Twice Cooked Pork Belly

This is over a couple of days - well worth the effort though - I think - well, put it this way, it takes a while to make but not long to eat!

I am really really sorry - the finished product did not get a final photo - it was eaten too quickly for me to grab the camera - you will just have to trust me when we said it was delicious.

Ingredients

Pork Belly
1 onion
8cm ginger
3 heaped teaspoons of garlic (crushed)
3 red hot chillis
2 teaspoons of chilli or chilli flakes, or crushed chilli (jarred)
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1/2 cup plum sauce
1/2 ketjap manis
1/2 cup malt vinegar
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
1 cinnamon stick
4 star anise
1/2 brown sugar


Day 1

Place the pork belly into the bottom of the slow cooker or pressure cooker. Combine rest of ingredients and pour over pork - you may need to add water if it doesn't look like enough liquid.  Cook on slow cooker for 6 hours, basting with sauce as you go.  If cooking in pressure cooker use the pot roast setting and do 2 cycles.

Remove from sauce - place in dish, put another dish on top of it to weigh it down. Refrigerate over night.  Strain and keep left over sauce.

Into the pressure cooker

Strain off juices, keep juices and discard solids

doesn't look too apetising at this stage...wait until its finished...drool

Day 2

Cut the cold cooked pork belly into cubes. Place in baking tray on paper, baste with left over sauce. Put into hot oven (210 deg C) and cook until golden.

While the pork is cooking in the oven, put on some rice - if you do have a pressure cooker, cook it in that - 1 cup of rice serves 3 of us. Place rice in bottom of pressure cooker, add water to cover so that rice takes up approximately half the depth of the water. Cook on rice cycle.

Put the left over sauce into a pan and onto the stove over medium high heat to thicken and reduce.

Serve with steamed asian vegetables, rice and sauce.

Lemon Cheesecake (no bake)

I love lemon cheesecake - this on is easy as its no bake - the longer you leave it (a day or two) before eating, the more lemony it is in flavour.

Ingredients:

Base:

500 g sweet biscuits - I used butternut

200g butter, melted

Filling:

2 x 250g cream cheese at room temperature

2 x 400g tins sweetened condensed milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

juice and zest of 5 lemons

3 tablespoons gelatin 

Blend the biscuits until they are crumbs in the processor - while processor is still running, add melted butter.

Press crumb mix into the bottom of a lined springform pan (I used 23cm) and up the sides.  Place in freezer for about 30 minutes. If it looks like there is too much butter, use paper towel to soak up the excess.

Using a blender, beat the cream cheese until smooth, light and fluffy.  Add the condensed milk, vanilla, lemon juice and zest.  Beat until smooth and well combined.  Boil water, pour into a cup (about 1/2 cup boiling water), add gelatin and stir until combined and there aren't any lumps. Add to lemon mix. Beat well.

Remove tin from freezer. pour lemon mix over base. Refrigerate at least 6 hours or overnight until set.

Things to note: I love lemon! I love the zest of it, and when it is in a sweet, I love the sweet and sour zingy thing that happens in my mouth when I eat it - the more zing, the better it is.  This cheesecake will improve with flavour if you leave it for a day or two before consuming.

Chicken Schnitzel

My kids love this schnitzel - you could substitute the chicken for veal as an option - great to keep for lunches the next day (if they last)

Ingredients

• 1kg chicken breast (or use tenderloins)
• day old bread - crumbed - or use packaged breadcrumbs (won't be as nice)
• bunch fresh basil
• 1 cup Parmesan cheese - grated
• 2 eggs
• milk
• 1/2 cup flour
• oil for cooking (do not use olive oil)

Firstly you need to prepare your breadcrumbs. I use day old bread - the stuff nobody wants to eat - put it in the food processor and process until fine crumbs.  Add the handful of fresh basil leaves, and grated parmesan cheese - process until well mixed but still resembling breadcrumbs.

If you are using chicken breast, you will need to fillet it to thinner slices rather than one thick chunk. Tenderloins will not need filleting.

In a bowl, whisk egg and milk.

In another bowl, place the flour.

In a 3rd bowl, place your breadcrumb mixture (if you do not want to make your own breadcrumbs, use packaged ones).

Dunk the chicken fillets into the flour mixture first, then into the egg mixture, finally into the breadcrumbs. Place on plate.

Heat oil - to see if oil is hot enough, drop some bread into the oil - if it fries then it is hot enough - if nothing happens wait a little longer.

Cook the schnitzels until golden on each side.

Corned Beef

When I was a kid, this was one food I absolutely hated. I remember once we went on a trip to Cooma and we were billeted out for our accommodation. My girlfriend and I (we were about 17 at that stage) were sent to a shabby old house with cobwebs hanging throughout the kitchen and it was just really grotty.

We were dished up corned beef with white sauce - and from that point on I was scarred for a very long time.

Fast forward 30 years and I find a recipe by chance for corned beef - I had been looking for something unusual and definitely something that was on the cheap side for sandwiches for lunch.... I found a recipe similar to this - I think that the cloves and cinnamon did it for me and now its a lunchtime favourite here for us.

Ingredients:

1 piece of corned beef (sized to suit your needs)
1 sliced onion
4 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
2 teaspoons of allspice
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons peppercorns
8 cloves
2 bayleaves
2 red hot chillies


Wash the meat!

Place all ingredients in the bottom of the pressure cooker. If you have a trivet that fits into the pressure cooker, place the meat on this.  Add extra water to bring liquids up to rack of trivet. Cook for 2 cycles on Pot Roast setting.

If using a slow cooker, same as above, no trivet -6-8 hours on low, turning meat regularly so it doesn't dry out.

Once cooked, into the fridge - slice up and sandwich with pickles and cheese - yummmm

Or serve as a main with mashed potatoes, strain juices and thicken to make a sauce.

Sausage Rolls

My boys always loved home made sausage rolls - we knew what went into them - and they would eat them in no time - this recipe is perfect to freeze and keep for a quick meal later - no need to defrost, just straight into the oven - you'll know when they are cooked - they will be golden and just begging to be devoured.

You will need:-

• 1kg beef mince
• 500g pork mince
• 12 sheets puff pastry
• 1 cup chopped corriander
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup breadcrumbs
• 1/2 cup  Kepap Manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce)
• 1/2 cup sweet chilli sauce

Separate your sheets of puff pastry and spread out so they can defrost - use a knife to gently separate the sheets. Do not remove the plastic divider sheets, you will need these later.

Place all ingredients (except for the puff pastry of course) in a bowl - mix well by hand. I grab and squeeze to mix this - I've found its easier and quicker - just dip your hands into it, grab and handful, lift and squeeze - repeat.

You want it to be mixed to a consistency of rissoles - firm but not dry.

Divide the mixture up into 12 even quantities.

Take one of the mince balls, and spread it out over half of one of the puff pastry sheets. Repeat for each ball to a sheet of pastry.

Start to roll up the pastry, leaving the plastic behind.

Continue to roll up the pastry to the end of the plastic. Then roll the plastic back around the newly formed sausage roll.

Next, cut the roll in half - you now have 2 sausage rolls with the plastic wrapped around the outside of the sausage roll (you don't want it rolled inside the roll - yuck!)

To cook: heat oven to about 200ºc and place sausage rolls on lined tray - make sure that the edge of the roll is on the underside of the sausage roll to prevent it unravelling when it cooks.  

Cook until golden. Depending on your oven, you may need to rotate the tray part way through cooking to ensure even cooking. If they explode a little (like mine) its because the mince could probably have been spread a little further before rolling it up.

The rest of them? Place them in a plastic container in the freezer - the sheets of plastic will stop them sticking together in the freezer. To cook, just put on a lined tray (no need to defrost) in oven at 200ºc until golden.

Lemon Tart

All that left over lemon juice from making the Limoncello and I just had to create something - I had promised work I would make a lemon tart and bring it in - wonder if it will last that long?

ps, thanks Tanya for the lemons :-)

For the pastry:

This is a short crust pastry - I made it in the food processor - if you do not have a food processor, you can still make it by hand - work quickly and only use the tips of your fingers when getting the mix to "breadcrumb" stage (if you use your palms the mix will heat up).

Ingredients:

• 1  3/4 cup plain flour
• 125g chilled butter (roughly chopped)
• 1 egg yolk, lightly whisked
• 2 teaspoons iced water

Put the flour and butter into the processor - process until it looks like fine breadcrumbs. Add egg yolk and water and process until dough just starts to come together (note - add more water if required).

You are aiming for a soft, smooth dough. 

Roll out onto a lightly floured surface - roll out to the size of the tray you intend to use for the tart. Place into tray and trim to fit.

Refrigerate for at least half an hour to let the pastry rest.

Place grease-proof paper over the pastry, and cover with either baking beads or uncooked rice to weigh the pastry down.

Bake 180ºc for about 15 minutes to set the pastry. Then remove the weight and put tray back into the oven, cook until slightly golden. Remove from oven.

While the pastry is cooking, prepare the lemon sauce (below).

Carefully inspect your pastry - if it has cracks like mine does, the liquid will leak into the tray when you add the filling.  You need to make a "putty" to fill the cracks and seal the pastry.

 

To make the putty, make the lemon filling first (below). In a small dish blend together some lemon filling and some flour to make a paste. 

Then, spread a film of paste over the baked pastry, making sure you fill any cracks.  Then, back into the oven to cook off the base again.

You will see that the "putty" will be firm  when ready.

To make the filling:-

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons lemon zest
• 2/3 cup lemon juice
• 6 eggs
• 1 cup castor sugar
• 1  1/3 cups pouring cream

Whisk ingredients together, set aside until ready for use.  

Pour lemon mixture over pastry base. Bake in oven until set.

Note:  if you have lemon mix left over, put into a baking dish and bake separately - serve with ice cream - yummy.

Choc Chip Biscuits

It's a cookie kinda day - cool, overcast, time for some comfort food and a cup of tea, good book and a day on the lounge.....or, I could take these to work next week....

125g butter, softened
1/2 cup castor sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1  1/2 cup self raising flour
1 cup choc bits (I use white, dark and milk combined)

Preheat oven 180ºc.  In a bowl, beat together the butter and sugars until smooth. Add egg - beat further so that the mix is smooth. Add vanilla essence - beat. Add flour and combine. Add choc chips. Place small rolled balls of mixture on lined tray, bake 10-12 minutes until golden. Cool on trays.

This recipe is very similar to the peanut butter biscuits - with this one I did not add any extra flour as I did for the other recipe. As a result, the mixture was stickier and quite wet.

When I cooked them up - they spread further than the peanut butter mixture. 

Once out of the oven, they were a much chewier texture - if you like crisp biscuits, I suggest adding more flour to make a drier mixture. You can see comparatively in the images above how they much they spread.