Gourmet on the Go! | The Essex Gourmet Blog

Pulled Pork and Spicy Slaw Recipe

gourmet-on-the-go — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 14:51:53 +0000

Pulled Pork is serious business in the States, although has not quite reached us over in the UK with the same enthusiasm. I find this hard to understand, as this dish has the real wow factor, perhaps it is an issue of the time required to create? Anyway, if you want to find out more about creating the perfect pulled pork, the internet is your friend. I found a whole host of sites dedicated to marinades, sauces, cooking times and whether to marinade or not; serious studies of trial and error.

Because you are using a serious hunk of meat, marinating makes little difference as only the very edge of the meat is affected. The spice rub, usually includes paprika, chilli, onion, garlic, salt, pepper and sugar. I used pimenton to give a smoky flavour, with a spicy edge – if you have a home smoker, smoking your pulled pork first will give a wonderful flavour and is a traditional cooking method for the hardcore pulled pork fans.

The essential part of any pulled pork recipe is slow cooking, if you have time, slow cook on the lowest temperature of your oven overnight for the most moist and succulent results, ensuring that your meat reaches 88°C/190°F when cooked. For a faster feast, that still produces tender and tasty results, try my recipe…

Pulled Pork Recipe

5.0 from 1 reviews

Recipe type: Main

Author: Sarah Fay

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 5 hours 30 mins

Total time: 5 hours 40 mins

Serves: 6 – 8

Imagine soft, moist, tender pork with a delicious piquant sauce and spicy, crunchy slaw in a freshly baked roll, oh this is a feast of dreams. This recipe does take some slow cooking to reach the desired texture and taste, although is well worth the time. Treat your family and friends to pulled pork and spicy slaw rolls this bonfires night, and banish the incomparable burgers and sausages…

Ingredients:

For the Pulled Pork:
2kg pork shoulder
2 tbsp hot smoked paprika (pimenton)
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp Garlic powder
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp sea salt
1 tbsp ground white pepper
5 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp English mustard powder
300ml apple cider
100ml water
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tsp Worcester sauce
For the Spicy Slaw:
Half a red cabbage, finely sliced
1 large carrot, grated
1 red onion, finely sliced
1 inch knob of ginger, grated
1 birdseye chilli, seeds removed & finely chopped
2 tbsp mayonnaise
2 tbsp garlic mayonnaise
Juice of half a lime
1 tbsp soy sauce
tsp castor sugar
1 heaped tbsp chopped coriander

Method:

Thoroughly mix all of the ingredients for the spicy slaw together in a large bowl and allow to rest so that all of flavours meld.
Remove the rind from your shoulder of pork, just leaving a thin layer of fat. Leave your pork out of the fridge so it reaches room temperature.
Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 2/150c/300f.
Mix together the hot smoked paprika, cumin, garlic, mustard and onion powder with the salt, pepper and 4tbsp of the brown sugar to make up your spice rub.
Rub the spice mix all over your pork really massaging it in well.
Add the cider and water to a large baking pan with metal rack. Place the pork on the rack and cover in parchment paper and then baking foil, sealing tightly.
Bake in the oven for four hours, then uncover and cook for 1 more hour. The pork should reach a temperature of 88c/190f.
Once cooked, remove the pork and allow it to rest in a warm area, loosely covered with foil or a clean tea towel.
Pour the juices from the baking pan into a bowl and allow to cool slightly, so that the fat rises to the top. Skim off the fat and discard.
Pour the juices into a saucepan and add the tomato puree, Worcester sauce, cider vinegar and the remaining 1 tbsp of brown sugar. Bring to the boil and then simmer rapidly over a medium heat for 30 minutes.
Use two forks to pull your tender pork apart into chunks, place on a large serving plate or dish and top with the reduced sauce – delicious!

Asian Style Braised Pork Belly with Aubergine Recipe

gourmet-on-the-go — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 13:44:16 +0000

Asian Style Braised Pork Belly with Aubergine Recipe

Recipe type: Main

Author: Sarah Fay

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 1 hour

Total time: 1 hour 15 mins

Serves: 4

This is one of my favourite mid-week recipes, much loved by adults and children alike. The blend of the sweet, spicy and sour sauce is such a winner with the soft unctuous pork belly and juicy flavourful aubergine. What’s more, it’s pretty easy and fast prepare…

Ingredients:

500g skinless pork belly, cut into 2cm chunks
1 large aubergine, cut into chinks
2 tbsp ground nut or vegetable oil
300ml chicken stock
2 tbsp of fish sauce (Nam Pla)
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 large cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
1 birdseye chilli, chopped
1 inch knob of ginger, peeled and grated
1 bunch of coriander, leaves and stalks separated, stalks finely chopped
3 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
2 tbsp of dark brown or muscovado sugar
1 tbsp water
Juice of half a lime

Method:

Add 1 tbsp of oil to a large pan and heat over a medium flame. Brown off pork belly in two batches and set aside.
Add another tbsp of oil to the pan and cook the aubergine until lightly golden, stirring now and then to prevent sticking. Set aside with the pork.
Turn the heat right down and add the brown sugar and 1 tbsp of water to the pan, heat until it starts to bubble and caramelise.
Add the pork and aubergine to the pan of sugar and throw in the star anise and cinnamon stick. Stir to cover in the sugar syrup.
Keep the heat low and add the chopped onion, garlic, ginger and chilli. Stir and sweat for 5 to 7 minutes.
Now add the stock, fish sauce and coriander stalks to the pan. Bring to a boil and then turn the heat right down, put a lid on the pan and simmer for 1 hour.
After an hour, add the lime juice, stir and taste. Add more fish sauce to taste.
Serve with steamed rice and garnish with coriander – delicious!

Spiced Blackberry Vodka Recipe

gourmet-on-the-go — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 13:18:44 +0000

Nice recipe photo below huh? Yes… if you know how to tart up a pic of a plastic bottle holding dark blackberry grog, do let me know! Anyway, get out into the fields; there are still blackberries to be had, much to my shock and surprise. I managed to pick just over ½ a kilo last Saturday whilst walking the dog, so wanted to put these prime juicy specimens to good use.

I started to think of the game season which is now almost fully upon us. Blackberries, spice and game make for very good plate partners. So, as a shortcut, I thought some spiced blackberry vodka would make a great drink to slurp alongside my game dishes, or even better, to add a burst of flavour to sauces.

Even after just a few days, this spiced vodka tastes delicious, with all the individual flavours coming through. I shall leave it to brew for a couple of months yet and then try adding to a sauce, or slow cooked dish of either venison or duck. Oh yes…

Spiced Blackberry Vodka Recipe

Recipe type: Drink

Author: Sarah Fay

Prep time: 10 mins

Total time: 10 mins

Beautiful sweet, plump blackberries with star anise, cinnamon and just an edge of lemon make for a winning combination in this home made liqueur. You don’t need to over spend on the vodka, a supermarkets own label will be fine.

Ingredients:

75cl bottle of vodka
300g blackberries
150g caster sugar
2 star anise
1 medium cinnamon stick
2 slices of lemon rind (about ¼ of a large lemon, rind removed with a veg peeler)
1 litre empty bottle – plastic or glass

Method:

Make sure your litre bottle is clean and sterile – either clean with boiling water or use a campden tablet
Give your blackberries a good wash in a colander and pick out any stalks etc
Use a large necked funnel to put into your bottle and pour in the blackberries, then the sugar, vodka, spices and lemon peel.
Screw the lid on the bottle, give it a good shake and place in the fridge.
Shake every day for the first week and then now and again for up to 3 months.
After a maximum of 3 months, sieve off the vodka from the ingredients and bottle. You can use the fruit for a fabulously fruity drunken blackberry fool, or a potent crumble.

Spaghetti with Anchovy, Red Pepper & Tomato Sauce

gourmet-on-the-go — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 12:11:28 +0000

Frugal Feasts – Eat Well – For Less…

There comes a time in everyones life when they have to watch the pennies and live on a budget. My time is now. I am taking a few months off to update and revamp this very site! It will look splendid when finished and be much easier to navigate around, have more features etc… I shall spare you the blurb.

On to food! Being as I shall be cooking up some scrumptious suppers on a shoestring, I thought I would share the recipes, so here goes…

Spaghetti with Anchovies, Red Pepper & Tomato

Recipe type: Main

Author: Sarah Fay

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Total time: 40 mins

Serves: 4

The intense taste of anchovies seem to divide us Brits, although contrast them with a sweet red pepper and tomato sauce, and you will realise what subtle depth they can add to your dishes. This recipe is a fast favourite which even gets the thumbs up from children! A great source of omega 3 in a tasty little sauce that is sweet, savoury, and very simple.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil
50g small can of anchovies – drained & roughly chopped
400g tin of plum tomatoes (whole or chopped)
1 large romero pepper – halved, deseeded & sliced
1 onion – chopped
2 cloves of garlic – chopped
350g spaghettii (I used spaghetti alla chitarra – great for holding sauces)
4 tbsp pecorino romano or parmesan – grated
A handful of fresh parsley – chopped

Method:

Put 2 tbsp of olive oil in a large pan, add the chopped onion and garlic, sweat on a low heat for 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally until the onion loses its white colour and becomes opaque.
Add the chopped anchovies and cooked for a further minute or two, until the anchovies start to melt.
Pour in the tomatoes, break up them up with a wooden spoon if you are using whole, and then quarter fill the tomato can with water and add to your sauce.
Add the chopped pepper and bring the sauce to a boil, turn the heat right down and simmer for 30 minutes.
After 20 minutes, boil your spaghetti in a large pan of salted water for 10 minutes, or as per packet instructions.
When the sauce has simmered for 30 mins, add 3/4 of the grated cheese and the chopped parsley – stir in.
Drain the pasta, add to the sauce and stir in until the sauce is fully dispersed and the pasta covered.
Serve with a little more of the leftover cheese sprinkled on top.

Regional & British Producer Fayre 2011

gourmet-on-the-go — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 17:46:03 +0000

La Hogue farm is holding its 6th annual Producer Fayre on Saturday 17^th and Sunday 18th of September 2011, which has now grown into one of the largest food festivals in East Anglia.

Over 60 producers, including many from Suffolk, will be offering free tastings of their products together with information on how they are produced. The producers include local meat and game farms, bee-keepers, fishermen, quail producers, cheese producers and their cows!

The fayre takes place between 10:00am & 4:00pm both days and entry is FREE.

This year’s special guest is BBC Masterchef finalist, Dr Tim Kinnaird

Attractions of the day include:

Farm machinery display
Pony rides for children
Free range pig on the La Hogue BBQ
Wine tasting & farm cafe specials

Address:
LaHogue Farm Shop
La Hogue Farm
Chippenham
Ely
Cambridgeshire
CB7 5PZ

For more information, visit the www.lahogue.co.uk

See you there!