It’s never too late to make a New Year’s resolution, especially if it were to be the source of much joy and celebration, warmth and fellowship. At the end of last year, on this same newspaper Kristina Chetcuti wrote a heartfelt plea for us to return to the idea of Sunday lunch at home with the family, a sentiment with which I heartily concur.

Rather than eat out every Sunday, which is such a drain on the budget and which means that one must necessarily eat mediocre food, with quantity – as opposed to quality – counting for more, why not save the restaurant lunch for a special treat?

Rather than eat out every Sunday, why not save the restaurant lunch for a special treat

After all, goodness knows that there are plenty of places worthy of your money for a special occasion, producing food which one has not the skills, or time, to produce at home. In my small patch alone, there is Tmun in Mġarr, as well as Porto Vecchio, not to mention Ta’ Frenċ, which goes from strength to strength under its new patronne, Mary Grace Attard.

For many years now, a late Sunday lunch has been one of our favourite times for entertaining both family and friends. Starting somewhere between 2pm and 3pm and finishing by 7pm or 8pm means one gets to bed early enough for a school night, but it also means a leisurely start to one’s Sunday, a winning combination.

Over the course of my next columns I shall be giving a few Sunday lunch ideas and menus; easy to cook, light on the budget, eminently adaptable and suitable for winter entertaining. This week’s suggestion has an American flavour and rich, warming smells accompany the slow-cooking of the joint of pork.

I prefer the shoulder, with its intra-muscular fat that bastes itself as it cooks, to the leg, which is leaner but has a tendency to dry out. With a substantial main course like this and a frivolous dessert, you will not need much more than a crisp green salad to begin with. Or you can go straight into the pork and beans and have the salad afterwards.

Barbecue sauce

2 onions, peeled and grated
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and sliced
1 tbsp olive oil or lard
2 tbsps tomato purée
4 tbsps strong black coffee
2 tbsps Worcester sauce
4 tbsps each cider and cider vinegar
½ tsp, or more, chilli powder
2 tbsps light, or dark, muscovado sugar

Cook the first three ingredients in the fat until the onion is translucent and then stir in the remaining ingredients and cook gently for 5 to 10 minutes before serving with the meat.

Grilled marshmallow fruit skewers

(Serves 12)

3 very thick slices of white bread, crust removed
2 tbsps rum
2 tbsps light muscovado sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 large mangoes
1 pineapple
3 or 4 bananas
Juice of 1 or 2 limes
2 or 3 dozen marshmallows

Cut each slice of bread into four, giving you 12 cubes. Beat the rum, sugar and egg together and dip the bread in this. Peel the fruit and cut it into chunks, rubbing lemon juice all over to stop them discolouring.

Thread the bread cubes, fruit and marshmallows on soaked wooden skewers and put under a hot grill, turning to brown the contents of the skewer all over.

Serve immediately.

Pot roast pork with barbecue sauce

(Serves 10 to 12 – or 6 to 8 with excellent left-overs)

3kg shoulder of pork
4 tbsps flour
½ tsp each: ground mace, black pepper, cloves, cinnamon and cardamom
3 tbsps olive oil or lard
2 large onions, peeled and thickly sliced
4 celery stalks, trimmed and cut into 4 pieces
2 carrots and leeks, peeled, trimmed and sliced
2 small turnips, peeled and diced
500ml beer, cider or red wine
2 or 3 sprigs of thyme
2 bay leaves

Have the skin removed from the joint, have it scored as well.

Mix the flour and spices and lightly coat the meat with it. Heat the fat in a heavy casserole and brown the meat all over. Remove and put to one side while you brown the vegetables all over. Put these to one side while you deglaze the pan with the liquid, scraping up any residues from the pan.

Put the vegetables back in the casserole and put the pork back on top, covering it with its skin. Tuck in the herbs, cover and cook very slowly on top of the stove, or in the oven at about 150ºC, gas mark 3, or even lower. Three to 3 ½ hours should give you a juicily tender piece of meat, but longer will not hurt it. Add a little liquid from time to time or, if you are letting the meat cook in your absence, add half of it before you go out. When ready to serve, boil up the rest of the wine with the cooking juices to make a good gravy.

Slice the meat and serve it with plenty of gravy and smooth mashed potatoes, or if cooking the meat in the oven, bake a few jacket potatoes. You can thicken the sauce by sieving some of the cooked vegetables into it.

The pork skin will not, of course, crisp to crackling, as it is cooked in moist and not dry heat. But it still adds plenty of flavour and bastes the meat as it cooks.

A piece of beef, from the blade bone can be cooked with the same ingredients, until it just falls off the bone.

Quick baked beans

(Serves 12)

250g smoked streaky bacon, in a piece
2 onions, peeled and thinly sliced
3 or 4 tbsps tomato purée
3 cans haricot or cannellini beans
2 tbsps dark muscovado or molasses sugar, or more to taste

Fry the bacon in a large casserole and then fry the onion in the fat until a good golden brown, but without burning. Add the tomato purée and cook for a few minutes, then add the canned beans, their liquid and the dark sugar. Cook uncovered for about an hour or until the bacon can be pulled apart with two forks.

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