Posts tagged Winter

What I Ate: Twice Cooked Pork Belly Braise

what i ate 5 Comments
Tender, slow roasted pork belly is braised in a soy based sauce, and served on rice, garnished with coriander.

Here’s the thing with two-person households. You read a recipe that you like, often written for four or six, and then you make it, only to find that even though the both of you are stuffed, there’s still plenty of leftover to go around. Sure, you can halve the recipe, but sometimes that really affects cooking times, and I find it easier just to try and do something interesting with the leftovers!

So if you’ve tried my Slow Roasted Pork Belly recipe and you have leftovers – like I did – here’s something that you can try with them!

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Slow Roasted Pork Belly

Recipe 4 Comments

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Crackling. I haven’t met anyone who doesn’t like good, crispy crackling. And it’s actually easier to achieve than you would expect. Impressive, because it tastes great and because you have to do a ridiculously small amount of work.

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Slow Roasted Pork Belly

600g slab of pork belly
Oil
Salt
Pepper

Preheat your oven to 160C (not fan forced. If you’re can’t turn off the fan, I would suggest 140-150C).

Score the pork belly to what your portions would be. I would suggest using a very small paring knife if you have one – you want to score just into the fat but not cut the meat. Rub a little bit of oil – I used just enough for a light coating – onto the pork belly, followed by a generous rub of salt and pepper, making sure you get into the creases. I scattered stripes of flavoured salt from Smoke and Roast that I got from The Good Food and Wine Show, and it gave me interesting bursts of flavour in every piece!

Simply roast it over a rack for a couple of hours till the rind is nice, puffed and crispy. I tend not to worry too much about the pork cooking through – at those sort of temperatures the pork is always done by the time the crackling is. If you have a much larger slab of pork, I would suggest cutting it into smaller slabs before you put it into the oven.

It’s the most foolproof recipe for pork and pork crackling I’ve ever used. Simple and effective, I like to serve portions of the pork just with some roasted veggies, no gravy required!

What’s your favourite tips to making great pork belly with amazing crackling?

Twice -cooked Lamb Ribs with Basil Chimmichurri

Recipe 3 Comments
Lamb ribs are first boiled in a stock, then roasted to a crisp perfection, before being served with a tangy basil chimmichurri.

So. This is one of those stories that just grow and grow, until you get to the end and think to yourself, “How did I get here?”

A friend of mine very kindly gave me big bunches of basil from his garden (as you can probably guess, this post is just slightly overdue). Rather than just do the usual and make pesto, I thought that I’d try something different, and make a Basil Chimmichurri (recipe to follow).

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Mushroom and Bacon Risotto

Recipe 5 Comments

I’ve finally had a moment to do a bit of cooking, and with Sean’s newfound love of risotto, it’s the new challenge that I’ve decided to put my efforts toward getting right.

I heard somewhere that how you know when a risotto is ready, is when your arm gets tired. Boy, is that true. But it’s all worth it in the end, as the result was absolutely yummy!!

Mushroom and Bacon Risotto (Serves 4)
2 cups Aborio rice
1.5 L stock (I used chicken)
4 rashers bacon
Butter and Mushrooms to your taste
1 medium onion, diced
Parmesan

Start frying the bacon till it starts getting crispy. Add the mushrooms and half of the butter, and sauté till the mushrooms brown. Transfer to a bowl.

Start warming the stock. It should be just simmering, not a rolling boil. 

Next, sauté the onion on medium heat till translucent, then add the rice and half of the remaining butter. Fry till the rice is glossy. Start adding the stock – a ladle at a time – and stir till the stock is absorbed by the rice, before adding another ladle.

After adding about a litre of stock, start tasting the risotto to test whether the rice’s donen-ess is to your liking. It should be cooked, but still have enough of a bite to it and not just mush.

Serve with the mushroom and bacon mixture with a healthy grating of Parmesan on top. I also like to add thin shavings of butter to stir in as you eat.

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Risotto isn’t that hard to make actually, and with so many ingredients, it’s hard for it not to be tasty. Just make sure that you’re using good quality stock and you’re halfway there!

What about you? Are there any reputation-ally hard dishes that you’ve cracked the secrets to?