• 1 onion(s)
• 1 cup of sour cream, approx. 150 – 200 g
• 200 ml water
• salt and pepper

Instructions

Working time approx. 45 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 2 hours 30 minutes; Total time approx. 3 hours 15 minutes

Wash and dry the pork roast, then sear it all over in the lard in a casserole dish, seasoning with salt and pepper. Clean and chop the soup vegetables, dice the onion, add everything to the roast pork, and top up with water. The amount of water depends on your taste and the amount of sauce you need—I used about 1.5 liters. Season everything again with salt and pepper, then cook in a covered casserole dish in the oven at about 200 degrees Celsius (top/bottom heat) for 1.5 hours (depending on the thickness of the meat). Turn it over occasionally to ensure all sides are in the broth. After 1.5 hours, separate the roast and the stock. Return the roast to the oven uncovered at 165 degrees Celsius (329 degrees Fahrenheit) to brown. Purée the broth with the vegetables; this should make about 1.5 liters. Top up with water if necessary, and let it simmer gently on the stovetop. Add a splash of red wine (to taste), and then add the gravy cake to the simmering sauce. Once the cake has dissolved, puree it again if necessary to make it nice and creamy. Now add about 1 teaspoon of gingerbread spice. Here, too, your own taste determines how much spice you want. If the sauce is too sweet, add a little more red wine and season with salt and pepper. Carve the roast and let it rest in the sauce for a moment before serving. While the roast is in the oven, trim and pick the savoy cabbage, and cut it into fine strips. Don’t forget the thick stalks; they’re not particularly tasty and need to be finely chopped or discarded. Dice the onion and apples (apples don’t need to be peeled) and sauté them in the lard. Add the savoy cabbage and sauté it while stirring, but don’t let it brown! Add 200 ml of water and cook the savoy cabbage over low heat for about 30 minutes. Then add the sour cream and season to taste. We served it with regular boiled potatoes. It was the perfect meal for the first Advent season and a completely different kind of roast pork.