After Ear to the Ground last night a number of people have asked for the recipe for this and also for the Raspberry Clafouti. I’m making the clafouti again this weekend, so I’ll take pics of that. I don’t know when I’ll have pork belly again, so I’ll just post the recipe anyway without pics - I’ll add them when I make it next.

Pork belly is kind of cheffy food, in that you see it on restaurant menus quite a lot but not many people cook it at home. I suspect that its popularity with chefs is not just because it’s so tasty but also because of the healthy profit margin to be had, it’s a really cheap cut.

I don’t know why more people don’t cook it, because it’s very easy to do. It does require time but only in the oven, preparing it is the work of a couple of minutes and could hardly be easier. It’s a perfect dish for a day when you’ll be in the house but too busy to cook anything complicated.

Here’s how I did the one on the TV, and this method is the one I’ve found gives the crispest and most delicious crackling. Who doesn’t love good crackling?

Ingredients

This amount will feed 6 people very well.

• 1 kg of Pork Belly
• 3 Onions
• About a pint of Chicken Stock (homemade is best but cubes are fine)
• Olive oil
• Salt

Get your butcher to score the skin on the pork for you, it’s a bit of a pain to do at home.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Cooking the Pork

Sprinkle the skin surface of the pork with quite a lot of salt and leave it aside for about 10 minutes. This will draw out a surprising amount of water, which you can then mop off with some kitchen paper. Dry the skin very thoroughly - the dryer the skin, the better the crackling.

While the pork is set aside, peel and halve the onions, and arrange them cut side down in a roasting pan in two rows.

Smear the skin surface of the pork with olive oil fairly generously. Sit the pork belly on top of the onions, so they act like a trivet holding the meat above the surface of the tray.

Pour chicken stock into the tray to a depth of about 1 inch or a little more - take care not to let any of the stock get on the skin side of the pork.

Put the meat into the fully preheated oven and immediately turn the heat down to 150°C, or 140°C if you have a fan oven.

You are now basically done for 5 hours.

Just check occasionally to ensure that the stock has not evaporated away, and top up with water or more stock if it looks a bit low. You don’t want the pan to dry out. Do not baste the pork at all, that’s really important, again for the crackling. Water or any watery liquid is the enemy of crisp crackling.

After 5 hours take the pork from the oven, remove to a plate and drain the liquid in the tray into a jug. Carefully slide a knife between the crackling and the meat and remove the crackling to a warm place (I leave it on a plate on top of the cooker).

Put the rest of the pork back into the oven in the now fairly dry roasting tin, skin side up, while you make the gravy.

Making the Gravy

All the time the pork was cooking, it was releasing fat and juice over the onions, which are now beautifully caramelised, and into the stock, which will now be dark brown and unctuous.

By the time you get back to it, the fat in the pan juices will have started to settle on the top of the jug. Spoon some of it away if there is too much.

Put the remaining juice/stock into a blender along with two of the halved onions and blend until smooth. Taste and season with salt and pepper if you think it needs it, though it probably won’t. That’s it. No need to thicken, the blended onion will have made it thick enough and if it hasn’t just add another one and blend again.

To Serve

Cut the pork in thick slices. Pour over some gravy. Break up the crackling along the score lines and serve on top of the pork.

Yum!

Tags: Gravy, Pork
Posted in Recipes | 11 Comments »

For all the excellent speakers and interesting talks at Podcamp in Kilkenny, I think few would disagree that among the biggest hits of the day were Deborah’s Chocolate Brownies, a huge pile of which disappeared with indecent haste!

Though they definitely are not low carb, I ate one (oh ok, two!) and all I can say is yum, yum, yum.

It sent me back to a recipe that resulted from a task that absorbed me off and on for months: to make a successful low-carb brownie. Not a pale imitation of what a brownie should be, but the real deal -succulent, rich, deep and luxurious.

It took a little experimentation, and a couple of almost inedible results, but these ones totally hit the spot. And they contain absolutely no flour or sugar.

This is what you need:

• 100g ground almonds
• 100g Linwoods milled Flaxseed, Sunflower and Pumpkin seeds *
• 10g Splenda
• 20g unsweetened cocoa powder (Green & Black is best, Bournville will do)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon bread soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 80 mls cream
• 40g dark chocolate (ie. 4 squares Lidl Ecuador or Fair Trade dark chocolate)
• 1/4 lb butter, cut into dice
• 3 eggs

* The milled seeds are essential - I tried several versions using just ground almonds as the ‘flour’ and they were not good. The seeds are available in most supermarkets but are usually cheaper if you buy them in a health food store.

Mix all the dry ingredients (down to the salt) together.

Put the cream into a bowl with the chcolate and warm in a microwave for about 20-30 seconds. The chocolate should then dissolve into the cream with a little stirring. Add the butter to this and stir until the butter is soft, it doesn’t need to be completely melted.

Beat the chocolate mix into the dry ingredients. Beat in the eggs one at a time. You’ll end up with a slightly granular mixture.

I use this octagonal silicon tray which is 9″ in diameter for these, but any baking tray of about that size will do - the bigger the tray the thinner the brownie. I like ‘em deep as the picture shows!

Bake at 180° for about 30 mins - the centre will set but yeilding to the touch when they’re done.

The icing is sort of optional, but to my mind if you are going to be self-indulgent, don’t half do it! For it you will need:

• 40g dark chocolate (as above)
• 2 tablespoons cream
• About half an ounce of butter
• 125g Mascarpone cheese
• 1 dessertspoon Splenda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence (or real vanilla)

Melt the chocolate into the cream in the microwave to the point where there are still a few lumps in it. Stir to melt these. Add the butter and stir to melt. Beat the chocolate mixture and the splenda and vanilla into the mascarpone. Spread over the brownies in the tray when they have reached the point of being just warm.

The icing will take an hour or two to set, so leave the brownies uncut in their tray for this time.

This makes about 16 large or about 20 smaller brownies, depending on how you cut them.

For those interested in such things, they come out at just a little more than 2g net carbs per brownie - not bad for such a luxury and well under 10%, perhaps as little as 5%, of what’s in a ‘normal’ brownie of the same size. You can get them down to 1.5g if you use Lindt or Green & Black 85% chocolate. There is a tremendous amount of fat in them as you can see, so if low fat is your concern, these are a big no-no.

They are however horrendously expensive to make, no getting away from it. Compared to using flour, almond and milled seeds cost a LOT. Getting the chocolate, mascarpone and cream in Lidl helps, but doesn’t make them a bargain by a long shot.

Still, life isn’t ALL about bargains!

Tags: Brownies, Chocolate, Treats
Posted in Chocolate, Low carb, Recipes | 4 Comments »

A friend of mine was visiting relatives recently when he found himself sitting in front of TV with a distant cousin he had hardly seen since she was a child. She was watching a cookery programme, not sure which one, but she was spellbound, unavailable for conversation and completely absorbed.

When the programme ended he asked her if she enjoyed these kind of shows.

“I absolutely love them, I watch them all.”
“So, you must be a pretty good cook then?” he commented.
“Oh no, I hate cooking, I never cook at all” was her extraordinary reply.

I wonder how unusual she is? I know I am just as addicted to food on TV as she is - my current obsession is Masterchef, The Professionals and everyone knows not to even try speaking to me if Heston Blumenthal appears - but in truth I very rarely replicate precisely what I see on the screen.

I do pick up ideas though, and take away some tips, from these shows, but often adapt recipes to what’s readily available and also what’s low carb.

A few weeks ago on Saturday Kitchen on BBC, made Beef Koftas with Halloumi and Fig Salad, which looked just yum. So I had a go at something similar yesterday, but instead of fig (not low carb) and halloumi (couldn’t find it) tried an avocado and fried mozzarella salad instead. I also changed the beef recipe a bit.

So what I ended up with was Beef Koftas with Mozzarella and Avocado Salad and Cucumber Dressing - maybe not the same, but I’d never have made it if I hadn’t watched that programme.

There are quite a few potentially expensive ingredients making up this dish - but since the beef, avocado, mozzarella and yoghurt are all Lidl’s it ends up fairly frugal. In fact everything except the cumin and coriander came from Lidl.

First the Koftas. Here’s what I used to serve 2 people:

• 1/2 lb minced beef
• 2 cloves garlic, very finely chopped
• 1/2 small onion, very finely chopped
• 1/2 red chili, very finely chopped
• Very generous pinch coriander powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• Salt and black pepper

Mix everything together well, divide into four and then form each portion into sort of sausages on skewers. I probably should have made them less fat than I did.

Fry these on a griddle pan or grill them under a hot grill.

Meanwhile make the dressing. This makes what looks like too much dressing, and I thought we’d have left overs. Not so, it was really tasty and we ate the lot:

• 1 tub Lidl Organic full fat yoghurt
• 5 inches of Cucumber
• 1/2 red chili
• 1 bulb Chinese garlic (this sort, which has a mild shallot-like garlic that is good raw)
• 1 scallion

Peel the cucumber and scrape out most of the seeds (they make the dressing too sloppy). Chop the cucumber into fine dice. Chop the scallion, garlic and chili finely, and everything with the yoghurt. Leave in the fridge to chill.

Make the salad at the last minute, because you want the mozzarella still hot:

• 1 pack Lidl (or any) Mozzarella, sliced
• 1 avocado
• Mixed leaves
• Lemon
• Olive oil

Peel and slice the avocado, squeeze over a little lemon juice and toss in a teaspoon of olive oil. Add a small amount of oil to a pan and heat until it starts to smoke. Add the mozzarella two or three slices at a time, don’t overcrowd the pan or it will cool down and the cheese will melt instead of frying. It cooks very quickly. Turn over after about 30 seconds. Repeat until all slices are cooked.

Toss the cheese and avocado together and serve on a bed of leaves alongside the Koftas with the cucumber dressing on the side.

Let me tell you now that the revelation here was the salad, which was wonderful, and I’ve never even thought of frying mozzarella before. It’s gorgeous, went very well with the Koftas and the hot mozzarella with the cool avocado and dressing was a great combination. I’ll be doing that again.

Tags: Avocado, Beef, Mozzarella, Recipes, TV food
Posted in Recipes, TV | 4 Comments »

Summer arrived briefly last week and stuck around for a day or two, and apparently is to return for another short stay next week. With it came a longing for Ice Cream, which is one of the few things I admit to missing since I started eating low carb. My tongue practically hangs out when I pass the ice cream fridges at Lidl. I particularly miss their premium vanilla which has real vanilla in it and is a total gem - you should try if you have not already done so.

But there are alternatives, and while this dessert is not really ice cream at all, it ticks all the same boxes and is very delicious in it’s own right. Plus it has the enormous advantage of being ready to eat about 2 minutes after you decide to make it - hard to beat that kind of instant gratification!

Simple as it is to make I’ve served this to people who were incredibly impressed and assumed it had taken ages. I love those kind of recipes.

This amount will serve 4 people, generously.

• 1 tub Lidl Mascarpone
• 2 dessert spoons Splenda (or sugar)
• Seeds from about 2 inches of fresh vanilla pod (or a teaspoon of vanilla essence)
• Squeeze of lemon juice
• 1/2 lb frozen berries (I used a mix of raspberry, strawberry and blackcurrant)

Put everything except the berries in the blender and mix until smooth. Add the berries and blend thoroughy.

That’s it. Serve and enjoy!

You need a good strong blender for this - frozen berries will be too big a challenge for a flimsy one.

It’s good value too. Mind you that’s because I have such a wonderful source of frozen berries, Purcell’s Farm in Dunmore, just outside Kilkenny, whose home grown raspberries and strawberries are available year round for €2.00 per lb, with blackcurrants just €1.50 per lb.

Tags: Berries, Farm Shop, Ice Cream, Mascarpone
Posted in Low carb, Recipes | 10 Comments »

One of my most used pieces of kitchen equipment is this Kenwood Chef mixer that must be at least 35 years old, possibly older, but is still in perfect nick and complete with its original bowl.

It belonged to my mother who also gave it heavy use, so whatever it originally cost it was certainly very cheap at the price and is a testament to good design.

She acquired over the years various additions to this workhorse, some successful, some less so - a robust blender that would grind stones is still in use but a potato peeler that turned out to be considerably more trouble than it was worth has long disappeared. One attachment I use infrequently is the mincer, mainly because cleaning it is such a tremendous pain, involving serious levels of dismantling and poking at little holes and grooves to get rid of the remnants of meat that cling to every part of its inner workings.

However sometimes it’s worth it, and one meat I use it for is turkey. For all it’s popularity and association with festivity, turkey is a pretty boring meat. It doesn’t have a whole lot of flavour and is can be dry as a bone, so it needs work to make it interesting. But Lidls Turkey breast is good value and so is a fairly regular buy.

Often I stir-fry strips of it or slice it, stuff it and wrap it in prosciutto, but these turkey sausages are probably my favourite way of cooking it. Though I did slightly overcook the ones below, they were still very tasty.

You can use ready minced turkey for these, but in my experience it’s less successful. Any that I’ve tried seems to be pumped with water and as a result the sausages shrink up and go a bit soggy when cooked. I think we’ll all agree that a shrunken soggy sausage is a truly sad thing.

Moving on. Here is what you’ll need to make 16 sausages:

• 1 lb raw turkey breast, finely minced
• 2 roast red peppers (from the Lidl jars of pepper)
• 1 red chili
• A small onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• Putza Spice mix
• 2 oz butter
• About 3 inches of tomato puree from a tube
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• Salt and black pepper

Finely chop the onion, chili and garlic. Melt the butter in a pan and gently fry the chopped veg - you don’t want it to brown. While it’s frying chop or mash the red peppers roughly. Add them to the pan and season the lot with putza (which is really good in this) - about a heaped teaspoon full, though I tend to just shake in what looks about right.

When this is done, scrape it all into a shallow bowl, making sure you get all of the butter, and put it into the fridge to cool. It should be completely cool before you mix it with the turkey - which takes about as long as it takes to mince the turkey and clean the mincer.

Once the cooked veg is cool just mix it thoroughly with the minced turkey, add the tomato puree, season with salt and pepper and then mix in the egg. Pound this about a bit while you mix it - you need it very well blended together and kind of mushy.

The result is a little sloppy, but with care you can form it into sausage shapes. These need to rest in the fridge for at least an hour before you cook them to firm up.

I cook them in a George Foreman Grill, but you can grill them in the normal way or even bake them.

The addition of butter is in my opinion essential - turkey breast has almost no fat and without some the sausages are just too dry. But if you are watching fat you could try it without or with less.

We had these last night with mushrooms and cheesy mashed cauliflower.

Every time I make them I think that I should maybe buy the sausage maker attachment for the Kenwood, but  it would probably just be creating more washing-up.

Tags: Kenwood, Sausages, Turkey
Posted in Recipes | 1 Comment »