spork me

Chili Orange Sage Pork Belly with Braised Peaches and White Beans

Not to brag (only a little), this was the best pork belly I’ve made so far, and the beans went with it incredibly. Not a ton of ingredients but they work really well together, and it only takes a few minutes to throw together.

Ingredients (pork belly):

1 pork belly
1 red chili, sliced
1 orange, juice and zest
10 sage leaves
3-4 star anise
Salt and pepper

Arrange the ingredients (except the pork) on the bottom of a glass pan that will fit the pork belly nicely, including the orange juice. Score the skin of the belly about 1cm apart, not cutting the meat. Place it meat side down in the pan, rub the skin liberally with salt, and chuck it in the fridge overnight.

When it’s time to cook, bring to room temperature (about 30 minutes) and pre-heat the oven to full heat. Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 150C / 300F. Cook for about an hour, then blast the heat again until the skin bubbles but not burns. Let rest for 10 minutes in its own juices before serving.

Ingredients (white beans):

1 can of white beans, drained
1 cup of chicken stock (homemade, if you have it)
2 peaches, pitted and sliced thin
2 tbsp harissa or chili paste (or just mash some chili and garlic with cumin and coriander seeds)
1 red onion, sliced
1 punnet of grape or cherry tomatoes, cut in half
10 sage leaves, chopped
1 cup chopped flat parsley
Juice of 1 lemon
Olive oil, salt and pepper

In a pan with a touch of oil, slowly caramelize the onions, about 10 minutes, until very soft. Add the harissa paste and peaches, cooking for 5 minutes more. Stir in the white beans, sage, and stock. Reduce slightly before adding the tomatoes, then cook to a thicker sauce. Add the parsley and lemon juice, cook 2 minutes more, season with salt and pepper, and serve.

Orange Chili Duck with Cabbage Pasta and Anchovy Breadcrumbs

The pasta is based slightly off this recipe, the best bit being the delicious albeit weird sounding anchovy breadcrumbs. They’re amazing and would work in quite a lot of dishes to add a bit of crunch and salt, and only take 5 minutes to make.

My version of the pasta used a different type of cabbage and likely wasn’t nearly as nice as that recipe, so I suggest you just make that. The breadcrumbs recipe though, I will copy over, as you can put them on anything.

Ingredients (duck):

1 orange, zest and whole orange in half
Sea salt
1 red chili, chopped
2kg whole duck

In a mortar and pestle, mash the zest, salt, and chili. Spread and massage this into the skin of the duck. Put the orange halves in the duck cavity, and tie the legs shut with some butchers twine. Cook at 180C / 350F for about an hour, until the skin is crispy. If it’s not crispy yet, crank the oven and cook for 10 minutes more.

Ingredients (anchovy breadcrumbs, from the New York Times):

1/2 cup breadcrumbs
4 anchovies
2 garlic cloves, diced
2 tbsp butter

Melt the butter and add the anchovies. Cook and mash until you had a paste, then add the garlic and cook for another minute or so. Add in the breadcrumbs and coat with the butter. Cook until golden brown, stirring occasionally. Serve with absolutely anything.

Harissa, Yogurt and Tomato Lamb Shanks with Zucchini, Pea and Mint Salad

I had a drawer full of zucchini when I saw this recipe from Gourmet magazine, but I hadn’t started a day ahead. I made my own version of the harissa with some different chilis I had around, and tried a slow cooker attempt at the lamb. It worked exceptionally well, it was spicy, sweet and creamy, and easy to put together.

Ingredients (lamb shanks)

1/4 cup Harissa
2 lamb shanks
1 tin tomatoes
1/2 cup greek yogurt
1 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup fresh oregano and cilantro
Juice of 1/2 lime
Half an onion, sliced
Salt, pepper and olive oil

Coat the lamb shanks in salt and pepper, and brown in a hot pan with a few tablespoons of olive oil. Sauté the onion, then toss in the rest of the ingredients and bring to a simmer. Season with salt and pepper. Add the lamb back, and pressure cook for 40 minutes, or cook on low heat for about 3-4 hours, covered. You could even leave it in the slow cooker for the day.

Remove the lamb and reduce the sauce. Serve with a scoop of the sauce, and the zucchini salad.

Black Bean Soup with Chipotle Chiles

This. This was excellent. I didn’t soak the beans, added a jalapeno pepper as well, and put it in the pressure cooker for 20 minutes before letting simmer for 2 more hours. Absolutely fantastic amount of spice, and the lime at the end was really refreshing. I reduced the liquid in the leftovers to use in tacos, which was even better.

Chili Fried Spatchcock, Duck Fat and Rosemary Roasted Potatoes and Sauteed Kale

It’s a rare occasion when I make fried food these days. Winter made me do it. I blame Winter entirely.

For the potatoes, toss with rosemary, onion, salt, pepper and duck fat and roast for 45 minutes, turning halfway. Saute chopped kale with garlic, salt and pepper.

Ingredients (spatchcock):

1 spatchcock, quartered
2 red chilis
1 garlic clove
1/2 cup self rising flour
1 egg
Salt, pepper, vegetable oil

Mash up the chili, garlic and salt in a mortar and pestle until it’s a paste. Beat with the egg and add the chicken pieces, coating. Set aside until ready.

Fill a pan with enough vegetable oil to cover the bottom, and season the flour with salt and pepper. Making sure to dredge fully in the egg mixture first, coat the chicken with the flour and fry for about 7 minutes on each side until golden. Pop in a hot oven for 10 minutes to finish depending on the size of your pieces.

Curried Chicken Salad with Grapes, Almonds, Cilantro and Red Pepper

I’ve been making a fair amount of chicken salad for lunches, but rarely do I photograph it since I’ll make it at night and throw it in a tupperware. One time I even made enough for 2 days to leave at work overnight, thinking I was really clever for planning ahead. That was a huge mistake. Going into the kitchen for Day 2 Lunch to see someone had been munching on it as a midnight snack was fairly infuriating. Who does that?

I digress. I had to try a bit of this so I managed to take a picture, and it’s one of my favorites so far. The rolls I made with leftover pizza dough that was in my fridge for 24 hours, mixed with some flax-seeds. Really nice, and not just because they were warm. The 24 hours in the fridge helped.

Ingredients:

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 tbsp curry powder
2 tbsp chili powder
1/2 red pepper, diced
1 cup grapes, sliced in half
1/4 cup chopped blanched almonds
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
Olive oil and salt

Rub the chicken with a little oil, then sprinkle with the curry and chili powder. Bake for about 30 minutes at 220C / 375F or until just cooked through. Let cool.

In a bowl, mix the rest of the ingredients. Chop or shred the chicken once it’s cool enough to handle, and mix in. Season with salt.

Cilantro and Chili Stuffed Snapper

Whole fish is one of my favorite things to cook, but I haven’t made on in ages. It’s a lot easier than it may look, and the fish shop will do all the dirty work and clean it for you. You can even eat the skin, just look out for bones.

Ingredients:

1 whole snapper, scored 2 cm apart along the skin
1 cup chopped coriander
4 garlic cloves
Juice of 1 lime
1 red chili, roughly chopped
1/2 red onion, sliced
Salt, pepper, and olive oil

In a mortar and pestle, mash the garlic and chili with some salt, into a paste. Mix in the coriander, half the lime, and a bit of olive oil, and then stuff the mixture into the scores. Any leftover can be mixed with the onion, and stuffed into the middle of the fish.

Preheat the oven (turn on the grill in the oven as well) to 200C / 375F, with the grill hot. Get an oven-proof skillet nice and hot with some olive oil, and sear the fish for about 5 minutes. Put it under the grill in the oven for 10 minutes or so, until the fish is cooked through. Squeeze the rest of the lime over the top, and serve.

Chili Chicken Tacos with Black Beans, Fresh Salsa and Avocado

I’m not super into skinless, boneless chicken breasts. They’re dry, and bland, and unlike real meat, they don’t have that same rich melt-in-your-mouth thing going on. I mostly just feel like I’m being cheated. We’ve got some foster kittens again at the moment, so I bought it to make a little piece for them, but didn’t entirely know what I was going to do with the rest. This was excellent and pretty quick to make, and you could serve with whatever you want in the tortilla. I heated up a can of black beans, mashed an avocado, and made a bowl of fresh salsa. Great leftover as well.

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts, cut into 1/2 inch by 2 inch strips (roughly)
1 chili, diced
3 garlic cloves, diced
2 tsp salt
Juice of half a lemon
1 tbsp paprika
1 tsp chili powder
1/4 cup chopped coriander
Olive oil

With a mortar and pestle, smash up the chili, garlic and salt until it’s a paste. Add in the lemon, paprika, chili and coriander, with a few tablespoons of olive oil, and keep mashing. Mix into the chicken and set aside.

Heat up a bit of oil in a pan on medium heat, and cook the chicken for about 3-4 minutes on each side, until just cooked through. Serve warm.

Salt and Chili Plantain Chips

Another variation of the plantain chips recipe from the other day; remove the green outside and slice into 1/4 inch thick rounds. Mix with olive oil, salt, and chili flakes. I could give you quantities, but really, we’re all adults here, and you know how salty and / or spicy you like your food. Bake for 20 minutes at 200C / 375F, flipping halfway through.

Mole Poblano

There is no doubt that this is a good recipe. It’s the first time I’ve worked with dried chili peppers, and it’ll be a while before I’m brave enough to do it again. A few things you should know;

The recipe cites to read the instructions on handling dried chili’s before you start. I couldn’t find them. They would have been effing useful. My face, my arm, my eyes, everything I touched burned. It was under my fingernails for 2 days despite the repeated scrubbing. Use gloves.
The instructions I googled said to dry roast them in a pan before you start. Do not do this without proper ventilation. The coughing fit not just me, but my whole house, subsequently went into was terribly unpleasant.
Do not make chili substitutions unless you know what you’re doing. Especially do not do this if you mix up which chili’s are “hot” and which are “mild” and use the opposite numbers of each.
If all the above goes wrong, and the sauce is too spicy, add another can of tomato puree, or tomato paste, until it’s a tolerable temperature. Don’t try and man up and eat it, just add the effing tomatoes. Add a bit of extra chocolate as well. Because you can.
Drinking milk should ease some of the burn temporarily. Alcohol also helps, but for a different reason.