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.

Thyme and Lemon Lamb Chop Salad with Grilled Peaches, Haloumi, and Yogurt Dressing

In preparation for Thanksgiving, we had a really healthy salad for dinner the night before.

Ingredients:

5-6 lamb chops
1/4 cup fresh thyme
Juice of 1 1/2 lemons
Olive oil, salt and pepper
2 peaches, cut in quarters with pits removed
6 thick slices of haloumi cheese
1/4 greek yogurt
4-5 cups baby spinach
A handful of cherry tomatoes

Marinate the lamb chops for 2 to 24 hours in the thyme, juice of 1 lemon, salt, pepper, and a few tablespoons of olive oil. Mix up the dressing, of the yogurt, remaining lemon juice, salt, pepper, and a few tablespoons olive oil. Coat the haloumi and peaches in a bit of oil, and grill the peaches on a barbeque or indoor grill pan for 5 minutes on each side, lamb for 2 minutes on each side, and haloumi for 1 minute on each side. Serve on a bed of spinach with some cherry tomatoes.

Dukkah and Rosemary Roasted Chicken with Grilled Peach and Haloumi Salad

I remade the dukkah and rosemary roasted chicken recipe from a few weeks ago, but tried out a different salad with it. You could do this on the barbeque but I just did it on a grill pan inside and it was great!

Ingredients (grilled peach and haloumi salad, serves 2):

2 peaches, cut in half and pits removed
2 portabello mushrooms
2 cups of rocket or other lettuce
Handful of cherry tomatoes
6 thick slices of haloumi cheese
Juice of 1 lemon
Olive oil, salt and pepper

Coat the mushrooms and peaches in a bit of olive oil, salt, pepper, and half the lemon juice. In a hot grill pan, grill for about 5-7 minutes on each side. Remove from pan, and slice mushrooms while you grill the haloumi for no more than a minute on each side. Serve on lettuce with a few cherry tomatoes, and add the rest of the lemon juice on top.

Peach Baked French Toast

Ok… so, I was pretty drunk when I put this together. I actually didn’t remember until I looked in the fridge the next morning (oops). It probably could have turned out a bit better, but I do have faith that if I did this properly, it’d be an easy breakfast for a Sunday morning.

Ingredients:

8-10 slices of baguette
1 cup of milk
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 peaches, cut in slices
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg

Layer the bread in a pan. Mix milk, eggs, and vanilla, and pour over the bread. Layer with peaches, and then sprinkle the brown sugar and spices on top. Cover and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, bake at 200C / 375F for 30-40 minutes until golden on top. Serve with honey or maple syrup.

Peach, Mushroom and Blue Cheese Pizza

I’ve been pretty obsessed with finding peaches for a while now, so I may have bought a few too many when I finally found them. I also picked up some pretty good looking oyster mushrooms, so I tried something a bit different with this.

Pizza can be really simple to make and the base can be make ahead of time, and refrigerated with cling film. I used this recipe from Jamie Oliver, which wasn’t too bad, and only takes an hour to rise.

Ingredients:

1 portion of pizza dough
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 cups sliced onion
2 peaches, cut into thin wedges
2 cups oyster mushrooms (or whatever other mushrooms you want)
1/4 cup chopped rosemary
Blue cheese (I used blue brie)
Salt and pepper

Saute onions in balsamic in one pan, while you saute the mushrooms in a bit of olive oil, the rosemary, salt and pepper in another. Once they’re about ready to go, add the peaches for 2-3 minutes.

In an oven-proof skillet, coated in olive oil, lay the pizza dough in, spread about 1 cm thick. Layer on the cooked mushrooms, then the onions with thickened balsamic, then the peaches, and top with blue cheese. Pop in the oven for about 15-20 minutes at 200C / 375F, until the top is golden.