... Austrian lunch for Austrian/German friends

I have a few Austrian/German friends in London, and we have taken turns in hosting dinners or lunches over the past few months, so this weekend it was my turn, and I decided to make roast pork with dumplings and sauerkraut. As temperatures here in London were absolutely arctic over the last few weeks, this seemed like a very good idea - however, today was perfectly summery. Still, the lunch went down fairly well. I did lots of research on how to make a pork roast, as this was my first.

I did what I usually do, and picked different elements from various recipes I found. I made sure the skin of the piece of pork I had bought was very dry (this makes the crackling really crispy) by patting it with kitchen towel. I carved long incisions across the skin with a sharp knife, rubbed a mixture of 1 tbsp crushed caraway and 1 tsp coarse sea salt all over it and stuffed garlic cloves into the incisions. I placed the pork on some carrots and onion wedges in a roasting dish and poured a cup of stock and half a bottle of dark ale around it.

I roasted this at 250C for about 30 minutes, then turned the temperature down to 190C and roasted it for another 2 hours, basting it occasionally and topping up with ale. This worked well - the meat was very tender and still moist inside, and the crackling was really "crackling". I made a gravy with what remained of the ale in the bottom of the roasting dish, which was nice, poured over the dumplings.

For dessert I made a lemon mousse - my sister's recipe. I thought after this hearty meal we could do with something light, or at least something that gives us the illusion of being light. I made this the night before to save time on the day, and also because it needs a few hours to set in the fridge.

Here's the recipe:

300ml double cream
3 eggs
180g sugar
2 unwaxed lemons (juice of two, zest of one of them)
2-3 sheets of gelatine

1. Separate the eggs and beat the egg whites with 1/3 of the sugar to form stiff peaks.
2. Beat the cream.
3. Soak the gelatine sheets in water.
4. Beat the yolks with the remaining sugar, the zest of one lemon. Slowly drizzle the juice of both lemons into the yolk mixture while beating. 
5. Drain the gelatine sheets and squeeze out the water. Then melt it in a little bit of water or alcohol. 
6. Put a few spoonfuls of the yolk mixture into the melted gelatine and stir it in. Then pour the gelatine mixture into the yolk mixture. (This prevents the mixture from getting lumpy).
7. Stir in the whipped cream.
8. Gently fold in the whipped egg whites. 
9. Distribute the mixture into ramekins or dessert bowls, cover and cool for at least four hours or overnight.