Piri Piri Guinea Fowl

In the butchers last week they had Guinea fowl delicious  game birds  covered in a beautiful yellow marble of fat. Portugese sailors first brought the Guinea fowl  to Europe from Africa , many people keep them in England for meat and egg they are also  apparently  great guard-birds ( like Geese).  Adventurous Portugese sailors were also introducing Africa to Portugese piri piri chillis regularly turned into a spicy sauce for meat and fish. I figured at some point the paths might have crossed on the high seas so I want to put them together again.

I planned to BBQ the bird  which meant I had to try spatchcocking, which is just a case of cutting out the backbone of the bird and flattening it out. This means it can be grilled or fried and it cooks quickly preparing it in this way means you can get the marinade everywhere . Thankfully the power of You Tube means you can have your own personal lesson in bird butchery

A long marinade and quick cook meant a sticky zingy slightly charred guinea fowl devored without cutlery .

Piri Piri Guinea Fowl
1 medium guinea fowl (spatchcocked)
4 red chillis -birds eyes preferable
2 cloves of garlic
Juice and zest of 2 limes
2 tbsp of coriander seeds
Handful of fresh parsley or coriander leaves
2 tbsp of sunflower oil

Serves four

1. Grind together the coriander , chillis and garlic
2. Mix with the limes and sunflower oil
3. Rub the marinade over the guinea fowl and leave for at least 8 hours
4. After marinade roast a hot oven at  200degC for three quarters of an hour turning half way through.Or BBQ for half an hour over hot coals

Served with brown rice, chick peas and coriander

Roasted Chicken with summer vegetables

Summer vegetables are appearing from the Riverford Farms in Spain , last weekend I treated them to homemade pasta , as the summer vegetables begin to glut this chicken dish is an excellent way of cooking lots of vegetables , it also works with sausages.

I got this recipe from a stylish french lady a good few years ago, not  only do you get a chicken that sauces the vegetables making a delicious gravy. Once you have stuffed yourself with plenty of chicken and vegetables any leftover vegetable and chicken can be frozen  heated it through with passata or fresh tomatoes in season gives rich pasta sauce for the perfect ready meal .

I served it with some polenta my first time using it like Anne Kitchen I have had some in my cupboard for a while check out her lovely Mediterranean Vegetable Polenta Cakes . As an accompaniment I cooked simply cooked as instructed stirring in boiling water and adding a little salt and pepper

Roasted Chicken with summer vegetables

1 Happy Organic Chicken
1 aubergine
2 courgettes
1 red pepper
1 large onion
4 garlic cloves
300g of passata
Half a preserved lemon
4 tbsp of sun dried tomatoes
Handful of black or green olives
4 tbsp of olive oil
3 tbsp of balsamic vinegar
Handful of fresh herbs ( oregeano parsley & thyme)

1. Chop all of the vegetables into 1 cm cubes
2. Finely chop the sun dried tomatoes , lemon , olives and herbs together mix with vegetables
3. Place the vegetable mix in the bottom of a roasting dish and pour over the passata , herbs & balsamic vinegar . Season with salt and pepper
4. Place the chicken on top of the vegetables and rub the vegetables over the bird to coat it with oil and flavours
5.  Roast at 190degC for one and a half hour until the bird is golden brown ,a few times durhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/beckayork/3354599046/ing cooking stir the vegetables  to ensure they are mixed with the chicken juices.
6. Allow the dish to rest for at least 20 minutes before serving this will allow the chicken to release more juice.
7. Serve with mashed potatoes , crunchy french bread or polenta

Roast Pork with fennel served with rhubarb sauce

The way to my mans heart is definitely crackling , but since it is probably a way to a heart attack I don’t let him have it very often.  But I wanted to support British Pig Farmers being affected people mistakenly believing there is a risk of contracting Swine Flu from pork. In fact the current strain has never been found in pigs
Traditionally pork means apple sauce however there are a few recipes around at the moment for pork with rhubarb ( Pork Chops with Rhubarb, Rack of Pork w/ Rhubarb  , Slow Cooked Shoulder of Pork ) which intrigued me we have plenty of rhubarb appearing in the vegeox

This was a bit of a throw together but it worked really well the rhubarbs sharpness cutting through the fattiness of the pork.

Roast Pork with fennel served with rhubarb  sauce

1 medium Boned Pork Leg , score the fat
1 bulb of fennel , cut into quarters
2 sticks of rhubarb , roughly chopped
2 thumbs of ginger,  pounded
3 cloves of garlic , pounded
Handful of sage leave finely chopped

1. Heat the oven to 200degC
2. Pound together the ginger and garlic rub over the pork,  leaving the garlic and ginger  pieces at the bottom of the roasting pan to cook with the pork.
3. Place in the oven for 30 minutes until the top has turned golden brown and crackling.
4. Turn the oven down to 150degC and continue to cook for another hour.
5. For the last 30 minutes add in the rhubarb and fennel to the roasting tray.
6. Once cooked leave the pork to rest for 30 minutes covered in foil.
7. The rhubarb garlic and ginger , will have broken down to form a sauce  stir in the sage leaves. 

More Rhubarb or Pork recipes

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?

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