Tomato & Bacon Bruschetta - majorly epic flavourness

Is there such a word as "flavourness"?  If not, then there needs to be, if only to describe truly epic loveliness in the epicurean department such as this tomato and bacon bruschetta.  Oxford English Dictionary - in the words of the inestimable Captain Picard, "make it so!".

There now, having dealt with that, let's have a closer look at this Italianised bacon & tomatoes on toast.  Because that's what it is, really.

It all came about from our weekly staff meeting (that is, hubby, myself and the dogs) when I posed the question "what would you LIKE to eat, if you could".  Having got around the "lark's tongues in aspic" and "T-bone steak", not to mention "a Pavlova as big as my head", we came down to things that were rather more achievable.  Hubby mentioned the griddled sourdough that we had a little while ago, (that time with Coronation chicken on board) and we promptly had a bit of a brainstorm as to what you could put on griddled sourdough.

Well, the end result of pan fried, chopped bacon rashers with roughly chopped raspberry tomatoes and cherry tomatoes, all cooked in olive oil, just made my mouth water.

Now, if you're tempted to give this a go (and why wouldn't you be - it's beyond fab!), don't be put off by the fact that you can't source any raspberry tomatoes.  Just find the best flavoured tomatoes you can - any combination thereof will work.  Raspberry tomatoes are approximately the same size as a big old beefsteak tomato, but with 100% more flavour.  I reckon three or four normal sized vine ripened tomatoes would equal one raspberry tomato, if that helps.  If your tomatoes wind up being a tad acidic, never fear, just add a teaspoonful of honey to the pan and they'll taste like they were picked in the middle of summer.

It is important to drizzle the sourdough bread with a tasty extra virgin olive oil and rub it with garlic, but don't worry if you don't have a griddle pan.  Just toast it under the grill and it'll do the same job.  I adore my cast iron griddle pan and grab any excuse to use it, but I do appreciate that not everybody has one.

I paired our bruschetta up with an avocado based salad because it was served as a dinner.  However, this bruschetta recipe is perfectly adequate as a lunch without the salad.  A glass of something refreshing alongside is all you're likely to require for a fabulous lunch.

My favourite thing, apart from the gorgeous bacony, tomatoey, garlicky olive oil flavours, is the relationship between the sourdough and the tomato juice.  The toasted sides along with the chewy crust maintain the integrity of the bread whilst the gorgeous tomato juice just soaks, willy nilly, into the centre and shuffles around causing the bread and garlic to instantly fall in love with it.  Chunky salty bacon and sweet tomatoes on juice soaked garlicky toast with flakes of parmesan cheese on top.  Serious, extra large deliciousness.

TOMATO & BACON BRUSCHETTA  (serves 3)

Ingredients :

1 tbsp olive oil
345g smoked back bacon, chopped into chunks
2 extra large raspberry tomatoes (6-8 vine ripened tomatoes would do), chopped into chunks
6 sweet cherry tomatoes, quartered
1 small garlic clove, sliced finely and 1 large garlic clove, left whole
half a tsp of freshly ground black pepper
half a tsp of dried basil (oregano is good, if you don't have basil)
1 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp runny honey (just in case your tomatoes need help in the sweetening department)
3 good, thick, slices of sourdough bread
extra virgin olive oil
shards of Parmesan cheese
finely chopped fresh parsley
a mixed salad, to serve.

Method :

If you are serving salad alongside, prepare said salad before you begin to cook the bruschetta, as it really doesn't take long.

Heat the olive oil (not the extra virgin olive oil) in a frying pan and, once hot, add the chopped bacon.  Fry on a moderate to hot heat, so evaporate any water and begin to caramelise the bacon.  Once the pieces have begun to take on a golden colour, add all the tomatoes, the sliced garlic (not the whole garlic), black pepper, dried basil, tomato ketchup and Worcestershire sauce and stir from time to time as the mixture cooks.

The juice will escape from the tomatoes, which is good.  However, you want this liquid to reduce so as to intensify the flavour so keep the heat fairly high and stir regularly.  You are aiming for a fairly thick, chunky tomato sauce kind of texture.  When the tomato liquid has reduced by at least half, taste for acidity and add the teaspoonful of honey if necessary.

Once the consistency of the bacon & tomatoes is to your liking, reduce the heat to a tickover and turn your attention to the toast.

Taking the whole garlic clove, rub both sides of each slice of bread liberally with the clove.  Make sure to rub around the edge as the crust will help to shred the garlic.

Next, drizzle generously with the extra virgin olive oil on both sides.

Heat your griddle pan (or grill) and toast each slice on both sides to your own taste.

Place each slice of toast onto the plate you're going to serve them on and pile the bacon & tomatoes on top.  Make sure to catch the juice as you're piling as that's where a lot of the flavour is.

To finish, sprinkle the top with shards of Parmesan cheese and finally with the chopped parsley.

Serve with your pre-prepared salad and a glass of something refreshing.  Be happy!

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Slow Cooker Char Sieuw Pork .. or Char Sui ... or however you want to spell it!

I have a lovely Facebook friend, Mab, who very recently made Char Sui Pork - and it looked SO good, I just had to have a go at it myself.  

I knew that any version of Char Sui Pork that I might make would be quite different to Mab's version, as I had my fat-phobic menfolk to take into account.  After all, if I'm intending on making something so delicious, I can't possibly leave them out of the experience!  Now Char Sui (or Sieuw) Pork should, ordinarily, be made with a quite fatty piece of meat so that as it cooks the fat will baste the meat, keeping it moist and flavourful.  Obviously, in the circumstances, I couldn't do that.  So I had to think hard about how I was going to keep the meat tender and juicy, whilst rendering down the majority of the fat.

So the first thing to think about was the cut of meat.  Pork shoulder is okay for me to use in things like Pulled Pork, as the very nature of the dish means that I can remove any unrendered fat at the "pulling" stage.  However, it's not much use for anything else - because of the lovely (well, I think they're lovely) veins of fat that run through the meat.  The meat of choice, then, for my menfolk is loin.  Fortunately, our local butcher sells six pork steaks for £2.99 that are cut across the loin and are just perfect.  The back of each steak has a neat line of fat that helps in the cooking process and can be removed in a twinkling just before serving.  Of course, you do still have to concentrate on keeping the meat moist, as loin can dry out and become unpalatably sawdust-like when you're not concentrating.  As such, I have included pork shoulder in the recipe - but if you have to cater for fat-phobics, then go for some loin with the fat still attached.

Now the original recipe - which I used as a guide more than instructions - was for an oven cooked pork.  However, knowing how my menfolk like their pork to be tender, I opted for the sure fire guarantee that is the slow cooker.  Give a car tyre enough time in a slow cooker and I reckon it'll become palatable somewhere along the line.

See the difference between this (still cooking) and the finished article. Huge.

However, just cooking the pork in the slow cooker wasn't enough.  You are required to marinate the pork before cooking - to enable those lovely flavours to gain a good toehold in the meat.  Because a slow cooker takes so long - the clue's in the name, folks - I felt that marinating as well as cooking was a bit of overkill.  Spending 7 hours in the slow cooker - in all its marinating juices and flavours - would be a splendid way of giving them a toehold of deliciousness, with marination taking place as it went along.

The end result worked very well indeed!  The aromas wafting through the kitchen and beyond, were just incredible.  I took the lid off at half time and turned the pork steaks over, which were looking pretty much done.  However, the difference a number of hours more made to the meat by way of colour and flavour was incredible.  So don't be tempted to take it out too soon.  It is well worth the extra time.

Also, save the cooking liquid as it makes a fabulous basic sauce for either noodles, or with rice.  Not to mention that being so tasty, it would be criminal to throw it away!

Having taken the pork out of the slow cooker, saved the saucy juices and removed the fat, I basted each piece with a little of the cooking liquid (again, to prevent the meat drying out too much) and drizzled with honey.  Into a very hot oven for around 10 minutes - or under a hot grill would do fine - just to get the charred edges and you're there.

This pork was so good that it moved Son & heir to shout from the living room to the kitchen to say that he thought it to be "absolutely fantastic".  Gosh, there's approval!  I will admit that I had to agree with him - considering the huge flavours that had been jostling for position all day, to be able to still taste the pork under it all was something of a miracle, I thought, but you could.  Being scrupulously honest, it didn't taste like the "red pork" that you find in Chinese Takeaway meals - but did it taste authentically "Chinese"?  Yes, it certainly did.

The vegetable noodles - made using a sliced Portobello mushroom, Bok Choy greens, spring onions and beansprouts - were very happy to have the cooking liquid added to them and accompanied the meat very well indeed.  I am sure the meat would do very well in a stir fried rice dish too - and it'd be well worth making a little extra just for that!

So thank you, Mab.  Now, what are you making tomorrow?  :D

SLOW COOKER CHAR SIEUW PORK   (serves 3)

Ingredients :

2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
120g sachet black bean sauce
120g sachet hoisin sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp medium Sherry
2 tbsp Chinese cooking wine (Mirrin is acceptable)
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp five spice powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 star anise
freshly ground black pepper
1 bay leaf
1kg Pork shoulder, cut into thick steaks or thick strips
Runny honey for drizzling.

Method :

1.  Mix all the ingredients together well, except for the pork and honey.  Pour the resultant sauce into the slow cooker and spread out until the base is completely covered.

2.  Place each steak or strip of pork into the sauce and turn until completely coated.  Then lay out in the slow cooker in one level layer - or successive level layers.  You need to maintain the layers so that when it comes to turning at half time, the pork is easier to get at.

3.  Turn the slow cooker on to low and cook for 7-8 hours.  You can reduce the cooking time, by increasing the heat.

4.  Around 4 hours into the cooking time, remove the lid and turn each steak over, giving them a baste in the sauce if possible.

5.  When the cooking time is done, remove the pork from the slow cooker and place onto a flat baking tray.  You can take this opportunity to remove any fat that is surplus to requirements.

6.  Spoon a little of the sauce over the steaks, then drizzle with honey and place into a hot oven (220degC) for 10-20 minutes (or alternatively, place them under a hot grill for a similar time), so as to get the charred edges.

Serve with noodles, rice or just a spoon and a good t.v. programme.

Printable version

Sumac & Thyme Schnitzel. Bless you!

Believe it or not, this was the first time I'd ever tried to make anything remotely resembling a schnitzel.  I know!  Weird that it had managed to escape me for this long.

I think the main reason for it having escaped me, was that Hubby has always done the "egg and breadcrumb" dishes in the past - and I was happy to leave it that way, as his results have always been pretty spectacular.  However, it occurred to me that for all that it was great to have a successful egg and breadcrumber on hand, it would also be good if I were to master the art!

Instrumental in this decision was our new Ceracraft pan.  It's one of those ones with the white ceramic insides - and it is absolutely wonderful.  Absolutely nothing sticks to it (or nothing so far!) and it cleans with the wipe of a cloth, no matter how much devastation you leave in it.

Not worrying about how the pan is going to behave when frying, is quite a comfort if you're a bit leery about frying, as I am.  I think I might have taken the Fire Brigade's dire warnings about frying pans bursting into flames a bit too much to heart when I was younger and ultimately became too scared to break out a frying pan.

Frying was something else that Hubby used to do for me, as I was too scared to try it out (much the same as grilling things - which I've also conquered since).  So it is any wonder I hadn't tried making something like Schnitzel?  No, I don't think so!

Now, with my trusty Ceracraft pan with its fantastic well fitting lid (which I can clap on top, if ever it does decide to burst into flames), I feel confident enough to get on with the serious frying.

Neither Hubby nor son & heir are particularly enthusiastic about pork (when it's not in a sausage or rasher of bacon), so I bought just the one piece of pork for me - and a couple of chicken breasts for the menfolk.  In fact, the butcher didn't have pork steaks that day (what's up with that then?  No pork steaks?  Tut!), so we bought a pork chop and I simply removed the bone before cooking.  I don't recommend you try to hammer a pork chop bone flat - at least, not with a wooden meat mallet, anyway.  *wink* 

The chicken was simply trimmed of fat and gristle, then halved through the middle to form a "butterfly" and hammered flat.  I did the same with the pork, in that I butterflied it and smacked it one with the meat mallet so that it was roughly the same thickness.  Doing this is essential for this type of cooking, as you want the meat to cook at the same time.  It'd be no good having to wait for the thick end to cook, while the thin end is busy going dry or getting burned.  If ever I manage to lay my hands upon some British Rose Veal escalopes, you can be absolutely sure they're going to be turned into Wiener Schnitzels, quick-sharp!

So having got the meat how I wanted it to be, it was a simple matter of whipping up some eggs, seasoning some flour and working out what flavours I wanted to appear in the breadcrumbs.  I made the breadcrumbs myself, from a few slices of my lovely Polish Bakery sourdough bread that is just perfect for breadcrumbing as it is really substantial and so totally not cotton wool-ish.  A few minutes in the mini food processor and you're sorted, with perfect breadcrumbs.  I decided to season the breadcrumbs with a combination of black pepper, celery salt, dried thyme (just a tiny pinch as I really don't like it at all - but I know that my menfolk do), dried parsley and made the majority flavour that of Sumac, for its gorgeous zestiness.

The process of dipping into flour, egg then breadcrumbs was easy enough - I was forsighted enough to do this beside the sink so had good access to hand washing facilities - and Dustbin No. 1 (Jonty dog) was there to take care of the excess egg.  I was pleased to see that I'd made sufficient breadcrumbs, as it's always a bit of a lottery as to whether the breadcrumbs will make it to the end of the things you're trying to cover with them!

Following a half an hour in the fridge to firm up, they went into the pan with a mixture of goat butter and rapeseed oil on a moderate heat for around 10 minutes each side.  Make sure to not fiddle about with them - just leave them to cook and let the crumb set, then become crisp.  If you fiddle about with them, keep turning them or lifting them up, they will find it very hard to become crisp.  You can see from the very edge how they're doing - and once that edge starts to become golden, you know you're onto a winner.

I sneaked one of the smaller chicken schnitzels onto my plate, just so that I could compare and contrast.  I made these smaller ones from the chicken tenders - or inner fillets - and they were a perfect little size for a smaller appetite.   The pork version was a lot more robust and required a little bit longer in the cooking to become tender, however the flavour was a touch above the chicken versions.  The chicken ones were super-tender and very tasty - the seasoning in the breadcrumbs was more obvious with the chicken, so bear that in mind when you are choosing whether to use pork or chicken.

The flavour of both was really good - and the meat in both cases retained its moistness, largely due to the speed at which they cook and the flour/egg mixture sealing the juices in.  I can't wait to make some more, but this time I might have a go at the Southern Fried style of flavour combination.

I served the schnitzels with buttered new potatoes,  a mixed salad and a very nice minty mixed bean salad that I found in Asda.  However, for a speedier supper, I should imagine they'd be great with just chips, too!

So come on, put your big girl/boy pants on and have a crack at egg and breadcrumbing, followed by a bit of shallow frying.  You know you want to!


SUMAC & THYME SCHNITZEL    (serves 3)

Ingredients :

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts or 3 boneless pork steaks
2-3 tbsp plain flour
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
1 large egg (have another handy, just in case you need it)
4-5 slices of tasty bread, slightly stale, breadcrumbed
1 tsp celery salt
1 tsp dried parsley
half a tsp dried thyme
1 heaped tsp ground sumac
3 tsp rapeseed oil (required separately)
3 tsp butter (required separately).

Method :

1.  Well before you require the meat for cooking, prepare it for coating with the seasoned flour, egg and breadcrumbs.  Take each steak or breast and cut through it down a long side, opening it out and effectively butterflying it.

2.  Place onto a piece of cling film - opened out in the butterfly shape - and sprinkle with a couple of drops of water.  This helps the cling film not to stick.  Using a blunt instrument - or a meat hammer on the blunt side - gently but firmly hammer the meat until just a quarter of an inch thick, or less.

3.  Place onto a plate and cover with cling film.  Continue to the next breast or steak and repeat, placing it on top of the cling film and covering with another piece of film.  Continue until all pieces are butterflied, hammered to an even thickness and stacked, then cover the lot with film and refrigerate.

4.  About an hour and a half before you are due to cook, remove the meat from the fridge and prepare the three coating bowls - which should be a decent size so as to fit each schnitzel in without overlapping the side.

5.  Into one bowl, place the flour and season well with salt and pepper.  Mix the seasoning in.

6.  Crack an egg into the second bowl and whisk with a fork.

7.  Add the breadcrumbs, a good amount of black pepper, the celery salt, parsley, thyme and sumac to the last bowl and mix well.

8.  Take the first breast or steak and gently lay it on top of the flour, then turn so that both sides are well coated.  You may need to press down a little, to ensure every inch gets a coating.

9.  Move on to the egg and lay the meat into the beaten egg, again turn to achieve an even coating, but don't wash the flour off!

10.  Straight away, lay the meat onto the seasoned breadcrumbs and lightly press down to convince the crumbs to stick.  Once again, turn and repeat to achieve an even coating of crumbs.

11.  Place each schnitzel onto a plate or baking tray (I covered a tray with cling film and used that) and refrigerate for an hour.

12.  Once it comes to cooking, take a large frying pan - non-stick are best - and heat 1 teaspoonful of the oil on a moderate heat, adding 1 teaspoonful of the butter just before you add the schnitzel.

13.  Once the butter is frothy, add the schnitzel to the pan and leave it alone!  Don't be tempted to shuffle it around the pan, or to turn it too soon.  You want the coating to achieve a crispy shell before you turn the schnitzel and cook the other side.

14.  Cooking usually takes around 7-8 minutes each side, but to check simply cut through the thickest part of each schnitzel and pull the edges of the cut aside so that you can see a) what colour the meat is, and b) what colour the juices are.  If there is any sign of any pinkness, turn the schnitzel and continue cooking until all traces of pink have gone.

15.  Place onto some kitchen paper and keep warm whilst you cook the remainder of the schnitzels.  It is best not to stack the schnitzels or the ones at the bottom of the stack will go soggy whilst they are waiting.  Keep them separate to retain the crispiness of the coating.

Serve with new potatoes, or potato salad and a garden salad.

Printable version

Chicken, bacon, chicken & prawns, chicken, pork, chicken twice over : Looks like it's chicken, this week!

I do seem to have gone a bit mad on the chicken in this week's Menu Plan, but that's just the way it happened.  ~shrug~  I suspect that it's part and parcel of trying to think of meals that aren't too "bad for you".  Inevitably, you wind up with an awful lot of chicken - especially as fish has rocketed in price just lately.

Now, to finish off last week - we had the Chicken, Fennel & Tomato Ragu on Sunday evening, which had a mixed reception.  A third of the way into making the dish, hubby announced that he's never found a chicken/tomato recipe that he's really enjoyed - and although he loves fennel, he wasn't sure how it would all come together.  Well, he was right in a lot of ways - although just after suffering from food poisoning wasn't perhaps the best time to try this recipe out!


Just cutting up the chicken had me wishing we'd had sausages for that meal instead, but I soldiered on.  Incidentally, I've discovered that when cutting up ingredients that are fresh from the fridge, they have the capacity to make my hands lose sensation.  You can't imagine how difficult it is to chop up chicken breasts when you can't hold the darned things still!  I've still got all my fingers though, so my strategy of dunking my hands in warm water to thaw them out, obviously worked.


The dish was nice enough - the fennel was lovely and made a very pleasant change.  Having been a bit acidic, the addition of a teaspoon of sugar helped to iron that out.  However, "okay" wasn't really what I was going for with it, regrettably.


Incidentally, the Maribell jacket potatoes were gorgeous.  Rub them with olive oil, cover with salt and pepper and roast in a hot oven for an hour - fabulous!


Now then, what different incarnations of chicken are we having for this week's menu plan?  I hear you ask.  Well, maybe you didn't, but I'm going to tell you anyway.  Here's how it shapes up :

Tuesday : Pesto chicken with roast tomatoes and couscous

Wednesday : New Potato Salad with Bacon & Goats' Cheese

Thursday : Spanish Paella-inspired ricey thing

Friday : Sticky chinese chicken & thai carrot salad

Saturday : Pork with lemongrass & cinnamon, with rice (from Adora's Box)

Sunday : Pot roast chicken, roast parsnips & potatoes, broccoli & peas

with sausagemeat stuffing balls

Monday : Coronation chicken, pitta bread and salad.

<insert short break to collect a glass of Canti Zinfandel Rose>

Now, where was I?  ~sips daintily~  Ah yes!  The Pesto Chicken.

It being Tuesday, we've done the shopping and so begins a new week of striving to produce delicious dinners that don't cost the earth, that everyone enjoys and (no point in lying) that will be interesting to blog about.

I must just recount what happened to us today though.  Hubby will probably have my hide for telling you this, but part-way through the shopping, I went back to the herbs aisle to see if some Basil had been put out as there wasn't any on our first pass.  As I turned around to go catch up with hubby, I saw an unaccompanied trolley that looked to have inside it everything that we'd selected earlier.  "How funny!" I thought.  Can't be OUR trolley, because hubby's driving that further up the shop - so I didn't say anything about it.  Fast forward to hubby loading the shopping into the car and looking for the sausage rolls he'd bought.  He came to the conclusion that he must have left a bag of shopping behind, but couldn't believe he could have done so, so we didn't go back to check.  Upon getting home and emptying out all the bags, he discovered that a whole bagful was missing.  "It's got the ham, the fruit fools, the cheese spread, the greek yoghurt ...." he was saying, when I got a flashback to that trolley I saw.  Sure enough, he'd made off with someone else's trolley (which had to be empty at the time, as we didn't have any odd shopping), leaving ours to sit - where I spotted it on my trip back for the Basil!  How much do I wish I'd have said about it?  It would have saved another trip (to Sainsbury's, this time) for shopping!  Still, it's quite funny, all the same.

So, after seemingly shopping all day, I made the Pesto Chicken and couscous.  My hand problem made stuffing the chicken breasts with the squidgy pesto/mascarpone mixture nigh on impossible, but at least some of it got in there!  I am so going to have to get a piping set!  It's a really lovely dish, this one, in that the chicken stays beautifully moist and the roast tomatoes are just divine.  The couscous was made after the style of Ottolenghi's Green Couscous, but to my own recipe this time.  I used all Italian flavourings, like basil, grana padano cheese and pine nuts along with sliced onion & mushroom fried in a little olive oil.  Add a squeeze of lemon just before serving and everyone approved.  Well, except for son & heir's hate of the humble mushroom.  He was able to remove his mushrooms fairly easily though.

Watch the blog, as I'll be detailing the recipe as my next blog post.

I'm really quite excited about tomorrow's salad, as it was created with the help of four or five Twitter pals, whose suggestions for "a salad that doesn't involve salad leaves" came together in the dish I'll be making on Wednesday.

It's going to involve Jersey Royal new potatoes - but roasted, not boiled.  Some gorgeous butcher's bacon grilled until crispy, mushrooms, roasted red onion and watercress & spinach salad (neither of which count as a "salad leaf", alright?), all dressed in a mustard & red wine dressing, with creamy goat's cheese crumbled over the top.  I can't wait!

Hubby has a recipe in mind for Thursday, which involves something along the lines of a Spanish Paella, except with just chicken and prawns.  You know when you have a picture in your mind and a flavour on your tongue, but you can't quite put it into words?  Well that's it.  We'll just have to wait and see what turns up at the end of it - but it should be good, as we've even invested in some saffron!

Oooh dear, then it's Friday.  ~quake~quiver~  I'm skeered of Friday, because Alfie the Amalfi Lemon Coloured Skoda goes in for his MOT.  I may very easily not have any fingernails left, after this day.  Nor any cash left in my bank account.  However, I will be having a lovely dinner - consisting of yummy Sticky Chinese chicken with a lovely Thai carrot salad, which involves rice noodles and peanuts.  Yum!

Photo c/o BBC Good Food website

The chicken is simplicity itself to make - I just need to remember to make it early so that it can marinade.  The salad is just a matter of grating a whole heap of carrots, soaking the rice noodles and assembling the rest of the ingredients.  I should be able to do that, even with a diabolical stress headache - which I anticipate being the owner of, by then.

Still, the happy news is that by Saturday it will all be over and we'll know where we stand regarding the work that Alfie needs to have done - and more to the point, how much it's going to cost!

To celebrate, I'm planning on making use of the lovely Adora's Box blog, where her Pork with Lemongrass and Cinnamon has caught my eye.  You can find the recipe here.  Looks good, doesn't it?  I'll let you know how I get on with it!

I've stayed away from roast dinners for quite some time now, and this coming Sunday we'll be having a pot roast chicken for two reasons.  One, because I am missing roast chicken, two, because I'm missing roast parsnips and three, because we can have Coronation chicken for tea on Monday!

Son & heir adores Coronation chicken and I have to admit that I'm a sucker for it myself.  Hubby isn't quite so enamoured of it, but I'm hoping that if I make sure that the pitta breads are more manageable than the usual "resembling a bus crash" that I usually turn out, he might look upon the whole experience in a more favourable light.  In fact, thinking on, I could always make them into Coronation chicken wraps, instead!  Still a bit messy and squidgy, but at least they're capable of being eaten with a knife and fork!  Do you know, I may well do that.

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Non-Rissoles, yummy Devilled Chicken & new Sausage & Mozzarella Pasta Bake photo!

You might remember from my overview of the week's menus, that we were going to endeavour a trip back in time by way of the Rissole.  Well, it didn't happen.  That's not to say we didn't TRY to make it happen - it just appeared to be doomed from the start and definitely didn't get any better as time went by.

It was a Delia Smith recipe, so we had confidence in that most of Delia's recipes work absolutely fine and give perfectly acceptable results.

Pork & Apple
normally works!

Hubby was cooking this one, but its success or failure wasn't anything to do with him, as right from the word go when he combined the first few ingredients, it was looking ropey.  The resultant mush, from which one was supposed to be able to form little patty shapes, ran through his fingers.  Having firmed it up with judicious use of flour, his suspicions were aroused and so he pan-fried some of the mixture as a test.  The flavours just didn't work.  The pork was overwhelmed by both the apple and the mace, plus the apple had made the mix far too wet.

However, he persevered and gave it the benefit of the doubt.  You see the cooking was long and slow oven cooking, covered, and so we thought that perhaps the flavours would meld better in the cooking.  Certainly the sharpness of the apple had mellowed somewhat, but the pork was indeed completely lost and quite apart from anything else, they had welded themselves to the roasting tin.  We got a pack of sausages out of the freezer and the rissole mix went into the bin.  Irritating, when it involved £2-worth of pork mince and a cooking apple, not to mention the energy it took to make and cook them.

However, it would be amazing if one didn't experience a flop every now and then!

The Devilled Chicken recipe was markedly more successful - although I don't have a photograph to prove the issue, as I hadn't realised that the memory card wasn't in the camera when I took the photographs!  However, I'm quite sure that it won't be long before we re-visit this recipe and I'll update with photographs and blog the recipe then.

Here's a new photograph of a family favourite, our Sausage & Mozzarella Bake.  This one shows the underside of the lovely gooey Mozzarella, where the pasta, broccoli and sausage hide.  With the lovely rich tomato & chilli sauce, it is just the job for these chilly winter evenings.

Another butcher!

Sausages from Terry's the Butchers

I know!  We're getting carried away with butchers now.  LOL  Well, we just happened to be in the opposite end of our neck of the woods today - and right beside the award-winning Butchers, Terry's on the Ashley Road, Poole.

So, we popped in and got four of their plain pork sausages, as a comparison with Spring Fields.

As you can see from the photograph, they are of a somewhat coarser texture than Spring Fields', which is what hubby was looking for in a sausage.  They didn't smell as enticing, although they smelled jolly nice, but not mouthwatering.  They do, however, look better.

Once cooked, they have a similar saltiness with that lovely crispy skin and a very definitely coarser texture which is quite satisfying on the tongue, however, I didn't think they tasted as good as Spring Fields.  Hubby, interestingly, thought they were better than Spring Fields' both in texture and in taste!  Just shows what an individual thing, preference is.  :)

Still, Terry's Butchers make a very creditable pork sausage that I certainly wouldn't turn down!

A butcher - at last!

Ever since we first moved into this County (from Kent), nearly three years ago, I've had it in mind to find a local butcher to use regularly instead of keep buying sub-standard meat from the supermarket.

Up until now, this hasn't managed to happen (for one reason or another).  However, this morning we visited the butcher that Chef uses at work - who just happens to be en-route to Asda.

We caught Spring Fields Butchers on the Herbert Avenue, Parkstone, Poole, before they'd managed to get their complete display out into the cabinets, but oh golly, what mouthwatering goodies they had already on display.  Beautiful dark red Sirloin steaks, Wild Boar sausages, lamb shanks, plus your regular mince, chicken breasts etc.

I was particularly after two lamb's kidneys to go in the Lancashire Hotpot we're having on Sunday and was fairly gobsmacked to be charged 35p for them both.  I'd been envisaging paying a lot more than that!  While we were there, we indulged in four of their pork sausages - as the worth of a butcher can often be found in his sausages!

Having got them home and unwrapped them, immediately you could smell that they were different to supermarket sausages.  They smelled lovely - all herby and peppery and porky.  Better than a supermarket sausage - which generally smells of nothing.

When cooked, they were even better - although hubby had a few areas of disappointment in them.  I loved their crisp skins and the flavour that was somewhere between pork sausage and pork sausagemeat stuffing with a lovely initial hit of saltiness.  I also liked that they kept their shape and didn't shrink under heat.  Hubby agreed with me, except was disappointed that their texture was slightly pappy (he was hoping they'd be coarser than that) and suspected that the saltiness hid the fact that they didn't taste all that porky.  However, we were both agreed that for the extra 30p or so for 8 - over a supermarket special offer sausage - they were infinitely better quality and well worth the extra.

I'm hoping that they'll let me have a copy of their full price list, which would make menu planning so much easier.  I'll be able to use cheaper cuts of meat which just aren't available in supermarkets and be able to plan it all out at home, using their price list, before ringing them up on a Monday, to order for Tuesday's collection.  Fingers crossed they'll do that!