Pork Mince - first batch: leftover portion 1

Much better this evening having loaded up the bolognese with Island Inferno Hot Pepper Sauce, zapping it, and enjoying with boiled rice.

Miles better with the addition of rice and Island Inferno Hot Pepper Sauce

Verdict
A combination of the dish being left in the fridge overnight, the rice, and most significantly the Island Inferno Hot Pepper Sauce made this way more tasty and interesting than last night. It's gained a whole extra point in fact. 6.5 out of 10.

Pork Mince - first batch

It was very much a case of using up what I happened to have in as I haven't been to the shops in a while, hence last night's bolognese-type effort was decidedly meh.

The really rather dull pork minced bolognese-type disappointment

I fried up an onion and some garlic, put this to one side, then fried the 500-ish grams of pork mince. A chopped red chilli and two chopped red peppers were added and fried a bit more. This was seasoned with some salt and pepper and a sprinkle of mixed herbs. I found a fat carrot in the fridge so I diced that and threw it in, followed by the re-introduction of the onions and garlic.

Two tins of chopped tomatoes were mixed in, and to try to add some flavour a squeeze of tomato puree, a generous shake of Worcestershire sauce, and because I didn't have any red wine or beef stock, I stirred in about 3 teaspoons of Marmite. I removed the corns off of the remaining two coblettes from yesterday and put those in too.

I let this simmer for about 40 mins and cooked up some fusilli pasta. Grated cheese was tickled over once in the bowl.

Verdict
Really rather dull unfortunately. Distinctly lacking in excitement. The pork mince itself reminded me most of Quorn mince - i.e tasteless. In the future I shall be required to add much more robust flavours to it. There are 3 portions left of this batch. 5.5 out of 10.

Pork Chops - second batch

Last night was the first dins which catered for more than two persons (it was three), and it was an old favourite - a sort of sweet and spicy, bbq-ish pork chop effort.



One and a third pork chops (plus bonus fat) under the sticky pepper and onion sauce, with cobbletts and egg fried rice

I have been doing this dish for years, inspired as I remember, by a Hugh Firmly recipe for a spare ribs sauce. And it is always, being modest, superb.

I start it by squishing 4 cloves of garlic with a fork and adding a bit of salt to the resulting mess. This is scraped into the oven dish. Then sliced up and chucked into the dish are a red onion, a red and yellow pepper, a lump of ginger and two red chillies.

The part which I do admit seems rather cheaty commences next to create the sauce. A very generous dolloping of tomato ketchup is added to the chopped items, followed by a good squeeze of honey and an equally good shake of soy sauce. A teaspoon of English mustard goes in, finally followed by a couple of heaped tablespoons of dark brown sugar.

All this was well mixed up before the 4 pork chops were turned around in it, making sure they were covered by the mixture, before putting in the oven at about 190. I give them about 20 minutes before a rotation, followed by a further 20 minutes.

To accompany I made egg fried rice and boiled up some corn on the cobbletts.

Verdict
This meal is always so mad tasty. The fat is literally off the hook! All sort of crispy and roasted on the outside and super smooth and creamy inside. And eating this meal with a person who doesn't want to eat their fat is extra good for us, because we end up with bonus fat. Woo-hoo! 8.5 out of 10.

Pork Chops - first batch

The first three of the 15 chops were cooked tonight - and not by me! I didn't make any of tonight's dins, I did however, yum it all up.




The first of the pork chops, fried, with horseradish mash, onion gravy on the top and some peas and broad beans in the background


I had inadvertently taken the bag out of the freezer which contained 3 chops this morning (all the other bags contain two), so the triumvirate were seasoned lightly with salt and pepper and simply fried.

Mash was made and had cheese, chopped spring onions and horseradish mixed into it. The remaining gravy left over from the weekend (which I had failed to mention we'd had with the previous two meals) had some fried red onion and garlic added to it, and some frozen peas and broad beans were boiled up.

Verdict
A really satisfying, and simple mid-week dins. The pork chops were really juicy and flavoursome from the frying - didn't dry out at all. And the mash successfully avoided being boring, baby food. The horsers made it special. With lots of thanks to Mel, 7 out of 10.

Rack Joint (re-fried)

First example of some leftovers, was the re-frying of the remaining 3 rack joint sections.

The remaining re-fried rack joint sections (well the one and a half bits which I had)

They were fried in the new frying pan purchased from T.K Maxxium last week, along with leftover par-boiled potatoes from yesterday and sliced onion. The remaining apples and a bit of onion scrapings were zapped in the microwave in their little ramekin. Some green beans were also boiled.

Verdict
Well yummsters. The re-frying really brought the fat back to life - way more so than if we'd just had them cold. And it gave a bit of colour to the white meat from inner selection of the rack joint. The potatoes were also very tasty. A solid 7.5 out of ten.

Rack joint

A rack joint, it turns out, is essentially six chops, conjoined on a big base bone. And it's brilliant.




The rack joint in his tin (with potatoes, apples and onions)



Kind of following a recipe from The Whole Hog by Jonathan Trotter (ha ha his name is like a trotter from off of a pig), I began by rubbing a little olive oil and salt into the skin. Then the joint was roasted on high heat for half an hour.

In the meantime I par-boiled some potatoes and cut some apples into wedges, removing the core, and peeled some shallots. The potatoes were then added to the meat roasting tin, and put back in on the high heat for 15 mins. At this point I also brushed the side and roof of the joint (but not the crackling) with some honey and wholegrain mustard which I'd mixed up in a ramekin. This was cooked for 30mins on a lower heat. Then the apples were thrown in for the final 20mins.

We ate it with some asparagus, fried with butter, black pepper and the squeeze from out of a lemon.

Verdict
Amazing! Literally mental. The pork had mad flavour with the fat being super creamy. And the potatoes with the grizzled onions and apples made a perfect accompaniment. Has to be 9 out of 10 (I'm deducting a point due to some of the crackling being a bit too hard).

One and a half sections of a rack joint per-person

Spare ribs

First pig item to be cooked and eaten were the Spare Ribs.

Spare ribs in a sweet and sticky sauce (with some egg fried rice)

Whilst watching the rugby on Saturday morning, marinating was commenced, basically using a Nigella recipe from the Kitchen book. Actually the only difference between what Nigella said and what I did, was the substitution of a lemon for lime, because I didn't have a lime. Also at the time of the commencement of the marinade I was ginger-less. This was rectified after a subsequent trip to Waitrose.

It was a fun marinading using a bag to squish all the ingredients together around the ribs. It comprised of:

• Juice and zest of a lemon (my idea, not Nigella's)
• 2 tbl spoons of sesame oil (actually i think Nigella said groundnut, but again, didn't have that)
• 2 tbl spoons dark brown sugar
• A broken up cinnamon stick
• 3 red chillies deseeded and chopped
• 125mls of pineapple juice
• A lump of chopped ginger
• One red and one yellow pepper sliced ( my invention entirely - Nigella never even thought of that).

That stayed in the fridge until teatime, whereupon everything was poured into a roasting tin and cooked for about an hour. At the end what liquid remained, and slightly disappointingly there wasn't much, was put into a saucepan and bit more brown sugar added to form a thick syrup. This was poured over the ribs on the plate. I made egg fried rice to accompany.

Verdict
Excellent. Strongest flavour on the meat was lemon and cinnamon. Might have been better if the meat fell off the bone a bit more. This would have required a longer cooking time, probably on a lower heat with a foil roof. Difficult to grade with no benchmark to compare to, but I think 7.5 out of 10 sounds fair.