Smoked Ham Hock with lentil , leeks and peas

Ham Hock , oh the power of suggestion Helen ( Food Stories ) was twittering about how delicious they smelt cooking .  Greensmiths was selling massive hocks  for just £4.50 for a 1kg hock.

Carrying   carrying it home on the train  eachtime I opened my bag the train carriage was flooded with smoked bacon which only heightend my senses.

Cooking the hock

I covered the hock in 2 pints of cider and two pints of water thyme, bay leaves , leeks , garlic salt and pepper and left it to simmer for 3.5 hours . After which removing the skin from the hock I was left with flakey but chewy ham and a delicious stock.

For a quick weeknight meal I made this lentil and vegetable dish quick and hearty , still thinking of other combinations since there is still some delicious meat and stock left .

Smoked Ham Hock with lentil , leeks and peas

1 pint of ham hock stock
1 pint of boiling water
100g of cooked smoked ham hock
200g of dried puy lentils
1 large leek roughly chopped
100g of frozen peas

1. Pour the stock and water over the lentils bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes
2. Add the leeks and and ham
3. In the last 2 minutes stir in the peas
4. Serve with sprinkling of fresh thyme

Calves Liver with Chorizo and Balsamic Caramlised Onions

Greensmiths the butcher/deli grocer which opened round the corner from work a few months ago has become a regular huant for me and by haunt I mean I stand with my face pressed against the window gazing at produce. Greensmiths stocks meat from the Ginger Pig in Yorkshire all beautifully presented and expertly cut . My boss mentioned they had a large piece of calvers liver and knowing my food obsession asked me what to do with it . Shamingly I had to confess I had never cooked it before , but once logged in my brain spent the next two hours thinking about calves liver and had to run out at lunchtime and buy some.

The butcher cut the liver to half a centimeter width , each slice was about 25cm long and 15cm wide , like a large beefsteak Some internet research suggested onions and bacon , but wanted something I bit kickier so I used some chorizo and decided to caramlise the onions with a little sherry vinegar . Calves liver like all livers shouldn’t be cooked for too long since it will become tough so I cooked it for the breifest of time
The result melt in the mouth liver with a light meaty taste not overly ferrous with plenty of cabbage and mashed potatoes

Calves Liver with Chorizo and Balsamic Caramlised Onions

Serves 2

200g of calves liver
1 small onion
1 clove of garlic
50g of chorizo roughly chopped
1 tbsp of olive oil
1 tsbp of french mustard
10ml tbsp of balsamic vinegar
20ml of water
1 tsp of dried thyme
1 tsp of butter

Season the liver on both sides with pepper
Fry chorizo , onion and garlic in oil until the onion has softened.
Add the balsamic vinegar , french mustard , water simmer until reduced
Warm the butter in a pan until it begins to bubble add the calves liver fry for just 20 seconds on one side , 10 seconds on the last side

Forced Rhubarb and Ginger Cake

Found my first forced rhubarb of the season . The term forced sounds a bit barbaric , but I promise its pretty humane simply  rhubarb traditionally  grown in in low darkened forocing sheds and  picked by candlelight to protect younger stems.

Athough it is pretty expensive the rhubabr is succulent and delicately pink more tender than the outdoor variety it requires little cooking .  Buying this traditional product also means supporting British growers of from the Rhubarb Triangle in Yorkshire where , the right kind of soil and cheap coal brilliantly combine to provide perfect growing conditions. You can try growing it at home with these attractive rhubarb forcers.

Rhubarb and Ginger love eachother something about the combination of heat and sour and though  I have made rhubarb and ginger upside down cake before this  this time I decided to adapt a foolproof and delicious gingerbread recipe .

This gingerbread recipe and moist and  sticky gingerbread everytime but the addition of the rhubarb gives little sour bites

Sticky Gingerbread

( slightly amended from original Sophie Grigson recipe http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/595329)

Makes 9 massive pieces

280g plain flour
200g of forced rhubarb chopped into 1cm pieces
1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
1 tbsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp Salt
170g unsalted butter, softened
190g light muscovado sugar
100g golden syrup
1 egg
200ml Milk
4 knobs preserved stem ginger, roughly chopped

Method

1.  Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4.
2. Line the base of a 20cm square cake tin with greaseproof paper
3.  Sift the flour with the bicarbonate of soda, ginger, cinnamon and salt.
4.  Cream the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the golden syrup, then the egg
5. Beat in the flour then the milk to form a smooth batter. Stir in the stem ginger
6. Pour half the mixture into the tin , scatter over the raw rhubarb, and pour over the rest of the batter
7. Bake for about 40-45 minutes until firm to the touch.
8. Let the gingerbread cool in the tin for 5-10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool.

Slow Cook Lamb with Prunes

Home alone tonight and since  the oven was on for a long time today on a low heat making  meringues and  cake. I decided it was sensible to secrete   at the bottom of the oven sealed in a cast iron casserole dish , a slow cook dish of lamb and prunes .

The prunes make a rich and delicious sauce with mouth melting lamb and a kick of chilli and star anise, its almost a tagine

Slow Cook Lamb with Prunes

200g of lamb shoulder or leg diced
100g of prunes
1 medium onion
2 cloves of garlic rougly chopped
4 dried red chilli crushed
2 star anise
2 tsp of coriander seeds
400g of tinned plum tomatoes
1 pint of water
1 tsp of olive oil

1. Toast the chillis, star anise coriander seed .
2. Finely grind the toasted spices
3. Place the oil in a pan with the spices, onions and garlic
4. Add the lamb cook until brown
5. Finally add the tomatoes, water and prunes
6. Bring to a gentle simmer cover and place in the oven on a low heat at 150degC for at least two hours

Serve with brown rice mixed with finely chopped fresh coriander leaves and toasted sesame sees

Roast Pork Belly with Fennel and Apple Sauce

Valentines Day is rampant with commercialism , watching the panicked faces of men buying flowers at St Pancras Station only pushed the point home but this year am tying up our celebration in two great initatives

Firstly Purple Love Week running from Valentines Day for a week it encourages people to spend money in their local shops . It shown that any money spent in the local economy is worth five times as much to the overall community so just a fiver works out at being worth at least £25.00 because the money goes from business to business meaning the whole community benefits.

This week also got an email about a Valentines initiative from The Energy Saving Trust ,   Turn me on, turn it off aims to find environmentally freindly way to celebrate Valentines Day , they have plenty of suggestions online Funnily enough Nick and I owe our relationship to a little enforced turning off of heating , staying at cottage in rural Wales   the heating had broken down, forced to  huddle together for warmth  thankfully the electric  oven was working and Nick cooked me  pork belly . Lack of heating and perfectly cooked meal the rest is history .

So to show our Purple Love I  despatched the lovey boyfreind to our local butchers Dundas  for some pork belly this time I am afraid we didn’t turn the heating off, this time but our new cohabitation has saved  a weekly 150 mile commute doing our bit for the environment.

The pork belly happily roasted with minimal input &  I made a fennel and apple sauce which cut through the richness of the pork belly also some delicous roast beetroot ,plenty of leftovers for the week, just perfect

Roast Pork Belly

1kg of pork belly

Score the top of the pork belly
Rub with sea salt and pepper
Half two garlic bulbs and place under the pork
Roast in hot oven at 250deg C for 40 minutes , turn it down to 200 and roast for a further two hours
Should get a delicious crackling

Fennel and Apple Sauce

1 bulb of fennel
1 cooking apple
1 tsp of cumin seeds
1 tsp of honey

Place the fennel and apple in casserole dish cover and bake in the oven or simmer on the hob until soft

For more recipes and foodbloggers favourite supplier Pagnum over at the Yorkshire Food Blog have a great summary of recipes see  Pork Belly or is it Belly Pork?

Sweet Potato and Lentil Curry

Sweet potatoes are making a comeback in the vegebox  though my diets been  meaty recently . This was a quick and delicious dinner which would work well with butternut squash too but the sweet potato held its shape .

Sweet Potato and Lentil Curry

1 Onion finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic
200g of red lentils
300g of tinned tomatoes
100g of sweet potato ,peeled & cut into 1cm cubes
1 pint vegetables stock
2 tbsps cumin seeds
2 tbsp of cardamon pods
2 tbsp of coriander seeds
1 tsp finely chopped fresh red chilli
1 tsp of tumeric

Serves 2

1. Crush the spices in a mortar and pestle
2. Fry in heavy pan with a drop of oil
3. Add the garlic , chilli and  onions, fry until soft
4. Add the sweet potato and lentils
5. Pour over the stock , simmer for 40 minutes
6. Serve with brown rice

Chicken Liver Kebabs

The big news for me last week of course wasn’t the snow which prevented me from getting to work for but obviously the news that   doner kebabs are unhealthy , often containing  more than your daily allowance of saturated fat and salt . I was surprised as I had figured it would be closer to a weeks worth.

The news cause me to develop a sudden craving , on  holiday with Nick in Turkey a few years ago I experienced plenty of delicious fresh kebabs and though its more of a summer  BBQ dish  I thought we would try making some at home . Banned from buying anymore meat until we have used the contents of our now  merged freezers so I was delighted to find this recipe for chicken liver kebabs  . Of course we tweaked it

I have extolled the virtues of chicken livers before incredibly cheap and totally delicious , giving you more than  your daily dose of iron and when not overcooked a creamy texture

To prepare the chicken livers dust them in  seasoned flour ( seasoning here paprika, but you can use pepper, mustard powder, dried herbs ) and fry quickly with just a dash of oil in a hot pan  they are cooked for just a  minute on each side best to keep them a delicate pink inside .

For the true kebab shop experience we served with wholemeal khobez ( flatbread)  chilli and garlic sauce , yogurt mixed with parsley and white cabbage and onion finely chopoped with a squeeze of lemon .

Braised Lamb Shanks with sweet winter vegetables

Sorry there has not been a lot of posting recently . I’m packing up and moving to the East Midlands to live with the long suffering lovely boyfreind this means merging our massive amounts of kitchenware so this weekend was packing and dumping , scores of old clothes , kitchenware and books making there way to charity shops.

I remembered I had some lovely organic lambs shanks in the freezer after  watching  Gordon Ramsay shouting  at the owners of the Martins Bistro in Oakhamptom for serving lamb shanks from Makro , truly bizarre vacuumed packed pre-cooked lamb shanks that could be stored at room temperature for up to 12 months.

My lamb shanks though were delicious organic welsh lamb, part of a lamb box delivered by the lovely people at Welsh Farm Organics , also included in the box were, leg steaks , neck fillet , loin chops , shoulder , leg , mince, & burgers.

Cooking lamb shanks  is ridiculously easy and simple portion control one per person take that cash and carry…

Braised Lamb Shanks with sweet winter vegetables
2 lamb shanks
300g of swede cubes
300g of leeks
2 garlic cloves
50g of dried apricots finely chopped
2 tbsp of dried mint
500ml half a bottle of red wine
1 pint of water

1. Brown the meat on all sides in a lidded casserole dish
2. Add the vegetables , wine and herbs.
3. Bring to a gentle simmer , cover and in the oven at 150degC for 2 hours