Recipe Thirty Two: Roasted and Glazed Pork Belly.

Roast your Pork Belly:

500gms of Pork Belly (:Make sure you get your butcher to score the skin of your pork.)

Olive Oil

Salt

Preheat the oven to 200C

Coat the skin in olive oil and sprinkle with salt, massage into the skin and scores.

Place your pork in a roasting tin and place in the oven for 20 minutes.

Reduce the oven temperature to 180 and cook for a further 20 minutes.

If the skin of your pork hasn't crackled place your pork skin side up under the grill until crackled and golden.

Cover with foil and rest for 20 minutes.

Cut into strips or chunks.

Glaze:

2 tablespoons of Hoisin Sauce

2 tablespoons of Sweet Chilli Sauce

1 tablespoon of Tomato Sauce

2 tablespoons of Honey

Small splash of water.

Whisk all of your ingredients in a small saucepan.

Place over medium heat and add the pork chunks.

Mix until the pork is glazed and hot.

And serve!

Recipe Thirty One: Popcorn

I was tossing up whether or not to include this as a 'recipe' since it is more of a technique. However once you have popped as much popcorn as I have in the last 24hrs you see it how essential this technique/recipe is to have on hand.

I first came across this method, posted by Elise on Simply Recipes. If you make your popcorn like this it is fast and you have barely any of those annoying, hard un-popped kernels.

As I mentioned on Thursday Miss MT had just celebrated her 11th birthday and last night we held her party.

A few months ago we came across this old fashioned popcorn bar over on The Hostess with the Mostess's Daily Blog. We were inspired. What you see above and below was our own interpretation. 

Popcorn

Saucepan

2 Tablespoon of an oil with a high smoke point eg. canola oil

Popcorn Kernels

Put your oil into the bottom of your saucepan along with 3 popcorn kernels.

Place this over high heat with the lid on.

Once these kernels have popped remove the saucepan from heat and very quickly add enough kernels to make an even layer on the base of the saucepan and put the lid back on. Give the pan one quick shake back and forth. Count to 20.

Return the saucepan to the heat. Within a few second the rest of the kernels will start to pop, even few seconds give the pan a shake back and forth to send any un-popped kernels to the bottom.

Once the popping has slowed remove the pan from the heat and immediately pour your popcorn into a wide bowl.

Now heating the oil with a few kernels in it lets you know when the oil gets to 'popping temperature' then adding the rest of the kernels and counting to 20 lets the rest of the popcorn get as close to popping temperature as possible.

Genius huh!?

Now add a flavour, some melted butter, a glaze, caramel, spices, the list is endless!

And you're done!

xx

Recipe Thirty: Lemon Meringue Pie

Another recipe as testament to my love of the lemon.

I really believe lemon is to sweet food as onion is to savoury. 

I put it in most things. 

Whether its a little shaving of the rind or a squeeze of juice it just gives food such a nice brightness.

Speaking of things bright, today is Miss MT's 11th birthday.
So here is a huge HAPPY BIRTHDAY my gorgeous cooking buddy.

xxxx

Lemon Meringue Pie

1 1/2 cups of plain flour.

3 teaspoons of icing sugar.

140gms of cold butter

1 egg yolk

2 tablespoons of cold water.

The juice and finely grated rind of 2 lemons.

1 x 395gm can of sweetened condensed milk.

4 egg yolks

4 egg whites

3/4 cup of caster sugar.

(5 egg whites is you'd like to use the one left over from making the pastry, I did & my filling/meringue ratio is slightly off)

Throw your flour, icing sugar and butter in a food processor and process until you have a mix that resembles breadcrumbs. Next add your egg yolk and gradually add your water until the mixture comes together.

Transfer the pastry to a floured surface and knead lightly until smooth. Form into a small disk and stick it in the fridge for 1/2 an hour.

Combine your juice, rind and condensed milk in a bowl and whisk together.

I am assured at this point you can also whisk in your egg yolks but I'm always worried that the lemon will start cooking the yolks and ruin my texture so I leave it for another few steps.

Preheat your oven to 180C. Roll out your pastry to fit a 24cm loose bottomed flan tin. Line the tin with the pastry, trim the edges and fork holes in the base. Line your pastry with baking paper and fill the case with pastry weights or uncooked rice. Blind bake at 180C for 10 minutes. Remove weights and cook for a further 5 minutes.

At this point I whisk in my egg yolks (you may have done this earlier).

Once the pastry case is out of the oven for the second time fill with your lemon mixture and place back in the oven for a further 5 minutes.

Whilst the middle is cooking whisk your egg whites until the form soft peaks.

Add your caster sugar gradually, say in 5 parts. Whisk until dissolved between each addition. I count to ten. 

Once the middle has cooked for 5 minutes remove it from the oven and reduced the oven temp to 150C.

Spread the top of your pie with meringue and stick it back in until your meringue has slightly browned.

Let cool completely on a wire rack and serve.

xx

Recipe Twenty Nine: Chai Spiced Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting

Cupcakes are everywhere; their popularity has grown hugely in the last few years and until last night I hadn't been sucked in.

It all started at breakfast with Miss C & Mrs D.

Happily chatting away Mrs D bought out her pre-breakfast purchase: Cupcake cups. Gorgeous, pink, stripy cups. And that did it. I decided to jump on the bandwagon.

I had promised my Mum a chai spiced birthday cake for her birthday this year...that was in January.

Better late and in cupcake form than never I guess!

Hi Mum! I hope there is at least one cupcake left for you when you finally make it home tonight!

This recipe is adapted from "Sky High: Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes" by Alisa Huntsman and Peter Wynne

Chai Spiced Cupcakes:

2/3 of a cup of Milk

2 Chai Tea Bags (not chai latte powder)

1 Breakfast Tea Bag

2 Whole Eggs

1 Egg Yolk

1 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract

1 1/3 cups of Plain Flour

1 cup of Caster Sugar

2 1/4 teaspoons of Baking Powder

1/2 teaspoon of Ground Cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon of Ground Cardamon

Pinch of Salt

110gms of Butter.

Preheat your oven to 180C. Line your cupcake pan or layout your cup-cake cups.

In a small saucepan bring you milk to just before boiling point. Remove from heat and add your chai teabags. After 3 minutes add your breakfast tea and let this steep for a further 2 minutes. Remove the teabags from the milk and squeeze out any excess liquid. Let this cool until its tepid.

In a medium bowl combine your eggs, egg yolk, vanilla and 1/3 of your chai milk.

Whisk together.

In another bowl place your flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, cardamon and a pinch of salt. lightly whisk these together. Add your butter and rest of the chai milk and using an electric beater, beat until light and fluffy.

To this batter add the egg mixture in three parts, beating to combine between each addition.

Divided your mixture between yours pans/cups. Do not fill more than 2/3rds full.

Bake your cakes for 12-15minutes or until browned. Cool on a wire rack whilst you make some butter cream!

Buttercream Frosting:

125gms of Butter

1 3/4 cups of Pure Icing Sugar.

Milk for texture.

Beat your butter until pale and fluffier. This took me about 3-4 minutes.

Gradually add your icing sugar. I would say 1/2 a cup at a time. Beat in after each addition. 

If you feel as though the icing is getting too stiff add a splash of milk to bring it back to a texture you feel happier with.

Bare in mind to get beautiful defined icing you do need quite a thick consistency.

Put the butter cream into a piping bag fitted with a jumbo star tip and pipe a spiral onto each cupcake.

Sprinkle the top with cinnamon.

You're all done!

xx

Recipe Twenty Nine: Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding.

This pudding contains no eggs, no chocolate & very little butter, but don't let that put you off.

What this pudding is:

 moist, saucy, rich and very inexpensive to pull together.

This recipe originally comes from the Australian Womens Weekly.

I'm not sure when it was published but my mum had been making it for as long as I can remember.

Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding

60gms of butter

1.5 cups of  self raising flour

1/4 cup of cocoa

1 cup of caster sugar

3/4 cup of Milk

2 teaspoons of vanilla

1 cup of brown sugar

1/3 cup of cocoa

2 cups of boiling water.

In a large microwave safe bowl melt your butter.

Mix into the butter: flour, the 1/4 cup of cocoa, caster sugar, vanilla and milk. Beat with a wooden spoon until smooth.

Sprinkle the top of this batter with combined brown sugar and  the 1/3 cup of cocoa.

Very gently pour the boiling water over the batter and sugar-cocoa mix.

Place in the microwave and cook for 9 minutes or until just firm in the middle.

Serve immediately.

xx 

Recipe Twenty Eight: Roast Chicken

I'm not sure why but doing a 'Roast' seems to be something that has an unnecessary 'difficult aura'.

This is a good and bad thing.

Good:

 'You'll have to wait I'm making a roast' 

is an perfectly acceptable excuse for when you pour yourself a glass of wine make your self a cup of tea, grab a new magazine and shut yourself in the kitchen away from the rest of the world.

Bad:

So many people avoid making them all together.

So to dispel that myth (for the cook only, everyone else should still think you are slaving away all day just to present them with the horrendously difficult to prepare meal) here is a dead easy, quick prep Roast Chicken.

Roast Chicken:

A medium sized chicken ( Around 1.6kg)

1 Lemon (cut in half)
1 Tablespoon of Olive Oil

2 Garlic Cloves
Garlic Salt 

Paprika

Preheat your oven to 220C.
Rinse your chicken and inside the cavity. Pat it dry with some paper towels.
Place a wire rack in your roasting pan & place chicken on top.
Squeeze the juice from your lemon over the bird & massage into the skin.
Brush your chicken all over with the olive oil.
Sprinkle the outside liberally with garlic salt & paprika.
Smash your two garlic cloves with the flat side of a knife, don't worry about peeling them & place the cloves & the rest of the lemon halves inside the chicken.
Tie the legs together with kitchen string.

Roast the chicken in the oven for 1hr & 10 minutes or until cooked through.
You can test for this by piercing the thigh with a skewer and making sure the juices run clear.
Stand for 10 minutes covered loosely with tin foil & then serve.

xx

Recipe Twenty Seven: Lemon & Pistachio Biscotti

I know I have fallen woefully behind on my whole six month challenge.

I don't think I'm going to make it to 130 by the beginning of May but I will try to get as close as possible.

When I made myself a coffee at work on Monday I noticed how devoid the work kitchen was of a perfect biscuit to eat with said coffee and I decided I would rectify the situation.

It had to be Biscotti.

I'm sure you're aware I love lemon & pistachio together and so I put those flavours  in what I think turned out to be a wonderful crispy, not too sweet balance to my slightly bitter & milky cup of coffee.

Lemon & Pistachio Biscotti.

60gms of chopped butter

1 cup of caster sugar

1 teaspoon on vanilla

The finely grated rind of one lemon.

4 eggs

2 1/4 cups of plain flour.

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1/2 a teaspoon of bicarbonate soda.

3/4 of a cup of shelled pistachios, roughly chopped.

Splash of water

1/4 cup of extra caster sugar.

 Preheat oven to 180C & line 2 baking trays

In a bowl beat together: butter, sugar, vanilla & rind until just combined.

Add three of your eggs, one at a time beating to combined between each addition.

Stir in flour, baking powder & bicarb soda.

Stir in the nuts.

Cover & put in the fridge for an hour.

Knead dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth.

Halve dough & make each half into a 30cm long log.

Place each log on a separate tray. Combine the last egg with a splash of water, brush your logs with this mixture and sprinkle each very liberally with your 1/4 cup of caster sugar.

Bake for 20 minutes. Cool on trays.

Reduce your oven to 170C

Using a serrated knife cut your logs on the diagonal into 1cm thick slices.

Place these slices back on the oven trays and bake for another 15 minutes turning half way through this baking period.

Cool the slices on a cooling rack & you're good to go

xx