Sticky Caramel Pork Recipe

My kids beg me to make this dish. Sticky, caramel, melt in your mouth pork - what's not to like? With a just a few ingredients and a slow cook, this one pot wonder is a winner in our household.



You'll need:

1 tbs rice bran oil
6 shallots, peeled and sliced
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
600g pork shoulder, diced
4cm piece of ginger, peeled
2 tbs soy sauce
4 tbs sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)
2 cups chicken stock
2 red birds eye chillies, left whole
freshly ground pepper

Saute the onion and garlic and oil together on a low heat until transparent, in a work or deep frypan.

Add the pork and ginger and seal the pork until lightly browned on the outside. Add the ginger, soy and kecap, stock, chillies and a couple of good grinds of pepper. Bring to the boil and lower the heat to a simmer and cook for 1 hour. The sauce will reduce into a sticky dark caramel.

Serve with steamed rice and sauteed asian greens.

Pesto & Ricotta Spelt Scroll

Spelt is so easy to work with. You don't need to knead it for very long and it only needs half the prove time of normal wheat flour. I'm not gluten intolerant but I find spelt easier to digest, and for an added bonus, it's also low GI.

You could add anything to this bread, olives, spinach or just make a plain loaf. It's up to you.

You'll need:

Basil & Cashew Nut Pesto
1 cup fresh basil leaves (tightly packed)
1/4 cup roasted unsalted cashews
2 cloves garlic, crushed
60g Grana Padano or Reggiano cheese, grated
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil + extra to seal
sea salt to taste

1/4 cup fresh ricotta

Bread
400g white spelt flour
1 tsp dried yeast
1 tsp salt
1 tbs olive oil
180ml warm water

Pre-heat the oven to 180C

Mix the spelt and yeast together in a large bowl. Pour in the water, oil and salt and mix together until combined.

Pour out the dough onto a floured bench and knead for 5 minutes.

Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Place the bowl in a warm place and let the dough prove for 30 minutes or until doubled in size.

To make the pesto, put basil leaves, cashews, garlic and salt in a food processor or blender and process until smooth.

Scrape the pesto into a clean, bowl and stir through olive oil. Season to taste. Immediately put the pesto in an air tight container and pour a thin layer of olive oil on top, to stop the pesto from oxidising.

Roll out the dough into a rectangle shape and spread some of the pesto of the dough. Sprinkle with the ricotta and tightly roll up the dough into a log.

Cut the log in 5 or 6 pieces and arrange them on a lightly floured baking tray, sticking together.

Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown.

Summery | Fresh Tomato Soup

I'm cooking a lot of vegetarian dishes at the moment. It's not really a conscious thing, it's just that there is still so much gorgeous summery produce at the markets and I want to make the most of it while it lasts.

This post will come in 2 parts, the tomato soup recipe today and the super easy spelt, pesto and ricotta pull apart scrolly thing (seen in the picture below) will be featured later on in the week, so stay tuned for that.



Fresh Tomato Soup
Feeds 6

You'll need:

2 tbs olive oil
1 onion chopped
1 small head of garlic
1.5 litres fresh tomato puree (made from blanching tomatoes in hot water, removing skins and as many seeds as possible)
500ml chicken stock
1 tbs butter

Salt, pepper and raw caster sugar to taste

Heat the olive oil on a medium heat in a large saucepan and gently saute the onion until transparent. Chop the top off the garlic, so each of the cloves are exposed and add to the pot.

Add the tomato puree and simmer on a low heat for a further 20 minutes.

Add the chicken stock and cook slowly on a gentle heat for 40 minutes or up to an hour or until the soup has reduced and thickened. Stir through the butter to gloss the soup, season to taste with salt and pepper. Taste again. If the soup is a little acidic, stir through a tablespoon of raw caster sugar, stir for a few minutes and pass the soup through a medium sieve and serve.

Indonesian Gado Gado

The perfect meal for a warm evening. Gado Gado is one of my favourite salads, and the recipe for the peanut sauce comes straight from Bali where I was shown how to make it.

Serves 4

You'll need:

Bambu Kacang (peanut sauce)
3 cloves garlic
1 birds-eye chilli
60g palm sugar, shaved
1 tbs fried shallots
250g small raw peanuts (roasted until fragrant)
1 lime, juiced
350ml water
1 pinch of salt

4 eggs
rice bran oil
150g green beans, lightly steamed
1 cup bean shoots
1 cup spinach leaves
1/4 wombok cabbage, shredded finely

Start with the sauce. Blend together all of the ingredients for the sauce in a food processor until a paste forms. Transfer the mixture to a saucepan and stir the water in and season with salt. Reduce on a low heat for about 15 minutes, stirring frequently until the sauce thickens. Set aside and allow to cool.

Place the eggs in a small saucepan and bring to the boil, simmer for 6 minutes and run cool water over the eggs. Peel and dry the eggs on a paper towel.

Heat 2 tbs of rice bran oil in a small deep fry pan and shallow fry the eggs, one at a time rolling them around in the oil until the outside of the eggs are crisp and golden. Drain on a paper towel.

Place the remaining salad ingredients and toss together to mix. Season with salt and pepper. Arrange the salad and eggs on a plate and spoon over the peanut sauce. Serve with rice for a heartier meal.

Refreshing | Blueberry Sorbet

Wow. This sorbet is the deepest and darkest of reds. The perfect dessert for Valentines Day. I made the sorbet with bio-dynamic blueberries from Drum-Drum farm, a farm gate in Main Ridge, Mornington Peninsula. If you can't get access to good quality blueberries (the season will drawing to a close soon) you can easily use frozen blueberries.

You'll need:

1 kg blueberries
200g caster sugar
50g powdered glucose (available from some supermarkets or health food shops)
100ml water

In a food processor, puree the blueberries until smooth.

Place half the puree into a non-stick saucepan with the sugar, powdered glucose and water. Bring to the boil slowly, stirring constantly until all the sugar as dissolved. Allow to cool.

Add the remaining puree to the chilled mixture and strain through a fine mesh sieve to remove any pulp and skin. Churn in an ice-cream maker, using manufacturers instructions.

Dinner Party | Padron Peppers

I bought some Padron Peppers at the Veg Out Farmers market last weekend. I first tried them at Cutler and Co, blistered to perfection in a hot pan with olive oil and sprinkled liberally with sea salt.

They make great dinner party theatre as most of the chillies are sweet and mild but roughly 1 in 10 are hot, hot, hot. I love a little bit of culinary russian roulette!

You'll need:

Padron Peppers
Drizzle of olive oil
Sea salt

Add a tablespoon or so of olive oil to a searing hot non stick fry pan and blister the peppers on each side. They will only take a minute so keep an eye on them.

Sprinkle with sea salt and serve. 

NB There was only one hottie in this batch..

Summer of food, wine, beach, laughter and sun | Beetroot & Zucchini Burgers

Notice how food comes first, with wine a close second? I've just returned from a blissful month in the Mornington Peninsula over indulging in each of these wonderful things, ready to tackle 2012.

January was bio dynamic blueberries, honesty system organic avocados, slow cooked eggplant and greek yoghurt dip, beetroot and zucchini burgers, chardonnay, blueberry cheesecake ice-cream, barbecued haloumi and coconut oil.



I have a like minded foodie friend Samantha Barrow, who I hang out with there. She's a great cook who always cooks healthily from scratch, using organic ingredients whenever possible. It takes a lot effort to cook this way and avoid processed food. So I admire Sammy, not only does she spend a lot of time in the kitchen, her family's health and well being are paramount. The way it should be.

With Sammy's permission, I'm going to kick off the year with one of her incredibly delicious creations - beetroot & zucchini burgers. My kid's love them so much they are fast becoming a weekly staple.

Feeds 6-8

You'll need:

1 onion, finely chopped
2-3 cloves garlic
1 large raw beetroot, finely grated
1 medium zucchini, finely grated
500g organic beef mince
1 cup breadcrumbs (plus extra to coat the burgers)
1 tbs maple syrup
2 organic eggs
salt and pepper

Finely chop the onion and garlic and saute gently until transparent. Set aside to cool.

Grate the zucchini and beetroot into a large bowl and add the mince, breadcrumbs, maple syrup, eggs, cooled onion and garlic and season well with salt and pepper.

Using your hands combine the mixture and form small patties. Roll into extra breadcrumbs and refrigerate if possible for and hour or so.

Spray a non stick saucepan with olive oil spray and cook the burgers slowly and gently on a low heat, 10 -12 minutes on each side and serve.

Tips -

If the patties seem to wet add more breadcrumbs to the mixture. The mixture should be dry enough to form a burger but not to dry.

The longer you refrigerate the mixture, the tastier the burgers will be. If you have a small family - this quantity could easier feed you over 2 nights.

To check if the burgers are cooked, press down on them gently, they should feel firm. If they are still a bit springy, give them a few extra minutes.