Open Table

PORK BELLY

Today has been a long one ... With two children in tow i made it to the butcher, paint shop and then bought the ingredients for a picnic.  Quick stop back home to unpack food and make picnic before meeting new class mates at the park for 10.30.

Home for children to have quick sleep while I tidied the house, prepared food for tonight, argued with congestion charge about ticket, tried to find school uniform for tomorrow, dig out their fruit boxes (also for tomorrow) and fill in all forms i should have sent back to school a week ago... oops.

Quick visit to friends who have just got back from their hols and home to bung in the pork... It is definitely the best thing to cook when you are running short on time as it looks impressive but you don’t have to slave over the oven for hours. 

I love pork belly with dauphinoise potatoes and garlic courgettes but today i am going to simply throw some new potatoes into a roasting pan and serve with peas ... so simple.

PORK BELLY - Serves 6

Ingredients 

2.4kg Pork belly (400g per person, including the bones), 2 Large onions, 1 Tablespoon of coriander seeds, 1 Tablespoon of fennel seeds, 6 bay leaves, 200ml of water

• Heat oven to 180
• Place the bones in the bottom of a roasting tin that will fit the piece of pork belly.  Don't worry it it is a snug fit as it will shrink down quite a bit when cooking.
• Leaving the skins on the onions slice them.  The slices should be about 1cm thick, so you will end up with 4-5 slices per onion.  Lay the slices on a roasting dish and place the bay leaves on top
• Score the skin of the pork belly, if it was not done when you bought it (most butchers will do this for you so ask).  To score lines in the pork belly, if it was not already done, cut through the skin and a little bit of the fat, you don't want to cut the meat.  The scores should be 1/2cm apart.
• In a mortal and pestle (or place in plastic bag and crush using a rolling pin or bottle of wine), crush the coriander seeds so they are all broken in half.  Turn the pork belly over and sprinkle the coriander and fennel seeds over the pork.  Using your hand push the seeds into the pork so that they stick when you transfer the pork to the roasting dish
• Pick the pork up and transfer to roasting dish.  Pour the water into the side of the roasting dish 
• Place in the oven
• Cooking time is four hours on the middle shelf of the oven.  After half an hour turn the oven down to 160 and add a little more water.  Check again every 30 minutes adding more water so that the pan never drys out.  If the top of the pork is starting to look to crispy turn down the oven slightly.
• 15 mins before the end, turn the oven up to 200 so the crackling goes crispy
• Remove from oven and place on chopping board, cover with foil for ten minutes so meat can rest while you cook veg.  I use a bread knife and cut the belly into 2cm strips so each person gets two-three generous strip of belly with some of the onion that cooked underneath it
• I am not a big gravy person, i pour the cooking liquid and any juices from the meat resting into a jug and serve

Cooking notes

Not all of a whole pork belly has bones in it, therefore the weight changes depending on which piece of the pork belly you buy, some pieces have more bones and will be heavier.  400g is a guide, ask your butcher to advise you and show you the piece before you buy.  Remember, it will shrink in the oven so buy more than you would expect to eat.

After you have agreed the weight with the butcher, ask them to remove the bones from the belly (keep them to use when cooking) and score the skin, i like mine in thin lines about 1/2cm apart.

Adapting

If fennel and coriander don’t appeal try using garlic cloves (leave the skins on) and rosemary instead.

CHOCOLATE BROWNIES

My son starts nursery on Thursday (After three and a half years, I am about to get 12 hours each week to my self ... bliss) we are off tomorrow to meet his class for a picnic.  We had a little family conference and decided we should make brownies, rather than biscuits, to take along.  

We were out of eggs so before we could start cooking we had to go egg picking, as named by our three year old after strawberry picking this summer.  Egg picking is a favorite of the children, ill explain ... the butcher at the end of the road has a basket with free range eggs in it.  The children pick their eggs and put them in egg boxes ... egg picking.

With the eggs safely in the buggy, rather than on the butchers floor ... it is always 50:50, we head home and started cooking.  

As the brownies need to chill over night in the fridge, the children got to lick the bowl.  Charlie got a little excited and thought licking it from the inside was the best option ...  

I have tried lots of different brownie recipes, adapting them as I have gone along, this one is defiantly my favorite.

 

CHOCOLATE BROWNIES - makes 32 (small ones)

Ingredients

500g Light brown sugar, 4 Eggs, 220g Butter, 100g Coco powder, 100g Plain flour, 20mil Full fat milk, 1 Teaspoon of vanilla essence, 100g Shelled pecan halves, 175g Large milk chocolate buttons

• Heat oven to 160
• Whisk together the sugar and eggs
• Melt 220g of butter and add into it the Coco powder
• Mix the chocolate mixture into the sugar and eggs.  Stir in plain flour, milk and vanilla essence
• Lightly crush the pecans so they are in slightly smaller pieces
• Add the pecans and buttons to the mixture and pour into a ready lined backing tray.  I use reusable baking paper that i have cut to size to fit in my baking tray that is 12.5inch long x 9inch wide x 2inch deep
• Put on the middle shelf in the oven for 25 mins.  The crust should be crispy but underneath still a bit soft so it will be all gu like.
• Allow to cool once cool place in fridge (in backing tray) over night
• Remove and cut up.  I cut the large brownie in half so you are left with two squares.  Then cut each half into 16.  I store these in the fridge as i think they taste wonderful cold.

Cooking notes

Brownies are always hard to get right.  Each oven will give a different result.  My oven is fan assisted so fairly hot.  If you know yours is quite cool you can try cooking at 170.  If the top does not look firm and the mixture is very sloppy when you gently shake the baking tray then you will need to put them back in for another few minutes.

 

Adapting

You can change the chocolate buttons and pecans in this to what ever you fancy.  Walnuts, flaked almonds, white chocolate ... 

PESTO

My husband was at work today.  As it is a bank holiday we thought we would take the children in to see him so they could see what Daddy does all day.  

I realised Daddy had some big shoes to fill when on the way our daughter talked me through what everyone in Daddy Pig's office did, colouring being the highlight.  She then went on to ask if there might be smoke or ladders at Daddy's work... apparently Mr Incredible has a computer but also is a super hero.

We had to agree to disagree that daddy was not a super hero, her logic was if she was a super hero (she showed me her Elastic girl arms) then Daddy was defiantly one and there would be smoke and ladders.

Luckily the office, without ladders or smoke, was a great sucess.  The headset his colleague had was perfect for pretending to be Dora the Explorer.  

We finally got home after remembering a little too late that the Notting Hill Carnival was on and having to tube, bus, bus and then walk our way round it we were all tried and I did not fancy cooking.

I reached the the magimix, it would have to be Pesto ... I put it on brown pasta and threw in some peas to make myself feel it was healthy.

PESTO - 10 Servings

Ingredients 

80g Fresh basil, 60g Grated parmesan, 40g Pine nuts, 1 Grated clove of garlic, 125mil Extra virgin olive oil, Salt and pepper, 1/4 lemon

• Put the basil, parmesan, 30g of the pine nuts (hold back 10g for later) and garlic into the food processor
• Blend for 20 seconds and squeeze in the le 
  mon juice
• Now you slowly add in the oil.  Turn the processor on again and slowly pour the oil into the spout of the food processor, once combined taste
• Add salt and pepper if required and the remaining pin nuts and blitz for 3 seconds (this will give a nutty texture to the pesto) and place in jar in fridge.  It may separate slightly while in fridge so stir before eating

Cooking notes: This recipie makes enough for ten serving spoons for pesto.  I tend to cook 100g of pasta per person and combine the 100g with 2 tablespoons of pesto (this amount will feed two children).  If you don’t use it all at once don’t worry, it tastes better on the second day and will last in the fridge for at least a week.  If you are not going to use it for a day or two add a thin layer of olive oil to the top of the pesto which will seal it.

Adapting: Add in some whole toasted pine nuts and halved cherry tomatoes for a bit of extra flavour and texture.

 

 

SHEPHERD'S PIE

Post 2 seems harder than Post 1.  So many small things happen on a day to day basis ... i am not sure what is interesting, I think I need an angle.  

I have a book ... well almost a recipie book that i have been writing.  I need to edit it but have not found the time ... so each day I will edit the recipie that has helped me get through the day and pop it on the blog.  

Your probably thinking it is odd that to say a recipe helped me get through the day but I find this with food.  I want to feed my family good, homemade food and spend quality time with them ... it can be and often is a struggle to do both.  So this blog will show you how I attempt it.

Today Shepherds Pie is my saving grace.  

We have had a bit of a weekend ... cake making with children on Friday followed by friends for dinner.  Family lunch yesturday followed by a dash up the motorway to pick up heart broken friend who had been unceromoniously dumped on hoilday by her boyfriend of six years ... back for comfort takeaway (homemade food was just not going to cut it) and X Factor.

So Sunday, lunch with friends and their little boy.  Having not seen my children as much as i would like over the weekend I want to head to the park rather than be stuck in the kitchen. Shepherds pie allows me to do this.  If I make it i batch cook, freezing small and large pies in either oven proof dishes or when i run out metal disposable trays that an Indian takeaway comes in.

I have a shepherds pie for six in the freezer, it is defrosting on the side and I am heading for the park, I will serve it with peas from the freezer and apple puff pie (ready rolled pastry, slices of apple, sprinkle of sugar and cinnamon)

SHEPHERD'S PIE - Serves 12

 Ingredients for pie

2 kg Mashed Potatoes, 2 Tablespoons of olive oil, 2 Large onions, 2 cloves of garlic, 1kg Beef mince, 2 Tins chopped tomatoes, 1 Beef stock cube dissolved in a cup of water, 2 Tablespoons of tomato puree, 2 Level teaspoon of cumin seeds, 2 Tablespoon of honey, Salt and pepper 

• Turn the hob on to medium, place onion and oil in a frying or sauce pan.  Cook for a couple of minutes, add the garlic and cumin and fry for another min.  Add in the mince and brown.  If any of the ingredients are getting too hot and you think it might burn have a cup of water next to the pan while cooking and add a few drops to cool it all down.
• Once the meat is brown, add in the chopped tomatoes, sugar, beef stock cube, honey and tomato puree.  If you have any fresh tomatoes throw them in too.  
• Simmer for 30 minutes stirring occasionally and then add the salt and pepper, cook for another 5 minutes then take the mince of the heat
• While mince simmering start cooking the potatoes, recipe below
• Once the mince is cool pour it into an ovenproof dish, the mince should be 3cm deep and put a 2cm layer of cool mashed potatoes over the top of it. If the mince is quite watery don’t put all the liquid into the pie as it may boil over when cooking.  You can always use the watery bit as a sauce on pasta with cheese for quick meal for children.
• Let pie cool and put in fridge/freezer till you need it.  
• Once needed but defrosted pie in middle of oven at 200 and cook for 30-40 minutes until the top is golden and crispy.

Cooking notes

This recipe will make enough for 12 portions, it is up to you what size dishes you put them in.  I normally do one large one for six then six individual portions for the freezer which are great for emergency meals for the children or if a baby-sitter comes over and needs feeding.  The ratio I use is 3cm of mince to 2cm of mash.

If you run out of mash, which sometimes happens if you are being a little generous with it, have Smash at hand.  Make it with milk add butter and frozen chives from freezer and no one will know. 

Adapting

If you don’t like cumin then remove it and add in a glass of red wine and add in a couple of sprigs of dried herbs, i love rosemary and thyme.  

Mash - Makes 2kg

2Kg Potatoes (I tend to use white), 200 mil Full fat milk, 4 Tablespoons butter, salt and pepper to taste

• Peel and chop the potatoes into 3cm chunks, they need to be the same size so the cook evenly.  This should leave you with 1800g of peeled and chopped potatoes
• Cover them with water and bring to boil, turn down to a gentle simmer for about for about 20 minutes until they are soft.  When they are cooked you should easily be able to put a fork through them
• Drain potatoes
• Add the milk and butter to the pan, let it heat up.  By heating the milk you get a much smoother mash.     
• Take the pan off the heat and pop in the potatoes with salt and pepper and mash.  If the mash is to thick for you then you can always add extra cold milk. 
• When you are happy with the consistency of the mash and confident there are no lumps in it, get a fork and beat the mash for 30 seconds, it makes it really smooth

 

STEAK SALAD

I am seizing the day ... and writing. I am not sure if anyone is ever going to read it (with the exception if my husband under duress) but that's not the point.

I want to write about food and entertaining. So I just need to start. Friends have often said that they don’t entertain or if they do they don’t enjoy it as much as they hope they will because they find deciding what to cook really difficult. They then pick a recipe that is to complicated and end up spending most of the evening in the kitchen, on their own , not catching up with the people they have invited for dinner. I get quite a few phone calls/emails asking for recipes … so I am going to write them down and maybe you will enjoy them.

I am not sure where to start ... maybe with the alternative dinner party we had on Tuesday ... Jack wants the recipe so here we go ...

After a few failed attempts and a baby sitting crisis at their end we found someone to look after our sleeping children and we took dinner to Jack and Emily's.

We all decided it was a great, stress free way to do dinner ... They cleared the toys and laid the table, we bought the food. We could leave a messy house and they did not have to worry about the shopping or cooking.

It is sad I know but after a few glasses of wine we thought we could even start a new trend of less stressful dinner parties. If you are keen to follow the trendsetters dinner to go was steak salad, followed by Gu.

I had pre-cut and cooked all but the steak so when we arrived there was very little to do. Emily settled the children, Jack griddled the steak, I assembled the salad and Rich poured the wine… team work at its best.

RIB EYE STEAK SALAD

2 rib eye steaks (approx 500g), 100g of mixed leaf salad (I use herb, baby leaf and rocket), 1 butternut squash, 12 asparagus spears, 50g of blue cheese, 50g flaked almonds, teaspoon sugar, butter, extra virgin olive oil

• Heat oven to 180
• Halve the butternut squash in two place in roasting tray drizzle with olive oil and place in oven for 40 minutes or until cooked, should be soft and lightly golden. Take out of the oven, cut into chunks (i leave skin on) and cover in tin foil to keep warm while you put the salad together.
• Steam the asparagus for 1-2 mins till cooked (the time will vary with size of asparagus). Once cooked drain and run some cold water over them to stop them cooking. Shake of water and put to side.
• Place a dry frying pan on the heat and add 50g of flaked almonds, keep stirring till they have a slight colour on them, once they start turning a light brown, add a teaspoon of sugar to the pan and stir. The sugar will coat the almonds, once coated place almonds on a plate, if you leave them in frying pan they will keep cooking and burn.
• Rinse frying pan and pop back on heat with a tablespoon of butter, once the butter is bubbling add steak to pan,.  The steak I buy is 1.5cm thick.  Cook it for a minute and a half on each side for medium rare and remove from heat, leave the meat to rest in warm place for a few minutes. 
• Place the salad leaves in a large bowl or on a plate, pour over half the dressing and mix well to ensure all the leaves are covered.  Place the butternut squash and asparagus in another bowl and pour over the rest of the  dressing, gently mix to cover all the vegtables and place the dressed butternut squash and asparagus over the salad leaves. Crumble over blue cheese (if using) and sprinkle with half the flaked almonds.
• Slice the steak into strips and place on top of salad with any juices.  Sprinkle on the rest of the almonds, drizzle the dish with olive oil and serve.

Cooking Notes

If you are not a blue cheese fan or what a slightly lighter dish then leave it out.  

Salad Dressing
3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon of maple syrup
1 teaspoon of wholegrain mustard
1 clove of grated garlic
pinch of salt and pepper

Place all the ingredients in a jam jar, shake for ten seconds ... your done.

… first post … done.