Vietnamese style crispy pork and little gem salad

1tbsp sunflower oil
450g pork mince
2tsp freshly grated ginger
1 red chili, seeded and finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
4 spring onions, trimmed
2tbsp chopped fresh coriander
2 tbsp chopped fresh mint
2tsp soy sauce
2tbsp fish sauce
2tbsp rice vinegar, or white wine vinegar
1tsp soft light brown sugar
3 limes
50g dry roasted peanuts, chopped
4 little gem lettuces
Fresh coriander sprigs, to serve

Heat half the oil in a large frying pan over high heat. Add half the pork and cook, stirring occasionally, until browned and crispy. Remove from the pan and put into a bowl or dish, then cook the remaining mince in the same way.
In another bowl, mix together the ginger, chili, and garlic. Finely slice the spring onions, and add to the bowl with the herbs. Add the soy sauce, fish sauce, vinegar, sugar and the juice of 1 lime. Give it a good mix, then pour the mixture over the crispy pork. Scatter the peanuts over the mince.
Cut the remaining limes into wedges, and separate the leaves of the lettuces.
Scoop some crispy mince onto each lettuce leaf, add a squeeze of lime and top with a sprig of coriander.


This type of salad became really popular a while ago. All of a sudden I was seeing them everywhere. They looked good, but I tended to avoid them, as I’ve never been a terribly fashionable person. Still, they looked so good that eventually I was worn down.

I decided to try this one from Ainsley Harriott's Feel-Good Cookbook , as his happened to be the one I was looking at when I made up my mind to take the plunge.

I’m really glad I did it. This was delicious! It was beautiful to look at, it was fast to make, and it was so tasty that I wanted to make it and eat again right away. The filling of the individual leaves was a bit fiddly, and I would think that if you were serving it casually, to the family, you could probably serve it in a bowl with the leaves on the side and let people do that part themselves. Either way, it will be a crowd pleaser.

Pizza + Beer = fun

I'd had more than a few spicy & sweets before I got took these less than awesome pictures.

By Cookbad

I made a really good pizza the other night. Maple Chipotle Soaked Pineapple & Ham Pizza and I served it with a beer cocktail that I named the Spicy & Sweet Shannon. the pictures are pretty bad. I'd had a few drinks, I was quivering with hunger. . . .

The Pizza:
Slice up some fresh pineapple. About 1 quarter a pineapple is enough for 1 pizza.
Cut into 1/8s and then slice them about 1/4 inch thick. Put them in a bowl with 1/4 cup maple syrup, 1/4 cup water and a chunk or two of canned Chipotle peppers.
Marinde for 30 minute or more.
When they have marinaded, put the pineapple in one layer on a baking sheet, pour over some of he marinade and broil until the tops start to brown a bit.
Get some ham and slice it up into strips.
Dress you pizza


Next, go here for detailed directions on how to make grilled pizza or do it however you want. Top with sauce, cheese, the roasted pineapple and ham. We made this pizza on a particularly shitty grill so it took forever and I eventually just decided to finish it up in the oven.


The Spicy and Sweet Shannon:
All these flavors can be adjusted to your taste.
Pour all this into a pitcher:
1/2 cup of lemon juice
1/4 cup of maple syrup
a few shakes of cayanne pepper
Ice
4 light beers

Pour over more ice.
If you are thinking that it sounds an awful lot like the master cleanse with beer, you'd be right.
Sounds gross, but everyone that tried it really liked it.

The pizza, was terrific. I have been thinking about it for days.

Vietnamese Table Salad

Giant salad

By Cookbad

Ho. Ly. Cow. is this a good salad.
It is no secret that I am a big fan of all Vietnamese food, Cha Gio in particular. I love the whole process of rolling a delicious hot and crispy roll into cold and crisp lettuce with mint and then dipping it in a sweet, spicy, tangy sauce. If I had to make a list of my top 10 favorite food, they would be on it.

This salad is eaten in a similar way to Cha Gio. You wrap the pork, pineapple, noodles and anything else you like in the leaf lettuce and then dip. So, you get all the deliciousness of the Cha Gio without having to fry.


I'm also a big fan of anything I can eat with my hands.

My husband dug into this one before I got to the table so I didn't explain to him how one should manage this meal, so he ate it old school salad style.

salad sandwiched

Here is the recipe:

Vietnamese Table Salad
Dipping sauce
3/4 cup hot water
5 tablespoons fish sauce*
3 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 Thai bird chiles with seeds or 1/2 jalapeño chile with seeds, minced
1 garlic clove, minced

Pork
6 green onions (white and pale green parts only), chopped (about 1/2 cup)
3 tablespoons chopped lemongrass*
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon golden brown sugar
2 teaspoons fish sauce
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
3 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
1 1/2 to 1 3/4 pounds boneless pork loin chops (each 1/3 to 1/2 inch thick)

Salad and noodles
1 small English hothouse cucumber, halved lengthwise, thinly sliced crosswise
1 baby pineapple, peeled, halved, thinly sliced or 1/2 small pineapple, peeled, cut into 2 wedges, cored, thinly sliced
2 cups bean sprouts
1 cup fresh Thai basil leaves
1 cup fresh cilantro leaves
1 cup fresh mint leaves
20 fresh green shiso leaves
1/2 cup finely shredded carrot
1 8- to 9-ounce package dried rice vermicelli noodles
3 heads of butter lettuce, cored, leaves separated
preparation
For dipping sauce:
Mix all ingredients in small bowl. Season sauce to taste with salt. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.)

For pork:
Mix first 6 ingredients and 2 tablespoons oil in 11x7-inch glass dish. Add pork chops to marinade, turn several times to coat evenly, then crowd together in single layer. Cover and refrigerate at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours.

For salad and noodles:
Arrange cucumber, pineapple, bean sprouts, all herbs, and carrot around edge of large platter. (Can be prepared 2 hours ahead. Cover; chill.)

Cook noodles in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender and turning white, separating often with tongs, about 4 minutes. Drain. Arrange in center of platter. Mound lettuce leaves in large shallow bowl.

Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat). Brush grill rack with remaining 1 tablespoon oil. Grill pork with marinade still clinging to meat until slightly charred and cooked through, 4 to 5 minutes per side, depending on thickness. Transfer pork to cutting board. Let rest 10 minutes.

Cut pork crosswise into 1/3-inch-wide strips. Place pork and any juices from board atop noodles. To serve, fill lettuce leaves with pork, noodles, herbs, and vegetables. Serve with sauce for dipping.

3 heads of butter lettuce, cored, leaves separated
preparation
For dipping sauce:
Mix all ingredients in small bowl. Season sauce to taste with salt. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.)

For pork:
Mix first 6 ingredients and 2 tablespoons oil in 11x7-inch glass dish. Add pork chops to marinade, turn several times to coat evenly, then crowd together in single layer. Cover and refrigerate at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours.

For salad and noodles:
Arrange cucumber, pineapple, bean sprouts, all herbs, and carrot around edge of large platter. (Can be prepared 2 hours ahead. Cover; chill.)

Cook noodles in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender and turning white, separating often with tongs, about 4 minutes. Drain. Arrange in center of platter. Mound lettuce leaves in large shallow bowl.

Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat). Brush grill rack with remaining 1 tablespoon oil. Grill pork with marinade still clinging to meat until slightly charred and cooked through, 4 to 5 minutes per side, depending on thickness. Transfer pork to cutting board. Let rest 10 minutes.

Cut pork crosswise into 1/3-inch-wide strips. Place pork and any juices from board atop noodles. To serve, fill lettuce leaves with pork, noodles, herbs, and vegetables. Serve with sauce for dipping.

I used cellophane noodles instead of vermicelli, regular pineapple instead of baby, regular basil instead of Thai and just plain skipped the shiso leaves. I'm not nuts about them anyway and there was already so much to work with.

I'm going to have the leftovers for breakfast tomorrow if they aren't consumed in the night.

P.S. Excuse the terrible photos. I lost my camera and am using my phone to take pictures until it turns back up.

Roasted Marmalade Ham

3-4kg middle cut gammon, with the knuckle left on
2 carrots roughly chopped
2 sticks of celery roughly chopped
2 bay leaves
16 black peppercorns
1 bouquet garni (a piece of leek, celery, a bay leaf, a sprig of fresh thyme)
2 oranges
2tbsp sea salt
3tbsp freshly ground black pepper
1 jar of best thin rind marmalade
a handful of fresh rosemary, leaves picked

place the gammon in a large snug fitting pot. Cover it with water, then throw in your veg, bay leaves, peppercorns and bouquet garni. Peel the zest from the oranges, and add to the pot, then squeeze in the juice, and add the salt. Bring the water to a boil, then turn the heat down and simmer for an hour and a quarter, with a lid on, skimming if need be. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for half an hour in the broth. This will allow the flavors to really penetrate the meat. Discard the vegetables from the broth, but keep the broth for making soup – it will freeze well for use another day.

Preheat the oven to 170c. Carefully remove the meat to a board, and using a knife, take off the skin. Remove some of the fat, leaving about ½ inch. Score in criss-cross fashion, and while it is moist, season it generously with the black pepper. Place in a roasting try and roast for 20 minutes, until the fat renders and becomes slightly crispy. Remove from the oven, stir up the marmalade to loosen it , then smear and rub it all over the meat with the rosemary. Place back in the oven for about 1 hour, and baste frequently until beautifully golden and crisp.

I was looking around for a good Christmas recipe. I thought about making a goose, or a turkey, but they were prohibitively expensive. It was going to cost about 30 pounds or so to get a goose, and a free range turkey was as much or more. A ham, however, was right in our price range, and I found this recipe in a Jamie Oliver book.

Way easy if you have the right equipment, and by that I mean an absurdly large pot. That is going to be your biggest obstacle to overcome. I used the biggest one we had, and it just fit. Unfortunately, once it started cooking, it swelled a bit, and was then slightly too big.

I developed an elaborate system to keep all the steam in. It looked like this…




There is a sippy cup lid propping up the top pot, so that the steam doesn’t get trapped in there.

Note, this could all have been avoided if I had made sure to get a ham the right size for the pot.

Other then that, this was really easy. It takes a long time, but it’s not terribly complicated, and the end result is gorgeous. The pepper mellows a lot, I’m not sure if that is because of the fat or the marmalade, but there is no overpowering pepper flavor to it. The marmalade glaze was incredible. The little bits of glazed cooked fat were impossible to resist.

Good ham!

If you have a large group of people to feed, I highly recommend this. If there are only a few of you, you’d better have a lot of ideas for leftover ham.

Chestnut Bacon and Cranberry Stuffing

100g dried Cranberries
50ml ruby port
1 small onion, peeled and chopped
2 rashers unsmoked back bacon, cut into strips
50g butter
2 garlic cloves, chopped
450g good quality sausage meat
140g fresh white or brown breadcrumbs
2tbsp chopped fresh parsley
½ tsp chopped fresh thyme leaves
140g peeled cooked chestnuts, roughly chopped
1 medium egg, lightly beaten
salt and pepper to season.

Soak the cranberries in the port for an hour. Fry the onion and bacon gently in the butter, until the onion is tender, and the bacon is cooked. Add the garlic and fry for another minute or so.
Remove from heat and cool, then mix with the remaining ingredients, including the cranberries and port, adding enough egg to bind – hands are easiest for this. (To check the seasoning fry a knob of stuffing in a little butter, taste and adjust if necessary.)
Use to stuff the neck end of a turkey, or shape into 1&1/2 inch round balls. To cook the stuffing balls, half an hour before the end of the turkey’s cooking time, put them into the tin around the turkey, or cook them in a separate oiled tin.

I got this from 101 Christmas Dishes and I made it to go with Christmas dinner. I’ve always had a bit of thing about British stuffing. It’s very different from American stuffing, and the stuffing was always my all time favorite part of holiday dinners. I decided that this year I was going to open my mind to the concept of British stuffing. I looked into it a bit, and I picked out this recipe. I think it was the port soaked cranberries that put it over the top.

The thing that I realized is that British stuffing is sort of like a cross between stuffing and meatballs, whereas American stuffing is more like a savory bread pudding type food. Nothing wrong with either of those.

This recipe totally and completely changed my mind about this food. I love it. These stuffing balls were so good it was amazing. The cranberries soaked in port were as good as I had hoped, and the chestnuts added such a wonderful flavor and texture.

I thought it was strange that there is no mention in the recipe of what temperature to cook them at. I was a little worried because I was using a fairly low oven for the ham I was making (170c). I left them in for a slightly longer time because of that. It worked out fine. They were perfect and moist and delicious, and I will never say a bad word about British stuffing again.

By the way, I realize that it may be a bit redundant to make pork stuffing to go with a ham, but I had to try it anyway. I couldn’t do a holiday meal with no stuffing.

Blackened Pork chops with mango salsa

1tbsp chili powder
½ tsp salt
½ tsp sugar
2tbsp olive oil
2 thick cut pork chops
1 large mango, diced
2 limes, 1 juiced, 1 halved
1 large tomato, diced
handful of coriander leaves, chopped
Rocket to serve

Mix the chili powder, salt and sugar with the olive oil, and rub on both sides of the chops.
Cook the pork chops for 2 min on each side on a griddle or in a frying pan, then turn down the heat, and cook about 5 minutes more, turning once. Griddle the lime halves till caramelized.
For the salsa, mix the mango, lime juice, tomato and coriander, and season with salt.
Serve with the griddled lime halves, some salsa, and rocket.

So easy and fast. It’s short on cooking time and prep time too. Ideal for last minute, or after work cooking.

I forgot to pick up a tomato, so instead of mango salsa, we really had herbed mango. Still the combination of coriander, lime, and mango, was nothing to scoff at. As a matter of fact, my youngest son had a whole bowl of it.

This was delicious. As always, I cannot resist good pork chops, or the lime and coriander combination, so this was perfect for me. I got it from 101 Global Dishes. I’ve been using these 101 books a lot. I just got a whole set of them, and they are cute and fun, and their recipes tend to be fairly simple, because they have to fit into that tiny little format. Some of them are better then others, but all in all I find them to be much better then I expected them to be.

This was definitely a winner.

Clementine Pork Steaks

2tbsp sunflower oil
4 lean pork steaks, about 100g each
200g mushrooms, sliced
2tsp paprika
2tbsp red currant jelly
50ml Clementine juice (from about 2 clementines)
1tbsp red wine vinegar

Heat 1 tbsp of oil in the pan, add the pork steaks and fry quickly until browned on both sides (the steaks will still be underdone in the middle at this point. Remove from the pan, add the remaining oil, then fry the mushrooms till softened.
Return the pork to the pan, sprinkle in the paprika and stir in the redcurrant jelly and Clementine juice. Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the jelly. Simmer for about 5 min, turning the pork halfway through, until the meat and mushrooms are tender.

I found this in Good Food Magazine.

Notice, the red wine vinegar is never actually mentioned in the preparation. Just in the ingredient list. I figured that must have been some kind of misprint, so I went ahead and added it with the jelly and juice.

This was very nice. We were out and I wasn’t sure what I was making, but I had this magazine with me, so I picked this out, so I could get what I needed on the way home. This was exactly what I wanted, it was quick, it was easy, and it was tasty.

pork chops with mustard sauce

2 pork chops
2tsp garlic oil
125ml cider
1 Tbsp grainy mustard
75ml double cream
bag of gnocchi, prepared according to package

Cut the fat or rind off the chops, and then bash them briefly, but brutally with a rolling pin between two pieces of cling film to make them thinner.
Heat the oil in a heavy based saucepan and cook the chops over moderately high heat for about 5 min per side. Remove them to a warmed plate.
Pour the cider into the pan, still over the heat, to de-glaze the pan. Let it bubble away for a minute or so, then add the mustard and stir in the cream.
Let the sauce continue cooking for a few minutes before pouring over each plated pork chop. If you’re having gnocchi with it, make sure you turn them in the pan to absorb any spare juices before adding them to your plates.

This sounded like it was going to be my favorite thing in the world, but it’s not. It was ok, and it was super fast, and sometimes that’s what you’re looking for. So it was fine, but I was hoping for more from it.

I found it in Nigella Express. I’m unsure about this book. A few of the recipes from it have been super amazing and wonderful, but then others have been downright disappointing. It’s hit or miss, which is odd because usually I really love her stuff. She’s still one of my favorites, but I think that the emphasis on express in this book wound up hurting it a bit .

Toad in the Hole

A pack of sausages
125g plain flour
¼ tsp salt
A few twists of black pepper
2 medium eggs
1egg yolk
150ml milk
150ml water

Gravy (Stock reduction)
500ml good quality stock
¼ bottle of red wine

Put all of the batter ingredients into a food processor, with the plunger removed to help with aeration, and pulse for about five 10 second bursts until you have a smooth batter the consistency of single cream. Leave the batter to rest for at least 30 min before using.
If you are making gravy, add the wine to the stock and boil hard to reduce it to an intensely flavored sauce with a light syrupy consistency. Season with salt only at the end.

Pour 1tbsp of oil into a roasting tin or flameproof dish and place in the center of a hot oven 220c, to heat through for about 10 min. Then add the sausages, and cook them in the oven for a few minutes. Turn them browned side up, and push them around so they are relatively evenly spaced in the tin, pour the batter around and return to the oven for at least 15 min, probably not more then 20, until the batter is puffed up and a nice golden brown.

I’ve been meaning to make this for ages. Yorkshire pudding, all around sausage, what could be better? There are a hundred million recipes for this out there, I wound up using the one from The River Cottage Meat Book. Although, it’s not really the recipe as it’s written, because that called for a variety of meats, but other then that it’s the same.

Speaking of the meats involved. Cookbad was mentioning that she made this once, only it called for meatballs instead of sausage. It makes much more sense if you think about it, because little meatballs sticking out of the batter would look much more like toads in holes then sausages do.

Still, whether it looked like toads or not, it was damn tasty, and I’d make it again.

Make sure you don’t open the oven till it’s time to check if it’s done. The batter can get a bit fussy and fall if it gets a breeze from an open oven door while it’s puffing.

Other then that, this is super easy, very tasty, and kids love it.

Chorizo and pork belly with haricot beans

750g Boneless pork belly
Olive oil
130g diced pancetta
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
1tsp hot smoked paprika
200g chorizo, roughly chopped
400g tin chopped tomatoes
150ml red wine
400g tin Haricot, or cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
a bunch of coriander leaves, roughly chopped

Heat the oven to 160c. Cut the pork belly into large chunks. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large oven proof casserole and fry the pork in batches over a high heat until browned all over, then remove with a slotted spoon.
Add the pancetta and cook for 2-3 min till golden, then reduce the heat slightly, and add the onion and garlic. Cook for 2-3 min till softened. Stir in the paprika and chorizo and cook for a minute or so. Return the pork to the pan and tip in the tomatoes. Pour in the mine with enough water just to cover – about 350ml. Season, cover and cook in the oven for 2 hours.
Stir in the haricot beans and return to the oven, without the lid, for 20-30 minutes. Stir in the coriander and serve with crusty bread.

This was so good. This was so very very good. This was so tasty that my husband asked if we could please have this for dinner for a week at least. I have to admit, I have a weakness for anything flavored by smoked paprika, and anything with chorizo too, so this dish was made for me.

I found it in a small book called 101 Global Dishes. These books are fun. It’s a whole series, and they are all really tiny, and I’ve found some good stuff in them.

This was easy to make. It takes a while, but it’s all oven time, the work of it is really easy and all up front. Once you pop it in the oven, you can just go about your business.

I can’t say enough good things about this one. I am going to make some non-dinner recipes in the near future, so that I can make this one over and over again.

Do serve it with crusty bread too.

Ham And Brie Pie with a walnut and honey crust

So I invented a pie the other day and it came out really amazingly well. I was extra pleased with it. I got the idea from the movie “Waitress”, one of her pies was a brie and ham pie, but that was about all I could remember about it, so I decided to get creative.

I don’t have the exact measurements for some of the ingredients because I was just making it up, but I made a walnut and honey pie crust. I used 150g flour, 75g of butter and a few handfuls of walnuts, chopped super small in the food processor, but not totally to powder. And a few squeezes of honey. Oh, and an egg yolk. Mixed together in the usual fashion, butter rubbed into flour, then walnuts and honey mixed in, and the egg yolk and a Tbsp or so of water to bring it all together. Roll out into the pie shell and leave in the fridge to chill for about an hour. Some people say to rest the dough in the fridge in a ball and then roll it out, but others say to roll it out first, then rest it. I prefer the latter, because it’s just a bit easier to roll that way, besides, I like how the perfect pie case looks coming out of the fridge.
I also blind baked the shell, but I’m not entirely sure that was necessary.

For the filling I lined the bottom with slices of brie, and then sprinkled over a layer of diced cooked ham, and then mixed up 5 eggs with some cream and 2 tsp of Dijon mustard, seasoned with some salt and pepper, and poured it over the ham and cheese. Baked at 180 for about 40 min. I would start checking at 30, but be prepared to go to 45 or 50.

It was really tasty. It had a honey mustard feel to it that went well with the ham and the brie, and the walnuts really tied it all together. The boys liked it too, it was clean plates all around.

It was also really good cold the next day for lunch. I would make this again. I bet it would be great in the summer as a cold picnic pie.

Pork and pepper goulash

2kg pork shoulder off the bone, in one piece, skin off, fat left on
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil
2 red onions, peeled and finely sliced
2 fresh red chilies, deseeded and finely chopped
2 generously heaped Tbsp mild smoked paprika, plus a little extra for serving
2tsp ground caraway seeds
a small bunch of fresh marjoram or oregano, leaves picked
5 peppers, use a mixture of colors
1X280g jar of grilled peppers, drained peeled and chopped
1x400g tin of good quality plum tomatoes
4tbsp red wine vinegar
400g basmati rice, or long grain rice, washed
1x142ml pot of soured cream
Zest of 1 lemon
A small bunch of fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped

Preheat to 180. Get yourself a deep, ovenproof stew pot with a lid and heat it on the hob. Score the fat on the pork in a criss cross pattern all the way through to the meat, then season generously with salt and pepper. Pour a good glug of olive oil into the pot and add the pork, fat side down. Cook for about 15 min on medium heat, to render out the fat, then remove the pork from the pot and put it to one side.
Add the onions, chili, paprika, caraway seeds, marjoram, or oregano, and a good pinch of salt and pepper to the pot. Turn the heat down and gently cook the onions for 10 min. Then add the sliced peppers, the grilled peppers, and the tomatoes. Put the pork back into the pot, give everything a little shake, then pour in enough water to just cover the meat. Add the vinegar. Bring to a boil, put the lid on and place in the preheated oven for 3 hours.
You’ll know when the meat is cooked as it will be tender and sticky , and it will break up easily when pulled apart with two forks. If it’s not quite there yet, put it back in a while longer.
When the meat is nearly ready, cook the rice in salted, boiling water for 10 min until it’s just undercooked, then drain in a colander reserving some of the cooking water and pouring it back into the pan. Place the colander over the pan on a low heat and put a lid on. Leave to steam dry and cook through for 10 min. This will make the rice lovely and fluffy.
Stir the soured cream, lemon zest and most of the parsley together in a little bowl. When the meat is done, season to taste, break up the meat and serve with the rice and the flavored soured cream, and sprinkled with the parsley.

I have made various different dishes that involved pork and peppers in the past, but this was by far the best. It came from Jamie at Home.

I think that what really does it, is the combination of the paprika, the regular peppers, the chilli peppers, and then the grilled peppers. All the different strengths of peppers are highlighted, and it gives an amazingly well rounded pepper experience.

Also, any time you read that you’ll know when the pork is done because it breaks up easily with a fork, you know you are making something good.

I skipped the rice and served this with some egg noodles. I’m not sure why, but it worked really well.

It’s one of those dishes that takes a long time to cook, but all of the work is up front, then you just go about your business while it sits in the oven. Great for a weekend feast! Try this!

Hot and Sour Rhubarb and crispy pork with noodles

1kg Pork belly, boned, rind removed, cut into 3-4 cm cubes
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Groundnut or vegetable oil
375g medium egg noodles
4 spring onions, trimmed and finely sliced
1 fresh red chili, deseeded and finely sliced
2 punnets of interesting cresses (such as coriander, shiso, or basil cress)
a bunch of coriander
2 limes

For the Marinade:
400g rhubarb
4Tbsp runny honey
4 Tbsp soy sauce
4 garlic cloves, peeled
2 fresh chillies, halved and deseeded
1 heaped tsp five spice
a thumb sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped

Preheat to 180c/350f
Place the pork pieces in a roasting tray and put to one side. Chuck all the marinade ingredients into a food processor and pulse until you have a smooth paste, then pour this all over the pork, adding a large wine glass of water. Mix it all up, then tightly cover the tray with tin foil and place in the preheated oven for about an hour and thirty minutes.

Pick the pieces of pork out of the pan and put to one side. The sauce left in the pan will be tasty and pretty much perfect, but if you feel it needs to be thickened slightly, simmer on a gentle heat for a bit until it is reduced to the consistency of ketchup. Season to taste, adding extra soy sauce if necessary, and put to one side.

Put a pan of salted water on to boil.
Add a good drizzle of oil to a pan or wok. Add your pieces of pork to the wok and fry for a few minutes till crisp and golden. You might need to do this in two batches. At the same time, drop your noodles into boiling water and cook for a few minutes, then drain most of the water away. Divide the noodles into four warmed bowls immediately, while they are still moist.

To finish, spoon over a good amount of the rhubarb sauce. Divide the crispy pork on top, and add a good sprinkling of spring onions, chili, cresses and coriander. Serve with half a lime each.

I had to try this one because I don’t think I’ve ever seen a rhubarb recipe that wasn’t a dessert before. Rhubarb is so much fun to have around, it’s so pretty and I always believed that there should be other uses for it. It was also my first opportunity to use my brand new meat cleaver. I’m very excited to have one. I’ve been thinking about getting one for a while, and I found one at a good price. It’s really a lot more helpful then I thought it would be, I love it.

So this recipe is from Jamie at Home. It’s not the lowest maintenance recipe in the world, but it is totally worth it. This is so good! The use of rhubarb here is really wonderfully creative. It is all pureed into the sauce, so you don’t see it anywhere, but it adds the greatest tangy-ness to it. The mix of flavors is really amazing. This was my husband’s favorite out of all the Chinese or Chinese style dishes that I’ve made. It’s the tail end of the rhubarb season right now as far as I can tell, but every time it comes back in season, I’ll be pulling out this recipe. I may even grow some myself.

I did the final steps of pulling out the pieces of pork and frying them and reducing the sauce, and it really did add a nice finishing touch, but I think it would be worth trying it without those steps if, like me, those moments right before dinner are a little hectic. Also, I had no interesting cress. I can’t really get that. It would have been nice, but omitting it is not going to kill the dish by any stretch of the imagination.

Maple Chicken ‘n’ Ribs

12 pork spare ribs
12 chicken thighs
250ml apple juice, as sharp as possible
4 Tbsp maple syrup
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 star anise
1 cinnamon stick, halved
6 cloves garlic, unpeeled

Put the meat into large freezer bags or into a dish.
Add the remaining ingredients, squelching everything together well before sealing the bag, or covering the dish.
Leave to marinate in the fridge overnight or up to two days
When it comes time to cook them, preheat to 200c. Pour everything out into one or two large roasting tins, making sure the chicken is skin side up. Place in the oven and cook for about an hour and a quarter.

These were another super easy prep in advance virtually nothing to do on the day of recipe. I tried it because it looked easy and good and I’m always looking for another good sticky sauce for ribs. Also I liked the idea of chicken and ribs all in the same tray. No extra work, but more selection.

These were as dead easy to make as it looked, and the sauce came out wonderfully sticky and flavorful. All good.

Thanks Nigella Express.

Pork and Balsamic Potatoes

I'm listing this under vegetables too, because the potatoes are cooked totally seperately, and they are so good that everyone should try them.



1.5kg medium sized waxy potatoes, peeled and quartered lengthwise
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
olive oil
200g butter, cubed
a bunch of fresh rosemary, leaves picked and chopped
1 whole bulb of garlic, quartered or smashed
5 medium red onions, peeled and quartered
350ml cheap balsamic vinegar

For the pork:
A small bunch of fresh rosemary, leaves picked and finely chopped
2 Tbsp freshly ground fennel seeds
1.5kg Boneless rolled pork lion, skin off, fat scored in a criss cross pattern
olive oil
6 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 medium red onion, peeled and quartered
2 sticks of celery, trimmed and chopped
4 bay leaves
2 wine glasses of white wine
extra virgin olive oil

preheat to 200c
Put the potatoes into a pan of boiling salted water and cook for about 8 min, then drain and return to the pan. Chuff them up a bit by shaking the pan.
To prepare the meat, scatter the rosemary leaves over a large chopping board. Sprinkle over some salt and pepper and the ground fennel seeds. Roll the pork across the board, pressing down hard so all the flavorings stick to it.
Get a large roasting tray that your pork will fit snugly into, and place it over medium high heat, pour in a little olive oil and place the pork in, fat side down, sprinkled with any leftover flavorings from the board. After a few minutes, when it is lightly golden, turn it over and add the garlic cloves, onion, celery, and bay leaves. Place on the bottom shelf of the preheated oven for an hour, basting it halfway through. (For the last 20 min, you may need to cover the pork with a bit of damp greaseproof paper to stop it coloring too much.
Get another roasting tray, into which you can fit all the potatoes on one layer, and heat it on the hob. When hot, pour in a glug of olive oil and add the butter rosemary and garlic. Add the potatoes and toss them in all the flavors. Add the onions and all the balsamic vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Cook for 5 min on the hob to reduce the balsamic vinegar a little. Place the tray on the top shelf of the oven and cook for around 50 min, removing the tray to toss the onions and potatoes half way through.
After an hour the meat should be cooked. Prick it with a sharp knife, and if the juices run clear, it’s done, if not then put it back in for another 10 –15 min. Let it rest for 10 min before slicing. Pour away most of the fat from the tray, and mask up the garlic and onion. Place the tray over the hob and add the white wine. Simmer till the liquid has reduced by half, scraping all the meaty marmite-y goodness off the bottom to make a tasty little sauce, season if necessary.

This is from the new Jamie Book, Jamie at Home. I wanted to try it as soon as I saw it in the book, but I put it off a bit, then I saw him make it on his tv show, and I had to make it the very next day. It’s the idea of red onions, potatoes, and a half a ton of balsamic vinegar roasted together. What a good idea.

These were just as good as I hoped they would be. They smelled wonderful, they looked wonderful, they tasted incredible, and they were all coated in sticky balsamic loveliness. My husband decided they were his favorite potatoes ever.

The pork was really good too. It came out nicely spiced, and really tender. I enjoyed the pork a lot, but I love the potatoes. I will make these again, any time I find something they might work well with.

It was also really easy to make. I don’t have a roasting tin that can go on the stove top, and also in the oven, so I used the trick of heating up the roasting pan in the oven, while I cooked the vegetables in a frying pan. When it came time to transfer them to the oven, I just poured them into the pre-heated pan. That was fun, because it bubbled up and smelled nice. I use that trick anytime I’m supposed to have a tray that does both.

Try this recipe! Even if you don't eat pork, try these potatoes!

Aubergine Box

2 medium Aubergines, peeled unless you have found very beautiful ones
For the stuffing:
300g minced pork
2 spring onions, washed, cut into strips, then finely chopped
2.5tso finely chopped ginger
1tsp rice wine
3 pinches of sea salt
1dssp light soy sauce
1dssp cornflour
1 egg white
Seasoning:
Light soy sauce
Chinese cooking rice wine
White caster sugar
Warm water from the kettle
1 spring onion, washed and finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped

First make the stuffing. Mix the pork, 2 of the chopped spring onions, and the chopped ginger together very thoroughly in a bowl. Add the following ingredients, one by one: Rice wine, sea salt, soy sauce, cornflour. Next add the egg white and mix again thoroughly.

Peel the eggplants. Begin to cut a circular slice about 1/4 inch thick, but don’t slice all the way through. Next, make another round slice about 1/4 inch thick, but do slice all the way through. Now you have a half inch slice, that opens up, but is still held together on one end. Do this with all of the Aubergine. Put a heaped tsp of stuffing into each “box”, flattening the mixture evenly like butter. Close the box, and put them on a plate, ready for cooking.
Turn the heat up to high, and heat the wok till it’s hot. Add 2tbsp oil and turn the heat down to medium high. When the oil is hot, add the aubergine boxes, as many as will fit in one layer. After 1-2 minutes the boxes should be brown and toasted on the bottom. Remove from the wok and add 2 more tbsp oil. Cook for another 2-3 minutes on the other side, till brown and soft. Cook them all this way, one layer at a time. Then turn the heat to low, and put all the aubergines back in the wok. Add the soy sauce, rice wine, sugar and 2tbsp warm water from the kettle. Allow the ingredients to simmer on a medium low heat for 5 minutes. Add the remaining spring onion, and the garlic and continue to simmer. Add one more Tbsp water and cover the wok with a lid and simmer for 2 more minutes.


These were actually incredibly easy to make. The cutting and stuffing was no problem at all, and I made them a bit in advance and left them in the fridge till I needed them. That was also no problem. I only did it about an hour before cooking them, but in the future I would feel confident assembling them in the morning and cooking them in the evening if need be. The cooking took very little time start to finish. I had to start with two batches, but they all fit into one pan for the final stages of cooking.

I cannot say enough good things about these, they were wonderful. The flavor and the texture all came out perfect. I saw another version of this recipe in another book, where they made these, and then dipped them in batter and deep fried them. I may try that too someday, but I don’t know, it would be hard to pass up a chance to make them this way. I will make these again and again.

I got this recipe from an odd book. It is a memoir called Music, Food and Love. It’s this man’s story about growing up in China, and being a musician, and then in the back, he also has a collection of recipes from his childhood. Cool book. This recipe rocked!

Chinese Pork Dumplings

170g flour
90 ml cold water
110g minced pork
15 tiger prawns, peeled and deheaded
1 spring onion finely chopped
1 small piece of ginger finely chopped
light soy sauce
sea salt
Chinese cooking rice wine
1 egg, beaten
Sesame seed oil
A handful of fresh coriander, finely chopped

To make the dough, put the flour into a bowl and make a well in the center, then begin to drizzle cold water into the well, a little at a time, stirring with chopsticks around the edge of the well to incorporate the flour and form little lumps. Continue to drizzle the water where ever the flour is still dry, stirring till a dough begins to form. Knead with your hands till you have a piece of round smooth dough. Leave to rest for 20-30 min.
Take a piece of dough, about the size of a mini bread roll, and knead it again, turning and folding it. Then using a wooden rolling pin, roll your dough as thin as paper, into a round shape. Cut into strips, then into triangles. You need to think in terms of making 6-10 little dumplings for each person, so make as many as you need.

To make the stuffing chop the prawns and pork together very very finely, and mix with the spring onion and ginger. Add a little soy sauce, a few pinches of sea salt, a few drops of rice wine and one beaten egg, and mix well.

To make the dumplings: Taking a little of the stuffing mixture, place it towards one corner of a triangle and fold that corner over to cover the mixture. Then fold again in the same direction, so that you can’t see the mixture except through the ends of this little roll. Then, holding your thumbs a third of the way along from either end, twist and turn up, joining the two remaining corners.

To cook: Boil for 3-4 minutes, and serve with some chopped spring onion, a few drops of sesame seed oil and a drizzle of light soy sauce.


These are also from the book Music, Food and Love. First I will say that the dumplings tasted absolutely gorgeous. They were so good that my son has been asking me to make them again at every meal since. So no kidding, they are tasty. That said, I have some issues with the way the recipe is written.

I would only recommend following this recipe, if you have a good amount of confidence in dumpling making. Otherwise, find another recipe that explains things better, and then use this filling mixture.

First is the dough. It’s no problem to make, but it makes a tiny tiny little ball of dough. Really small. It also doesn’t really specify what size each dumpling skin should be, so you are stuck with a tiny small dough, and no idea how far you should stretch it. The skins have to be big enough that the filling doesn’t stick out, or they won’t stand up to the boiling, so they can’t be too small, but if they are too big, you’ll only get a few dumplings out of it.

Then the making of the dumplings… I typed it up just as it is in the book. If you can understand how that’s supposed to work, you have better spatial reasoning skills then I do.

Still, I enjoy wrapping things in dough, so I just made them as small as I could and still manage, and I sealed them up any way I could. I cooked them slightly longer, in case I had made them too big, and changed the cooking time, but after 5 min they were totally and completely done.

Very challenging, but still fun, and in the end we got to eat many tasty tiny dumplings that I loved!

Aromatic Pork Belly Hot Pot

1.5kg Pork belly, with the rind on
About 1.5 liters Pork or chicken stock, if available, otherwise water
12 spring onions
100ml light soy sauce
75ml Chinese rice wine
25ml rice wine vinegar
2tbsp soft light brown sugar
3 star anise
10cm piece of fresh ginger root, peeled and sliced into rounds
a good pinch of dried chili flakes

Remove the bones from the pork belly and cut into rectangular chunks, about 2.5x5cm. Put them in a large pan, pour over enough boiling water just to cover, then bring back to the boil. Simmer gently for about 5 min, skimming off the scum that rises to the surface, then drain through a colander. Rinse out the pan if necessary, return the pork to it and pour over enough boiling stock or water to cover it again. Cut 5 of the spring onions in half and add to the pan with the soy sauce, rice wine, vinegar, sugar, star anise, ginger and chili flakes. Stir well and bring back to the boil. Reduce heat, cover tightly and simmer very slowly for about 2 hours, turning the meat occasionally, until the pork is very tender, soft and succulent.
Remove the pork with a slotted spoon and set aside. Strain the cooking liquid into a clean pan, skim off as much fat as you can (but don’t worry about leaving a little), then boil the stock hard to reduce and concentrate the flavors. It should be lightly syrupy and intensely aromatic, but don’t over reduce as the soy sauce could make it too salty.
Meanwhile, thinly slice the remaining spring onions on the diagonal. Return the pork to the sauce and heat through. Serve over plain noodles in warmed soup bowls, with plenty of the broth ladled over and the sliced spring onions scattered on top of the meat.

This was from The River Cottage Meat Book which I am absolutely and totally in love with right now.

I had great fun with this recipe. I had never bought belly pork before, so I asked my butcher what exactly it looks like, so I could decide if I wanted it or not. He disappeared into the back, and the reemerged with what looked like the whole bottom of a pig. It was still vaguely pig shaped. It was really cool to see exactly what I was getting. I would recommend going to a good butcher for this, they’ll be able to help you out. I got to see the whole chunk of meat that I wanted, and then he boned it and cut it up for me too because it’s a bit of a job when the meat still has the rind on. My knives aren’t that good.

The actual cooking was super easy. It takes awhile, but doesn’t require all that much effort. I used about 2 liters of liquid for the long cooking (I had to in order to cover the meat), half good chicken stock, and half water. This wound up being a good mix, the concentrated broth wasn’t too strong, just really beautifully aromatic, just like it said, and very tasty. The flavors of the spices really came through.

Anyone who has seen belly pork knows that this is about as far from a low fat dish as you can get, but do try this. It’s soooo good! I love it. It’s a fairly authentic Chinese dish from what I understand, and it looks like it is probably the dish that was bastardized in order to create the modern monstrosity of pot noodles.

It’s noodles, it’s seriously good soup, and it’s huge chunks of meat. As you would expect, everyone loved it.

Sunday pot roast

1kg piece boneless and skinless pork loin
2 tsp dried sage
freshly ground black pepper
2 large onions, each cut into 6 pieces
500g sweet potatoes, cut into chunks
500g chantenay carrots, scrubbed, or large carrots, cut into chunks
300ml unsweetened apple juice
2 dessert apples, cored and each cut into 6 wedges
400g fine green beans, cooked

Preheat to 190c. Wipe the meat then sprinkle the surface of the fat with half the sage and season with pepper. Set it in an ovenproof casserole dish, cover and cook for 30 minutes
Add the onions, sweet potatoes, carrots, apple juice and the rest of the sage and return to the oven for 45 minutes until the vegetables are almost tender.
Add the apple wedges and return to the oven for a further 15 minutes. Test the meat with a skewer to make sure that it is cooked, then remove from the oven and leave to rest for about 15 min before carving.
Serve with the green beans.

This is another recipe from The Diabetes Weight Loss Diet.

This is a really easy one to make. It’s one of those recipes that’s basically; throw something in a pot, wait, throw something else in the pot, wait. Meals like this are great to make when you have people staying with you because even though they take a while to cook, there is no intensive labor, so you can be social the whole time.

It also came out really nicely. It was tons of food, we even had left overs without making anything extra to go with it. The pork was really sweet from the apple juice, and nicely tender too. I cut the carrots into giant size chunks so that they wouldn’t be mushy by the end. They were perfect. Also, sweet potatoes are always good and fun.

This was a nice and easy alternative to a traditional pot roast. Everybody enjoyed it.

Sausage and Mushroom Roast With stilton stuffed potatoes

600g medium new, or waxy potatoes, scrubbed
sea salt and black pepper
extra virgin olive oil
75g stilton
8 pork sausages
5 bay leaves
a handful of thyme sprigs
8 portobello, or other flat capped mushrooms, stalks trimmed
25g unsalted butter
Flat leaf parsley, coarsely chopped.

The potatoes should be roasted and stuffed in advance, and then reheated. Set the oven to 200c and bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Add the potatoes to the pan and cook for 8 min, then drain them into a colander. Tip them into a roasting dish that holds them snugly, drizzle over with a little olive oil, season with salt and bake for 40-45 min, until lightly golden. Remove and leave to cool.
Cut a slit in each potato, to within 1cm of the ends, and fill with a sliver of cheese.
Heat oven to 200, arrange the sausages in a large roasting dish and then cook in the oven for 20 min.
Take out of the oven, turn the sausages and place the bay thyme and mushrooms in between them. Drizzle over some olive oil, season and pop a sliver of butter into each mushroom cup. Return to the oven for another 25 min, adding the potatoes and reheating for the last 10 minutes. Serve scattered with the parsley.

So I found my good local butcher. It took me a while to find him because I only recently started driving, then last week a friend (same one that told me about rivernene , if your reading this, thank you!) told me about this place. They butcher their own meat from what I understand, and every Wednesday they make a whole selection of specialty sausages. How cool is that?

It’s totally worth finding a good butcher. The quality of the meat is so much better, and it will probably be locally sourced (reducing the food miles), and they can answer all kinds of questions for you. I’m very fond of them already.

I made this recipe from The Country Cook, for two reasons. Firstly, there is the fact that this cookbook rocks. It’s so good I just can’t get enough of it right now. Secondly, I love sausages, but don’t know too many different things you can do with them. I liked the look of this because it is pretty simple, very different, and totally tasty looking.

It did not disappoint. This was so good I can’t believe it. My oldest son even ate the mushrooms, and he has never eaten a mushroom in his life. I could go on and on about this one, it just has to be tried. If you are pressed for time making it, it would be pretty easy to cook the potatoes in advance (I bet you could do it the night before). Then it’s really just; throw some stuff in, wait, throw some more stuff in, wait, throw in the last bit. Super easy.

I didn't use Portobellos, just big regular mushrooms, and they were still amazing. The stilton was actually pretty subtle. That was surprising.

This was a real crowd pleaser!