Carnita

I made these awhile back, they were delicious and so moist and juicy. I loved it! I am not a big pork eater usually; the Husband is so I try really hard to incorporate it into our diet every now and then. I think I was influenced by my mum. She hated it, has never liked pork at all, so we very rarely had it. On a few occasions in my life we had some roasted pork – crackling and apple sauce but for the most part we never had it.

I always try to do something with the pork that will appeal to me, it’s not so much that I don’t enjoy the flavour, because I do. In small amounts, but I just never seem to enjoy it in more than 2 mouthful quantities. The Husband, always orders sweet & sour pork when we go chinese takeaway (and thai if they have it) he will ask for pork ribs over beef ribs, pork sausage is his favourite – do you get the picture? So when I saw this recipe and envisioned the ways it could be all moist and good I had to give it a go. Pleased I did I must say!

Carnitas


4-5-pounds boneless pork should, cut into 5-inch chunks, trimmed of excess fat
1 tablespoon coarse sea salt
2 tablespoons canola oil
water
1 cinnamon stick
2 teaspoon chile powder
2 bay leaves
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and thinly-sliced

1. Rub the pieces of pork shoulder all over with salt.
2. Heat the oil in a roasting pan set on the stovetop. Cook the pieces of pork shoulder in a single layer until very well-browned, turning them as little as possible so they get nice and dark before flipping them around.
3. Once all the pork is browned, remove them from the pot and blot away any excess fat with a paper towel, then pour in about a cup of water, scraping the bottom of the pan with a flat-edged utensil to release all the tasty brown bits.
4. Heat the oven to 180C degrees.
5. Add the pork back to the pan and add enough water so the pork pieces are 2/3rd’s submerged in liquid. Add the cinnamon stick and stir in the chile powders, bay leaves, cumin and garlic.
7. Braise in the oven uncovered for 3½ hours, turning the pork a few times during cooking, until much of the liquid is evaporated and the pork is falling apart. Remove the pan from the oven and lift the pork pieces out of the liquid and set them on a platter.
8. Once the pork pieces are cool enough to handle, shred them into bite-sized pieces, about 2-inches (7 cm), discarding any obvious big chunks of fat if you wish.
9. Return the pork pieces back to the roasting pan and cook in the oven, turning occasionally, until the liquid has evaporated and the pork is crispy and caramelized. It will depend on how much liquid the pork gave off, and how crackly you want them.

Recipe adapted from David Lebovitz.

Flavour Mixture!

I have been a bit slack with my Flavour of the Month Essential Christmas Cookbook I actually thought I’d been doing ok, I thought I’d been baking and making a lot. But, I went a bit all out to begin with and suddenly have dropped off.

And, now…I’ve sustained an injury and am not allowed to walk until Christmas really. It’s an issue! But anyway, I can write about the things I have done still – I’m not stopped from doing that.
I am going to do a bit of a bulk post though, minus recipes – I feel a bit slack with that, but there is pain associated with my above injury. And, well I am slowly sipping my peppermint laced hot chocolate and watching Top Gear at the same time, so I am a little distracted.

First off is the Raised Pork Pie delightfully tasty! I could’ve devoured the whole thing too myself, the sage with the apples were delightful. Of course it’s not surprising to say the least that these worked well with Pork. It’s a quintessential combination isn’t it? However, as you can see……my pastry failed! Oh how it failed. Texture and taste wise it was good, but it wouldn’t hold its form, and it just fell to pieces as it cooked? Pastry continues to bother me!

Next up is the Raspberry Miroire I made this for a family gathering, minus the white bark on the outside. It was well received, I was a little worried about the texture but it actually turned out very well. My SIL was the person who I was concerned about in relation to this texture thing, and she enjoyed it so must’ve been ok yea? I had to pass on the recipe to the Husband’s aunt the next day so it worked out! And didn’t really take a good photo, because there was not really a lot of time for me to fiddle around between it being ready and it being taken to be eaten!

Then the Spicy Nuts were a hit with my grandmother, she loves nuts (as long as there were no hazelnuts) and she devoured them in half a moment. The original recipe just called for pecan, cashew and almonds but I just used a natural nut mix that included macadamias and walnuts as well. These are actually her favourite nuts so I really needed to include them didn’t I! I also, did not have any garlic powder so I substituted it with nutmeg, it worked well.

Finally Roast Sirloin with Mustard Sauce….saved the best for last! Oh my word it was divine! Perhaps it was the good quality meat I happened to get my hands on? Well it probably helped, but the recipe would’ve had something to do with it definitely! Oh it was moist and juicy and so perfect for the food to celebrate my 4th year wedding anniversary! I should actually stipulate that I didn’t make the mustard sauce, because I didn’t use a 1.5kg roast sirloin, I used 2 pieces of sirloin that I covered liberally with the mustard, honey and garlic mix they used as the crust. Oh it was good! My mouth waters as I remember it. Will have to do it again soon I think, and maybe take better photo’s because I was so busy wanting to eat it this time!

Coke in Ham

In fairness of the “baked ham” mentioned in my Daring Kitchen post I thought I best give it it’s own entry. I have been using my Flavour of the Month cookbook, I promise, I just haven’t written all the entries yet, slack I know! That’s the plan for the weekend.

Anyway, so I’ve always wanted to try Nigella’s Ham in Cherry Coke from Feast so because the Clan decided to have a bit of a combined birthday/Christmas last Friday before BIL, SIL & Little E went away I thought this occasion called for something a little festive. So, Salmon en Croute from the Daring Kitchen and this ham seemed perfect!

I made a few adaptations from the normal recipe. I could NOT find cherry coke anywhere, so it became just ham in coke, but I did add far more cherry jam then the recipe called for in a little hope of adding some more of that flavouring. The end result to me, was delightfully soft, moist and tasty ham that I had to keep restraining myself from picking it before dinner was served! It didn’t win the Husband over in quite the same way as his usual Gammon Christmas Ham does (recipe for this will follow closer to Christmas, care of MIL!) but he did like it a lot and was happy to munch away on left over’s for a couple of days post meal so it wasn’t a failure either.

Ham in Coke


2.25kg boneless mild cure gammon
Approx. 6 cans of coke
1 onion
Glaze
Approx 16 whole cloves
8 T cherry jam
1 t smoked paprika
½ t red wine vinegar

Put the ham snugly into a large saucepan and fill with cold water. Put the pan on the heat and bring to the boil, then drain the ham into a colander, wash the ham under the tap and rinse the saucepan before putting the ham back in (this is to get rid of some of the saltiness)
Add the coke and the onion to the ham and if the liquid doesn’t cover the ham add some water. Put back on the heat and bring to the boil, turn this down to a simmer partially cover the pan and cook for about 2 hours.
When you are ready to glaze the ham, preheat the oven to 230C. Remove the ham from the liquid, reserving it for later and sit the ham on a board. Strip off some of the rind and a little of the layer and stud with cloves. Put the jam paprika and red wine vinegar into a saucepan and whisk together over the high heat, bringing to the boil and simmer until it reduces to a syrup consistency.
Sit the ham in a roasting pan pour the glaze over and put into the oven for 15minutes. Take the oven out of the oven, remove the cloves and rest before you carve it.

Honey & Five Spice lamb with buk choy

I enjoy when flavours work well together, and this recipe provided that. I was drawn to this recipe because I don’t use Five Spice that often, so I thought I’d give it a go. The other thing I loved about this recipe was that it worked well for an after work dinner. I do finish early most days which is great, I love that aspect about my work, but because of that I can schedule other things into my day after work instead of having to do it on the weekend like some. So on days like that I need something that can be done quickly and efficiently but still have a depth of flavour to make cooking worthwhile.

This is my final entrant in my Flavour of the Month for November. It has been enjoyable to use 1000 best-ever recipes from AWW there were many things to choose from obviously, it meant that I got to cook dependent on what I craved.
I have chosen my December Flavour of the Month and of course it could only be one thing. Essential Christmas Cookbook it’s technically not my book; it’s borrowed from my SIL. But I am claiming it for the month, whilst she’s away on holiday! And I’m very excited, I am such a Christmas addict – but in the sense that I like good food and the time spent with family. I like to make things and give them I like the joy of the season. I don’t believe in the fancy Christmas lighting, or the hundreds of dollars people spend on gifts. Keeping it simple is the way it should be!

Honey & Five Spice lamb with buk choy


¼ t five-spice powder
¼ cup oyster sauce
2T honey
2T rice vinegar
2 cloves garlic
600g lamb sliced
1T sesame oil
2 fresh red chillies, sliced
2cm piece of fresh ginger, cut into matchsticks
1 medium onion, red, sliced
500g buk choy
¼ cup coriander
1T crushed peanuts

Combine five spice, sauce, honey, vinegar and garlic in small bowl.
Combine lamb with 1T of mixture in a medium bowl.
Heat oil in wok, stir fry lamb in batches until browned. Return to the wok add remaining five-spice mixture, chilli, ginger and onion. Stir fry until onion softens. Add buk choy stir fry until hot.
Serve sprinkled with coriander and nuts.

Chow Mein

I love chow mein, it’s my favourite Chinese dish. I know it’s something simple, but it’s my favourite. I prefer it as a chicken dish. But I do like it as a beef dish as well just have a preference – doesn’t everybody?

I am not even sure what it is that I like about it, obviously it is to do with the flavour. But there should be more to it than that, shouldn’t there? Perhaps not really, if you think about why you like most things it usually boils down to “because it tastes good” so that should be enough!

I think Chow Mein tastes good!

Chow Mein


1T vegetable oil
500g lean beef mince
1 medium brown onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic
1T curry powder
1 large carrot, chopped
2 trimmed celery stalks, sliced thinly
150g mushrooms, sliced
1 cup chicken stock
1/3 cup oyster sauce
2T soy sauce
450g noodles
½ cup frozen peas
½ cup frozen green beans
½ small wombok, shredded

Heat oil in wok; stir-fry mince, onion and garlic until mince is changed in colour. Add curry powder, stir-fry until fragrant. Add carrot, celery and mushrooms stir-fry until vegetables soften.
Add stock, sauces and noodles, stir-fry gently until combined; bring to boil. Add peas, beans and wombok, reduce heat; simmer uncovered tossing occasionally for about 5 minutes or until vegetables are just soft.

Flavour of the Month for November is nearly over now and soon we will say goodbye to for now, 1000 best-ever recipes from AWW