Mexican Chile with a fruity twist

 This is just before banana & apple were added.

I told you I'm obsessed with her didn't I?  It's the flavours, it's the ease in which I can put them together. They are great and makes my mouth all tingly!!!

This beat the usual chilli-con-carne, cumin and kidney beans effort I usually churn out! The recipe wasn't online for this, so I watched the episode over and over again and make notes as I went along.. it was delicious but will need to buy the book and check out the recipe for real!
My effort (and it was a ruddy good one even if I do say so myself was...

Minced pork and beef, (Brown it off)
Add chopped onions
Add a batch of  roast tomato salsa (made up to the whizzed up stage without onions & coriander etc)
Cumin, Cinnamon, Cloves (I used about a heaped teaspoon of each)
Olives (chopped)
Raisins (Handful)
Fresh oregano
Smoked paprika (heaped teaspoon)
BBQ sauce (I used about 2 tablespoons of Jack Daniels BBQ sauce as I had it in the fridge)
Chicken stock (I used just enough to cover)
1 Banana chopped
1 Apple diced

Cook on hob for 20 minutes

Served it with rice, salsa
No photos of the served dish as we were greedy piggies again and scoffed it before I could snap! I will try to remember next time, I'm sure I'll be making it again next week...

Now I've made pork chops in a smoked paprika tomato sauce

Some very dodgy photo came out of this cooking experience today, all a bit blurred and some even fogged up the lenses, but this one wasn't too bad.

Here you can see the chops balancing on their skins trying to get them nice and crisp. It worked! The chops were lovely and tender and moist with a crispy skin. I let them rest and added a small amount of homemade tomato sauce to the pan and mixed them with the remaining juices, to this I added a teaspoon of smoked paprika, once it was all heated through I poured it over the chops!

I'm really into this pork cooking lark now, to think I was nervous about cooking it. The secret is to cook it until it is just pink in the middle, then by allowing it to rest the residual heat finishes off the cooking process! Why I've never thought about this before I have no idea - it's the same principle as cooking a good steak, Jo likes hers as blood as hell and I've got to be so careful not to allow that resting period to cook it too much for her.... simples.... I have learnt so much this week... Education is a marvelous thing and you are never too old to learn new tricks!
So, have you bought any pork to cook this week, if so, leave me a comment and tell me what recipe you used, I'm up for a few more...

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...

Jimmy's Farm rare breed belly pork with a Joe Collier twist

 I watched Joe prepare this cut of meat,

Rolled Belly Pork - Cheap as chips and tasty as hell!

 He skinned it and liberally rubbed it with a mix of ground black pepper and garlic granules before rolling it up. He topped it with a mix of ginger, lemon, coriander. A great tip he gave us was to use the same many skewers as we had portions. (Which would have worked if me and Marie hadn't decide to cut the joint up and share it!)  However if you're doing it at home, space your skewers out to determine portion size, once cooked just cut through the meat.

Makes my mouth water just looking at this photo!

I  roasted it at 170c for 40mins with a good 10 minutes resting time and it turned out delicious. I cut in between the skewers and each portion was prettily displayed on the plate.  This was full of great flavours, at the time I thought he was a little heavy handed with the pepper, far more than I would have added at home but once cooked it was delightful, not too peppery but with a great kick! The Asian inspired flavours he used on top of the joint were just perfect too, I have never had belly pork taste so good. The fat rendered down and became lovely and crispy and left the meat moist and full of flavour.
A great start to my week of eating pork!
I served it with a mix of steamed vegetables, Jo had parboiled potatoes roasted in the pork dripping...which looked amazing!!!

Marie takes me to Jimmy's Farm

What a week I've had!
A whirlwind would be one way to describe it!
I arrived home from holiday on Saturday and with a quick change of clothes and a repacked suitcase I headed to Marie's, my good foodie friends house. She had been invited to attend a food bloggers day at Jimmy's Farm to promote the 'Put Pork on your Fork' campaign. It was to be held in Ipswich which meant traveling to London by train, a quick nip on the underground and catching another train out to Ipswich, all part of the fun I'd say but Marie was unsure, she has a few mobility issues and mentioned in passing that she didn't think she could go.... WHAT... ARE YOU MAD WOMEN??? This is right up your street, you know you'd love it...go go go go... get back and tell us how fabulous it was!
She still wasn't sure so I offered to assist her, I'd come up to Chester and travel with her, carry her case and help where needed, she would be silly to miss something she would get so much pleasure out of... all her friends agreed!  The offer was there and after a few emails to those kind people at Finn Communications it was agreed that I could go too....

Now I'm not new to blogging, I've been going since 2007, but my blog it's flash, it doesn't have 'give aways', and I don't do that many reviews! It's just a place to keep all my family recipes, to share the love of cooking and to record the things that are special to me. All my regular readers know I'm an avid fan of low carb food, (being wheat intolerant and all)  I'm also a HUGE Pampered Chef fan... and have promoted the products that I love along the way. How would this fit in with my recipe based food blog? Could I come home and give it a good write up....after all 10 of the top food bloggers in the UK had been invited to this event... would I be able to do it justice?

The invite said the day would promote 'One Pig Weekend', 'Put Pork on your Fork' and support the Great British Pig Farmer.... well I'm a huge fan of the British Farmer, I always buy British when I can... so that bit would be easy. Put Pork on my fork?  As a kid I didn't eat much pork, the occasional rolled shoulder of pork on a Sunday but Mum's attempts to cook pork always ended up with a dry piece of white meat with a large chunk of white fat running down the side...blurgh!! The memory of it crushing any desire to cook pork in later life  (sorry Mum!)  So I would be very keen to learn more.... I then visited the  'One Pig Weekend' page.... OK... I'm inspired, you got me!!!  It said I could host my own event, a raucous garden party using their pork recipes... NOW THIS IS MORE LIKE IT.... if they can show me some great ways to cook British pork that I could cook for my friends and promote British meat.... COUNT ME IN... (I'm never one to miss a chance to throw a party!!!) 

We travelled down on the Sunday, talked food and recipes all the way, had a bite to eat and headed to our hotel, had a sleepover and were like a couple of kids sitting up in bed chatting (me taking notes... well you can never miss a chance of getting one of Marie's recipes down!!!)  Breakfast the next morning then off to the farm.... where we were met by Chris.

Marie with Chris (a fellow northerner, so he gets my vote straight away!)

I'm not new to the PR ways of the Food blogger... but let me tell you, these guys were fab! The day was organised to a T, nothing was too much trouble and the content was designed perfectly to make us more knowledgeable about their product and leave feeling passionate and inspired. 

Jimmy is so passionate about his farm!

Jimmy gave us a tour of the farm, now... my first thoughts were, it's going to be a bit smelly, he said he had over 600 pigs on the farm... I had my peg at the ready, but you know, good pig husbandry = happy pigs with no smelly sty's! He is so passionate about pig farming, his rare breed collection and is so knowledgeable that we were all truly interested. There are British farmers up and down the country who are just as passionate, just as knowledgeable and work just as hard to keep our meat British, we are really doing an injustice by buying imported meat.  I am asking you all.... is your meat British, if not why not?

Joe Collier & Jimmy

After the tour we had a butchery masterclass with Joe Collier. Now Joe's shop is a bit too far to travel for most of us but if you  have a butcher on your high street, pop in and see him, chances are his meat is British, if you don't and have to buy your meat in a supermarket, make sure it's British - you will taste the difference, the carbon footprint will be smaller and you will be supporting your farmer and your country...oooh I am a bit passionate about all these issue too.... but I digress...
These two together were a minefield of information. They went through the different cuts of meat, while Joe butchered a whole side of pork Jimmy explained how to cook and serve each one. Did you know the cheaper cuts of meat are usually the tastiest, and with a long slow cooking time you will end up with a dish that beats the more expensive cuts like the loin? I'm going to start asking for the Chump from now on, its so versatile and at £8.95kg much cheaper that the £16.95kg they ask for a top side of pork!  I'm not going to say too much about the other cuts and recipes choices as in the next few posts I'm going to be showing you the recipes I have made since getting home. We were all sent away with a packet of meat and the instructions to come up with a recipe... me and Marie shared ours so they'll be one than one recipe from both of us.... they were all delicious! (see tomorrows post...)

Then... it was time for lunch in the newly converted barn.

Click here for a pork burger recipe

We all opted for the pork burger.  I wanted to see how they should really be cooked, pork burgers can be dry (probably just mine!), this was anything but, moist and cooked to perfection! The onion chutney, pickled gherkin and fresh salad set it off beautifully. The chips, cooked in pork fat were a very tasty accompaniment. While some of us couldn't tell the difference between pork and beef me and Marie agreed, this was definitely one tasty pork burger!!!

I could ramble on all day about the merits of what I have learnt, how nice everyone was and how passionate Jimmy was about his pigs, but I'm going to leave it at that for now and follow it up with a few posts on the other things we tasted and all those lovely pork recipes I made during the week.
I have also got to sort out my 'One Pig Weekend Event'  I'm thinking festival style, tents in the garden, wellies and umbrellas, pork roast and pimms...ooooh, who to invite...

Jimmy's Farm Pork Snacks

Spent the day at Jimmy's Farm for the Put Pork on your Fork  Food bloggers event.

 What a good idea to serve sliced sausages with Pre lunch drinks!

 Beef and Chili Sausages

For some reason I don't do beef sausages, no idea why!

These were lovely with just the right amount of spice and a lovely meaty taste

 Pork crackling

Delicious, but mine would give him a run for his money!!!

#blowing my own trumpet!!!

 Pork & Herb Sausages

The best of a classic!

 CookingKT & English Mum

Piggy Salt & Pepper Pots

Apparently, these have a nasty habit of falling into handbags...

unfortunately they didn't fall into mine :-(

Bee's scotch eggs.

My eggs must have been larger or my sausage meat thicker than Bee as I only managed 4 with a little sausage meat left over!

The key to these is in the sausage meat, get the best you can, it will make a huge difference!

Delicious hot, great cold, ideal for picnics or lunch on the go.

Next time I'm going to go all up market and make them using quail eggs...very po-shhh!!!

Pork, Pesto & Gruyere Rolls

Not sure if this is what Bee's looks like...but this is mine all ready for the oven!

Red pesto may look better but green is probably lower in carbs!

The Meat was so moist and tender!

I'm not a great lover of pork, as a roast with lots of crackling is fine but chops, steaks, loin etc are not my cup of tea, mostly because I can't cook it very well. It usually turns out dry or undercooked and tasting bloody! Urgh!!

However this was nicely cooked, great filling, simple to do and impressive enough to serve to guests. I served it with Bee's luxurious coleslaw, which is another winner!

I struggled with Bee's new book at first, not that there's anything wrong with it, its just that I don't really need lunch ideas. I work in a kitchen then go home and cook in my own kitchen. Paul needs something he can eat in a lunchbox but no cooking or nothing too smelly as he works in a big office. So if I'd have had a choice I would have plumped for the meals for one book (I'd have doubled it) or the little book of curries (we love them) and I'd love to see her do a little book of low Carb Christmas recipes...that would be fab! Anyhoo, I had to get to grips with this book....I read it and re-read it, I love the humour in it...it made me laugh out loud. I also scaled things up to turn them into main meals. I am now running with it, loving them all, every recipe I've made has turned out great, even the one that we preferred as a side dish rather than the main salad it was intended to be. Great with a steak on the side. I'm looking forward to autumn where I will pack Paul off with a flask of soup (haven't tried any of the soup recipes yet) Keep popping back as I intend to make them all.

Slow Roast Pork

I don't really like pork...too fatty..not very tasty, makes the house smell all greasy....BUT WOW...I've changed my mind, this was tasty, the crackling was crispy (even that bit at the back of the photo that doesn't look crispy) the underneath was browned to perfection and the meat inside was melt in the mouth gorgeous! I served this with roast swede (no photos of this as they were VERY well done!!!) Followed the instructions exactly and .....drum roll please...another hit from the kitchen of Bee!!!!!!!!!

Sunday with the Davies children

I had Sophie (12) and James (8) stay over while their parents celebrated 15 years of marriage in a lovely country hotel.

For breakfast the children had Hot Cakes with an assortment of toppings.

Me and Paul had fluffy scrambled eggs with grilled thick cut back bacon

For Dinner we had...Pork Chops.

I had 6 pork leg chops in the fridge and was unsure of what to do with them. I did a search and found a recipe for a pork dish with pears and orange juice, I printed it off and went to the kitchen to make it...I managed to sub EVERY ingredient and it still turned out lovely.

Pre heat oven to 190c

Fry the chops in a pan with a little olive oil,

When brown put them in a casserole dish in a single layer.

In the remaining oil cook 1 sliced onion until just colouring,

Added 2 grated apples and cooked for 2 minutes

De glace the pan with a bottle of bud (lager)

Sprinkle with mixed herbs and salt and pepper

Bring to the boil then add to the casserole dish.

Cover and cook for 50 Min's.

When cooked, remove meat and keep warm

Bring juices to the boil and add a little cornflower mixed with water to thicken

I served this with French Potatoes,

red cabbage, [no photo] purple sprouting & fine green beans,

carrots and Spicy Sweet Potatoes.

For dessert we had slices of Victoria sponge and squirty cream, not my choice, but the kids love it. The girls had made fthis for us but there is no photo...it didn't last long enough to snap one!

Sweet and Sour Pork

Got this recipe from my sister-in-law, I have made it many times since.

1/2 oz flour for coating pork which has been cut into chunks,
6 tablespoons oil ,
1 garlic clove,
2 eating apples,
1 tin of pineapple,
1 green
1 red pepper,
1 level tablespoon corn flour,
1 dessertspoon soy sauce,
3 tablespoons vinegar,
2 tablespoons sugar or honey,
1/4 pint chicken stock,
1/4 pint pineapple juice from tin,

First cut everything up ready
Mix all the ingredients from corn flour down to pineapple juice in a jug,
Brown the coated pork in some oil,
Add peppers and garlic
Add the sauce
Add the apple and pineapple Simmer away for about 20/30 minutes.