Let the Pork Fest begin...

Saturday 30th July 2011

The invites were out...

The RSVP's were back...

We were all ready to ...

All the pork recipes on the menu were taken from the book I was given when I visited  Jimmy's Farm. I know, I know, I had Jimmy sign it over to Claire as she had just left home to live in the middle of the countryside. Honestly, I have let her read it... once... and she loved it, the game recipes and real country feel of this book is right up her street!

Like I was saying, I used the book for the pork recipes, it was very easy to follow, a great read in its own right and I promise I will now give it back to its rightful owner!

We nibble these as appetisers with drinks

• Perfect pork crackling
• Mini Sausage bites from my butcher (Pork & Ginger and Pork, Cider & Apple)
• Mixed Olives

Our main course 

Stuffed hock and trotters!

• Rillettes
• Stuffed hock with trotters
• BBQ Sheet ribs
• Mini pork souvalaki (From Falling Cloudberries by Tessa Kiros)
• Traditional Rustic French Bread
• Tomato Salad
• Homemade Hummus

We had a choice of two desserts ( No real photos of them as the wine was flowing and the kids were impatient, I did capture the chocolate sauce that managed to stick itself to Arty's face... does that count?)

• Apple Brown Betty & Pouring cream
• Homemade Profiteroles with dark chocolate sauce

We drank:

• Buzzards Valley English Regional Wine
• Pinot Grigio
• Merlot
• Stella Artois 
• Cherry Tango
• Pepsi 

The conversation flowed....

• Using real butchers over supermarkets
• Supporting the British farming industry
• The recent Pampered Chef Conference & relevant gossip (!)
• The merits of having teenage kids (or not!)
• How cute Rachel was when she was little (very!)

The verdict?

We all really enjoyed ourselves and enjoyed the pork dishes to different degrees. The rillettes after slow cooking for 3 hours were a great flavour but didn't have that pull apart loveliest promised in the book :-( 

The hock meat was tender and tasty but needed to be picked out of the debris that was the rest of the hock... the stuffing was very tasty especially the caramelised bit that oozed from the opening of the hock.

Sadly the trotters were left untouched, they looked pretty gruesome and with the rack of moist meaty ribs there was no competition!

Thanks for the Flowers Rachel x

&

the thank you card from the Jackson. 

Lambfest next you say....hmmm, that could be arranged!

Souvlaki made from my new cook book!

I didn't think my week could get any better, I was still on a high from taking part in the food blogger event and had my next challenge lined up with a small piece of chump when Amazon delivered a mystery parcel... drum roll please...in this next bit I get a bit sloppy and emotional!!!  Out of the box fell the cook book I was reading at Marie's house, I'd fallen asleep reading and next morning had commented that it was an amazing book and I hurriedly copied down the souvlaki recipe to try with my Jimmy's Farm bounty.  As a thank you for accompanying her to Ipswich Marie had sent me a copy of my own. If I hadn't been rewarded enough with a great day out, great company, a signed cooking book from Jimmy himself, a great lunch and a bag of meat... she sends me this!!! It brought a tear to my eye. Do you know what? Friends are the most important ingredients in the recipe of life... thank you Marie for my thank you gift, it was a pleasure spending time with you!

Falling Cloudberries by Tessa Kiros

 Diced chump of pork, skewered ready for the gril.

I served it with Jamie's chopped salad, Tessa's Tatziki, pitta bread recipe from Domestic Jules  I grilled the kebabs for about 5 mins each side then left them to rest, by the time I was ready to serve them they were cooked to perfect.
I can't believe that I have now cooked two pork dishes without over cooking and drying them out... I'm on a roll; I might just cook pork again tomorrow!!!

For my IPD P2 followers, leave out the pittas the rest is good to go...

Chicken Tikka Masala Stoneware-Style!

For Sarah with love...

This is one of the best stoneware curries, its got an authentic Indian taste and you can easily turn the heat up by adding more chilli's.  If you would rather not use a tikka paste you could always follow this Chicken Tikka Recipe but probably wouldn't do it in the stoneware as the raw spices need to be fried off to give off the best flavours.

Chicken Tikka Masala Stoneware-Style!

5 chicken breasts for Deep Dish Baker or Square Baker – (can double ingredients for Rectangular Baker)
¾ jar Tikka Masala paste
250g natural yogurt
I tbs olive oil
1 red onion – finely chopped
1 garlic clove
1 fresh green chilli
1 inch piece root ginger – finely grated or chopped
4 fl oz / 125 ml water
4 fl oz / 125 ml double cream
Bunch fresh coriander – finely chopped
1tbsp lemon juice
2/3 tsp cumin seeds

Method
1. Chop uncooked chicken into bite size pieces using Santoku knife and Cutting Board. Add the chicken to the Classic Batter Bowl. Chop the red onion and chilli using the Food Chopper and add to the bowl.

2. Use the Micro Scraper to take the masala paste out of the jar. Snip coriander with Kitchen Shears into a Prep Bowl, and then add to the bowl. Use the Easy Adjustable Measuring spoon to measure out the olive oil. Squeeze the lemon using the Citrus Press into Prep Bowl.

3. Measure the cream and water using the Easy Read Measuring Cup. Add the yogurt using the Measure-All cup. Crush the garlic with Garlic Press, and then grate the ginger using the Microplane. Combine all the ingredients in the bowl using the Mix’N Scraper.


4. Measure the cumin seeds using Adjustable Measuring spoon and place in a Prep Bowl, add a knob of butter and microwave until seeds pop. Add to mixture, stir and pour into stone on180-200 degrees for 35 mins – make sure curry is bubbling nicely in oven.

5. Serve with Coconut Rice using the Rice Cooker Plus in the microwave.

Makes 8 Servings
• 4 cups Thai jasmine white rice (note that other types of rice do not work for this recipe)
• 3 cups of good-quality coconut milk (regular or light!)
• 4 cups cold water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons dry shredded/desiccated unsweetened coconut

Place rice in rice cooker. Add the water, coconut milk, salt, and coconut. Stir well.

Cover and put in microwave. Give it five minutes on “Full” power and then another 10-minutes on “Medium” (50% power).

Gently fluff with a fork before serving (some of the coconut milk may have risen to the surface - just stir it back into the rice).

The rice should be “sticky” – this is normal.

At one of my Curry Night Special Pampered Chef Shows I take along a batch of Naan bread dough and let each guest cook their own bread.
This is great fun, they all roll out their individual naans with the bakers roller and cook it over a medium heat in the square griddle pan they are delicious and really do make a curry night special.  If you'd like to know how to make them, follow the link here

Any questions? Just ask!

The homemade Pitta Saga...

I had friends coming round for lunch, we'd had a big meal the day before and had a fridge full of leftovers and while I didn't want to short change them with warmed up seconds I didn't want to be wasteful either... what to serve them....hmmmmm... think, think, think.....I spend my free time reading a number of food blogs, the few I follow on Twitter are foodies and many of my Facebook friends are foodies... I read alot about what other people are cooking so over the past week I had read a link and followed it about the making of homemade pittas.  It struck me as I gazed into my fridge that the leftover lamb and chickpea side dish could have the makings of a Greek Meze and somewhere in cyber space there was a pitta recipe just waiting for me... only problem was, I couldn't find it!!! I checked my own blog only to find that I had made them once before... but the link was broken..I still had no recipe. I asked who was responsible for whetting my appetite... who, in the last week or two had made homemade pitta with such fabulous results that I had stored it away in my 'must do' folder in my head... well it didn't take long for Domestic Jules to get back to me... it was her, she'd made them, they were truly fabulous and she very kindly sent me the pitta recipe link.... so I made them...only thing I did different is I cooked them on my Pampered Chef Rectangle Stone, I think it helped it to puff up and become crisp on the underneath too.

I agree, strange shape and probably a little well done but very nice all the same!

Check out Domestic Jules blog to see how they really should be cooked!

With those I served the reheated lamb from the day before. It had been served sprinkled with pomegranates so I carefully picked those out and squeezed the juice into the meat. Wrapped it in foil and slowly reheated it and came out trumps... moist and moreish Lamb Salad!

Then I made the  Tzatziki - A photo can be seen here

350g/12oz Greek yogurt
1 cucumber
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 cloves of garlic, pushed through the garlic press
dash of extra virgin olive oil
paprika, for sprinkling

Method
1.De-seeding the cucumber before grating. Place the grated cucumber in a fine strainer and press to squeeze out all the excess liquid.
2.Combine the yogurt, cucumber, lemon juice and garlic. Add a dash of olive oil and sprinkle with paprika.
3.Leftovers can be sorted in the fridge but will separate slightly. Just mix with a fork before serving again!

I then turned the chick pea side dish into hummus by adding a large glug of oil and a tablespoon of tahini paste before whizzing it to a smooth paste (sort of... we all like a bit of texture in our lives!!!)
A beef tomato salad  - Ripe tomatoes slices, white onion finely chopped, torn basil (used dried at a pinch), glug of oil, salt and pepper and a generous glug of balsamic vinegar and you're done! Cover and let marinate until you're ready to serve.
 
A mixed green salad finished it all off nicely!!

Pitta bread made with wholemeal bread was equally good!



We served all this with copious amounts of Procecco, sparkling water and squash for the kids. For dessert I made Turkish Delight Syllabub  again I need to apologise to Nigella, I subbed lots of things in this but it still turned out fab... Tia Maria instead of Cointreau for a start and the chocolate on the top was more appropriate with the change too I think... hey, it worked for us, so no complaints!!!
 

Traditional Rustic French Bread

I love making bread, these french sticks were very easy to make, French Tart's instructions were easy to follow and the resulting sticks were amazing. The smell coming from the kitchen was French, they sounded French when I broke them in half and the taste was just like I was on holiday. Deeeee lish-us!!! You can get the recipe by clicking here

My shaping could do with a little more practice!

The texture was just like the baguettes we get on holiday.

Served with a selection of flavoured oils.

Basil, chili & balsamic (LtoR)

Homemade Beefburgers

Another one of my pampered chef gadgets is the ice cream sandwich maker, fabby little product that make professional looking beef burgers in minutes! (I've never got round to making ice cream sandwiches with it yet!!!) I use good quality minced beef steak add seasoning a clove of crushed garlic and sometimes a herb or spice of choice. I've tried Mexican & Italian seasoning, both with great results! I once had potatoes and veg left over from a Sunday dinner and spend a couple of minutes turning it into bubble and squeak burgers, they were really tasty served with leftover meet on Monday!

Anyhoo, back to my beef burgers, I cooked them in the Pampered Chef griddle pan for about 5 minutes each side and they were delicious!

Open freeze the ones you don't need for another time!

If you use good quality meat they don't shrink to nothing in the pan. Don't you just love the lines on them? They tasted so good!

No photos of the end dish I'm afraid as once I'd popped them into homemade burger rolls with salad, stilton or cheddar and large dollop of homemade mayonnaise they disappeared before I could get the camera out!

Click on the highlighted words for recipes and do let me know if you try them out yourself!

Apricot & Walnut Bread with a Sweet Potato Salad with Citrus-Curry Dressing

I got this fab recipe from a fellow director, Helen, she in turn got it from her director Sarah ... we're a caring sharing bunch of Pampered Cheffers you know! Helen suggests making it on a flat stone and it looks very rustic made this way, I popped it into my stoneware loaf pan for the same length of time and it looks like a proper loaf and I was able to slice it like regular bread too. Its absolutely fab, quick easy and oh so tasty. I'm going to start trying it with different flavours soon so watch this space.

When demonstrating this at a show, I make this first, then while its in the oven, I make the Roasted Sweet Potato Salad with Citrus-Curry Dressing! It makes the perfect meal!

Gate crashing a Team Whitehead / Jackson meeting.

They hold a lunch time meeting every Monday to discuss their Pampered Chef business for the coming week. They don’t mind me barging in, as long as I don’t come empty handed. Sarah always makes a soup – this week it was sausage, bean and red cabbage. I made these mini plait loaves to accompany it, slapped with lots of butter they were delish…soup was very good too, it colour coordinated with my purple jumper! If anyone knows of a way to add red cabbage to a dish without it turning it purple do let me know as I’ve never found a way and neither has Sarah. It was a marks and Spencer recipe that she followed exactly and the accompanying photo was certainly not purple! Answers on a postcard…

Buttery Bread Machine Rolls

Made these bread rolls in my rectangular baker, cooked them to perfection!

The recipe can be found here. I made a few adjustments though, with the sugar and eggs, it made it more like a weak brioche so no eggs, no sugar and they suited us fine!

Hot Cross Buns still making an appearance...

I know its not Easter and I'm usually such a stickler for eating seasonally but its an old photo and it was taken only a few weeks after Easter Sunday....and remember Easter is a season not just a day!

This is a family favourite recipe that I picked up from a supermarket magazine. I've saved the recipe here so it never gets lost. It is super quick to put together [apart from the rising time obviously!] and never fails.

They are great fresh but just as nice toasted the next day. This year I cook them in my pampered chef square baker  with amazing results, I really noticed the difference from last year which were cooked in an equivalent sized metal tin. They weren't as dry as last years, soft and fluffy on the inside and an even crispiness on the outside.

[Printable recipe here]

Pampered Chef Tear & Share Bread

The basic recipe for this bread was demonstrated at Sarah's January cluster meeting. (This is the once a month training session for pampered chef consultants ).
At a cooking show this recipe demonstrates the 20cm saute pan among other things, but here I did it in the 25cm because we were greedy!!


First I melted a large knob of butter along with a small diced onion and a large clove of garlic, I allowed this to cook on a low heat for a couple of minutes for the onions to take on some colour. I then threw in some chopped chives.
Then I added 2 packs of Pillsbury dinner rolls, the ones from the chiller which I had cut in half. Turning them to coating with the onion-y garlic butter. The smell was amazing!!!

Before placing in the pre heated oven I sprinkled it with grated cheese then cooked for the required amount of time (check the back of the carton for cooking details.)

Absolutely amazing..soft, buttery with a great flavour from the garlic, onions and cheese. This would be great with chilli added...but that will have to wait until the kids are not around.

We filled them with parma ham...delicious!

31st December 2008

Debbie Mick and the kids were here, we enjoyed (the empty plates were a give away!)

Garlic Knots Homemade mayonnaiseto start we then went on to have

Jo Mama's World Famous Spaghetti

This is a photo of the re-fried leftovers the next day as I wasn't quick enough to get a photo of the real dish!!! I served it with a green salad and this Italian salad dressing




For dessert we had tiramisu which was laced with amaretto

and the children had a chocolate and vanilla cheesecake that I cobbled together from being inspired by this recipe

You can't beat homemade bread!

Authentic Moroccan Bread Recipe

Due to my intolerance, I only had a little of this, but my guests loved it. It was quite dense but soaked up the soup and juices from the beef tagine perfectly! So simple to make too!

Cleochatra's Best Ever Revol-Oopsie Rolls

This was before they went into the oven..they look like meringues don't they?



But afterwards they looked like tortoise shells...WOW!
They looked very fragile to me and I did wonder if they would withstand a filling and a pair of maudlin hands wrapped round them, but once cooled they firmed up and held together really well. I was very careful cutting them and filling them but it went like a dream. These are going to be so useful, I already have a list of things I want to fill them with...Grainne's burgers, Bee's chicken pate...to name but a few!

Cleochatra's Oopsie Rolls

Asparagus Soup with real french bread!

What I did with the left over mussels

Cook them as you would for moules et frites then toss into hot pasta...so simple but so delicious. I served it with Italian Peasant Bread for bread machine from the recipezaar site. Again a simple thing to cook with outstanding results.

But thats me done with eating all these forbidden foods. I am not supposed to eat wheat, it really plays me up BUT it's the holiday so I have, in moderation...except the past few days when I have overdosed on it!!! I feel so Blahhhhh!!


Watch this space....healthy stuff to follow!