Slow cooked Pork - 3 meals in 1

Wonderful pork sandwich on homemade onion bread

Sunday Dinners are still the best way of spending time with family and last Sunday was such a day. The wind was throwing itself around the cottage and we lit the fire quite early in the day - the perfect day for a warming slow cooked dinner. A butcher in Douglas had pork neck on offer and although it was a big piece of meat, I planned ahead and was already seeing three different dishes developing in front of my eyes.

Pork neck has a lot of flavour but needs to be cooked on a slow to medium heat for several hours to make sure it is tender. I marinated the meat with a nice mix of lemon, sage, thyme and garlic - massaged it  into the meat to ensure that the different flavours mingled nicely with the meat. This marinate combined with the slow cooking resulted in a lovely rich winter dish that made the people around the table very happy indeed.

As I wanted a traditional Sunday Dinner feel to the occasion, I served the meat with roasted potatoes, yorkshire puddings, honey roasted carrots & parsnip, steamed cauliflower & broccoli and made a hearty gravy from the juice, enriched with stout. The kitchen was warmed just from the cooking (ok, I also made a bread, dessert and baked a Christmas Cake - I have several ovens). In the end, I had my Sunday Dinner Day and everyone was enjoying the meal and we had time to catch up properly on the week - Little Miss Sophie thought she was eating chicken and who was I to tell her differently especially as she was asking for seconds (she is almost 3).

The other 2 dishes???? Very simple, with the leftovers we had lovely pulled pork sandwiches the next day (filled with lettuce, brie and spiced plum chutney) and another hearty dish of casserole with carrots, parsnip, onion, garlic, stock and of course the leftovers of the meat...... as I still had some of the stout left, I added it for good measure. The sandwich had the 'gourmet' feel to it that you are so often missing when buying an overpriced 'Gourmet Sandwich' and the casserole warmed the heart and belly on an even wetter Monday night..... so for €14 I fed 4 people on a Sunday, 2 people for Monday lunch and 2 hungry eaters on Monday evening - oh and yes, we gave a large piece of cooked meat to Noel & Andrea to take home with them.... I call that a bargain.

Slow cooked Pork Neck

 

• 3kg Pork Neck (if you like to follow the 3-1 meals)
• 1/2 lemon
• Handful sage & thyme, finely chopped
• 4-6 cloves of garlic, slightly crushed
• 3 onions, peeled and quartered
• 3 bay leaves
• 500ml chicken stock, hot
• 250ml stout
• 1 tbsp butter

Marinating the meat adds a different dimension of flavour

Preheat the oven to 200C. 

Mix the herbs, garlic and a teaspoon of lemon juice well, if you have a mortar and pestle, pound it to a paste. Rub the mix nicely all over the meat and massage it nicely in. Place the quartered onions in a roasting tray. Quarter the half lemon and add to the onions together with the bay leaves. Place the meat on top of the onions. Now pour in a cup of water, cover the roasting tin with tin foil and place in the hot oven for about 10-15 mins. After that, reduce the heat to 140C and leave to cook for 5 hours. From time to time, check if there is still enough liquid in the roasting pan and baste the meat with the juices. 

30 mins before end of roasting time, remove the tin foil and return to the oven to get a bit of colour on the meat - you might need to baste a few times to keep the meat moist. 

Succulent pork - perfect Sunday Roast

The result should be a succulent piece of meat that almost falls apart when handling it...... remove from the roasting tin, place on a warmed plate and cover with tin foil and set aside to rest. Pour the juices from the roasting tin into a clean saucepan, making sure to get all the tasty bits from the meat. Bring to the boil (if there is just a bit left, add chicken stock) and reduce by half. Add the stout and let reduce by half again. Add the butter and swirl until melted and well combined with the sauce. Strain through a sieve and keep warm until needed. Slice the meat - you might even want to shred it with the fork - it will be tender and soft. Serve with potatoes, veggies and and the gravy.



Bon Apetit

Broad Beans Paté - Delicious Summer on a Plate

Mr T planted some broad beans for me but they are only in flowering stage... while the educational garden in Kenmare (went to Kenmare for the Food Carnival)
has already full pods on their plants - jealousy cropped up big time. The gardener of the VEC garden (I forgot to ask for his name) is a friendly soul who was very willing to answer all my questions about how to get rid of pests and why my beetroot is so small at this stage. If you are in Kenmare, make sure to pay him a visit - you can even buy some of his vegetable which are all organically grown. I went home with a big bag full of broad beans.

Broad beans are now more and more on menus of restaurants and readily available (Tesco is selling frozen broad beans) and recipes are popping up all over the place. Denis Cotter of Cafe Paradiso was one of the first chefs to use this lovely bright green little fella a few years ago with their couscous cake and haloumi dish. Simply delicious. When podding broad beans, make the effort to remove the outer skin of the beans - slips off easily when you blanch them quickly in hot water and then pop them into cold water. Slightly squeeze the bean and the skin should slip off. You can of course remove the skin before blanching - just more labour intensive.

This dish is the ideal for a light lunch or an easy supper. The bright green colour stays if you don't boil the living daylight out of the delicate beans. I have used goats' cheese and basil here but you can use feta and parsley or any other combination you can think off. I just happened to have a full plant of basil and some leftover goats' cheese. This recipe will be enough for 6 'bruschettas'. Drizzle slices of bread with olive oil and toast under a grill on both sides. Add the paté and serve with some basil leaves.

Broad Bean Paté

Broad Bean Paté Bruschetta

• 200g Broad Beans, podded twice
• 100g goats cheese, crumbled
• handful torn basil leaves
• Olive Oil
• salt

Throw the podded beans into boiling water and cook until just tender - about 5-7 minutes (a few minutes longer if you haven't removed the skin around the beans - you can squeeze the skin off the beans after cooking). Rinse under cold water to stop the cooking process. Leave to cool. 

In a food processor, combine the cheese with the beans and the torn basil and whizz once. Now add some olive oil and blend until you achieved the consistency you want (I like mine a bit lumpy), adding olive oil as you go along. 

Spoon mix into a bowl and season with salt and if you like some white pepper. 

Bon Apetite

Onion Tart

I love comfort food. This warming, hugging food that makes all feel so much better. Especially on winter evenings in front of the fire when you know you don't have to go outside the door - this is when you need either a creamy soup or an onion tart.

I came across this type of tart when living in Germany. I was part of a craft circle and one of the women made it when it was her turn to host the craft circle. Onions, slowcooked and enriched with caraway seeds - might sound like an odd combination but it works and it gives you the warming, hugging feeling that is so comforting on a cold January evening.

The amount of caraway seeds depends on your liking - add more if you really like the flavour or add less if you are not sure. Caraway has a long tradition of medical uses, primarily for stomach complaints - one reason, the Germans add it to their famous Sauerkraut (the caraway seeds are suppose to make the cabbage better digestible for the stomach).

The onions really benefit from slow cooking in this dish - apart from that, everything else is pretty simple and easy to assemble. You want the sweetness of the onions to come out completely and this is only achieved by cooking the onions on a low to medium  heat for about 30 mins - keep an eye on them so that they won't burn, stirring every now and then.

• Short crust pastry (enough to line an 18cm tart dish
• 3 large onions
• Butter
• 2 tsp caraway seeds
• 250 ml cream
• 1 egg
• Seasoning

 
Line the tart dish with a pastry and set aside. 
 
Slice the onions thinly, heat the butter in a frying pan and slow cook the onions until starting to caramelise. That can take a while and taking your time is the key to success with this dish. 
 
Mix the cream with the caraway seeds and eggs. Add some seasoning. Spoon the onions into the pastry case and cover with the cream mixture. 
 
Bake at 160C for about 15 mins or until the cream has set. Serve at room temperature with a lovely fresh salad.

Tomato Tart for the Humble Lunchbox

Have you ever heard your parents say - tomatoes don't taste like tomatoes anymore? If so, your parents haven't grown their own. Supermarket tomatoes are grown under cover and manipulated to be very red and very uniform. It makes them more appealing to the shoppers when they are nicely stacked up on the shelves.

I am a lucky gal as we have a greenhouse in which we grow quite a number of different tomatoes (please don't ask for the variety as I am bad in remembering names) and different colours. They look amazing in any old salad and they taste like tomatoes used to taste (according to my mum a few years ago). The only problem you might have is that you have suddenly too much of a good thing - and me hating to waste food have to come up with some ideas on how to use them. Of course, chutney is an old favourite and I makes a couple of jars each year and eat a lot of salads but there is just so much salad you can eat. So, one way of using tomatoes is in a tart. You will find several recipes on the web - some with a cream-egg filling, others just tomatoes and some cheese. You always have to keep in mind that tomatoes are quite juicy and you don't want a soggy tart.

I went the cream-egg way but only used a small amount so that the tomatoes weren't covered by the cream. I used a combination of soft goats cheese (from Castlemary farm) and feta (have to admit this was a supermarket one). Fresh herbs from the garden included chives and parsley and some salt & pepper was all I used for flavouring as I wanted it still to taste like tomatoes used to taste :-)

Yummylicious tomato tart

This is a great addition to your humble lunchbox as it can be eaten hot or cold.

You will need:

• Shortcrust pastry (enough to line a 7inch tart tin)
• Fresh tomatoes, cut in half, enough to fill the tart
• Dijon mustard
• handful of fresh herbs
• 100 ml cream
• 1 small egg
• salt & pepper

Pre-heat oven to 180C.

On a floured surface, roll out the shortcrust pastry large enough to line the tart tin. Brush the base of the tart with a thin layer of the mustard (prevents that the base gets too soggy while adding some flavour as well)  Wash and dry the tomatoes and cut in half. Place the tomatoes cut side up onto the tart. 

Mix the cream with the beaten egg and add the chopped herbs. Season. 

Crumble the cheeses between the tomatoes and pour the cream mixture over the tart - making sure that all of the base is covered with the cream. 

Bake for about 15 minutes until the cream has set and the pastry is cooked through (depending on your oven, it might take a bit longer).

Bon Appetit

The Humble Lunchbox - Mushroom Quiche

Taking lunch to work has a great advantage - first you save money, second you know what is actually in your food and last but not least - you can take your lunch outside on a sunny day like this and have a mini picnic. Quiches are a great standby as they can be eaten warm or cold. Paired with a leafy salad - perfect lunch is served. Another advantage is that measurements can be taken easy. Whatever you like in your quiche - use it. The only thing I don't like is an 'eggy' taste to my quiche. So I am using cream and 1 egg - which so far has always set my quiches - if unsure add another egg.

I have made mushroom quiche for today's lunch and it is looking gorgeous. Fresh herbs and a dollop of basil pesto make it light and summery. Cut into wedges, it can cover about 3 days of lunch - or simply bake individual portions in smaller tins.

You will need:

• Shortcrust pastry (shop bought or homemade - enough to cover the bottom and sides of your quiche pan
• butter and/or olive oil
• 250g mushrooms (more if your tin is a biggen one)
• 1 onion - chopped
• 2 garlic cloves - minced
• handful of parsley, chives & basil (all chopped small)
• 2 tsp Basil pesto (or more if you like the taste)
• Goats Cheese - crumbed
• Cream (enough to cover the mushroom mixture)



Individual Mushroom Quiches

• 1 egg (more if you have a big tin)

Heat the olive oil and/or butter (I love the oil-butter combo) and add the chopped onions and garlic and pan-fry until translucent. Add the chopped mushrooms and fry until slightly browned and the liquid has evaporated. Take off the heat and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Combine enough cream to cover the quiche with the chopped herbs and the pesto. Season with salt and pepper and add the egg. Whisk until the egg is combined with the cream.

On a slightly floured surface roll out the pastry and line your quiche tin. Spread the mushroom mixture across the base and crumble the goats cheese evenly over the mushrooms. Pour over the cream mixture and bake until the cream has set. Leave to cool before cutting into wedges and serve at room temperature with a side salad.

Bon Appetit

A bit seedy - Wholemeal Bread with Seeds & Nuts

Gourmet Sandwich at its best

Last Saturday, I paid Urru in Bandon a visit and since she had 20% off most of the items, I sneaked around a bit (who doesn't love a bargain) and came across this little lunchbox (my old one retired a few months back). It is a system that includes lunchboxes with different compartments and I really had to hold back not to buy the whole lot.....but I think my Tupperware would have been a bit too jealous. So I just got the lunchbox.

So, I decided to take my lunch to work again but I don't like the ready made sandwich loafs you get in supermarkets (normally they stick to your gum)... so I was going to make my own bread again. As a regular reader (and I know there are lots out there) - you will know that I love making bread. So much that I even give classes to 'spread the dough'....

This bread is made with strong wholemeal flour but I will mix in white bread flour the next time I am going to make it as the wholemeal flour makes the bread very dense and that might not be to everyone's taste. The flavour is amazing and the seeds and nuts give the bread a wonderful texture. It tasted yummylicious with fresh salad leaves, tangy cheddar and sweet tomato relish.....

Delicious Fresh Bread

• 500g Strong Wholemeal Flour (or 50-50 with white strong flour)
• 7g dried yeast (one sachet)
• 1 tsp salt
• 350ml warm water
• 1 tsp sugar
• 100g mixed seeds (I used pumpkin & sunflower seeds)
• 50g nuts, chopped (I used walnuts)

Dissolve the sugar and yeast in the warm water and set aside until the yeast starts to foam.

Combine the flour with the salt, seeds (leave some behind for the top of bread) & the nuts in a bowl. Pour over the sponged yeast water and start to knead until the dough is smooth. Place into a clean bowl and leave to rise until the dough doubled in size. 

Knock back and either shape it into a round or put into a lined loaf tin. Cover with a tea towel and leave to rise for a further 30 minutes. 

Preheat the oven to 200C and bake the bread for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 180C and continue to bake approx. 30 minutes or until the bread sounds hollow when you tap the bottom. Place on a wire rack to cool

Bon Appetit

The Humble Lunch Box

It has been ages since I took lunch to work - having free yoghurt, fruit, nuts and lots of cookies for free kinda makes you lazy. But since I don't like fruit very much (I know, silly of me) my intake on lovely cookies has been taken to the limit now. For the first time in my life I feel really sluggish - so that is the end of the free cookies and hello again to the humble lunch box.

The secret to a good lunch box is the food - bet you didn't know that. When I see most lunch boxes, a sad looking sandwich is squashed into a bag and no one really wants to eat it (but if you do like sandwiches, make sure it is a great one, fresh salad leaves and a dollop of chutney dresses up any old sandwich). So what else can you put into a lunch box, you might ask - fear not, I am hear to show you some great ideas.

Tupperware Lunchbox

Another factor of course is the box itself. When you wrap something just with clingfilm and just stuff it into your handbag - chances are it looks a bit battered when it comes out. I am a big fan of Tupperware - and no, I am not getting paid by them (should ask them tho as I have more Tupperware than tea towels) - but trust me, they do exactly what it says on the tin. And yes, they are a bit more expensive than the 'normal' ones, but I can tell you that my grandmother had hers for over 30 years and apart from the colour fading, they were still working perfectly. Check out http://www.tupperwareireland.com/

My option for today's lunch box is Couscous Salad with feta. What gives it a lovely flavour are the slow cooked onions and garlic. Pinenuts are giving it a nice texture and it is easy to prepare and you can eat it warm or cold (if you have a microwave at work, use it).

You will need for one serving:

• 30g  couscous
• Hot water - to cover the couscous
• Olive oil
• 1 small onion
• 1 clove garlic
• handful of pinenuts
• feta (how much depends on you)
• Parsley



Couscous Salad with Feta

• Salt & pepper

Pour the hot water over the couscous and leave to stand until all water has been absorbed by the couscous. Fluff it up with a fork.

Chop the onion finely, heat olive oil in a frying pan and fry the onions slowly for a few minutes, add the crushed garlic and pinenuts and continue to fry until the onions start to brown and caramelize. Tip the onion mixture into the couscous, add the feta and chopped parsley and stir to combine. Taste and season with salt & pepper.

Leave to cool and store it in your lunch box until needed.

Happy Lunching