Category: meat recipes

Categories
pork red cabbage rice

roast pork belly with asian slaw and pickled lemon rice

pork belly

My daughter’s been learning to ‘magpie’ her writing at school. It’s a cute way to summarise: if you read something that you like, a turn of phrase that’s cool, or a way of describing in an interesting way, borrow it – magpie it. Just like the bird, take something you like and stitch it into something else to make it your own. I really like the concept.

Just as it should be in cooking. This recipe is a version of Jamie Oliver rice, some pork marinade of my own and a vegetable salad I’ve lifted from chef Adam Gray.

I was a guest of Great British Chefs where he showed us a light yet satisfying meal of grilled tuna, charred asparagus and Asian slaw. The mix of red cabbage and carrot in a sharp / sweet dressing is irresistible.

Chef Gray’s recipe was excellent, and one I’ve made several times since.

I’ve remixed it – magpied it – here with delicious pork belly, with a savoury rice. I’ve not used pickled lemons before but I can’t get enough of them now – seek them out!

Adam Gray’s full recipe is here.

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roast pork belly with asian slaw and pickled lemon rice

Course Main Dish
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour
Servings 2 people
Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

For the pork marinade

  • 50 ml light soy sauce
  • 50 ml xiaoshing rice wine
  • 1 tablespoon fish sauce
  • 50 ml sweet chilli sauce
  • 4 slices pork belly

For the slaw

  • 1/4 red cabbage shredded
  • 2 small carrots grated
  • 2 spring onions sliced
  • Handful coriander chopped
  • 50 ml rapeseed oil
  • 50 ml light soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1 lime zest and juice
  • sesame seeds to serve

For the rice

  • 150 g basmati rice
  • 1 pickled lemon
  • 2 cloves

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 210C. Mix all the marinade ingredients together. Lay the pork belly slices in a baking tray and cover in the marinade. Cook for 10 minutes, then cover with foil and leave to cook for another 50 minutes.
  • For the rice, add double the amount of boiling water to rice to a pan with the lemon and spice, cover and simmer for 8 - 9 minutes, or until the water has disappeared. Turn off the heat and allow to sit in the pan for a further five minutes.
  • For the slaw, combine all the ingredients in a bowl and taste for seasoning. Fluff up the rice with a fork and fish out the cloves - add salt to taste. Serve the rice in a bowl, topped with slaw and then pork belly, sprinkling over sesame seeds to finish.
Categories
food sausages

red sauce v brown sauce: we decide a winner

…Among others. It’s a classic battle for the ages. Kennedy v Nixon. Ali v Frazier. Chips or mash. But red sauce v brown sauce is far more important than any of those! Whether you prefer sweet tomato ketchup or tangy brown sauce, it’s very rare to change your mind. You have one that you settle on for life!

I’ve been inspired by Danny Baker’s sublime sausage sandwich game, where members of the public attempt to predict a celebrity’s taste in condiment. The tension rises as the music hums and we try to second-guess whether someone prefers red sauce, brown sauce or no sauce at all on their sausage sandwich. “A sandwich is brought to you, not a gourmet one cut within a thou’ of an inch, but greasy fat bangers in two slices of Mother’s Pride.”

Results are always surprising, with Danny often remarking that geography doesn’t play into it. It doesn’t play along gender lines either. In more official circles, a YouGov poll in 2011 chickened out and claimed that it was equally loved.

I wanted a more definitive answer so sought out the wisdom of the masses.

I had to ask the nation, what do you have on a delicious sausage sandwich?

I had some emphatic replies:

https://twitter.com/cardiffbites/status/875011865516142592

Naturally my crowd attract some gourmet responses. But what won overall?

The results are in!

It’s a landslide. Brown sauce is the winner!

There you have it. Brown sauce is the nation’s favourite!

When it comes to brown sauce, I always have HP Sauce in my cupboard. It’s that sweet, savoury tanginess that is such a great foil to soft, juicy sausages.

HP Brown Sauce quick facts!

  • HP Sauce is the UK’s no. 1 brown sauce, with 28 million bottles being consumed every year
  • HP sauce, the original brown sauce which has been around since 1899
  • The ingredients are combined to a closely-guarded secret recipe
  • The name “HP” comes from the rumour that the sauce was being sold in the Houses of Parliament. This is also why the Houses of Parliament appear on the bottle
  • For more information click here.

This post is sponsored by HP, but I promise you the survey results are legit! I asked Facebook fans of Big Spud, my followers on Twitter and a Google Survey that asks random people in the UK all around the Internet. 

Categories
beef

brisket beef sous vide

It’s not very fashionable in posh restaurants, but BBQ and American restaurants know it: brisket beef is a brilliant and tasty cut. And for perfect results every time, cook brisket beef sous vide.

I’m a big fan of brisket, just click the link to find more recipes I’ve already raved about. I love its loose texture but distinct flavour, the excellent gelatinous taste of the fat. So when Great British Chefs offered the opportunity to ask a question of professor of culinary arts and executive chef of Simpsons Luke Tipping specifically on meat, I had to ask about lovely brisket.

It seems the question was popular, CookSister and Karen Burns Booth asked similar things! Here’s what chef Luke had to say:

It sounded great. Frankly it would be rude not to give it a try. So in summary: brine for 5 days, sous vide for 1 day.

I didn’t have any liquid smoke to hand so I improvised a bit, but if you had that I’m sure it would be fantastic.

I was a little concerned when the meat came out of the water bath. It’d lost a lot of mass and was perhaps three quarters its original size. I needn’t have worried; it was succulent, tender and packed with meaty flavour. I planned to do exciting things with it, but the beef was so good all I did was reduce some of the juices and served it in a bun.

Oh, I also torched it up to try out my new fancy blowtorch.

A fantastic way to cook brisket and I’ll be doing it again. For more information on cooking beef brisket sous vide, I have to recommend the Serious Eats guide which is comprehensive as always, and lets you know which temperatures are suitable for shredded beef as opposed to beef that holds its shape.

Definitely keep this recipe on standby to feed a lot of people. You’ll be very popular.

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sous vide brisket beef

Course Main Dish
Cook Time 5 minutes
Total Time 11 minutes
Servings 4 people
Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

  • 500 g brisket
  • table salt for brine
  • 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
  • 1 tablespoon brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon mustard powder
  • BBQ sauce

Instructions

  • First brine the beef. Make up a 3% brine solution. The easiest way to do this is to put your beef in a container (I use a large lunchbox), cover with water and remove the beef again. Pop on the scales and weigh the container + water. Work out 3% of this (the weight multiplied by 0.03) and add that much salt. Stir well, pop the beef back in and cover. Leave for five days.
  • After five days, remove from the brine and pat dry. Preheat a water bath to 68C. Mix the sugar, paprika and mustard and rub all over the beef. Seal in a vacuum bag and cook sous vide for 24 hours.
  • After 24 hours remove the beef from the bag but reserve the liquid. Pop this liquid into a pan, pop on a high heat and reduce by half. Stir in a tablespoon of your favourite BBQ sauce (I'm digging the Tesco Louisiana at the moment)
  • Meanwhile, blowtorch the outside of your brisket to give a smoky char. Slice thickly and dunk into the sauce, before serving in a toasted bun with pickled gherkins and salad, with extra sauce on the side.

Notes

If you don't have access to a sous cide machine, you could do this in a low slow cooker for 12 hours. If you don't have a blowtorch, finish on the BBQ or in a hot pan.
Categories
mayonnaise sandwich steak

steak sandwich

It’s British Sandwich Week! If you needed an excuse to celebrate, rather than have a limp ham sarnie push the boat out and have a proper steak sandwich. Don’t just stop there: get decent bread, some onions, some mushrooms, some greenery and slap some lovely sauce on it.

In this case I used one of Heinz’s new sauces: a creamy pepper sauce. I’m a devotee of their Seriously Good mayonnaise because of it’s creamy texture and excellent flavour so I couldn’t wait to try this. The pepper sauce is smooth and lightly tangy with a definite tickle on the tongue from the pepper flavour. Works great in a steak sandwich! I also tried others in the range: creamy chive sauce (great on a jacket potato); tomato & garlic sauce (great with asparagus); and béarnaise (great with a boiled egg). Visit their website for more info.

Looking for more steak sandwiches? Try my Viking rib-eye bagel or Jan’s steak ciabatta.

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Thanks to Heinz for the samples.
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steak sandwich

Course Brunch
Cuisine English
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Servings 4 people
Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 50 g butter
  • 2 large onions finely sliced
  • 2 cloves garlic finely sliced
  • 500 g sirloin steak
  • 100 g rocket or spinach
  • 100 g chestnut mushrooms finely sliced
  • 1 baguette
  • 100 g Heinz Seriously Good Creamy Pepper Sauce

Instructions

  • Heat half the oil and the butter in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add the onions, mushrooms and garlic and cook, stirring, for about 10 mins, until golden and beginning to caramelise. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside.
  • Add the rest of the oil to the pan, and turn up the heat. Season the steaks and cook for 2-3 mins per side, or until done to your liking. Remove from the pan and leave to rest for 4-5 minutes before slicing.
  • Arrange the leaves over the halved baguette, then top with the onion and mushroom mixture followed by the steak. Spoon on the pepper sauce and sandwich together. Serve immediately.
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