Pulled Pork

Posted on 23/07/2019 by Anna

I can’t count how many times I have cooked this – any time of year it seems perfect, particularly when we have a load of friends round. Very little hands on time, works a dream if you make it ahead of time and is an unbelievably economic way to feed a crowd. Did I forget to mention that it is also downright delicious. Super tender, long cooked soft pork bathed in a sweet, spicy and tangy barbecue sauce stuffed in a soft bap with my crunchy, zippy fresh Christmas salad, topped with quick pickled onions and hot sauce. Seriously, what is not to love.

I have made this with a whole shoulder and it made a huge amount, more than enough for 20 with extra for the freezer (a super useful number to have stashed away and it reheats a treat). I tend to make this more often then with half a shoulder, rather easier to marinade and manoeuvre – last weekend one did 8 children and 6 adults with seconds. I cooked it fully on Friday, shredded it (easier whilst warm) mixed it with the sauce and then reheated it in the oven on Saturday. Too easy for words.

The Christmas salad (December 2013) despite its name is also a year round winner, crunchy and tangy, it works so well with the pork, they complement each perfectly. Quick pickled onions (August 2014) bring a sweet/sour tang to the party and I couldn’t countenance my assembly without a good squirt of sriracha on top.

For pudding last weekend I made my son’s favourite, the Giant Strawberry Mivvi (June 2014), see the picture below. This is a summer treat we look forward to all year and as it needs to be made ahead is another good one for entertaining.

Pulled Pork

1 heaped tablespoon paprika

1 heaped teaspoon smoked paprika

2 teaspoons fine salt

1 heaped teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon cayenne

2 tablespoons soft brown sugar

20 turns of the black pepper mill

Shoulder of pork, around 5/6lbs

50ml cider (or white wine) vinegar

1 bottle good barbecue sauce

Mix the first 7 ingredients together in a bowl then rub into all sides of the pork. Wrap tightly in cling film and leave in the fridge for at least 4 hours or up to overnight. When you are ready to cook, preheat the oven to 200 and let the pork come to room temperature. Put into a baking pan not much bigger than the pork, put the 50ml vinegar and 50ml water in the bottom of the pan (don’t pour it over the pork or it will wash off some of the spices) and cover with foil. Put in the hot oven and immediately turn it down to 160 and cook for 6-7 hours until the meat falls apart when prodded with a fork. Pour all the cooking liquid into a pan, skim off the fat, pour in the barbecue sauce and simmer gently for 20 minutes until slightly thickened. Meanwhile remove and discard the layer of fat from the pork, shred the meat and return to the baking pan. When the sauce is ready pour it over the pork, mix well and serve.

Roasties with Chive Yogurt

Posted on 30/05/2019 by Anna

Occasionally it’s not so much a new recipe I need, more a hint or reminder of something. After all I have many, many cook books full of recipes but sometimes lack of energy, time or ingredients mean I’m looking for an old favourite rather than a new idea.

So yes, this is a recipe for roast potatoes but how often do you think of roasties aside from Sunday? These are an absolute winner and get eaten ridiculously quickly whenever I make them. Not just any old roast potatoes these are canapé potatoes or something else for a mezze type lunch potatoes. Pimp them up if you wish, a good dusting of paprika or chilli flakes would add pep and a handful of rosemary always works but I like them just like this, with salt and their tangy, chive and yogurt side.

I guess they are a little like potato skins – I know you can make these by baking potatoes and then removing the fluffy contents leaving you with the skins to roast and crisp but I never have. I do however like the combination of crispy crunchy potatoes with a sour cream and chive style sauce. This then is my way of doing things – you get the crispy skins but also the fluffy interior and I’ve gone for a yogurt based dip, similar but a little lighter and tangier than the original.

Sometimes I serve these alongside a main course but more often they are offered in their own right – a starter or a grazing treat to go with drinks before lunch or dinner. A little dish of sriracha alongside offers that heavenly combination of the cold and creamy yogurt with a belt of chilli heat. It’s not a spanking new fangled recipe, just the re working of an old favourite.

Roasties with Chive Yogurt

This is easily doubled or trebled which I would highly recommend.

500g potatoes, Maris Piper or similar

Olive oil

Salt

150g Greek yogurt

A handful of chives, finely chopped

A small clove of garlic, crushed (optional)

Preheat the oven to 200. Cut the potatoes into chunks about the size of a large walnut. Put into a large pan of salted water, bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Drain really well, shake briefly in the colander and then put into a large roasting pan, add enough oil to just coat, turning the potatoes well. Sprinkle with salt and roast near the top of the oven for 40-50 minutes until deeply golden and crunchy at the edges. Meanwhile mix the yogurt, chives and a good pinch of salt and let down with a little water if you prefer a runnier dip. Mix in the garlic if you are using. Serve the potatoes on a large plate with the dip and perhaps some sriracha along side. Serves 3-4 as a snack.

Chicken with Flageolet Beans, Leeks and Rosemary

Posted on 06/02/2019 by Anna

I am on a bit of a mission to increase our intake of pulses – they are cheap, filling and with a little magic can be quite delicious. I love them (now) but one of my children isn’t mad about them so inevitably I have a bee in my bonnet to think of delicious ways to serve them up. To be fair I didn’t really like pulses much when younger and would pick them out of a cassoulet or chilli and line them up around my plate. It was always disappointing then to be asked to finish them, at this point cold and without anything more palatable to help them on their way.

This is a delicious combo then, leeks and beans to please me and crispy skinned chicken to please us all. Don’t panic that four thighs aren’t enough, this is surprisingly filling and you can always serve another green veg or perhaps a crusty baguette and salad alongside.

The leeks, flageolet and rosemary work particularly well together and this makes a great side dish to roast lamb. Pop it into an ovenproof dish, top with breadcrumbs and finish in the oven until crispy above and bubbling beneath.

Roast chicken with leeks, flageolet beans and rosemary

You can of course use dried flageolet, just remember to soak and cook them according to pack instructions prior to using them below.

4 chicken thighs

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large or two medium leeks

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1 sprig rosemary, leaves finely chopped to yield around 1 teaspoon

1 tin (400g) flageolet beans, drained and rinsed

250ml chicken stock

2-3 tablespoons double cream

Chopped chives or parsley (optional)

Heat the oven to 200, put half a tablespoon of the oil into a roasting tin, turn the chicken in the oil, season with salt and cook for half an hour. Heat the remaining oil in a large frying pan and cook the leek gently, without colouring, until soft. Add the garlic and rosemary, cook for a minute or two then add the beans, stock and cream. Simmer for about 10 minutes until a little reduced then check for seasoning. After its 30 minutes remove the chicken from the oven, add the leek mixture to the pan without getting sauce on the now crispy skin and return to the oven for a final 5-10 minutes until gently bubbling and gold skinned. Scatter over the chives or parsley if you are using them. Serves 4.

Chicken with Harissa, Potatoes and Broccolini

Posted on 02/05/2018 by Anna

A few of you may recognise this as one of my earliest recipes on these pages. So long ago in fact that it doesn’t even have a photograph. Although I cook my recipes over and over again this is the first time I’ve duplicated one here. The reason being I felt it lacked fanfare originally and is such a reliable and delicious lunch or supper that I thought it deserved a shout out, as they say. Also and somewhat inevitably, I have tinkered with it adding potatoes to the original to make it a complete one pan meal.

It is this sort of dish that I find an absolute Godsend on weekdays when I’m frazzled and need to think of (yet another) family supper that is quick, easy, undemanding, not too expensive and above all delicious – clean plates after all are what we want to see. This ticks all those boxes, cooked in one pan which you can bring to the table, incorporates potatoes, meat and veg along with a super easy spice addition by way of the harissa. I refer you here to a comment I made about the original which still stands – “Crisp skinned chicken sliding off the bone in a spicy red jacket with crunchy greens to give verdant vigour!”

Chicken with Harissa and Broccolini

If you like things a little spicier feel free to add more harissa and if you want it a little saucier, add a glug of white wine with the final teaspoon of harissa.

1 tablespoon olive oil

8 chicken thighs, bone in and skin on

8 waxy potatoes, halved

5 teaspoons harissa paste

1 pack tenderstem broccolini

Chopped parsley (optional)

Preheat the oven to 190. Put the potatoes and oil in a large baking pan and turn to coat. Put half a teaspoon of harissa under the skin of each thigh and squidge a bit to spread. Put the chicken in with the potatoes, season and roast 30 minutes. Towards the end of this cooking time blanch the broccolini in boiling water for 1 minute and drain. Remove the chicken from the oven, stir the last teaspoon of harissa into the cooking juices and then fit the broccoli in and around the chicken and potatoes (put some of the chicken on the potatoes if that helps). Return to the oven for 10 minutes. Season, sprinkle with parsley if you like and serve, this is enough for 2 adults and 2 children but you can multiply it at will.

Greens with garlic and soy

Posted on 12/10/2017 by Anna

I have a feeling these greens could be magic. My daughter really doesn’t like broccoli, in fact she has an aversion to most green veggies, however not only will she happily help herself to these without encouragement (bribery) but will have seconds. Unbelievable. I’ve mentioned before that its one of my life’s works to find a way my children will enjoy all, or most, vegetables and this is one of those successes. I imagine the garlic and soy sauce go a long way towards making these so ridiculously delicious. Whatever it is, I maximise the advantage and these are served regularly at my table alongside all manner of stir fries or anything with an Asian note.

Quick, healthy, cheap, delicious – what is not to like about this dish. I am happy to tuck into these for a lone lunch and indeed ate, or rather greedily scoffed, the greens you see in the picture for lunch today. A side of rice would have worked well to soak up the delicious sauce but I didn’t even get round to that. We had something like this at Wagamama and loved the simplicity and crunch so couldn’t wait to have a go making it myself. I suspect the original may have some additional ingredients but I couldn’t suss them and regardless love the pared down ingredients in the recipe below as much as the flavour. You could add a pinch of chilli flakes if you want or a squirt of Sriracha to the greens but honestly, they don’t need it.

Greens with Garlic and Soy

Use any crunchy greens that catch your eye. I always use broccolini and pak choi as that was what I had first had. This time I’ve added the last of the green beans from the garden and you could use regular broccoli if that is what you have. Going completely off piste, carrots work well in this application although they take longer to lose their raw crunch so bear this in mind before you add the garlic and soy. Just thought you should know.

1 tablespoon oil

1 head of pak choi cut into sixths lengthwise

A handful of broccolini (around 8 stalks)

A handful of green beans, topped, tailed and halved

1 clove garlic, finely sliced

1 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon soy sauce or tamari if you prefer

Heat the oil in a wok or large frying pan. Add the vegetables and stir fry for 4-5 minutes until just losing their rawness and gaining a little colour. Put in the garlic and stir quickly so it doesn’t burn followed by the sugar and soy sauce. Cook for a further minute stirring all the time and then serve. This is enough for 2 with rice for lunch or 4 as a side.

New Slaw

Posted on 20/05/2016 by Anna

What happened to good old fashioned coleslaw? I say good but actually, so many times it wasn’t, sometimes in fact it has been downright terrible. Limp, greasy, over oniony, short on seasoning, cabbage too big, drowned in cheap mayo etc etc. Poor coleslaw has hung its head in shame and hidden at the back of the buffet table. Until now and talk about a makeover – the humble coleslaw has had some sort of sonic reinvention, spruced up and started wearing international couture. Asian Slaw, Spicy Slaw, Citrus Slaw, Moroccan Slaw – it’s thrown off its dowdy mayo, lost the Cole and got down and funky with the kids. Spicy, herby, tangy or hot – Slaw can be anything you like as long as it is crunchy.

I love a crunchy salad and regulars to these pages will know I am not stranger to this type of side. My Christmas Salad (December 2013), the Thai-ish Salad (November 2015), Carrot Salad (January 2013) and of course the Celeriac Remoulade (January 2016) are variations on the slaw theme. They are all cheap and easy to rustle up, happily retain their crunch for a couple of days in the fridge and will go with a myriad of other things as well as being perfect for lunch on their own (I particularly like this ones with a piece of cold salmon). There is an added bonus though and its a huge and resounding boom of a bonus. Children love them. Who knew that getting raw veggies into children could ever be so easy? My son particularly likes my Christmas Salad and regularly has if for his packed lunch. My daughter however adores this gingery, piquant New Slaw the best, told me it is her favourite salad and had it three times this week.

Carrots, fennel, beetroot, cabbage (green, white or red), radish, celeriac, apple, broccoli – any of these work well. Then do you want a sharp, zingy dressing, maybe spicy too? Or perhaps a creamy dressing, a little more traditional although I favour yogurt or creme fraiche here over the ubiquitous mayo. Add herbs, lots of them and seeds are good too. Sometimes I add dried cranberries or raisins as I love that little burst of sweetness. Customise your slaw as you please, make your own bespoke version. We eat one of these raw, crunchy types of salad a few time a week and this one is the current favourite. Gingery, herby and with a little heat it goes perfectly with barbecued chicken and I will post my favourite grilled chicken recipe in the next week or so. Meanwhile may the crunch be with you, it is delicious and you can just feel it doing you good.

New Slaw

The other day I didn’t have any cabbage so used more carrots and it was just as good. Different but just as good and that is the point of these slaws really, add a little more or less of something as you please, make it your own.

3 carrots, peeled

1/4 of a small red or green cabbage, core removed and finely chopped

6 radishes, sliced

2 spring onions, sliced

A thumb of ginger, peeled

1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

A small packet of coriander

A small packet of mint

A handful of raisins or dried cranberries (optional)

2 tablespoons olive oil, a light one

Juice of 1 lime, you may need 2 depending on their size and juiciness.

Grate the carrots and put into a large bowl with the radishes, onions, cabbage and chilli. I use a box grater for this rather than an attachment in the processor as I find using this makes the veggies really wet. Finely grate the ginger, add this to the bowl along with the olive oil and lime juice. Season and mix well with your hands so that everything is combined. Chop or snip the herbs over the salad, add the raisins/cranberries if using, mix once more and serve to happy faces.

Beetroot and Carrot Cake

Posted on 09/02/2016 by Anna

My children have exceptionally finely tuned radars when it comes to trying out new dishes and show particular suspicion if I ever respond “it’s a surprise!” when they are faced with something new. They will fire questions about ingredients at me but I am used to this now and have a range of ripostes and distracting tactics at the ready. I’ve perfected acting in a slightly deaf, vague fashion when being cross examined, sometimes I will deflect questions by posing a conundrum so complex, lengthy and bizarre back at them that they will have forgotten their original question or my absolute favourite when faced with a query I would rather not answer, I look intently at the window and ask “is that a badger out there?”.

These discussions and my slippery evasiveness usually come to the fore when a less than popular vegetable has been snuck into something under cover. I do this in my never-ending efforts to find a way to make each and every vegetable delicious to my treasures. Rather as it was with this Beetroot and Carrot cake. Previously a regular kind of Carrot cake had been deemed acceptable so grabbing this particular baton, I decided to expand on the idea and add beetroot to the mix.

Now don’t misunderstand me, I am under no false illusion that by adding any old veg to a cake it miraculously becomes healthy. There is a sea of treats out there that contain ‘better for you’ ingredients – sweet potatoes, date syrup, wholemeal flour, quinoa or whatever but treats they are. A cake is a cake is a cake, something to enjoy occasionally but not every day. The reason I make this one is because I think it is absolutely delicious. The fact that it contains grated raw carrot and beetroot is a happy coincidence.

My son ate one slice of the first of these cakes but has mysteriously been full whenever offered a slice at a later date. My husband said he like it but could see why the children didn’t which, in itself, was fairly damning and my daughter simply eyed it as one would a snake.

So to everyone who has tried this cake and loved it (even those who were told the pink bits were raspberries….) I say thank you and to my family I say, never mind, all the more for me.

Beetroot and Carrot Cake

Grating the vegetables in a processor can make it a bit wet so I tend to do it by hand with a box grater, it only takes a few minutes.

300g carrots and beetroot (untrimmed or peeled weight), grated

250g self raising flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

Pinch of salt

150g soft brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

150ml sunflower or vegetable oil, plus a tiny bit extra for greasing the tin

2 eggs, beaten

125g icing sugar, sifted

50g soft butter

200g cream cheese, at room temperature

1 lime, zest and juice.

Preheat the oven to 170 and oil a 20cm tin with a little of the sunflower/vegetable oil and line the base. Sift the flour, baking powder and cinnamon into a bowl, add the salt and sugar followed by the grated carrot and beetroot and mix well. Combine the oil and beaten egg and add this to the flour and vegetables and mix. It will be a thick mixture! Put into the tin, level the top and bake for 1 hour or until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before cooling completely on a rack. Meanwhile for the icing, beat the butter, sugar and lime really well before adding the cream cheese. It is important that this is at room temperature so it mixes in easily, don’t over beat it as it will quickly become runny. If it does however, don’t panic, just put it in the fridge until firmed up. Spread over the cake.

Celeriac Remoulade

Posted on 21/01/2016 by Anna

I have piles of recipes waiting to be tried. Stacks of pages torn out of magazines or newspapers waiting in boxes until the right day. I tried various indexing systems but in all honesty when it comes to finding a certain recipe the usual answer is to sit on the floor surrounded by open boxes leafing through endless pages. Eight times out of ten I will find the recipe I am after and all will be well but sometimes, occasionally I have to give up on the search. So it was with a particular recipe for Celeriac Remoulade that I got from a cooking demo last year. Before Christmas I looked everywhere but it was nowhere to be found so I had to start from scratch. Not a hardship, it is delicious and fun fiddling around until the right combination is found.

I have served this twice alongside my Slow Roast Pork (recipe coming soon) and Christmas Salad. The pork and two salads are piled up into a warm bap along with a few dressed green leaves and a good blob of chilli spiked yogurt. Soft falling apart pork with the tang and crunchiness of the salads is a heavenly combination which seems to please adults and children alike. After she had eaten this with us at New Year a friend asked me for the pork recipe and has now made it three times which thrills me to bits. I thoroughly recommend you try it and I will post the pork recipe next week. In the meantime enjoy this fabulous, crunchy raw salad with some air dried ham and if you’re not on the wagon a glass of cold cider, sensational.

Celeriac Remoulade

If you have a food processor with grating attachment this takes literally minutes to make but if not just use a regular grater and mind your knuckles. This combination of yogurt and mustard is how we like it, enough of a kick but still child friendly.

1/2 a celeriac, peeled (approx 450g)

1/2 a bunch parsley, finely chopped

4 tablespoons Greek yogurt

2 tablespoons dijon mustard (you can use seedy mustard if you prefer)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

A pinch of salt

A pinch of caster sugar

Grate the celeriac using a processor or grater (see introduction). Mix the yogurt, mustard, lemon juice, salt and sugar. Mix together with the celeriac and parsley, I do this in a really large bowl so as to get it all properly incorporated. Taste for seasoning. This will serve 4 with a few slices of prosciutto or similar for lunch or 6-8 if you are having it with the pork and other salads in a bap.

Eat your (real) greens soup

Posted on 08/01/2016 by Anna

Everywhere I look right now I read about re-alkanising my probably too acid body, super powders, acai, cleansing (is that a euphemism?), optimum ph, powdered greens to add to my wheatgrass juice etc etc. Now I am not knocking anyone who might want to add any of the above to their daily diet but in all honesty isn’t it easier, cheaper and just more real to eat vegetables. Surely these are better in their fresh, honest and original state than any dried, powdered, vitamin added supplement?

As you see from these pages I try to cook seasonally and from scratch whilst still retaining a little fun and indulgence, balance being the spice of life and all that. I know I should probably eat more fruit and I definitely could do with more fish in my diet but generally I reckon we do ok. If I were to present my family with a glass each of coconut water or almond milk and ask them to add a sachet of revitalising, re-balancing green powder to it, well what do you think they would say? I have a rough idea.

There are a million salads, juices, smoothies and soups doing the rounds but this soup is what I had for lunch today. Broccoli, spring onions and spinach were languishing in the fridge, a plucky mint plant is soldiering on in the garden despite the rain and I was given a box of lemons yesterday. I want to eat healthily but I also hate throwing away food. This was the result. I made a straightforward vegetable soup, the peas added a little sweetness to balance (!) the spinach, a spritz of lemon and fresh mint brought a hint of Spring to the party. A dollop of Greek yogurt added a perfect richness whilst the seeds gave crunchy, tasty texture.

Clear your fridge and cleanse yourself at the same time. Happy New Year!

Green Vegetable Soup

As I said, this is what I had in the fridge today. Previous incarnations of this soup have included leeks, watercress, courgettes and chard. All of these were probably looking a little past their best which is why they ended up in soup. Use whatever you have. There is nothing to stop you buying the ingredients specifically for soup but isn’t it satisfying when these end up on your plate rather than the compost?

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 spring onions, finely chopped (use a regular onion if you don’t have any spring)

1 head of broccoli (approx 250g) chopped fairly small

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1 large handful fresh spinach

1 cup of frozen peas (around 125g)

A few sprigs of mint

A few sprigs of parsley (if you have them)

750ml vegetable stock

Half a lemon

Greek yogurt to serve

Toasted sunflower and pumpkin seeds

Heat the oil in a pan and gently soften the spring onion. Add the broccoli (you want it chopped fairly small to you don’t have to simmer it for hours) and the stock and cook for around 5 minutes until the point of a knife goes into a piece easily. Add the spinach and peas and cook for another 2 minutes, then add the mint and parsley if using. Stir so these are wilted and then blend. Serve with blob of yogurt, a good spritz of lemon and as many seeds as you like. Enough for 4 with something else or 2 if that is all you are having.

Thai-ish Salad

Posted on 20/11/2015 by Anna

Right I must say from the off that this is a Thai salad in the loosest possible sense. Yes there is coriander, lime juice, fish sauce etc but also apple and radish and I’m not sure quite how authentic they are. That said, it is fabulous to eat and sometimes I am happy to throw authenticity out of the window. I think I mentioned it with Paella (January 2013) – I am not trying to recreate an original dish, I simply want to make something good to eat.

This is crisp, crunchy and jam packed with flavours. The ginger, garlic and (small amount) of chilli give this life and heat whilst the herbs and lime bring zip and zing to the party. You can leave out the apple if you want but I love their tangy sweetness and likewise the radishes, if they are not your thing omit them but they add peppery crunch and a beautiful pink.

It is a bonus for me that my children like this. My daughter is a bit of a salad phobe but she adores and this and happily ploughs her way through a bowlful, sometimes adding a little more chilli and then smacking her lips and puffing as a result. Its good to see them enjoying a bit of healthy salad at this time of year when we are rather surrounded by root vegetables and a lot of hardy brassicas.

This is fab with pork chops or roast chicken (hot or cold) and also works very well with leftovers. In particular I’m thinking leftover turkey here but then that would make it a challenger to my beloved Christmas Salad (December 2013). Never mind, we’ll just have both.

Thai Salad

Make the dressing first so that the flavours can sit and meld for a bit.

Juice of 1 lime

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

1 tablespoon soy sauce

2 tablespoons light olive oil

1/2 tablespoon fish sauce

1/2 teaspoon caster sugar

1/2 teaspoon sriracha or other chilli sauce

Small thumb ginger, finely grated

1 small clove garlic, finely grated

1/4 white cabbage

1 apple

6 radishes

2 carrots, peeled

1/2 bunch coriander

1/2 bunch mint

Mix the first nine ingredients together to make the dressing. Taste and adjust as you see fit, a little more chilli perhaps? Finely chop the rest of the ingredients and mix in a large bowl, add most of the dressing and combine. You may or may not need all the dressing, it rather depends on the size of your cabbage and carrots! Enough for 4 as a side.

Anna May, everyday…

Category Archives: Vegetables