This thoroughly modern casserole is a delicious example of fusion cooking, marrying ingredients and flavours from diverse cuisines. Oriental spices, sweet potatoes and fruit flavours go very well with the lean pork. Add bean sprouts and spring onions to a simple green salad to make a crisp, refreshing accompaniment.
Add 400 g (14 oz) cubed pumpkin or butternut squash instead of the sweet potato, and 1 small bulb of fennel, chopped, instead of the celery sticks. * Tomato rice goes well with this casserole. Bring 200 ml (7 fl oz) water to the boil and add 225 g (8 oz) rinsed basmati rice, 1 can chopped tomatoes, about 400 g, with the juice and 4 chopped sun-dried tomatoes. Cover and cook gently for 10 minutes or until the rice is tender and has absorbed all the water. * For a rich fruit casserole, add 200 g (7 oz) pitted, ready-to-eat prunes and 2 cored and thickly sliced dessert apples instead of the tomatoes. Omit the sherry.
Sweet potatoes have a delicious natural sweetness that intensifies during storage and cooking. Although they contain slightly more calories than ordinary white potatoes – sweet potatoes have 87 kcal per 100 g (3½ oz), white potatoes 75 kcal – they are low in fat. * Sweet potatoes are also an excellent source of beta-carotene and they provide good amounts of vitamins C and E. * Lean pork has a lower fat content than beef or lamb. It is a good source of zinc and it provides useful amounts of iron.
B1, C * A, B6, B12, E, iron, phosphorus, zinc * B2, folate, niacin, selenium