Perfect Pork Crackling

Ingredients 

Morrisons Pork Skin for Crackling

Process 1

Standard oven cook.

Preheat oven to highest level

Dry off pork skin an deeply score with a sharp knife.  Then rub salt deep into the skin, making sure it has a good coating.

The Morrisons skin comes with very little fat, so a little oil on the bottom of the pan.

Roast for 20-30 minutes

This gives an ok result.  It misses the gelatinous fatty layer you get when cooked on the meat.

Process 2

Poach and fry

This is almost a pork scratching type of process.  Firstly cut the pork skin into strips, then put in a pan of boiling, very salty water, pan for 20 minutes.

Drain then place the strips into a warm oven to dry for 10 minutes. 

Heat a pan of oil to 170c then fry off the pieces

This is my favourite. When it comes out of the fryer I dust it with a coating of onion salt

Process 3

Steam and roast

Cut pork into squares, salt and flavour (I used Chinese 5 spice) then steam for 20 minutes.

Place on a pan an roast in oven for 20 minutes.

This is my least favourite,  there isn't enough fat to give it the puffiness I wanted

Process 3a

Using vinegar. 

After 20 minutes in a hot oven, sprinkle a  small amount of cider vinegar over the skin and cook for further 10 minutes.

Out of all the process 3 methods, this is the most successful. 

Process 3b

Instead of roasting the skin, shallow fry skin down.  Use enough oil to keep skin covered but not floating. 

Process 3c

Instead of shallow frying, deep fry until crispy.  Allow the skin the curl.  

Lemon Tea Cake

INGREDIENTS 

240g plain flour

2tsp Baking Powder 

350g caster sugar

5 eggs

140g double cream 

80g melted butter

3 lemons (juice and zest)

Glaze

Apricot jam

Icing sugar

2 lemon rind and juice

Method

Heat oven to 180

Beat all the wet ingredients with the sugar until combined. 

Add flour and baking powder,  then beat again for 1 minute

Put into lined bread tin.

Cook for 40 minutes

For the glaze, first warm apricot jam and paint over the cooled cakes.  Then combine the icing sugar with the lemon juice and rind in a pan over a low heat.  Then paint a thin cover over the cooled cake.

Banana & Apple cake

I woke up this morning and wanted some fresh fruit.   However,  all the fruit Inhad was starting to get to the end of their life span.

This took 50 minutes at 180c fan to cook to give it a really tasty caramel outside. I also used a 26cm Non-Stick Savarin Cake tin from John Lewis.

Ingredients 

3 very ripe bananas 

5 eating apples

80g currants

150g Self Raising flour

80g ground almonds

200g brown caster sugar

1tsp baking powder

80ml rapseed oil

60g soft butter.

3 large free range eggs

Lemon juiceb

Vanilla 

Directions

1.  Pre heat over to 180c fan/gas 5

2.  Coat inside of cake tin with a thin layer of butter and 20/30g sugar

3.  Peel 2 of the apples the cut them into eighths.  Remove the hard core then soak in bowl of cold water with juice of a lemon.

4.  Put peeled bananas into a separate bowl and crush with a fork.  To a nice, smooth consistency.  

5.  Mix in 3 whole eggs to the banana with a whist and once well combined add the oil.

6. Once the oil banana mix is nicely combined,  add 140g of the sugar and vanilla essence.   Mix well.

7.  Go back to the chunks of apple and place them into the bottom of the tin.  Dot the remainder of the butter over them, then sprinkle the remainder of the sugar evenly. 

8.  Using a sieve, add the flour, baking powder and ground almonds.   Fold this into the mix, but be careful not to over mix.

9. Grate the remaining apples into the bowl with the lemon and water.  I prefer keeping the skins on, but feel free to take it off.

10.  Drain the grated apple really well, squeezing out as much of the liquid as you can using a cloth.

11.  Add the grated apple and currants, stir in to mix well, then add to the cake tin on top of the apples.

12. Bake for 50 minutes, leave 10 minutes before turning out onto a plate.

Lemon Curd and Blueberry Muffins

These are tasty when eaten normally, but fresh from the oven. Wow!

Key part to this recipe is the Lemon Curd.  Easy to make fresh and so much tastier.

Lemon Curd

Ingredients 

4 lemons

200g caster sugar

100g butter

4 eggs

Directions

1.  Place the butter, lemon juice, lemon zest and sugar in a heat proof bowl and place over a bowl of simmering water.  Never boiling the water as it might get water into the mix.

2.  When the butter mix is melted, keep stirring until the sugar is dissolved.  Then slowly add the beaten eggs.

3.  Keep stirring until the curd thickens, able to form streaks.  If it overheats it can cuddle and undercooked it goes runny .  Test it on the back of a spoon.

Muffins

Wet Ingredients 

• 50 ml rapeseed oil
• 150ml low fat yogurt
• 2 eggs
• 10ml milk
• Zest of lemon

Dry Ingredients 

• 250g Self Raising Flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

• 100g golden caster sugar
• 100g blueberries

Directions 

1.  Place all the wet ingredients into a bowl and whisk to form a very runny liquid batter.  Make sure the oil and yogurt have blended.

2.  In a separate bowl mix all the dry ingredients,  making sure not to bash the blueberries.   Be gentle.

3.  Pour the wet mix into a well in the centre of the dry mix.  Then gently fold until all the dry mix is consumed.  If it's too dry you can add more milk, a spoonful at a time.

4. Put into 12 lined muffin tin, then carefully top with a spoonful of lemon curd.  Using the small spoon to make a pit at the same time.

5.  Sprinkle the top with some more caster sugar the put into a hot 180/160c fan oven and bake for 22 minutes.   Check cooked with skewer. 

Serve warm

Recipes to come

In preparation of writing a book, here are some photos.  See if you can guess the foods

Murgh Makhni

Butter Chicken Curry

I'm always on the lookout for new combinations of flavour, or different ways of mixing them, cooking them and presenting them.

This buttery chicken dish can be mild or hot, just increase or decrease the chilli.  This is a mild one.

Marinade Ingredients
2tsp mild chilli powder
1tsp Garam Masala
1 tbls garlic (minced)
Half tbls Ginger (Minced)
50 ml buttermilk
2 tbls Lemon Juice

Sauce Ingredients
50g Unsalted Butter
1 tbls rapeseed oil
Half tsp ground fenugreek
1tsp Garam Masala
1 tbls garlic (minced)
150g tomato puree
Half tsp Garam Masala
2 tbsp honey
100 ml single cream
1 fresh green chilli

dice about 3 - 4 chicken breasts, mix all the marinade Ingredients then coat the chicken.  Leave for a min of an hour.  However, leaving overnight would be much better.

Put the marinated chicken into an ovenproof dish and bake in a hot oven for 15 minutes,  200c.  Then start making the sauce. 

A hot pan to start with is key, the butter needs to brown before adding the oil.  Turn the heat down a bit then add the other ingredients,  starting with the garlic and ginger.  Stir for about 2 minutes then stir in the tomato puree.   Stir for another  two minutes then add the cream, warm through for a minute.  If it's a little thick, add some hot water. 

Mix in the cooked chicken, and serve with a tasty coconut rice.

Rendang (updated)

I first blogged about the beef rendang recipe about 3 years ago.  After more visits to Penang and going on some very good cooking courses, food tours and talking to different expats about rendang, I've made a few tweaks based on the Nyonya recipes.  This seems to be the most popular version around Penang and Kuala Lumpur.  But special thanks goes to Nazilna of http://www.pickles-and-spices.com/. And Kieran https://www.expatriatelifestyle.com/people/Take-It-From-Me-Kieran-McCarry

Ingredients

1.5kg beef shin or chuck steak or chicken on the bone

Wet ingredients 

2 large white onions

1 inch ginger

1 inch galangal

2 lemongrass stalks

1 garlic bulb

2 green chillies 

Dry ingredients

50g palm sugar/ dark muscovado sugar

400 ml coconut milk

400ml water

2 tbs soy sauce

1 tsp salt

Coconut oil for frying

Dried spices

2tsp cumin

2 tbs coriander

2 tsp turmeric

1 cinnamon stick

3 tbs tamarind (reconstituted from pulp)

3 kaffir lime leaves

2 dried red chillies, deseeded

Secret Nyonia Ingredient is the toasted coconut flesh that is ground to a brown, butter consistency.  This can be done with dried coconut by adding a little coconut milk.  Then fry off on a low heat in a dry pan until all the coconut is toasty brown.  If you burn any of it, do not use any of it.  Once toasted, use a good solid mortal and pestle and pound ( not grind) the coconut until it turns into a butter.  Some cooks prefer grinding, but in my experience, most Nyonya people prefer pounding as they say it preserves the sweetness.

Directions

Blend the wet ingredients to a paste then fry off in a hot pan, do not have the heat to high as our not trying to caramelise the ingredients just bring them together for flavour, this should take about 5 minutes

Add the dry ingredients, including the milk and water, allow this to come together again for ten minutes before adding the diced beef.

Leave to simmer for two hours on a very low heat. You are looking for the oil in the coconut milk to separate and act almost as a frying agent.  Once it reaches this thick almost dry consistency, then stir in the coconut butter.  But try a taste before and after, then you will see why this step is essential.

Serve with fragrant boiled or steamed rice.