Pulled Pork, Polenta Chips, Baked Beans and Coleslaw

Thank goodness the sun has reappeared, thank goodness the rain has stopped... It has been quite depressing, rain every single day, for weeks on end. Rain, rain and more rain. I have a broken umbrella that makes me a bit cross every time I have to use it, I've ruined some of my shoes and been drenched on more than one occasion. It puts you off going anywhere or doing anything. I've been craving a holiday in the sun, lying on a beach, swimming in the sea... But suddenly it's all ok. The sun is out! It is warm! Today I wore ballet pumps for the first time in weeks, we sat in the garden all day and lit the BBQ! The weather forecast has little pictures of suns, far into the future, it actually feels like spring, summer even, and it is such a welcome arrival...

Whilst hiding from the rain last week I have been writing about sharing food for my column in Appetite magazine. Big or small plates in the middle of the table whether at home or in a restaurant bring about a lovely happy convivial sharing atmosphere. I love inviting people to my house for food, putting plates full of tasty fare on the table and everyone diving in...

So in the name of research I rang some friends and decided to cook a 9 hour shoulder of pulled pork that I found in the amazing 'Joe Beef' book. This book is definitely one of my favourite new finds, it includes a fois gras breakfast sandwich, potted eggs with truffle and a smorgasbord… What's not to love. The menu took a bit of time to decide, it is a bit of a new direction, but in the end I decided on pulled pork, baked beans, coleslaw, polenta chips and BBQ sauce... Trashy, yet delicious...

The baked beans are an odd mix of ingredients, but totally delicious. They were a recipe for some lentils in the Joe Beef book, but I wanted baked beans, so adapted it to suit. Chop and fry some pancetta and an onion and fry until golden and soft, then add a minced clove of garlic. Next add 2 cups of water, ¼ cup of ketchup, 2 tablespoons of maple syrup, 2 tablespoons of sunflower oil, 1 tablespoon of cider vinegar, 2 tablespoons of English mustard, 1 teaspoon of black pepper, 1 bay leaf, some salt and 2 tins of haricot beans. Then bake in the oven at 180°C for 45 minutes, with a lid on. This is all a bit out of my comfort zone, but totally delicious.

The creamy coleslaw was a mix of shredded white cabbage, red cabbage, grated carrot, thinly sliced onion and some grated kohlrabi which the kind man from North East Organic Growers gave me at Spring Graze. I left it all to sit for an hour in a colander with a sprinkling of salt, to get rid of the excess water. Then mixed it together with half mayonnaise, half yoghurt, chopped parsley, a squeeze of lemon and some whole grain mustard.

The main event was a shoulder joint of pork heavily smeared in English mustard, sugar, paprika, salt and pepper, bit of water in the bottom of the tin and cooked at 130°C for 9 whole hours. I like recipes that you can say in one sentence. Put some foil over it if it goes a bit too black, I did after about 6 hours... The house smelt amazing...

The joint of meat was so soft when I took it out you could press your finger into it and it oozed sticky lush juices. I was excited all day to get it out of the oven! The skin was blackened and crispy but still delicious and the meat couldn’t have been softer. A pile of soft, sweet delicious pork falling apart with some crispy polenta chips, creamy crunchy coleslaw and sweet smoky baked beans was just totally delicious, a bit of tangy BBQ sauce on the side. Everyone had a lovely time digging into big bowls of soft delicious pork, and I've started looking into flights to Montreal, because the sooner I visit the Joe Beef restaurant the better...

The Allotment

I'm nervous that it is going to hail again, or snow even, the weather is very peculiar for May... But my seedlings were getting far too big for their pots so I had to take a chance and plant them out. The peas, broad beans and sweet peas have all be transplanted to the allotment, I have tied them up and given them netting and canes to climb up, so hopefully the little fellas will survive their first windy night out in the wilds of Highbury Allotment...

I have sweetcorn, gourds, yellow courgettes and green courgettes waiting to go in next, but will have to clear some space of weeds before that happens. The potatoes are chitting and should go in soon. There is no sign of the beetroot or parsnips yet but I'm not surprised as it has been so cold, I'd stay under the soil too... I still have lots of seeds to plant, french beans, radishes, carrots, fennel and lots of flowers, I may need to start spending a bit more time outside, if the rain ever stops...

Spring Graze

Spring Graze was a wonderful day, the sun came out, people came along in their droves and stalls sold out and had to send for more food... It was such a great atmosphere with people hanging around all day eating, chatting, meeting up with friends. Convivial and tasty, what better a day...

The stalls all looked amazing overflowing with goodies. I have to say I'm a little disappointed that I didn’t have time to eat enough or buy enough, I will have to know better next time. I did manage a scotch egg, a steak sandwich, some poppy seed cake and some wine so I suppose I shouldn’t complain too much... and there is some spectacular looking black pudding in the fridge which needs eating...

So a big thank you to everyone who came along, all the fantastic stalls, and the weather for holding off on the rain until after we had packed up. Watch this space for the next one!

Honey and Pear Layer Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

It's busy busy busy at the moment. We revisited the Lake District very briefly last week for one cold night in the rain, it was beautiful even through the rain. There were so many deer roaming through the valley, hardly bothered by us strolling in the rain at all. It was very very cold, sleeping in jumpers, socks and scarves cold... but the poor little house hasn’t had the fire on since October so it may take some time to warm through.

So there was that little trip, another mini trip to London this week, organising my exciting and tasty Spring Graze market and it all adds up to a busy busy me right now... But everyone took a little pause on Sunday to celebrate a very important marker in time... A very important birthday, I will spare his blushes and not reveal figures, but Mr. Hedworth deserved a special cake and a tea party...

This cake comes with a warning, it's very sweet, the frosting in particular, so go easy and only proceed if you think you can take it. I'm still not ready for any form of sugar days later, saying that, it is delicious, it just packs a fair bit of sugar... I think it is a Hummingbird Bakery recipe originally, I have made a few adjustments... and made my own crystallised fruit to decorate it, surprisingly simple and totally beautiful. Simply paint berries of your choice with a lightly beaten egg white, roll in caster sugar and leave to dry on greaseproof paper over night. I even added a few mint leaves for extra foliage...

Start the caramelised pears by melting 20g of unsalted butter, 60g of honey and 40g of caster sugar together in a pan. Peel 3 pears, core and slice each into 12 pieces and add to the melted honey mix. Simmer the pears gently for about 15 minutes, until the pears start to turn golden.

In a large bowl beat 4 large eggs and add 120g of caster sugar and 40g of soft brown sugar. Then in a jug stir together 120ml of live yoghurt, 120g of honey, 120ml of vegetable oil and the grated zest of a lemon. Beat this all together until it is a creamy emulsion and add it slowly to the egg and sugar mix. Then sift in 280g of plain flour, 1½ teaspoons of baking powder, 1 teaspoon of bicarbonate soda, 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon and 1 teaspoon of salt, mix everything together to form a creamy cake batter.

The cake is meant to be divided between four cake tins, but this would result in 3 layers of inside cake icing, which I think would have been a step too far towards full on sugar overload. I divided the mix between 2 tins, thankfully... Add half of the cooked pears to the top of each cake mix, in an even circle so each slice will come across some honey soaked pear, then bake both at 150°C for about 25 minutes, until golden and springy.

Allow the cakes to cool on a wire rack while making the cream cheese frosting. It is best done in a food processor, I tried by hand at first and ended up with lumpy butter bits that I had to scrape through a sieve, save yourself the trouble and wizz up 100g of unsalted butter with 350g of icing sugar, the recipe said 500g, which is just far too sweet for me, so adjust to suit your taste... Wizz it up until it is a fine crumb, then add 200g of cream cheese and a few teaspoons of the honey, buttery pear juice left over from cooking the pears, again to suit your taste.

Frost the top of the first cake layer, top with the second cake layer and then frost the whole cake, sprinkling the top with a pile of sugary berries and leaves. The sponge is so light and delicious, full of sweet soft pears and covered in creamy sweet cheese frosting. A cake fit for a birthday king...

Roast Pork Belly and Fennel Seeds served with Poor Man’s Potatoes

The allotment looks somewhere near normal, well the most normal it has looked since I got it two years ago, by normal I mean tidy, a bit tidy, in parts... because that's what everyone else's looks like, tidy, weed free, organised. Apart from the odd one, which I look at in delight when they are worse than mine.

In the past few weeks I have been making a real effort though, this is the year that I am going to get on top of it, be organised and grow loads, that's what I'm telling myself anyway. I have surfaces covered in seed trays around the house, the peas have popped up along with the broad beans, and still to emerge are sweetcorn, sweetpeas, turks turbans, green courgettes and yellow courgettes. I've planted beetroot, parsnips and poppies at the allotment and have two types of potatoes chitting on the window cill. Chitting is a technical term for sprouting shoots... I now speak horticulture... The seed potatoes came from the garden centre in Gosforth Park, Pink Fir Apples, which are delicious apparently and Duke of York’s. All this makes me sound very organised, but if you could see the thousands of weeds and huge grass chunkers taking over my plot you really wouldn’t think it...

After two hours of hard work gardening this left over roast pork belly was totally delicious, even more delicious than last night perhaps. It is a Moro recipe, Cerdo al Horno, and is the best pork I've turned out so far I think, my previous method with herbs wine and water seems a poor comparison all of a sudden. This one is roasted without any liquid for three hours with fennel seeds, garlic and lots of salt; crispy, soft, salty and delicious... Served with Poor Man’s Potatoes, Patatas a lo Pobre, slow cooked potatoes in olive oil with sweet onions, garlic and green peppers. I didn’t want it to end...

Start by bashing 1 tablespoon of fennel seeds in a pestle and mortar together with 2 cloves of garlic and a pinch of salt. Rub this all over the flesh side of your piece of pork belly, not the skin, the other side. I used a piece of pork belly from the Grainger Market that weighed about 1kg and would feed four. Turn the meat over and sprinkle the skin side with salt, lots of it. Ask the butcher to score the skin for you and rub the salt into all the slashes. Leave it to sit for half an hour and pre heat the oven to 230°C.

After half an hour brush the excess salt off and dry off any water that has come to the surface, put the pork into a roasting tin greased with olive oil and put it in the oven on a high shelf for half an hour. Make sure the oven is really hot, as this will form the hard, crispy crackling. Then turn the oven down to 180°C and cook for another 2 ½ hours. When it is done remove from the oven, transfer it to a chopping board, cover with foil and leave it to rest for 15 minutes.

I tried to make a gravy with the pan juices, Moro say to put the roasting tin on the hob, deglaze with 150ml of white wine and scrape up any sticky bits into the sauce, it looked like real gravy, it tasted of burnt bits and aluminium, you may have better luck than me...

While the pork is cooking you can make the Poor Man's Potatoes, heat 5 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pan, then slowly cook 3 large thinly sliced onions with a pinch of salt until golden and sweet, about 30 minutes. Stir them now and again so they don't catch on the bottom of the pan. After 30 minutes add 5 cloves of garlic sliced thickly, 3 green peppers roughly chopped and 4 fresh bay leaves, continue to cook for another 15 minutes. Then cut about 750g of new potatoes into wedges, salt lightly and leave for 5 minutes.

When the pepper is softened add another 10 tablespoons of olive oil, wait for it to heat up and add the potatoes and let everything simmer in the oil until the potatoes are cooked. Moro said about 20 minutes, I found it to be more like 45 minutes... Stir now and again to stop it sticking and turn it up a bit towards the end if it needs to be a bit browner and stickier... Finally drain through a sieve or colander before serving to remove the olive oil, keep the oil though as it tastes delicious for bread dipping or making crispy onions...

Serve a slice of the crackly crispy pork, which is meltingly soft in the middle and crispy, salty and crunchy on the outside with a big pile of slow cooked potatoes, peppers and garlic. They go so well together and taste even better the next day, I'm pretty glad I made far too much...