As someone who's heavily involved with my career progression, I try my best to sustain a healthy lifestyle by literally dragging myself to go to the gym after work and by minimizing my sugar/salt intake. After a hectic day at work, the latter is so much harder to achieve - I'll be reaching out for something sinful to de-stress myself with and can't be bother to prepare a decent meal.
Having just attended a dinner hosted by
SunPork, it dawned on me how little I know about pre-prepared meals. Yes, there are a lot of packaged meals out there that are not ideal options but there are also good ones.
Each plate of food that we were served utilized SunPork's pre-prepared products and can be formulated at home in no time. Fully owned by 3 Aussies farmers, these guys have been supplying pork to Woolworths for more than two decades and decided to venture further into the retail market, paying close attention to what consumers these days want.
Without further ado, allow me to bore your eyes with snippets of the dinner. Despite being pre-packed meals that have been reinvented into restaurant quality dishes, I have noticed that every morsel of meat is indeed fresh and still succulent to taste.
Canapes:
Shredded chicken arancini, lemon aioli ~ utilizing their "Slow cooked & shredded roast chicken" meal, the meat was well seasoned and not dry. Wouldn't have thought about using it to make arancini but this has me thinking.
Did I forget to mention the table set up was amazing? So much attention to detail.
Mini pork schnitzel and tomato chutney ~ and now, we can have tasty schnitzels and beers in the comfort of our own home! Adding a dollop of tomato chutney gave the dish a tad more zing but hey, no problems whatsoever if you want gravy on it!
Shredded beef empanada and aji dipping sauce ~ again, the meat used here was very flavourful and the dipping sauce complimented it well.
Plate one:
Pork belly rasher in Korean BBQ sauce, radish slaw, confit apple and apple cream ~ to recreate this entire plate may be time-consuming but have no fear as the pork belly was actually the star on the plate - I would happily snack on this.
Plate two:
Shredded pork croquette, seared scallop and fennel puree ~ this was by far my favourite dish. The croquette was not greasy but rather, evenly crumbed and deep-fried to perfection. The varied textural elements from the crunchy bits, croquette and scallop was sensational together. We were given a recipe card for this dish and I am keen on trying it out myself.
Plate three:
Peri peri pork schnitzel, labneh and braised cos ~ my brother would love this because 1) its delicious and 2) its a fraction of the price from a pub/cafe. Again, I was impressed by how the manufacturers took care in ensuring that the meat was not dry when it gets re-cooked.
Plate four:
Slow cooked pork ribs in BBQ sauce, potato rosti and mushroom crisps ~ this would be a good one to have in winter, considering that lighting up the barbie might not be the wise-est thing to do now. Meat easily pulled away from the bone and boy, was it sticky, sweet and finger licking good.
Plate five:
Slow roasted pork belly, celeriac puree and grilled fennel ~ the pork belly had an even crackling top which was a nice contrast to the smooth, creamy fatty layer of the belly. I have come across pork belly meat that oozes of a strong unpleasant smell and was so glad this was not a reminder of a bad memory.
Dessert:
Apple, rhubard, fennel and pork skin crumble ~ who would have thought of incorporating crispy pork skin as a crumble? As it is slightly salty in nature, it cuts through the sweetness and acidity of the entire dish perfectly. Move aside salted caramel sauce!
Alas, we were served with petit fours and tea/coffee to end our meal. It was indeed a lovely night in Melbourne, up high in Eureka 89, surrounded by the city's magic. Thank you SunPork for hosting this event and keep up the good work in feeding Australians well:)
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