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...

Parsnip, Gruyere and Thyme Bread

I've been trying my hand at baking more and more recently. A long Bank Holiday weekend offers lots of time, so I set about another type of loaf. My baking started when I was given a sour dough starter before Christmas and I had a go at a few loaves of sour dough to varying degrees of success. Unfortunately the starter is no more, I neglected it a bit too long, I tried to revive it but to no avail. I feel terrible. Like I killed a pet or something... I'm trying to put it behind me...

Since then I have been making homemade flat breads regularly, they are very simple, when you don’t set fire to them, which I managed last week... I even tried them on the bbq, they puffed up beautifully, full of hot air and toasted on the outside, I was so proud! They melted in your mouth... Bread feels like a real achievement to me, I still have huge amounts of confusion and questions about what I'm doing, but just giving it a go is a good starting point I think... I tried a Traditional Soda Bread this weekend, I might have to work on that one a bit more, it looked beautiful but was quite heavy...

My most successful loaf to date has been this Parsnip, Gruyère and Thyme Bread however, adapted from one of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's recipes, he has a lot of simpler recipes for amateur bakers like myself... I had a couple of old sprouting parsnips that were a bit past it and this seemed a good way to put them to use....

To start, heat 1 tablespoon of sunflower oil in a frying pan and slowly cook 1 sliced onion until soft and golden. While it is cooking mix together in a big bowl 175g of grated parsnips, about 2 medium sized ones, 175g of self raising flour, ½ teaspoon of sea salt, 2 teaspoons of thyme leaves, 50g grated gruyere and some ground black pepper. Add the onion to the floury parsnip mix when it is done, along with 1 beaten egg and 2 tablespoons of whole milk. Bring the whole lot together with your hands, it's easier to get to grips with whether it needs a little more milk or not when using your hands. Don't overwork it, just a little gentle kneading...

Then shape it into a ball, flatten slightly and place on an oiled baking sheet. Bake in the oven at 180°C for 45-50 minutes, until the loaf is golden and makes a hollow sound when you tap the bottom. My bread always seems to take longer than recipes direct so I think my oven is perhaps a bit lower than it tells me.

Leave the bread to cool for ten minutes on a wire rack before slicing. The warm soft parsnip with melted cheese and almost smoky thyme leaves flecked through the bread is delicious. I didn’t get any further than just having slices of it with cold butter, but it would be lovely with an earthy warming soup, perhaps cauliflower or carrot... It is also amazingly good as toast... again with more butter! I love butter... a lot... this new found love of bread baking is doing nothing to reduce my butter intake at all... it's a slippery buttery slope to a butter induced overdose I feel...

Tax Free Pasties

Shortcrust Spiced Lamb and Pine nut Pasties and Filo Roast Sweet Potato, Garlic and Feta Pasties

This weekend saw a spot of topical cooking, I made mini pasties, although my 'freshly baked goods' didn’t come with an extra 20% VAT and were perhaps a little bit better for you than a trip to Greggs... I did heat them for the customer, so should have charged extra according to Mr. Osborne... But served them in various states of cooling, so perhaps not according to Greggs chief exec, Mr. Ken McMeiKan. It's a complicated business these days all to do with ambient temperatures. So in winter a warm pasty would be chargeable but last week in our little heat wave when its boiling outside it wouldn’t be...

Thankfully The Blonde and her fella, Boozer and the other characters didn’t have to stump up any cash and everyone tucked in to piles of steaming pasties... There was a modest supply of flat breads to accompany the little hot pasties, along with smoky aubergine dip, toasted cumin hummus, spicy tomato sauce, tzatziki to start... Followed by slow cooked Moroccan lamb, couscous, apricot jam and garlic green beans... and perhaps too much wine...

The limited supply of flat breads was due to a little fire incident as I tried to speedily make my own. I had pre rolled them and left them between layers of grease proof paper, thinking I was being super organised... It turned out that they didn’t really want to come off the grease proof paper and as I faffed around peeling paper and getting stressed I managed to stick some of the said greaseproof paper under the hob that was in use! Thankfully the back door was already open so as the flames leapt up I had to throw the whole lot out of the back door... So we were a few flat breads short on starting, but everyone still had a fine time... It all added to the excitement.

There were two types of pasty, Spiced Lamb and Pine nut in shortcrust pastry and Roast Sweet Potato, Garlic and Feta in filo pastry. The sweet potato ones were so simple. Peel and chop into inch sized chunks 2 sweet potatoes, add to a roasting tin with salt and olive oil and put them in the oven at 200°C, roast for 30 minutes, adding 5 or 6 cloves of garlic still in their skins after 15 minutes. When they are done take them out of the oven to cool, squeeze the garlic out of their skins and mush everything with a fork. Test for seasoning and add some salt and pepper if needed, then crumble in about half a pack of feta cheese. I also added a few cheeky bits of manchego.

I used filo pastry, brushed with melted butter and folded them into little triangles, I made about 20 of them in total, they were voted the favourites by the visitors. But at that point they had survived a kitchen fire and had quite a bit of wine so who knows...

The lamb pasties were a little bit more effort but by no means complicated... Chop an onion and cook in olive oil with a little salt until soft and golden, add ½ teaspoon of allspice, ½ teaspoon of cinnamon and 1 teaspoon of sumac. I brought my sumac back from a holiday in Turkey, you can get hold of it here, but it would also be fine to leave it out if you can't find any. Cook the onion and spices for a few minutes. Add 300g of lamb mince and cook until it is browned all over, then stir in 1 tablespoon of tomato purée, add 2 chopped vine tomatoes and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and cook until most of the liquid has evaporated. Mine dried out more than I expected in the oven so don’t cook it away entirely. Finally season and add a handful of toasted pine nuts and a handful of chopped mint, and leave to cool to room temperature.

I then used shortcrust pasty cut into circles and folded over into little crescents with a teaspoon of lamb mixture inside, sealed with a fork and brushed with egg wash. I baked both types of pasties at 200°C for 20 minutes, keep checking them though as they may brown at different rates depending on your oven and you don't want burnt pasties! The spiced lamb ones were lovely with the spicy tomato sauce, and the sweet potato even more delicious with buttery crisp pastry, mellow garlic, sweet potato and tangy melted cheese...

I'm thinking about trying out ones with roast apple and black pudding next perhaps or creamy chicken, capers and bacon...

Wild Garlic Pesto

I'm enjoying this little heat wave we're having in Newcastle, albeit through a window, but enjoying it all the same. I took it as an opportunity to become a forager at the weekend. My foraging career to date has mainly just been for blackberries, actually perhaps that's all. I once ate some wild watercress in the Lake District but that's about it... So I've decided to be a bit more adventurous. I found a lovely recipe for Wild Garlic Pesto, so I set out in search of the wild garlic. You can smell it before you see it, I have caught wafts of it from various gardens and parks around Jesmond, you just need to keep an eye out...

Jesmond Dene is over run with it at the moment, but I found a lovely little patch in Gosforth Park, a quiet spot in the woods, far from the weeing dogs of Jesmond Dene, which does slightly put me off... I probably wasn't that prepared in ballet pumps and a dress so might have to rethink outfits on future trips, I ended up with soil in my shoes and twigs in my hair... but with a carrier bag full of bright green leaves.

You mainly find wild garlic in shaded woodland areas, identified by its wafting garlicky aroma. It has long wide green leaves that look a little like lily of the valley and it grows in Britain from late winter, into spring. The patch I found were young small leaves, perfect for cooking. Unlike normal garlic it is the leaves that you eat, not the bulb, and it has a much milder taste than the strong garlic bulb which some people find over powering, though I love it... The leaves get a bit thicker and woodier when the plant flowers, towards the end of its growing season, so now is probably a good time to go in search of some.

You can wilt it as a green leaf, as you would spinach or stir into a sauce with cream and shallots, chop it into a creamy risotto, blend it into a home made mayonnaise or wilt through a stir fry. I've been looking at lots of recipes for it and will have to get experimenting while the season lasts. For my first attempt I decided on a pesto, it keeps for months, so is a good way to preserve it for use through the summer.

Simply blitz 75g of wild garlic leaves, washed thoroughly, in a food processor with 2 shallots, 50g of walnuts, 150ml of extra virgin olive oil, a teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of sugar. You can add 50g of parmesan also if you like also, I didn’t this time around.

So far this week I have enjoyed tagliatelle with the wild garlic pesto, and even more delicious, a chicken salad with a pesto dressing loosened with a little more olive oil, manchego, crunchy little gem lettuce, pancetta and pine nuts. It has a lovely mild garlic taste, but is fresh and green at the same time, my favourite pesto I've tried so far for sure...

Lemon and Orange Polenta Cake with Limoncello Syrup

Mother's day has been and gone, I was planning to tell you about a lovely ox tail, beef shin and red wine stew that I made, only it wasn't that lovely... So I'll have to try it again and come back to you, I'm not sure what I did wrong... I've made it before and it was thick and delicious with sticky slow cooked meat, but this time it was thin and watery and not so good. I blame the challenge of cooking with an aga which I'm not used to. The only thing I succeeded in was becoming hot, bothered and stressed...

So after failing the 'make something lovely for your mother in a calm and relaxed environment' challenge, the next challenge was 'make a birthday cake for a friend at work who is gluten intolerant and doesn’t like most things'. It's been a challenging week... I feel a bit nervous about specialist gluten free cookery, especially because I might poison some poor gluten intolerant soul. I'm not sure I like a substitution food, so I was looking for a cake that just didn’t go anywhere near flour, wheat or gluten. Gluten free flour make me think of quorn, is it not just a poor substitution of the real thing, is it not better to just eat something else? It is a world I know very little about so I approached with trepidation.

I've made rich flour-less chocolate cakes before, and almond cakes. A polenta, orange and almond cake drenched in lemon, orange, sugar and lemoncello syrup sounded interesting. I think I've almost convinced myself that by using polenta it is healthy? A healthy cake? Hmmm... Maybe not. It was a Nigel Slater recipe that I have tweaked a bit to suit.

Start by finding a cake tin about 20cm in diameter, line the base with a piece of baking parchment and set the oven to 180C°. Then beat 210g of butter and 210g of caster sugar in a food mixer till light and fluffy. Next break 3 free range eggs into a small bowl and beat them lightly with a fork. Pour a little of the beaten egg into the creamed butter and sugar, beating thoroughly, then slowly continue adding bit by bit, beating till all the egg is used up. I often seem to get a bit of curding going on at this point so may need to hone my baking skills a bit as I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong...

Add 225g of ground almonds to the egg cake mixture. Then stir in 150g of polenta and a teaspoon of baking powder or gluten free baking powder gently to the mix. Lastly, mix in the grated zest of 1 large orange and its juice.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin, it is quite thick so smooth it out evenly with a spoon. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes, then turn the heat down to 150C° and continue cooking for a further 30 minutes, cover the surface with tin foil if it is browning too much. Then remove from the oven but leave the cake in its tin.

To make the syrup, grate the zest from 1 lemon and 1 orange into a measuring jug, cut the fruits in half and squeeze their juice into the jug, then top it up with water so it measures 250ml in total. Pour into a saucepan and add 100g of brown sugar. Bring this mix to the boil and keep at a rapid bubble until the sugar has dissolved and the liquid has reduced to about 175ml. Then add 2 tablespoons of Limoncello.

Finally make small holes in the top of your still warm cake with a thin skewer and pour the syrup mixture very slowly over the top of the cake. You want to get an even spread of syrup soaking down into the cake. Leave to cool and let the flavours mingle.

I was very impressed with my first gluten free attempt actually, the cake has quite a grainy feel to it from the polenta, but is light and drizzly, sweet but tangy and fresh from all the orange and lemon.

Fish Stew with Clams, Red Peppers, Almonds and Saffron

This is a Catalan fish stew from the Moro cookbook, it is called Romesco de peix. Romesco after the famous nut sauce from the region. Different types of fish can be used, Moro use monkfish and clams, you can also use mussels, prawns and other white fish. I'd be pretty happy sat in a little Catalonian restaurant with a bowl of this, some fresh bread, a salad and a crisp cold white wine, it would be delightful actually...

We picked up some very pretty clams from the Grainger Market and two little gurnard. I got a bit I got a bit carried away taking photos of the clams, and the gurnard are quite cute in an odd ugly fish way...

To start you need to heat 6 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pan and add a large chopped onion with a pinch of salt. Cook the onion slowly for about 15-20 minutes until it is soft, sweet and golden. Then add 2 cloves of garlic sliced thinly, a couple of large sprigs of rosemary finely chopped, 3 bay leaves and 2 red peppers thinly sliced. Soften the pepper for about 10 minutes then add half a teaspoon of sweet smoked paprika and a tin of chopped tomatoes. These amounts will serve four people.

Simmer everything for another 10 minutes then add 150ml of white wine, let the alcohol bubble off for a couple of minutes then add 100ml of fish stock and about 50 strands of saffron that have been infused in 4 tablespoons of hot water, add the saffron and the water. Then add about 100g of ground almonds, Moro say 150g, which seems an awful lot, I may have added less than 100g, just until you have a thick-ish sauce. Add a pinch of salt and pepper to taste.

Finally add the fish, we left the gurnards whole, with their heads removed. If you're using monkfish cut it into chunks, about 650g. Add the fish and the clams, about 500g to the pot of sauce. Put the lid on and simmer until the fish is cooked through and the clams have steamed open, about 5 minutes. The sauce is deliciously smoky and sweet with paprika, tomato, nuttiness; with bites of sweet red peppers and fresh white fish and sweet little clams.

Breakfast Burritos with Avocado, Tomato and Chorizo

TLI and I ate burritos at the weekend to fortify ourselves before tackling the allotment on Saturday, and again on Sunday to fortify ourselves before tackling Sunderland at home... They are his concoction really, not mine, a take on an American Breakfast Burrito, or a Mexican Burrito. The combinations of filling can be swapped, changed, left in, left out, whatever you fancy really. Filling being the operative word however, they will keep you going all day long and more... I like the combination of avocado, tomatoes and herbs with chorizo in this version, it seems a little bit more fresh than the more traditional Mexican Burrito filled with beef, refried beans, cheese and sour cream...
 

A little left over rice is preferable, but as I didn’t have any I cooked a handful of white long grain rice in some salted water. Chop some cherry tomatoes, a handful of coriander and dice up some chorizo. Just make as much as you fancy, hunger levels and numbers of people depending. One packed burrito is enough for me, TLI can polish off two...

Mash an avocado with a pinch of salt, a little splash of olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice. Heat your tortilla wraps in the oven, wrapped in tin foil to stop them drying out. They only take about 10 minutes in a medium oven. Fry off the diced chorizo and lightly scramble 2 large free range eggs while the wraps heat up.

Then simply assemble, a little rice, some eggs, topped with chorizo, tomatoes, avocado and coriander, down the middle of the tortilla. Fold the end up a little, then fold each of the sides inwards to form a wrap... I really like the colours in each of the bowls, it's a pretty meal, a little kit of parts laid out on the table that you have to assemble yourself. The freshness of the tomatoes, coriander and avocado is delicious with creamy eggs and spicy chorizo. Make sure you are pretty hungry before embarking on these little fellas...

The Allotment

I've been to the allotment. I feel almost embarrassed to show it to you. I haven’t been for months, I didn’t even pick some of the things I planted last Autumn. I feel ashamed and guilty... That tidy bit you can see on the left hand side isn’t mine, that's the tidy man next door, who probably frowns on me and my weeds. I have lots of weeds and it's only March. I'm already feeling overwhelmed... Saying that, even just an hour of tidying and digging has improved matters somewhat. So I had better start thinking about what I might grow year... Herbs, beans, courgettes, cauliflowers, potatoes, leeks, beetroot maybe, lots of flowers... I'll have to dig out my allotment books and get planning...