Pulled Pork and Slaw

TO DO - recipe up for me to refer to when I cook it in a few weeks.

Cook Pork

Place 1kg boneless pork shoulder (trimmed of rind) and 1 cup water in an electric slow cooker. Cover and cook on LOW for 7 hours or until meat is tender.

Drain cooking liquid and cook some rice in it with old vegies for chickens or pigs.
Return pork to slow cooker; shred with 2 forks. Stir in the following ingredients:

1 3/4 cups barbecue sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons hot sauce
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 

Cover and cook on LOW for 1 hour.

Make Slaw

2 1/2 cups cabbage-and-carrot shredded, some chives and things from garden
2 tbsp. mayo
2 tbsp. yoghurt
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt

Proscuitto with Havoc Farm Pork

I put a good leg of pork away to cure last week so that we can hopefully enjoy some Proscuitto in the New Year of 2016. It takes at least 6 months to hang and dry-cure properly. A good time to start is now (May/Autumn) so I can start the dry-hanging process in my front sunroom while I have cold days and nights that aren't above maximum temperatures of 15C.

Step 1: Salt cure

Ingredients/materials
Really good quality free range pork leg between 7-10 kilograms, aitch bone removed, and 'trimmed so it looks like a fine instrument'.
3kg salt and a good container with a lid

Place some salt in an esky or chilli bin that can be secured tightly with a lid

sit the pork leg on the bed of salt

salt it really well

Salt the pork leg making sure salt gets right around the hip bone as this is the most likely spot for problems to occur later.  Weight it down with something heavy that is clean (I used my pasta roller with a plastic bag). Leave it to sit curing for 3 weeks, turning it over every few days.

Step 2: Preserving and hanging

Ingredients/materials

Muslin cloth

Pork lard

cayenne pepper

black pepper

horopito leaves dried and crushed (native NZ pepper tree)

hanging twine

20 June 2015 

Today I washed the leg in water and dried it with an offcut piece of new muslin. I hung itcto dry for a couple of hours then proceeded to paste on the lard and spices, then wrap in muslin and twine, then hang from the rafters in the front room of the studio. This location is ideal as I am right next to a beautiful rainforest creek, and humidity is important as well as cool airflow. The photos show the steps today.

Now to wait six months! 



~ to be updated

Apple and sage sauce

Serve this with BBQ grilled Havoc Farm Pork and steamed garden vegetables.

Combine the following ingredients in a slow cooker.
10 medium apples, peeled and cut into large chunks
Up to 1 cup packed brown sugar (depending on sweetness of apples)
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 cloves
squeeze of lemon juice

Cover and cook on low 10 hours or until apples are very tender.

Press mixture through a sieve using the back of a spoon. Give pulp to chooks or worms.

Return apple mixture to slow cooker with the some finely chopped purple sage.

Cook, uncovered, on high 1 1/2 hours or until mixture is thick, stirring occasionally. Spoon into a bowl; cover and chill up to a week. Or preserve.

Spicy chilli pork with knarly jerk hot sauce and salad

Ingredients (for 2 people)
salad:
200g Pork loin
2 cobs of corn
1 head of lettuce
bunch of mint
bunch of coriander
baby tomatoes

sauce:
6 ripe tomatoes
3 bay leaves
3 shallots
1 knob ginger
1 habanero chilli
3 cloves garlic


Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

Put all sauce ingredients in a blender and blend for 5mins.
Cook in a saucepan till thick and keep stirring while simmering it.

Blacken the corn on a griddle pan then place in the oven.
fry the pork till medium then place in the oven for 10 minutes.

Chinese Dumplings

On Sunday Lex, Peter and I went to Fuqin's house to make Chinese dumplings. 

We had an excited time making them and thanks to Fuqin for chopping up all the amazing ingredients, and to Peter and his Mum who made the beautifully smooth dough! 

Ingredients:

Black mushroom finely chopped

Ginger finely chopped

Chinese cabbage finely chopped

green prawns, deveined and peeled, finely chopped

pork mince

Chive finely chopped

Tofu finely chopped

Scrambled egg (firm) finely chopped

Sesame Oil

Olive Oil

Soy Sauce

Sambal Olek

Sugar

Salt

Store bought wonton wrappers from Dickson Asian Grocery

Peter's Mum's famous home-made dumpling dough

A taste test was in order to check the seasoning.

Making them was really fun; sitting around the table wrapping each little precious parcel up.

Each one I wrapped I put a little laughter into, a little strength, and a little love.

Three things that life must have!

They require a firm squeeze to seal them.

Peter cooked our first batch with a little olive oil and a little water - shallow frying for about 10 minutes to make them crispy and hot. We dipped these in chilli and soy sauce.

Then Fuqin made a nice broth with our wontons in it.

I can't wait to make them again!

Thankyou lovely friends for the nice time and food we shared.

Next we plan to make Steamed Pork Buns and maybe some kind of duck.

6 hour Sticky Tamarind, Soy & Honey Glazed Pork Belly

This sticky tangy pork belly was delicious with moreish salads. It was cooked so long that most of the fat was rendered away to leave the flavoursome layers of meat. Cooking the skin in the BBQ gives the meat a smokey edge, however you can also do that in your oven.

Ingredients
1 slab pork belly the size of your roasting tin (I used half a normal butchers 'slab') approx 1.5 kg
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup salt

2 thumbs ginger sliced thickly (3mm)
4 cloves garlic sliced thickly (3mm)
4 star anise
1 tsp Szechwan pepper - whole
2 tbsp Tamarind paste
2 tbsp Honey
150ml Kecap Manis – Indonesian sweet thick soy

1 tsp chinese five spice
300ml shao xing (Chinese cooking wine)
Chicken stock to cover the slab - approx 6-8 cups.

Method
Rub pork with salt and sugar cure and leave overnight in fridge.
The next day wipe with kitchen paper, you dont need to remove all the cure. Drain liquid.

Place Garlic, Ginger, Star Anise and Szechwan in roasting tray and place pork belly on top.
Mix all other ingredients in a bowl (apart from the honey and stock) till combined then pour over the belly. Top up with chicken stock to cover.

Place in the oven covered in foil at 110 degrees C for 6 hours. When you can pass a skewer through the belly with ease, it is ready. Let cool in liquid then strain liquid into a saucepan and add honey. Reduce it until a nice coating consistency is achieved. (This may take up to 30 minutes to reduce). The sauce is ready, place it in a jar in the fridge.

Place Pork in fridge overnight with a chopping board on top, weighted down with cans.
The next day, score the skin of the pork belly into small squares - but dont cut all the way through to the meat otherwise it will dry out. Bake the pork belly in the oven or BBQ (lid closed) at 230-250 degrees C to crisp the skin and render the last bits of fat while producing a smoky flavoursome meat.
Finally, slice through the already scored meat to produce individual square portions of belly.
You can slice these even thinner in 1cm width slices for a more delicate platter or addition to a salad.

NB: when we had our end of year BBQ and I made this recipe Dan seared the pork skin side down and it got quite burnt. The flavour was great in the meat but the skin was inedible. It was a good lesson to see what would happen, and was my choice. I think the marinade caused the skin to burn because dry pork skin is fatty enough to be cooked directly on a BBQ plate. In any case, I have done some research since and the oven bake or BBQ-bake method here seems to work best, as it also warms the meat up without it drying out.

Serve with the warmed honey sauce. Sweetness offsets this salty meat.
Salads go well too.

End with a cider. Pear.

Christmas in July

Geoffs Apple Cider Vinegar, Ginger and Brown Sugar Glazed Ham.

Trent and Geoff preparing the ham

Jen preparing her slow cooked self saucing pudding

Trent carving

Clockwise from front head of table: Miranda, April, Peter, Debbie, Marita,

Jen, Jess, Geoff, Trent, Peter, Dan, Reuben, and Rachel (photographer).

Jens Double Chocolate Dessert

Miranda made a delicious chocolate pavlova with cream and berries, yet I was too busy getting myself a piece that I forgot to get a photo, then it was all getting eaten! This photo is one I found that mose closely resembles Mirandas. Ill be trying to make one of these soon.

Jess handing out presents

 Many funny DVDs



Thanks Geoff and Jess for a great night.