Category: pork

Categories
food pomegranate pork

black bean roast pork belly

black bean roasted pork belly

If you’re a carnivore, I hope you like pork belly. When treated right, it’s dream-like: crisp, puffed-up skin that crunches to the tooth; the layer of creamy, wibbly fat; and the tender, succulent flesh. Here I’ve chosen to coat it with black bean sauce to amp up the savoury notes. Read on for the recipe.

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I was spurred on to try this by the good folk at Amoy, given that I’m on the crest of an Asian wave right now hearing from them couldn’t be more timely. They sent me some of their soy sauces (the lemongrass and kaffir lime one is delicious), as well as stir fry sauces such as black bean (more on this later) hoi sin and others.

They also sent me some of their dinner kits: all the complicated bits of some meals ready to cook, adding meat, fish and/or vegetables to complete. They’re pretty much bung-in-a-pan-and-fry I tried all of them and they varied from OK to really tasty. The laksa was an interesting meal but tasted more like satay, not the warming, meaty broth I’m used to. The nasi goreng however was triumphant, a really enjoyable rice dish with a fragrant spice. They retail at £2.99 which I found about 50p to £1 too much, but querying it with friends who would regularly buy these products thought that reasonable.

Thai green curry
nasi goreng

Back to the pork. I thought it would be a good idea to coat the pork in black bean sauce, and I wasn’t wrong. Deglazing the pan with pomegranate juice gives you a sticky sweet-savoury sauce for dipping and pouring.

Find more Amoy Asian flavours at Utterly Scrummy.

Here’s a very detailed roast pork belly article from Greedy Gourmet.

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black bean roast pork belly

Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

  • 1.5 kg pork belly
  • 2 sachets Amoy black bean sauce
  • 2 red onions halved
  • 500 ml pomegranate juice

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 220C.
  • Get the pork belly in a roasting dish and score the skin. Pour over a sachet of the black bean sauce. Rub sea salt into the scorelines and pop the onion halves around the meat. Roast for 20 minutes.
  • Turn down the heat to 160C and add the other sachet of sauce. Cook for another hour or until the pork reaches 65C when tested with a thermometer.
  • Remove the pork to the side and cover to rest. Put the roasting tray on top of a hob and add the pomegranate juice. Bring to the boil and reduce by half. Serve the pork in thick slices with the dipping sauce on the side to drizzle over. Serve with potato wedges dusted with five-spice.
  • TIP: if the skin isn't as crisp as you'd like, use a long knife to separate from the flesh and puff up under a screaming hot grill.
Categories
bacon bread egg food mushroom

fry up in a cup

I do love a full English, but obviously isn’t something you can indulge in too often, so here’s another way to get your bacon-mushroom-toast-egg fix. You just need some little ramekins, darioles or if you’re not middle-class, teacups. I call it a fry-up-in-a-cup!

The mushrooms and bacon require a tiny bit of pre-cooking to get them started, but after that you stuff everything into a cup and bake it. Bread at the bottom forms a little base, and bacon creates a wall around the outside. Should take less than 20 minutes start to finish, and half of that is just leaving it in the pot to bake.

This would also be a good one to wrap up and take with you. If you bake the egg a little over the whole thing should go solid, leaving you with the most savoury of ‘muffins’.

You could make a few interesting substitutions here I bet – a small layer of baked beans would be interesting (despite being my least favourite food), and a pinch of  oregano or paprika would take it into another direction. Give it a whirl!

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fry up in a cup

Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

  • 1 slice of bread
  • 4 rashers smoked bacon
  • 4 chestnut mushrooms diced
  • 2 eggs

Instructions

  • Preheat your oven to 180C, and put a frying pan over a medium heat.
  • Add the bacon to the pan and cook gently until just starting to colour. Remove and pop the mushrooms in instead.
  • While the mushrooms cook down, using a pastry cutter or an upturned glass cut out discs of bread to put in the bottom of your moulds. Bend the rashers around the inside of the mould to form the wall of your breakfasty pot. Season the mushrooms and add to the bread. Crack an egg on top and bake for 7 - 10 minutes, until the egg is cooked to your liking. Either eat out of the cup or scoop out if you dare.

Want some more alternative breakfasts? Try one of these…

CakeyBoi’s Elvis Breakfast Muffins are hilarious. I love ’em.

Or for something perhaps a little more healthsome may I suggest vegan breakfast pancakes?

These Scottish Tattie Scones will work alongside any cooked breakfast. And, y’know, potatoes.

Let’s BAM it up a notch, with Kavey’s bacon pancakes.

And finally here’s a stunner: Helen’s Full English Tarte Tatin. Brilliant stuff.

Categories
food lamb pork rosemary stock thyme tomato

slow cooked pork and lamb ragu

I had a great big clear out of the freezer and unearthed heaps of lamb and pork. Great big lamb shanks and chunks of pork all solid as rock and crying to be used up. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to make a slow cooked pork and lamb ragu. Kinda traditional style, but I used a few Knorr flavour pots to kick things along. If you don’t have stock pots, add about 6 cloves of crushed garlic and a tablespoon of dried Italian herbs such as oregano, basil, or parsley. I didn’t even have an onion in the house so I didn’t bother.

After a brief sear I pretty much chucked everything in a pot and left it to cook on a low oven for 14 hours. I would’ve used my slow cooker but it wasn’t big enough! Step forward my largest Le Creuset casserole dish to house the meat mound.

The rich meaty smell filled the house, the kind of smell that drives everyone mad with hunger, the kind of smell that brings people in off the street to investigate.

Happily there was some cheese and broccoli bake in the freezer too to make a mean topping. A bit like a shapeless lasagne al forno.

I could eat this sort of stew all day. Thankfully it made buckets of the stuff so much of it returned to the freezer for another day! You don’t have to make the absurd quantities I have. Scale it down to sensible proportions as required and you’ll have all the pork and lamb ragu you need. Make sure that pasta’s al dente and you add back to the sauce to combine for the last minute or so.

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slow cooked pork and lamb ragu

Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

  • 4 lamb shanks
  • 8 pork osso buco
  • 1 sprig rosemary
  • 1 sprig thyme
  • 4 tins tomatoes
  • 1 litre beef stock
  • 1 Knorr garlic flavour pot
  • 1 Knorr mixed herbs flavour pot
  • 2 tablespoons good quality balsamic vinegar

Instructions

  • Set the oven to 100C. Get a (very) large casserole dish over a high heat. Season the meat on all sides and brown in batches, removing to one side. When all the meat has been seared, return the meat to the pan with all the other ingredients. Bring to the boil and then transfer to the oven. Cook for 14 hours, or until the meats can be pushed apart with a spoon. Shred the meat and serve with pasta.

Want more slow-cooked lamb? Check out Nazima’s pulled lamb. Mouthwatering!

Or maybe Jeanne’s oxtail ragu. Immense!

Perhaps Helen’s more traditional beef ragu is up your street? Delicious!

Leftover ragu? Try Kavey’s recipe for stuffed courgettes. Brilliant!

Categories
cheese food polenta pork tomato

sous vide pork osso buco with crispy polenta

I’ve been mucking about almost constantly with my Sous Vide Supreme since unpacking it the other week. Pretty much every day the old silver box has been silently ticking away, gently cooking dinner. I’m starting to get the hang of it.

Following on from steak and gammon, I read just about every post by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt on sous vide and attacked a battery of different recipes. First up were some lamb shanks, courtesy of Donald Russell. I cooked them at 60°C for 48 hours, then briefly browned in a searing hot pan. I have to say I didn’t particularly enjoy them. The texture was a chalky, with a strong offal flavour.  However the sauce was dynamite, the cooking juices reduced down with a little port made for a spoon-licking jus.

On with pork chops. After a much briefer 1 hour bath followed by quick sear (you get used to this pattern) I tucked into them. They were perfect…  But not substantially better than pan fried. And on the downside you don’t get crispy, wobbly fat to bite into, just hard rind. I was losing faith a bit.

Lamb leg steaks marinated with rosemary for 90 minutes @ 57°C, well now we’re getting somewhere. Plump and tender with a deep lamby flavour. Helped along by a sauce of white wine reduction and mushrooms this really hit the spot.

I’m starting to find a groove with sous vide. For me what works is thick, traditionally quick-cook meats. You get a fuller, deeper meat flavour and it’s really satisfying. I‘m trying chicken breast later this week and I think It’s going to be a winner. I’m also seeing a lot of flavour imparted from dried herbs – the humidity seems to favour those often dried grassy bits and engorge them with taste. But working the slower casserole-style cuts? I’m not yet convinced. 

This recipe was my most successful long soak. Meaty pork osso buco, giving off plenty of luscious meat juices for gravy. Unlike it’s beefy cousin, the pork osso buco has a lighter, cleaner taste and a chicken-like texture. To offset this I added some crispy polenta spiked with chunks of cheese and tomato. Adding a veg-packed sauce to be mopped up meant clean plates all round.

I was given a Sous Vide Supreme to try, along with meat from Donald Russell. There’s a competition a-coming in a few days, more details here.

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pork osso buco with crispy polenta

Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

  • 4 pork osso buco steaks
  • Pinch dried oregano
  • 1 carrot peeled and finely diced
  • 1 onion peeled and finely diced
  • 1/2 leek diced
  • 1 garlic clove crushed
  • 1 bouquet garni
  • 400 ml chicken stock
  • 140 g dry polenta
  • 50 g cheddar diced
  • 5 sun dried tomatoes sliced

Instructions

  • Sprinkle the oregano over the steaks, along with a little seasoning. Vacuum seal and cook at 60C for 48 hours.
  • An hour before the osso buco is ready, get 125ml water in a saucepan and get boiling. Whisk in the polenta, pouring in a smooth stream. Add a pinch of salt and cook for another minute until thick. Stir in the cheese and tomato, then pour into an oiled baking dish. Put aside for a moment.
  • Over a gentle heat in a little butter fry the mirepoix. Add the stock and bouquet garni and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove the herbs and blitz with a hand blender, and keep warm whilst everything else finishes.
  • Get the grill on high and a pan on a high heat. Grill the polenta for around 10 minutes until crisp on top. Remove the osso buco and pour the cooking juices into the sauce. Pan fry the osso buco quickly on all sides until browned. Serve with slices of crisp polenta and some green beans.
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