Piri Piri Pork Belly

From Save with Jamie
Serves 6

Ingredients

6 fresh bay leaves
1 level teaspoon smoked paprika
1 tablespoon olive oil
1.2 kg higher-welfare pork belly , skin on, bone in
2 red onions
1 sweet potato
4 cloves of garlic
2 fresh red chillies
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 x 700 ml jar of passata
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas 6. Tear out the stalks from the bay leaves, then bash the leaves in a pestle and mortar with a good pinch of salt to make a paste. Add the paprika and muddle in the oil. Score the pork all over in a criss-cross fashion with a clean Stanley knife at 1cm intervals, just going through the fat, not the meat. Rub with the bay oil, getting into all the scores. Peel and roughly chop the onions and sweet potato, peel and finely chop the garlic and halve the chillies, then place it all in a snug-fitting roasting tray or dish and sit the pork on top. Roast for 45 minutes.

Take the tray out of the oven and remove the pork to a plate momentarily. Stir the vinegar and passata into the tray, half fill the empty passata jar with water, swirl it around and pour into the tray, then sit the pork back on top. Reduce the oven temperature to 170°C/325°F/gas 3 and roast for a further 1½ hours. Twenty minutes before the end, remove the pork from the oven and skim the fat from the surface into a small bowl. Strip in the rosemary leaves (discarding the stalks), toss to coat, then sprinkle over the pork belly and place back in the oven for the remaining time, or until the pork is golden and tender and the sauce is reduced (loosen with a splash of extra water at the end, if needed).The crackling should have puffed up nicely, but, if it hasn’t (pork skin can sometimes be erratic), just pop it under a hot grill and watch it like a hawk until it’s perfect. Serve in the middle of the table with your chosen sides (see below), and tuck in.

Doesn’t really taste like piri piri and before you say that I have not tasted real piri piri before (i.e. I have only tasted Nandos piri piri), I have been to Lisbon and I have had authentic chicken  with piri piri (Bon Jardim). In any case, I used 600 g of pork belly with 30 minutes at 200 degrees and 50 minutes at 170 degrees. I then grilled the skin for 20 minutes constantly repositioning the tray to try and get the entire pork skin crispy. I would say around 80% was crispy.

Salmon with asparagus and new potatoes

From 101 Fish and Seafood Dishes
Serves 4

Ingredients

600g new potatoes, scrubbed and cut into chunks
175g asparagus, each piece cut into three
2 tbsp olive oil
2 salmon fillets, skinned and cut into large chunks
100g cherry tomatoes, halved
1 tbsp snipped fresh chives
4 eggs

Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water for 5-8 minutes or until just tender. Just before the potatoes re ready, tip in the asparagus and cook for 1 minute only. Drain well.

Heat the oil into a deep frying pan. Add the potatoes and asparagus, shaking the pan gently so they spread out in one even layer. Cook for 1-2 minutes

Make some gaps in the potatoes and asparagus and tuck in the salmon and tomatoes. Cook with a lid and cook for 1-2 minutes until the salmon is half cooked. Take the lid off and scatter the chives over. Beat the eggs with salt and pepper. then pour over all the ingredients in the pan. Cook and leave for 4-5 minutes for the eggs to cook.

Preheat the grill to high. place the pan under for 3minutes or until the top is golden.

This is definitely one of those one pot dishes where you get everything from protein to vegetables to carbos.

Roast duck with potatoes

From Nigella Kitchen
Serves 2

Ingredients
2 duck legs
2 baking potatoes or 1 pound other large white-skinned potatoes
Few sprigs of fresh thyme
Salt and pepper
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

On the stove, heat a small roasting pan (I use one like a slightly oversized tarte tatin pan) and sear the duck legs, skin-side down over medium heat until the skin turns golden and gives out some oil.

Turn the legs over, and take the pan off the heat while you cut the potatoes into 1-inch slices across, then cut each slice into 4. Arrange these potato pieces around the duck legs, then let a few sprigs of thyme fall over the duck and potatoes, and season with salt and pepper, before putting into the preheated oven.

Cook for two hours, occasionally turning the potatoes, for optimal outcome, which is tender duck legs and crispy potatoes, though both will be ready to eat after 1 1/2 hours.

This is so ridiculously easy! I wouldn’t go for 2 hours as I think the duck will be too dry. I bought two duck legs from Waitrose and simply followed the instructions which is to cook it for 2 hours at 180 degrees. I added the tomatoes for the final five minutes just to make it a balanced meal

One pot roast pork chops with fennel and potatoes

From BBC GoodFood
Serves 4

Ingredients
2 potatoes , cut into 8 wedges
1 fennel bulb , cut into 8 wedges
1 red pepper , halved, deseeded and cut into 8 wedges
4 thyme sprigs
4 garlic cloves , unpeeled
1 tbsp sundried tomato paste
300.0ml hot chicken stock
4 bone-in pork loin chops

Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Put the potatoes, fennel, pepper, thyme and garlic in a large roasting tin. Mix together the tomato paste and stock, then pour into the pan. Tightly cover with foil and cook for 30 mins. Take out of the oven and increase the temperature to 220C/200C fan/gas 7.

Remove the foil and place the pork in the roasting tin, nestling in between the veg. Season well and return to the oven for 15-20 mins more or until golden brown and cooked through. Serve with the pan juices drizzled over.

Something really simple for a Saturday lunch. The key to the taste of this dish is the sun dried tomatoes paste. I couldn’t find any such paste so I did well the next best thing which is to get some sun dried tomatoes in olive oil and to pound it into a paste before adding it to the chicken stock.

Vichyssoise (Leek and potato soup)

Ingredients

600g leeks, white parts only, thinly sliced
250g floury potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
1.5 litres of chicken stock
butter

Melt the butter in a heavy pan and cook the leeks, covered, for 15-20 minutes, until they are soft but not browned.

Add the potato chunks and cook over a low heat, uncovered for a few minutes.

Stir in the stock with salt and pepper to taste. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and partly cover the pan. Simmer for about 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are soft.

Cool, then process the soup until smooth in a blender. Sieve the soup into a bowl. Taste and adjust the seasoning and add a little water if the consistency of the soup seems too thick.

One of my favourite French soups and one that I make on a regular basis. I think this is supposed to be a cold soup; I am just a bit apprehensive about having it that way…

Baked fish on rosemary potatoes

From BBC GoodFood
Serves 6
Ingredients

1 large fennel bulb
6 medium sized potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
8 tablespoons olive oil
8 cloves garlic
8 sprigs fresh rosemary
2-3 whole fish, such as bream, bass or trout, total weight about 1.5kg, gutted and scaled
2 x 275g packs cherry tomatoes on the vine

Heat the oven to 190C, Gas 5.

Roughly chop the fennel and blanch for 1 minute. Put all the potato slices and fennel in a large shallow roasting tin and pour 6 tablespoons of the oil over them. Bash 4 of the garlic cloves, skins still on, with the flat side of a knife. Season the potatoes generously and tuck in the garlic cloves and 4 sprigs of the rosemary, broken up a bit. Toss the potatoes with the other ingredients to coat them in olive oil, then arrange in the tin and cook in the oven for 15 minutes.

Wash and dry the fish inside and out. Peel and slice the rest of the garlic. Make 3 slash marks across each fish on both sides with a sharp knife and push in some garlic slices and rosemary sprigs.

Season inside and out. Drizzle about a tablespoon of oil over the fish and rub it on. Take the potatoes out after 15 minutes and lay the fish on top of them with the sprigs of tomatoes.

Give a final drizzle of oil, then roast until the potatoes and the fish are cooked through, about 25-35 minutes.

Serve on a large flat dish with a green salad.

Baked mustard pork with potatoes and peas

So cooking this for the second time since 2009, and it’s still as good as it tasted two-three years back. My modifications this time round is to add chopped tarragon, leftovers from yesterday to the cheese mixture to give the pork a fresh herby taste. I used shoulder steaks, so I increased the amount of time in the oven to 20 minutes (exclusive of the five minutes under the grill). I didn’t use peas this time, and I added more cheese to it, so with less liquid generated from the peas and more cheese, you get a much more cheesy pork bake

I also wanted to show off my new baking tray from John Lewis. I think it looks lovely!

Ingredients

1 kg potatoes, peeled and thickly sliced
1 onion, thinly sliced
splash of white wine
2 tbsp olive oil
4 pork chops about 175g each
100g cheddar cheese grated
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
3 tbsp milk

Preheat fan oven to 210 degrees. Toss the potatoes, onion, wine and oil together in a large baking tray. Season, then bake for 20-30 minutes until the potatoes start to brown. Lay the chops on the potatoes and cook for 10 minutes more.

Mix the cheese, mustard and milk together. When the chops have had 10 minutes in the oven, spread the cheese mixture over them and switch the oven over to grill.

Place the pan under the grill and cook for about 5 minutes. Serve straight from the pan.

I love the sauce for this dish. It’s one of the best sauces I have tasted so far for pork, it’s not overly rich, just a homey mild mustard taste to it. Once again, I have taken liberties with the recipes as you can see in the photograph. I used a red onion instead, which I think, works better with the potatoes because it has a stronger taster in comparison to the usual white onion. I also added peas to make the meal more balanced and it actually goes very well with the mustard sauce.

As always, the key thing to look out for when cooking such dishes is making sure that the potatoes are tender and cooked.

Leeks and fennel roasted chicken

From uktv.co.uk (Rachel Allen from Market Kitchen)
Ingredients
Serves 4

8 chicken thighs, with skin
1 large bulb fennel, sliced
12 cloves garlic, unpeeled
2 small leeks, cut into 2cm slices
16 small new potatoes, scrubbed clean
4 sprigs tarragon
75 ml olive oil

Method

1. Heat the oven to 220C/fan 200C/gas6

2. Put the chicken, fennel, garlic, leeks, potatoes and tarragon in a large bowl.

3. Pour over the olive oil and toss everything together. If the ingredients are not thoroughly coated, add a splash more.

4. Transfer everything to a roasting tin and bake in the oven for about 25 minutes until the chicken is tender and the skin crisp.

Another one of those easy one-pot dishes. Although I made it 2 pots by boiling my potatoes first. In my experience, potatoes are never properly cooked within such times, and I have also increased the time in my oven to 40 minutes to be absolutely sure that the chicken is cooked.

The skin of the chicken thighs is to die for!

And when you add the chicken and vegetables, please season it with salt and black pepper to taste. The recipe omitted this step…

Chorizo, new potatoes, haddock (cod) one-pot

From BBC More One-pot Recipes
Serves 2
Ingredients

1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil , plus extra to serve
50g chorizo , peeled and thinly sliced
450g salad or new potatoes , sliced
4 tbsp dry sherry , or more if you need it (or use white wine)
2 skinless thick fillets white fish
good handful cherry tomatoes , halved
20g bunch parsley , chopped
crusty bread , to serve

Heat a large lidded frying pan, then add the oil. Tip in the chorizo, fry for 2 mins until it starts to release its oils, then tip in the potatoes and some seasoning. Splash over 3 tbsp Sherry, cover the pan tightly, then leave to cook for 10-15 mins until the potatoes are just tender. Move them around the pan a bit halfway through.

Season the fish well. Give the potatoes another stir, add the cherry tomatoes and most of the chopped parsley to the pan, then lay the fish on top. Splash over 1 tbsp Sherry, put the lid on again, then leave to cook for 5 mins, or until the fish has turned white and is flaky when prodded in the middle. Scatter the whole dish with a little more parsley and drizzle with more extra virgin oil. Serve straight away with crusty bread.

For some reason, when I was in Waitrose, I thought that this recipe required savoy cabbage. So with a whole savoy cabbage at home and with no idea what to do with it, I added it to the potato and chorizo. I thought it worked well, and it’s certainly a more balanced meal after adding all that cabbage to the dish.

Salade Niçoise

BBC GoodFood 101 Mediterranean Dishes
Serves 4
Ingredients

5tbsp olive oil, plus a little extra for frying and drizzling
2tsp finely chopped fresh oregano
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
16 new potatoes, halved
100g green beans
4 X 100g fresh tuna steaks
handful of black olives, pitted
8 anchovy fillets, thinly sliced in strips
16 cherry tomatoes
4 small eggs, soft boiled, halved
grated parmesan, to serve

Whisk the five tbsp of olive oil with the oregano and enough of lemon juice to taste, in a large bowl. Season, set aside

Cook the potatoes in boiling, salted water for 10 minutes or until tender, adding the beans for the last 4 minutes . Drain well and toss well while warm in the dressing.

Heat a little oil in a large frying pan. Add the tuna and fry over a high heat for 2-3 minutes on each side. Add the olives, anchovies and tomatoes to the potatoes and gently toss. Scatter the salad over four plates, top with the tuna, eggs, Parmesan and a drizzle of oil.