Wednesday 3 August 2011

Stewed Pork, Veggie Salsa & Flatbread.

I don't know if stewed pork is the right word. Or vegetable salsa, for that matter. But that's what I'm calling it.



They made flatbreads on This Morning, errr, this morning, and I was all "OOOO. I shall make that."

Serves 2, but there was a lot, and some leftover salsa...

Need:
One pork chop, fat/bones removed
One red onion
One courgette
Two cloves garlic
One tomato
4 medium mushrooms
Half a tin chopped tomatoes

Plain flour
Water
Coriander
Tarragon
Cayenne Pepper
Chilli Powder
Salt
Pepper
One vegetable stock cube
Olive oil
Honey

Lettuce + 1/2 an avocado per person to serve.

That seems like a lot, but a lot was leftovers/things that needed to be eaten!


Do:
Remove the bones/fat from the pork. Flatten and tenderise (translation - hit it with a rolling pin for a bit), and chop into cubes. Place in an oven proof dish.

Take half of the onion and half of the courgette and chop finely, adding to the dish. Crush a garlic clove into the dish (I used a garlic crusher as opposed to the garlic card. You want minced garlic, rather than puree, if possible, but finely chopped will do). Add sprinkles of salt, pepper, coriander, tarragon and cayenne pepper, then a drizzle of olive oil. Cover and place in fridge for at least an hour (I made mine at about 3pm and we ate about half 6...)

For the flatbreads, mix plain flour, salt and water. Roll out to desired size an shape - seriously, they can be any size or shape. I went for a naan-y look, and probably made enough dough for 4 decent sized ones rather than the 3 big ones I made, but you can always make more flatbreads than needed and eat the others cold for lunch the next day or something. Simple and versatile!

To the pork mix add a veggie stock cube and enough water to cover the ingredients (It'll make a watery sauce but we don't need to serve this...), then put in the oven at around 200 degrees - it should take about 25/30 mins for the pork to be tender. I had a sit down for 15 mins before finishing the rest, but then I had pre-prepared by flatbread dough...

Finely chop the other half of the onion, the other half of the courgette, one tomato and the mushrooms (you can use any amount of any of these, really, just we had mushrooms and courgette to use up and not that many tomatoes in the house...). Add the onion and the other minced garlic clove to a pan (I recommend a large saucepan rather than a frying pan) with olive oil. After 2 mins, add the other veg. Fry until soft, then add the chopped tomatoes. Again, this was a leftover, and if you only have full tins use one of those - I had to add a bit of water and some ketchup to get a decent amount of tomato-y sauce!

Add a big squirt of honey and salt, pepper, coriander and chilli powder and simmer, reducing the sauce so that all the veg is covered but it's not runny.

While the salsa is reducing, fry the flatbreads in a little olive oil - preferably in a griddle pan, for that nice patterned burn look, yknow.

Serve!

Monday 1 August 2011

Double Cheese Scones

I had an urge to bake and a craving for savoury that wasn't satisfied by anything in the house.
Also, some goat's cheese to use up. Solution? Cheese scones.

I knew I'd made goat's cheese biscuits before, but I wanted scones, dammit, so combined two recipes (this one and this one, in particular) to make these - double cheese scones.



served with slightly garlicky butter
(born from an error when making garlic butter; the whole tub has a faint garlic taste...good job I love garlic)

225g/8oz self raising flour
pinch of salt
55g/2oz butter
25g/1oz mature cheddar cheese, crumbled
4 tablespoons (2 ounces) goat cheese, crumbled
150ml/5fl oz milk
butter for top

The measurements are as taken from the recipes, but because I am me, I just chucked some sieved flour in a bowl with salt, added butter and the chunks of goat's cheese and cheddar 'til it was breadcrumb-y and mixed in milk bit by bit 'til it was doughy.


Heat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7.

Mix together the flour and salt and rub in the butter and goat's cheese. Crumble in the cheddar mix that in too.

Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the milk (I used half semi-skimmed and half unsweetened soya milk, why not.). With a fork, mix together the milk and flour until all of the dry flour disappears.

Turn on to a floured work surface and knead very lightly. Pat out to a round 2cm/¾in thick. Use a 5cm/2in cutter to stamp out rounds and place on the baking sheet. Lightly knead together the rest of the dough and stamp out more scones to use it all up.

Brush the tops of the scones with a little butter - I added a dash of pepper too. Bake for 12-15 minutes until well risen and golden. Cool on a wire rack.