Slow roasted 5 spice pork

It was so yummy I had to take 3 photos!

I got a really nice piece of belly pork from the local butchers (on the bone) and let it marinate overnight in the fridge in some five spice powder, a few crushed pieces of star anise, salt and Ketjap Manis.  I then slow cooked it for approx 4 hours in the oven, on a bed of crushed garlic and ginger.  After the four hours was up I  removed the skin to make crackling (YUM!), then glazed the top with oyster sauce, before popping it under the grill to caramelise.

We ate it with stir fried pak choi (done simply with just some fresh ginger), some steamed rice and a pickled salad.  Ben, who is no way near as fussy as he used to be for a while, loved it so much he polished off two helpings :-)  We then had the leftovers the next day, shredded and stir fried with beansprouts and rice noodles.

By the way, I did have a little help with this dish - Jasmine washed and sliced the pak choi all by herself, and then made the dressing for the salad too..... a keen little helper in the kitchen she is!

Stuffed roast chicken

....and if I do say so myself, possibly one of the best roast chickens ;-)

This was the star of the birthday feast requested by Ben.  This served all hungry four of us (and as it's one of Ben's favourite meals, he actually managed to eat quite a bit.)

Ingredients

• good quality chicken (I chose a corn fed one) approx 1.4kg
• sitck or two of celery chopped into large chunks
• a carrot or two chopped into large chunks
• 1 head of garlic, cut in half horizontally
• 1 large onion chopped, quartered
• salt, pepper and paprika to taste
• olive oil for drizzling
• 1 pint vegetable stock for basting

for the stuffing:

• a few slices of day old bread (or, if like me you don't have any, then just partially toast some normal sliced bread)
• 1/2 onion
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/2 stick celery
• few sprigs of fresh herbs (sage is traditional, I only had rosemary)
• drizzle of olive oil
• couple tsps water to help it bind
• pinch of salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. blitz the bread in a processor until you have fine crumbs
2. blitz the onion, celery, garlic and herbs in the processor until they are finely chopped, then sweat them off in a little olive oil until softened, seasoning with a little salt and pepper
3. add the onion mix to the breadcrumbs, drizzle with a little olive oil and the water and mix together until the mixture is starting to bind a little.  Set aside
4. throw the chopped vegetables into a large casserole dish and drizzle with a little olive oil (make sure the garlic is cut face down

5. clean out the cavity of the chicken and rinse, then sprinkle the inside with a little salt, and pepper
6. lay the chicken onto the vegetables and season all over with salt, pepper and paprika

7. stuff the chicken loosely with the stuffing mixture (do not pack it too tightly as you want the heat to be able to circulate properly)
 
8. drizzle the chicken with a little olive oil and cover loosely with foil
9. put into a pre-heated oven and cook for about 50 mins at approx 175 degrees, basting with the veg stock every 20 mins or so
10. uncover the chicken, turn it onto its breast and cook for a further 50 mins this side down, again basting it every 20 mins or so
11. turn the chicken back the right way up and pour the remainder of the veg stock over it.  Cook now until the juices run clear when you stick a skewer into the thigh - depending on weight of the chicken and how efficient your oven is, probably another 20-30 mins (mine's a very hot oven)

12. Put the chicken on a serving plate and place some of the garlic cloves (which should be all soft and buttery) around it, along with the roasted carrots and cover with foil to rest
13. meanwhile, pour all the lovely stock and juices, with the rest of the roasted vegetables into a pan and bring to the boil.  Thicken with a cornflour mixture, or gravy granules (yes, I confess, I use these sometimes!)
14. serve!  I piled on lots of Ben's favourite crispy roast potatoes with rosemary and served it all with a large yorkshire pudding, a big bowl of vegetables (cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, spring cabbage), the chicken juices and, because we are caribbean, the ever present bowl of rice.  Yes, rice.  We eat it with almost everything.  oh, and don't forget the hot sauce!
15. Enjoy!

Sundays at our house

I just love Sundays! it's the one day of the week that we all get to spend pure quality time together as a family and a day when I get to really indulge my love of cooking. As I mentioned in a previous post about Sundays, we tend to linger over breakfast, then I do some baking and prepare the dinner and put it on low in the oven. Well this week breakfast looked like this:


And then me and the children made double choc chip cookies with hazelnuts:

I'm almost ashamed to admit that I consume 3 before they were even cool!

Then I decided to experiment with the chicken this week. We eat a lot of chicken as it is just so versatile, relatively cheap and, if you buy a whole one, goes a long way. However, it can get boring if you don't make the effort to try out new things. So, inspired by a Lebanese menu for a restaurant that me and Nick will be visiting soon, I decided to try something a little different. I noticed that a lot of the dishes included lemon juice, garlic, olive oil and tomatoes with spices such as cumin and paprika. So my creation went a little something like this (I have tried to give approximate amounts):

1. I made a paste out of tbsp olive oil, 4 large cloves of organic garlic, 1 tbsp of paprika, 1 tbsp of cumin, 2 tsp salt, 1 tsp black pepper corns, juice of 2 lemons, 1 tsp ginger powder t tbsp tomato puree.
2. Put everything into a small blender, or, as I did, pound the garlic in the pestle and mortar then add in the rest of the ingredients and gently pound into a paste.
3. Then I deicded to have a go at preparing the chicken in a spatchcock style by removing the backbone and flattening it out on a board.
4. Wash the chicken, pat dry, then rub the paste all over both the skin and the cavity which is now flat.
5. Lay some halved onions on the bottome of a large tray and place the chicken on top. Drizzle with a little more olive oil and place in the oven on a very low heat (100 degrees c) for 2 1/2 (for chicken of approx 1.8kg)


Well, what can I say, the chicken was divine. The skin was crispy and tangy and the flesh fell from the bones. We had it with a brown rice,aduki bean and roast onion (from the chicken) pilaff, some savoy cabbage that had been blanched, then refreshed in ice cold water and dressed with a lemon juice, olive oil and garlic dressing and some left over fresh bread from the morning's breakfast. We were all ravenous after our 2 1/2 hr long trek through the Cotswolds so needless to say it more than hit the spot!

As you can see, I was so hungry I couldn't wait to get started - the left thigh was the first to fall victim!

Desert was yet more cookies - yum and double yum!

Sundays

Sundays are family days in my opinion. In our house Nick usually gets the sunday lie-in whilst I get up and feed Benjamin and Jasmine. After that I start on brunch for us. I call it brunch because by the time Nick wakes up and we're ready to eat, it is usually around 10am. On a sunday I like to cook a full breakfast, be it a traditional fry-up (or at least my helathier grilled version) or some other hot breaksfast. It's the one day of the week that we both have time to linger over our breakfast - in fact for nick, it is the only day he has breakfast unless I make it on saturday as well. This morning we had scrambled eggs, fried potatoes with ham and tomatoes and wholemeal bread. Ben also helped me to make a delicious fruit salad consisting of bluberries, red grapes, mango and pomegranate, drizzled with lime juice. Then, after tidying the house and getting ready, I put the chiken in the oven on really low, whipped up some banana and blueberry wholewheat muffin batter and off we went for our now regular sunday family walk (see http://www.tanmu.blogspot.com/)

Ben helping his mummy make breakfast

Anyway, the aforementioned chicken that I cooked today was quite delicious. It was a recipe from Rachel Allen's Cookbook and was Honey and Lemon chicken. I decided to actually follow the recipe instead of just looking at the title or picture and freestyling it. I almost managed it too, except I couldn't help but make a few adjustments. Firstly I added some paprika, then some fresh thyme and some whole garlic cloves. I only meant for it to be in the oven for a couple of hours max (which was longer than the recipe stated, but I wanted it to cook whilst I was out), but our walk ended up taking a lot longer than expected and it cooked for almost 3 1/2 hours!!! Luckily it didn't dry out and when we got back I whacked the oven up high and let it the marinade caramelise over the chicken. I then served it with rice and a mixed salad with a homemade balsamic vinaigrette. Add a glass of chardonnay and bliss! We then scoffed the muffins (or rather I scoffed the muffins - I had 3! - they were only small ones) for dessert.

Yum!