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Slow Roasted Pork Belly

You don’t always have to use expensive cuts of meat to make a wonderful meal, sometimes the cheapest cuts cooked really slowly can have fantastic flavour and texture.

Turn on your oven to its highest temperature.

I chopped some root vegetable, onion and carrot, added some mushrooms and potatoes and placed it in a roasting pan.

I placed the belly pork on the root vegetables and seasoned it. I then placed this in the really hot oven, turning the temperature right down to 160. I then left the pork to roast for about two hours. This may not seem long, but it wasn’t a huge piece of pork like a leg joint.

As it cooked I did add some wine and water now and again to the bottom of the roasting pan, so it didn’t dry out.

The result was a fantastic moist, tender wonderfully flavoured piece of pork. Which I sliced and served with vegetables.

Overall very tasty and a well received on the table.

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Christmas is coming…

As the big day approaches, I am starting to make the final preparations for the festive meal.

We are going to have the four bird roast from Marks and Spencers with Parmentier Potatoes and a spread of vegetables.

Hopefully it should all go to plan.

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Which is better value?

So which is better value, you tell me?

Buy one get free or half price?

Sainsburys have tins of Roses for £10, buy one get one free.

Whilst Tesco are doing the same tins of Roses for half price, £5.

So which is better value?

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Arctic Roll

Production of Arctic Roll, the retro ice cream dessert, was halted in 1997, but in 2008, Birds Eye chose to revive the brand because the recession is fuelling a demand for comfort food.

Business Correspondent Ian Reeve went to the north Yorkshire factory that is making nine million of them a year.

Watch the video.

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Christmas Four Bird Roast


Well my plan for a Christmas Four Bird Roast was scuppered last year. I had intended to order one from Marks and Spencers which consisted of Turkey, Goose, Duck, Chicken.

Marks and Spencers Four Bird Roast

However when I went to order it was apparent that many others had had the same idea and it had sold out! I am guessing that a) a lot of people were like me and liked the concept b) the Marks and Spencers version was good value for money at £100. There was no way you could even do it yourself for £100. Waitrose’s version was £120 and only consisted of a three bird roast.

So this year I got in early and managed to order one.

Now from the description I believe that this isn’t in fact four birds one stuffed within another, but a large turkey stuffed with goose, duck, chicken and stuffing. Still it sounds nice, and according to the person at Marks and Spencers who I ordered it from, it went down well at their Christmas last year.

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Marks and Spencers Pork Medallions

Cooked and enjoyed Marks and Spencers’ Pork Medallions with a cider and shallot sauce.

I normally prefer to cook my own sauces than use shop ones, but as I was in Marks and Spencers and looking at their The Cook Menu range decided to give it a go.

Whatever you fancy for dinner and whatever the occasion, M&S’s NEW The Cook Menu has something to offer. You’ll find a variety of exciting dishes, inspired by flavours from around the world, which all use the very best ingredients: fresh vegetables, sustainable fish and quality cuts of meat from M&S-approved farms. The preparation work has been done for you, so you can concentrate on the enjoyment of cooking and add an individual touch.

So what do you get?

Well you get some pork fillet sliced and a sachet of sauce, not enough sauce really, more would have been nice.

So you pan fry the pork and then remove from the pan and heat through the sauce.

I served mine with some rice and steamed vegetables.

It wasn’t that bad actually, quite good really.

Yes you could do this all yourself, however I didn’t have a huge amount of time, and nor did I have the ingredients for the sauce and that’s the real time and money saver with these.

Would I buy it again, yes I would.

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Paella

Made a homemade paella the other day.

paella011009

Took some onions, pepper and some pancetta, and fried them together in a large heavy pan with a splash of olive oil.

Add some diced raw chicken.

I then added the paella rice, and it always makes sense to use paella rice, and never any other kind of rice.

Ensuring the rice was coated in the onions, pepper and oil, I would have added a splash of white wine, but alas there was no wine in the house.

So I then added saffron and chicken stock. The saffron I had infused in hot water. This helps to bring out the traditional yellow colour in the paella. I also added half a tin of chopped tomatoes. In case you wonder what to do with the other half, I made a spicy tomato sauce  for patatas brava.

Simmer for twenty minutes adding more stock if required.

A few minutes before serving add raw prawns and slices of chorizo. I was  using cooking chorizo which I had  cooked separately. A handful of chopped parsley adds flavour and colour.

The dish was the put together and served.

I would have liked to use more shellfish, but all I had was prawns to hand, nice to have used squid and mussels.

paella021009

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Burts Chips

Really impressed to see some new crisps (potato chips) from Burts with no added salt, but unlike other unsalted crsisps they have flavours; plain, ketchup and vinegar.

They are really nice crisps and if you are trying to keep your salt intake down a nice choice if you like crisps.

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Why do we flock to all-you-can-eat restaurants?

BBC News Magazine reports on the all-you-can-eat restaurant chain Taybarns

With a “34-metre long food counter” Taybarns is all about quantity. It offers an array of food. Choose from a chip shop, carvery, pizza, pasta, even what appears to be a new hybrid-cuisine, Texican.

Its menu boasts: “Enjoy as much as you like, as many times as you like. All for one fixed price!”

Egg and Chips with a nice mug of tea

Why do we flock to all-you-can-eat restaurants?

A good question.

Personally I do go to them, but often not through choice, but because others take me there…

Having said that the all you can eat buffet at the Hilton Hotels I have stayed in have been pretty good. But there you pay £27 rather than the £7.99 at Taybarns.

I agree though with the final comment.

“The American model bothers me. We want big portions, rubbish food. What we actually need is higher quality and people eating less.”

Photo source.