Crispy Roast Pork Belly! :9

Sorry, haven't posted here for a while... I've been meaning to but have been busy with my home education blog. Wiyot has suddenly developed a thirst for knowledge and has been keeping me very busy! :D

Anyway, back to my belly... Pork belly that is! Although I guess it was for my belly :D 

Last week, while searching for something or other, I stumbled upon some food blogs. If you would like to check them out, have a look here and here!

I'll admit, I spent a rather long time drooling over the various recipes. There are many that I am going to attempt, but this was the debut! If you would like to have a go yourself (I highly recommend it!) you can find the recipe here!

BTW the colours are a little off on these pics, hopefully you get the idea though!

Marinating

The skin cleaned and salted. 

Unfortunately the only joint available was scored on the skin side, which didn't help with the crisping process. :(

After cooking I put it under the grill to help crisp it up.

Chopped into rather large bite sized chunks.

Mmmm so juicy! :9

Verdict: Very pleased with the outcome. The meat was beautifully tender and very moist. It was also very tasty, but next time I will definitely marinate it for longer! I will also be paying the butchers a visit next time, so hopefully the skin will be intact!

Oops, just realised technically this would be the second Chinese recipe I tried... I also made steamed buns with Wiyot on the same day!

Click on the pic to see the full post!

Will be posting news on the circle skirt very soon :D

Macaroni Monday :9

Mmmmm! Macaroni! :9

Sadly this is not on tonights menu, but is a meal I made and photographed some time ago... Sadly I haven't been able to indulge for a couple of weeks as my stomach has been a little particular! I don't really want to go into all the grisly details, lets just say I've not been eating properly!

But anyway... back to the macaroni!

I like a number of different Macaroni cheese recipes, but I've been making this baked version for a looooong time... I can't even remember where the recipe came from! It may possibly have been my high school cook book from home economics class! :O I'm not sure if this is the same though, I think it may have been modified over the years! lol

Ingredients:

• 50g butter (real butter works best, but you can use margarine too)
• 50g plain flour
• 500ml full fat milk (you can use skimmed, etc. but the flavour wont be as rich!)
• 200g macaroni (to be honest, I use whatever shaped pasta I have in the house)
• 250g grated cheddar cheese (the stronger the better!)
• pinch salt and pepper
• 1 rounded teaspoon of mustard (you can use any kind, I like english mustard or wholegrain as the seeds look really nice in the sauce)

Method:

1. Bring some salted water to the boil and add the pasta (follow instructions on pack to cook your pasta till al dente and drain) 
2. pre-heat the oven to 180ºC
3. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over a low heat
4. Add the flour and cook for a minute, stirring all the time
5. Gradually stir in the milk, a little at a time else it will get lumpy!
6. Turn up to a medium heat and bring the milk mixture thickens and begins to  boil. You need to keep stirring all the time else the sauce will go lumpy at the bottom of the pan.
7. Allow to boil over a low heat for a couple of minutes then add two thirds of the cheese, the mustard and salt and pepper to taste.
8. Mix the pasta to the sauce and pour into a suitable oven dish
9. Sprinkle over the remaining grated cheese (a couple of handfuls of breadcrumbs is nice too)
10. Bake in the oven until cheese turns golden and bubbly (I think its about 30mins?)
11. Alternatively, brown the cheese under a grill... make sure it doesn't burn!
12. ENJOY!

And here's one I made earlier!

A portion on a plate...

I never know what to serve with Mac n cheese... On this occasion
I went for beans and onion rings!

Do you have a favourite mac n cheese recipe? What do you like to serve it with?

Thanks for reading! x

Churros!

If you read my blog you will have noticed that I don't usually post the recipes that I am blogging about. Basically because I'm not sure its legal to post someone else's recipe...

This one however is different (I think?) as I found it online :D

If you would like to read the original recipe you can find it here!

So, churros!

This time last year I had no idea what a churro was. So for those of you out there like me, a churro is basically a form of doughnut that originated in Spain... If you want to find out more here's a link :)

In October last year we were lucky enough to visit Florida. While we were there, the Epcot centre was hosting its annual International Food & Wine Festival (great, but VERY expensive!!!). One of the dishes that we chose to try was, yes you guessed it - churros

Shoshone enjoying the "One where it all began!"

After that initial taste we noticed the things on sale in many places... And yes, we did divulge on more than one occasion! :9

For Christmas Mom and Dad bought me the Jamie's America cookbook and in it was a recipe for CHURROS! :o

Obviously I tried it, but although they were good, they weren't as good as the one's we'd had in Florida.

The other week the churro cravings hit and I decided it was time to do some research. After reading MANY recipes, and watching numerous YouTube vids, I finally decided to give this recipe a try:

Ingredients

• 1 cup water
• 2 1/2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 quarts oil for frying
• 1/2 cup white sugar, or to taste
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

1. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine water, 2 1/2 tablespoons sugar, salt and 2 tablespoons vegetable oil. Bring to a boil and remove from heat. Stir in flour until mixture forms a ball.
2. Heat oil for frying in deep-fryer or deep skillet to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Pipe strips of dough into hot oil using a pastry bag. Fry until golden; drain on paper towels.
3. Combine 1/2 cup sugar and cinnamon. Roll drained churros in cinnamon and sugar mixture.

The recipe stated that this made 4 servings... naturally that meant I had to double the recipe :D

After reading the comments on the recipe I decided to reduce the amount of sugar in the dough, basically I just doubled everything else except for the sugar and salt.

Simples! (*meerkat noise*  ...  sorry  ...  I'm tired!)

Not bad!

I need to get a different nozzle thing for my piping bag as mine were all too small. For these I just piped them out without a nozzle. They tasted great, but would look more authentic with a star shaped nozzle.

They tasted great dipped in melted chocolate! :9

Wahoooo! I did it... 7 posts in July! 

Do I hear 8 for August?

....

No, probably not! lol

Blueberry Muffins:9

My Cookie & Muffin Book...

Plus some lovely juice blueberries...

Find the relevant recipe...

Result!

Add some freshly brewed coffee
and in the words of Mr Oliver... "Happy Days!"

DS Dumplings :9

At the beginning of the month I set myself, and fellow blogger Courtney, the challenge of writing 7 posts in July. Courtney is doing a great job, only one more to go... I on the other hand am not doing so well :(

But, in to borrow a phrase from Johnny Smith, "There's still time!"

A few weeks ago I did a posted about the DS game Cooking Guide. Around the same time I was browsing the various recipes from various different countries. A couple of them caught my eye and I decided I really needed to try them. Only problem being I didn't have the necessary ingredients at hand. 

Fast forward a couple of weeks (and a shopping trip to the Chinese supermarket in Birmingham) and it was finally time to attempt one of the dumpling recipe's :D

I love dumplings!

I can't remember what the recipe is called on the DS game, and to be honest I can't be bothered to go look! But I'm pretty sure they are called potstickers. They can have various fillings; beef, chicken, fish, prawns, etc. these ones were made using pork mince. 

My freshly made dumpling skins... this part took a loooong time

I made a fairly huge mistake at this point... A consequence of not reading the whole recipe through! Basically, the recipe for the dumpling skins is separate to the recipe for the filling. And for some crazy reason the dumpling skin recipe is enough to make 24 skins, whereas the filling makes 48! As you can probably guess I therefore had 24 skins and 48 fillings...

Result, a second dumpling making session after the kids were in bed...

And a very late night dumpling eating session by Danny and me :D

The filling about to be wrapped

My first pitiful attempt at sealing the dumpling

The DS game shows a little video of how to fold the dumplings together. It looks soooo easy! After a while it does get easier, but I had to watch the video a few times to get the knack!

Later... A much better attempt!

I didn't realise until after I had started cooking, that you are actually supposed to sit them with the join at the top rather than lying on their sides like this... doh!

Wiyot helping to make the dipping sauce

Frying/steaming in the pan

Here you can see where I realised my earlier mistake!

All done and ready eat!

:9

They tasted amazing! Surprising since I had to make some substitutions to the ingredients. Danny was very impressed, said they were as good as the ones his aunts make! :)

Needless to say, I will definitely be making these again!

Time for something c-c-c-cold!

The other week we took on a rare challenge in the Wong household.

We defrosted the freezer...

I know your supposed to do it like once a year or something, but we're not that good :/

Well anyway, we finally got round to defrosting it, which meant we had to clear out as much stuff as possible... Including the ice cream stash! :0

The good part of that (other than eating all the ice cream) is that we now get to restock :D

So we've got the good old vanilla soft scoop and an assortment of ice lolly's, but what was really missing was the homemade ice cream... specifically this one:

It really is lovely, light and milky :)

And so... Out came my recipe book and ice cream maker!

Starting to churn

Such an easy-peasy recipe, just mascarpone cheese, milk and sugar. Mix them together and churn them in your machine until it looks like this:

Beginning to freeze

Then put it in a suitable container and chuck it in the freezer. Depending on how much you make it could be ready in less than an hour. For this one I doubled the recipe so it took longer to freeze, even so I think it would have been edible after a couple of hours...

In the tub and all frozen...

If you're one of those poor unfortunate souls who do not own a ice cream maker, all you have to do is mix your ingredients together, put them in a container and then bung it in the freezer. You then have to go back every 30 minutes or so to give it a good mix. This breaks down the ice crystals that form and gives it that lovely texture. Then all thats left is to eat!

One scoop or two?

COOKIES!!!

As I've been such a bad blogger since coming back from holiday, I thought I'd add another post today. 

Also, I actually wrote the Teriyaki one yesterday but didn't get round to publishing it.

Yesterday I was suffering with a particularly annoying and painful stiff neck and shoulders. To my dismay, I woke this morning to find that it is still no better... :( 

After spending the morning sulking and trying to get comfortable. I decided I needed a bit of a pick-me-up and so I broke out THE best cookie and muffin book I've ever bought... (It's the only one I've ever bought, but its soooo good, I doubt I'll ever buy another one!)

Introducing...

Thats right The Genuine American Cookie & Muffin Book! I've had it for a fair few years now. I got it from Lakeland when we first moved to Nottingham and couldn't believe how good the recipes were! My favourite recipe being the blueberry muffins. :9

hmmm maybe I should add blueberries to the shopping list...

Well today I decided to make the Classic Choc-Chip Cookie, mainly cos I didn't have the ingredients for some of the other recipes. But also its been ages since I last made them, so seemed about time!

Cooling on the surface. Had to keep swatting little hands out the way!

The recipes in this book are really simple, but taste AMAZING!!! When you get everything right they taste very similar to Millies Cookies. The main things that effect the outcome are the type of butter you use (Anchor rules) and the baking. You really need to make sure you get the temperature right as well as the cooking time. The great thing is though, the book has a top tips section for both cookies and muffins, so you have the best chance at getting it right. Also, if your like me and actually read the other bits of cookbooks and not just the recipes (yep sad I know!), this one includes a history lesson on how cookies and muffins got their names.

Colours better on this one.

Well, it worked! While I was baking and eating my neck did feel better. It's hurting again now though... Good job I made plenty :D

And a close up... just to tease everyone! :D

Unfortunately I didn't have the right sugar today, so they weren't as nice as they could be. 

But still pretty good... Pretty darn good! ;D

Hmmm... now I feel like watching George of the Jungle!

I feel like chicken tonight...

Chicken Teriyaki to be precise!

... Well actually I didn't really feel like it, but had some chicken that needed using and I had just bought all the ingredients to make Teriyaki sauce...

Soooo...

Voila

Sorry about the pic, took it on my phone as I am too lazy to charge my camera!

Turned out not too bad, I've never really had 'official' Teriyaki from a restaurant, so don't really know how it compares. Shoshone really liked it though, had a mouthful looked at me and went "Mmm mMMMm!" She then polished the whole lot off quicker than me and Wiyot!

This recipe was from the DS game Cooking Guide, which has some really great recipes from around the world. One of my favourites being pork chops in a creamy mustard sauce :9 Theres also a great mac and cheese recipe, fabulous potato salad, others that I can't think of and LOADS that I haven't tried yet!

But anyway, like I said it's a pretty nice recipe, but I do prefer one that I've done from the Wagamama Cookbook, which tastes more sweet. However, unfortunately this means I can't eat as much though as it gets a bit sickly for me...

Well thats all for now folks :D

Take Away night

When I met Danny I was introduced to various new and wonderful things. Most obviously being the  beautiful differences in our cultures, as well as in our diets. My favourite dish I was introduced to being Char Siu Fan :9 

Food Heaven! *Drools*

I also got introduced to new items on a Chinese take-away menu... 

Pre-Danny, all my family and I ever ordered from our favourite local take-away (incidentally, not the one that Danny's family owned at the time... Oops! Still haven't lived that one down :/ ) was egg fried rice, chips and chicken curry.

I now know the delights of sweet and sour chicken/pork, crispy shredded beef, beef in black bean sauce, banana fritters, etc...

But still there are the times when all I want is Chicken curry, just like Mr Chan would have made in Willow house (sorry Danny, but you know its true!)

So, for a number of years I've been attempting to figure out the recipe...

And well, I am please to announce I've cracked it! (more or less)

INTRODUCING...

Just add water!

Available from all good supermarkets, aka Alfreton Tesco's, in the foreign foods section :D

I know its a bit of a cop out, but it really is good, and fast too! To be honest I did get quite close to cracking it myself... and then I found this... and that was the end of the grinding up and mixing my own spices! Maybe someday I'll return to my quest... 

Until then...

Voila! 

And quicker than ordering it by phone!

Hmmm, I'm feeling hungry all of a sudden...

For Movie Nights!

... or days

... or to make the kids an entertaining snack

... or just because you love it!

POPCORN!!! :9

I've been searching for the perfect cinema style popcorn recipe for some time. I've found so many recipe's but none of them gave the taste that I was after, that of the sweet popcorn available at Cineworld... excluding Nottingham Cineworld, I don't know what they do different there, but the popcorn is not good and definitely not a snack I want to recreate!

Anyway, all the recipe's have been good, but just not what I was after... Until one day I entered the words "cineworld sweet popcorn recipe" into google.

*** I know what you're thinking, kind of obvious really isn't it! I have no idea why it's taken ***

me however many years to try putting these words into the search engine, oh well!

The first result is another person searching for the same recipe as me, with someone named Clare providing the following recipe:

• 1/2 cup popcorn kernels
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup white sugar

Put all the ingredients into a large pot and shake over a medium heat until the popping slows. Pour into a bowl and enjoy!!! 

So quick and easy, and more importantly, exactly what I was after! I now sleep peacefully at night... well  not really, but it is one quest completed!

Now go! 

Try it for yourselves... you know you want to!

10 CLOVES OF GARLIC??? Now that's my kind of recipe!!!!! :-D

So for my birthday a few weeks ago, DH bought me the latest Jamie Oliver book, Jamie's America. Unfortunately, my birthday coincided with a bout of stomach flu, from which I'm still kind of recovering from. That said, understandably it took me a while to even look at the pics in the book, let alone feel the urge to cook any...

When I did start to feel better I grabbed my new book and had a look to see what I could cook for dinner... A few years ago we started having organic veg delivered from a company called Riverford, who are fab by the way!! So on this particular day we had received our box containing, among other things, broccoli.

I love broccoli, it's one of my favourite veg and have cooked it in many different ways, all good. After a quick scan through the index I found a recipe for a broccoli salad... I'd never tried broccoli salad before... I'd never even heard of it before! :-S  This instantly became the recipe for the night... Then having a quick scan through for something to serve with it I noticed "Killer Mac n Cheese." I love mac n cheese so this was a definite possibility! I had a quick scan through the ingredients and noticed it required *10 cloves of garlic*

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Woo! Hoo! Now that's my kind of recipe!!!

This was definitely going to be cooked!!!!

Ok, calm down now :-)

So anyway, I cooked up a storm and this is what came out of the kitchen... I was missing the bacon for the broccoli salad, but other than that it was all good :-)

Why is it that photographs of food never seem to look as good as they do in real life? Unless you're a food photographer I guess...

The mac n cheese wasn't the best I've ever tasted, but it was very good. Nice garlic twist and some nice tomatoes, making it feel a bit healthier :-S The broccoli salad was gorgeous :-9 And one of my new favourite ways to serve this veg. The dressing is quite similar to a salad dressing that we make from the Wagamama Cook Book, which is also a favourite, needless to say there was no left overs at the end of the meal!

Seema Beans :-9

Baked beans have always made a regular appearance in my diet. Growing up I always found them boring and only started to enjoy them when my Dad introduced me to the joys of beans on toast with cheese on top. Since then, I have struggled to eat them any other way.

That is until I met a lovely lady named Seema...

After giving birth to my son, Seema and our other lovely friend Jen frequently came to visit... obviously leading to the conundrum of what to eat for lunch. Together they introduced me to the delights of crisp sandwiches. I never admitted to them, till now, that I'd never had them before! Especially good with Quavers :-9 One day we also suddenly made a decision to make waffles and had to make an emergency trip to the corner shop for necessary ingredients...

Anyway, back to the beans...

One fateful day, we decided to have a more sensible meal of beans on toast. I'm not sure how it came about, but Seema mentioned that she never ate beans straight from the can at home and always added various things to spice them up a bit.

WOW! I don't know whether it's just me, but I'd never even thought about doing anything like that before (I know, I need to start thinking outside of the box!!)

I love trying new recipes and stuff so was more than intrigued to see what Seema meant... It is so simple I'm ashamed I never tried it myself in the past. We chopped up an onion and fried it with some dried chillies and some pepper... Not sure if she makes them the same at home, but at my house this is what we did.

I sat down to eat my beans, not sure if I would like them... there was no cheese!

One mouthful and I was sold... They tasted so good :-9

These days I have no problem eating beans without cheese... Now I have more of a problem eating them not Seema-fied.

Thank you Seema, Love ya!! xxx

Happy Birthday to me...

I can't believe I'm 30! Not sure how I feel about that :-S

But seems like a good time to share a apple pie I baked for Danny's 30th.

He loves apple pie, so it seemed quite fitting and a nice change from a cake... Think it was the first one I've made? Anyway, thought it would be fun to decorate it with a pastry 30 as well as the usual leaves.

Couldn't really put a candle in it, but it sure did taste good :-9