Sunday Roast

It's not quite a Dinner Party, but Sunday Roast with me and mine can sometimes be a culinary adventure. This time, I managed to get my Roast Pork Shoulder with crackling just right, so I thought I'd share it... I have seen the future and it is SLOW ROASTING! Six hours slow at 110c, in fact ...

I heated the oven to 230c, then, whilst it was getting nice and hot, I dried the shoulder of pork with paper towels. Cut the skin with a sharp knife, parallel lines about 1cm apart,  just through the skin, but not into the meat.

A quick glug of oil, rubbed into the skin and then a liberal dosing of sea salt. Into the oven for 30 minutes to crisp and sear the skin, and then the "patience" bit; drop the temperature to 110c and leave it there.... go for a walk, wash the car, empty the bins ... (I did all this) ...SIX HOURS later ...you will find the most melting piece of tender juicy meat you're ever likely to enjoy (leave it longer, if you like, some people report going 12 - 14 hours...).  

Now I'd seen a TV chef cheat on the crisp crackling and, as I was a little disappointed with the crackling on my joint, I pinched his idea... the point is for the juices in the skin to permeate the meat whilst cooking, so I took the skin off whilst the meat was resting, put the temperature back up to 230c (for the roast potatoes) and put the skin on a tray to crisp even further - salty crunchy tasty!...

If I say so myself, it was a nice piece of meat and well worth the three quid I paid for it (yes, I know, it was on offer) ;-)

Christmas Pea and Ham soup... (or, another way with leftovers)

So, I have two litres of stock left over from boiling the Christmas Ham in the last December post. What I didn't mention is that the stock isn't water... its apple juice (the 100% kind) and ... CIDER! (oo-arrr!) . Sweet applyness isn't in it! ... ;-) .
250g of red lentils (split peas) into the pot, bring to the boil and let simmer for maybe 50 minutes ... throw in the chopped up bits of ham left over (and frozen) from New Years Day , whizz with the whizzer and thats it.SOUP to warm the most frozen soul . It's that simple. Who needs Heinz? I have had it two days running for lunch at work and its lovely... yum...

Happy New Year!

1/1/11 (!) Got a bit adventurous this time around: didn't QUITE work, but was ok. Had a great New Years Eve mashing up Jamie's Butternut Squash soup from 2002 with the old trick of crumbling some black pudding into it along with some parsley.It really works.
Main course was James Martin's Honey Fried Duck Breast with Winter Vegetables; bit too heavy on the old butter, so I halved the amount and it worked well without as much. On Mrs Fod's request, I added Jamie's 30 minute Dauphinoise, but I didn't really rate it and that was the first disappointment for me, it has all the right stuff, but doesn't quite have the body or creaminess of a "proper" Dauphinoise.
For dessert, we moved onto pomegranate surprise Panna Cotta with a pomegranate glaze (the surprise is that the pomegranate seeds ("arils") were hidden inside the pannacotta). The glaze called for 600g of sugar! But I was a little disappointed again, because I had wanted it to set like brittle boiled sweets, so I could do a "stained glass" effect, and it came out like a syrup...more research needed I think... That said, it was sweet and sharp and really offset the creamy pannacotta (which is easy to make and lovely when sprinkled with a little lemon zest whilst cooking) . Don't put the pannacotta in the freezer like I did, though; it's meant to be soft and creamy, not like hard ice-cream!
Meal over, port and cheese to finish,  fireworks in the garden to welcome in 2011 and then I slipped on some moss and tore my ligament ...ho hum ... managed to cook a "hangover cure" breakfast this morning, though :-)

Christmas! Ham! Christmas Ham !

No big meals cooked in my kitchen this Christmas. Dinner on the 25th was at Mums, as usual. However, we DID have guests on the 27th , so it was into the kitchen for some buffet food. Aside from the usual nibbles, I was particularly proud of my Baked Christmas Ham With Sugar and Mustard Crust. It tastes amazing and I strongly recommend you try it ...
I soaked the ham for two days in regularly changed water, to leach the salt out (didn't do that one year and it was well, salty) . Boiling the ham next in a stock base of celery, onions, carrots and bay leaves. In the meantime, I prepared the glaze by mixing together two teaspoons of dijon and english mustard, with 25g of butter and 300g of dark muscovado sugar, ground cloves, ground ginger and ground cinnamon (note: next time I'm doubling up the mustard). The recipe calls for 20-odd cloves, but I find that the taste becomes too medicinal, so lay off the cloves unless you're really fond of them.
Pre-heated oven, 200 degrees, smear the paste over the ham  and throw it in, making sure to baste at least twice. The glaze is REALLY sticky and goes like a treacle, but its SO worth it.
After about 20 minutes, one last baste and then back in for ten. Finally remove the ham and slowly baste as it cools, it gets very very sticky but hardens to an impressive glaze. (make sure you wash the pan/bowl right there and then otherwise you'll come back to something like concrete in the morning, trust me...)
The casing of sugar and mustard is crisp and tasty, it seeps into the meat and leave a delicious aftertaste...just right for Christmas ... it's so good that one of my fans stated that the chutney it was served with actually detracted from the taste - so there you go...!

Jamie roools!

So, watching Jamie's Christmas last night and off he goes making his 2002 squash and chestnut soup. "Mmmm" thinks I, even though I'd just polished off one of Pizza Italia's 16" Thin and Crispy ham, mushroom, double pepperoni and pineapple pizzas...
Mrs. Fod has been in a classroom all day, so I guessing she'd like something when she gets in that isn't "naughty". So off I go ... crush two tablespooons of coriander seeds with two hot dried chillies, rub them all over two massive halved butternut squashes and cover with olive oil before bunging in the oven at 200 degrees. Meanwhile, fry pre-cooked chestnuts, a large onion, pancetta and sage leaves in oil, then bung all that into a big pan, scoop out the squash (should be soft after about 25 minutes) , add that to the pan, cover with chicken stock and bring to the boil. He did a half and half , to get a "rustic" thickness to the soup, I couldn't be bothered, just whizzed it with the whizzer until it was all smooth and served... (as St. Jamie would say: "..luverly jubbly...") .. It was really nice  and didn't need any seasoning either...

Rice n Bitz!

Many moons ago, B & J (best friends and Best Man) used to be skint, like I was. This was 'cos our mortgages were crippling us (thanks, Reagan and Thatcher) . We'd usually be stuck at home on our few weeekends off. I'd ring him or he'd ring me and we'd discuss the content of our fridges. Then it would be over to each others house, carrying whatever we had, plus some home brew or a loose can of Skol or Carling  (!) and we'd have a "Rice and Bitz" night. Chuck everything in a pan, bang on a VHS tape (usually Arnie) and drink 'till you fall over.....
WELL, we're all a bit more sophisticated these days, B&J live in France and are non-meat eaters, and I like cooking for them when they return to the "Old Country" ;-) .
How to reconcile the two? Easy! Rice and Bitz! In fact, a seafood risotto in the style of a Paella (but without Chorizo or Chicken, you see?). I had a MASSIVE piece of CostCo monkfish (note to self, get fishmonger to fillet it in future) and some prawns, cod and mussels. Chopped onions and celery into a paella pan with olive oil and a little garlic. Soften, add risotto rice for a few minutes until coated in oil, then pour in stock (I added a little saffron as well; expensive, but it adds something, I find) . I used Knorr stock pot vegetable stock and a fish stock, along with 250ml of a cheeky little white wine lurking around the kitchen (unusual, wine doesn't live very long in the DP kitchen!).
Once all the liquid was absorbed, in went the fish, some peas, some bell peppers, hot piquante peppers and pickled roasted red peppers (from a jar) (nomnomnom). Whilst all that was cooking, I put the rest of the wine in a saucepan, threw in the cleaned and trimmed mussels, banged on a lid and steamed them until they opened. Mussels drained and placed on top of the rice/fish combo, (VERY "rustic"), to the table still in the paella pan, three big spoons and off we went. Another DP success, and we only realised we'd "just" had "rice and bitz" about halfway through! Sometimes, its the simple stuff that makes it all worthwhile.....