Beer Braised Pulled Pork

Pulled pork is bloody everywhere in the UK at the moment, and I have to admit that this has been getting on my nerves. It seems to be part of a tidal wave of barbecue-piri piri-barbacoa-sloppy joe-sweet chilli-chipotle-hickory-bollocks, washing over the country. I feel quite loyal to the traditional British way to do a roast pork sandwich (with stuffing, apple sauce and crackling) you see, and would quite like to shout at the americans about it.

But it does all look bloody tasty. So, with a sigh of resignation, I embarked on this recipe today. When I found it, I was attracted to it because it did not seem either overly sweet or too vinegary. This was something chuffing else.

Just give me a moment and imagine, right now, what you would say if you had to demand sex, assertively and using the strongest, most offensive language in your vocabulary. Go on, think about that, then look at this picture:

Basically, if you put "beer braised barbecue pork" into a search engine, you will come across a recipe by a man called Dave Lieberman (thanks Dave .. and by the way, does your surname mean, "loverman"? Which does figure) and you will also see that its been tweaked and blogged about by a few other people. I can't pretend to have done anything different. One difficulty I had was understanding the quantity of meat involved. As I understood it, Mr Loverman suggests a 15lb piece of meat, a quantity out of the question for most normal people. Would that fit in your oven, anyway?  How many children have you got, Mr Loverman? So I was not sure whether my 1.3 kilo piece would be overpowered. Anyway, this is what I did; and if you want to follow, you need to procure the following:

a big piece of pork shoulder, with the crackling removed. Mine was 1.3 kilos.
A spice rub, made of the following, mixed together in a bowl:
½ tablespoon of salt
40 grinds of black pepper
1 tablespoon chilli powder (less if you are scared)
1 tablespoon garlic powder
½ tablespoon chinese 5 spice
½ tablespoon smoked paprika

I'd say the salt, pepper, chilli and garlic are essentials. You could play around with the rest.

You will also need:
a bottle of beer
½ cup tomato ketchup
2 tablespoons french mustard
3 tablespoons worcestershire sauce
⅓ cup dark brown sugar

Rub the powder all over the meat. Get your oven really hot; I had my fan oven at 220c. Place the pork in a roasting tin and cook it, uncovered, for 40 minutes.
Pour the beer over the pork, into the roasting tin. Cover it all with foil, and poke a few holes in the foil. Reduce the oven temperature to 150c (fan) and cook for 2½ hours more.
Remove from the oven, lift out the meat and put it on a big plate, or dish you plan to serve it in. Pour the beer and juices from the tin into a saucepan, and add the rest of the ingredients. Simmer it on the hob until it has reduced by half; it will go thick, dark, and syrupy.

While the sauce is reducing, get two forks and shred, or pull the meat apart. It should be very soft and tender. When the sauce is ready, just pour it over and mix in. Your sticky, delicious, aromatic and rich pulled pork is now done.

As you can see, I ate mine the way it is eaten in the US; on a white roll with some coleslaw. I could not waste the crackling of course. I put that on a baking sheet and cooked it on the shelf below the pork, for its final hour. Then, while the sauce was cooking, I whacked the oven up to 220c and within 20 minutes or so, I had a slab of crackling so golden and crunchy that when I cut it, bits of it flew up into my face.

The pork tasted almost like hoisin. The whole thing reminded me of the classic crispy duck with pancakes. Something about the dark, sticky soft meat, encased in soft and pappy white dough, all with some cool salad, to bring crispness and crunch. Maybe I am a pulled pork fan after all. Now I am dreaming that we could all live in a kind of multicultural foodie utopia! It could work!

Thankyou, America. Although with regards crackling, sage & onion stuffing and apple sauce: you still don't know what you are missing.. I will have to introduce you another time.

Spicy and sour pork with noodles

I adapted this from a Jamie Oliver recipe where he makes a sour sauce made of rhubarb to cook the pork in, but I did not have any rhubarb. So I used a lot of lime juice instead.

Stage one - cut your pork belly into big chunks, and cook it in a marinade made of honey (4tbsp), soy sauce (4 tbsp? Possibly too much), 2 red chillies, 4 cloves garlic, a thumb of ginger, and juice of 3 limes. Cook it at 180c for 1 hr 30 mins, covered.

When it is cooked, get a frying pan on a low heat and fry the pieces (or just a few of them) gently for about 30 mins. Very very slowly, and keep turning them over. This will render even more fat out, and make them sticky and unctuous.

Let them rest a little bit while you assemble the rest. Hot noodles in bowl. Pork pieces on top. A spoon or two of the marinade. Then scatter over fresh coriander leaves, chopped red chilli, sliced spring onion, cucumber shavings, then squeeze over more lime juice. 

Dangerous Chow Mein

I cooked some noodles, and stir fried some sliced chicken breast. After a few minutes, I added a splosh of soy and a splash of rice wine, and let them bubble away. The chicken became brown, and sticky. I then added sliced spring onions, finely chopped ginger and garlic, and slices of red chilli. Then the drained, cooked noodles went in. Finally I had some chow mein sauce from the chinese supermarket, and totally overdoing it, added that too. Perhaps this final step was not absolutely necessary.

I have chilli, garlic & ginger fumes coming out of my nose. This really was bloody delicious.

No-Knead Bread

This beautiful loaf is the easiest bread I have ever made, perhaps the tastiest too. Definitely a revelation, as it took the equivalent of what - 5 minutes, 10 minutes effort? And it turned out like the sort of bread labelled "artisan" or "rustic". A very, very crisp crust. And big holes. Proper.

By all means stick "no knead bread" or "5 minute bread" in google, and loads of links and people's recipes will come up. I looked at how Cuts777inthehizzy, did his, and you can watch him here if you want.

BASICALLY anyway, all you need are four ingredients. Mix them in a bowl. Just mix. Don't knead. Save yourself.

3 cups bread flour
1.5 cups water
1 tsp salt
quarter tsp dried yeast

You will also need a heavy casserole pot with a lid, and an oven which can reach 230c.

Cover the dough and leave it in a warm or warm-ish place (the kitchen worktop should be fine) for anything from 12-20 hours. The dough should appear rather sloppy. Apparently it is the sloppiness, the high water content, which makes the crust crispier.

After the long proving, turn (or plop) the dough out on a floured surface. Again, no need to knead. Shape it into a round, which will fit neatly into your pot.

Now comes a second proving, which, based on everything I have read online, you can leave out if you really cannot wait any longer, and you will still get a lovely loaf. But if you want to go all the way, give it another 2 hours to prove again.

Preheat the oven (230c) AND preheat the cooking pot too. Put the dough in the pot and put the lid on. Bake for a total of 45 mins, and remove the lid for the final 15-20 minutes.

I am sure there are possibilities here for amazing pizza dough, rolls or mini ciabattas. Or just toasted doorsteps smothered in butter with poached eggs on top (drool) .. enjoy!

Deep Fried Chicken Balls, with Sweet & Sour Sauce

I made chicken balls at home last night, using a recipe by Papercuts777 - thanks Cuts! His video can be found here:
http://www.ifood.tv/recipe/chicken-balls-1

The batter was a cup of plain flour, 1.5 tsp baking powder, salt & pepper, an egg, dash of milk, and water. Coat chicken cubes in the batter and drop into oil as hot as you dare (I put my fryer on maximum). Cook the balls for 4-5 minutes. There will probably be some delicious scrumps to eat too.

End result. For the sauce, do about a cup and a half of chicken stock, tsp ginger, half cup of vinegar, 1 cup brown sugar, a big squirt of ketchup, 1 tbsp cornflour .. and pineapple.

When is it Okay for Little Babies to Eat Curry?

I was not present during the execution of this Saturday night project, so looking at these brilliant pics, you know as much as me as to what exactly happened here .. (I have visited the scene today and can confirm that the faint smell of curry still lingers in the air, like a sort of mystical confirmation that the dream you had last night .. was real ...)

Flecks of coriander there .. yum.

Anyway. Back to the babies. Lobster Bumkiss suggests (with no qualification to give such advice whatsoever) that you know your baby is ready for curry when he eats it all up, smacks his lips, smiles and then tries to grab yours.

Slow Cooker Beans for Weekend Brunch

Everyone is a bit skint in January. Plus, you have just spent the last couple of weeks eating extravagantly. And if that wasn't enough to make you feel a bit depressed, its still cold, damp and grey outside. So its time for a big pot of homemade BEANS I think.

I used a 500g packet of dried cannellini beans for this, but you could use any kind. Can I leave it to you to be responsible for choosing how long you soak and boil them? The instructions on my packet pointed their finger right in my face and said sternly, "don't put them in a slow cooker unless you have soaked them for a minimum of 8 hours, and boiled them for at least ten minutes". So I put mine on to soak on Thursday evening, before I went to bed. They must have soaked for maybe 20 hours by the time I dealt with them on Friday teatime. I boiled mine for 30 minutes, before cooking them in my slow cooker on "high" all night. My slow cooker is very gentle. I could have boiled them for 90 minutes (as per instructions) THEN cooked them on "low" all night. But I wanted to get them in the pot and on the go as soon as possible so I could lounge around.

In another pan, I fried and softened a chopped onion, chopped garlic, and some sliced carrot. Later, I added a jar of tomato pasta sauce (marinara sauce?) and a tin of tomatoes, a good sprinkle of herbs, a couple of bay leaves and a big grind of pepper. I think this formula is pretty similar to Greek-style big beans. NO salt at this stage, apparently it can prevent your beans cooking properly. Salt goes in right at the end. When I mixed the sauce and beans together in the slow cooker pot, I added a dash more water, just to make sure all the beans were submerged in liquid.

So it must have had more than 12 hours, simmering and bubbling gently all night. My slow cooker is very good at not allowing steam to escape, but if yours does, maybe put more water in.

And, in the morning, I had this lovely pot of hot, tomatoey, thick, slightly sticky big fat soft beans. I tasted, and added salt and a couple of pinches of sugar. Personally I have to have an egg with mine, and I had it all on a chapati, because they were what I had.