Perfect Pork Crackling

I rarely cook roast pork because I find it hard to get the crackling right. After several tries and reading a lot of recipes, I finally 'cracked' it.

These are my tips:

Unwrap the pork and score the rind with a very sharp knife (I cut mine a little too deep as my knife was extremely sharp). Leave the roast uncovered in the fridge overnight to dry out completely. The next day, liberally coat the rind in oil and sea salt. Let the roast come close to room temperature.

Preheat the oven to 230 degrees. Put in the pork roast - on a rack if you like. I prefer to line my baking dish with baking paper and sit it on that.

Cook 20 - 30 minutes until the pork rind is well crackled. Turn down the oven to 150 degrees and let it slow cook for another couple of hours.

I use a meat thermometer and take it out when the temperature shows 70 degrees. It will need to sit for 20 or so minutes so remove the crackling and wrap the meat in alfoil. The crackling will stay crisp that way and the meat should be falling off the bone.

This is my very favourite fruitcake recipe, given to me by my mother. So simple to make and never ever fails. It's deliciously moist and keeps amazingly well if ever given the chance. Mostly, I find it eaten in a couple of days.

Ingredients:
1 440g can crushed pineapple in natural juice
125g butter
1 cup sugar
500g mixed fruit
1 teaspoon mixed spice
1 teaspoon bi-carb soda
1 cup plain flour
1 cup SR flour
2 eggs
pinch salt

Line a large cake tin with baking paper. Preheat oven to 170 degrees for fan forced ovens.
Drain pineapple. Put pulp into saucepan with 1/2 cup juice. Add butter, sugar, fruit, spice and bi-carb. Bring to boil and simmer 3 minutes. Cool. Stir in 2 beaten eggs and sifted flour and salt. Pour into cake tin and smooth the top.
Bake for 1 to 1 and 1/2 hours. Test with skewer at 1 hour. Cover cake with brown paper if browning tooo quickly.
Turn out onto cooling rack. Keeps best in a metal tin.

Lemon Chicken Soup

Winter is upon us and it's time for some warming soup. I usually make hearty, thick soups but when a friend cooked this for me, I wondered why I had never tried it before. It is so simple and, like many simple dishes, simply bursts with flavour.

Lemon Chicken Soup

125g chicken mince

4 tablespoons uncooked rice

2 litres good chicken stock

2 - 3 lemons

2 eggs
 pinch pepper and salt to taste

Mix chicken mince, rice, pepper and salt together. From into small balls. Bring stock to the boil and drop in balls. Simmer for 30 - 40 minutes or until balls look cooked. Cool slightly. Blend the juice of the lemons with the egg. Stir gently into the soup. Serve with crusty bread.

NB: Make sure the soup is off the boil or the mix will separate. 

Prawn and mango salad

What would Christmas lunch be without prawns? Add some luscious mango and you have my favourite prawn salad recipe.

PRAWN AND MANGO SALAD
Ingredients
2kg cooked prawns
3 large mangoes
2 large avocados
1 orange
Salad leaves
Dressing
2 tablespoons sour cream
170g can mango puree (or puree a fresh mango)
1/4 cup lime juice
1/2 tablespoon chilli sauce

Peel prawns. Peel and cut mangoes, avocados and orange into thin wedges. Arrange on a platter over the salad leaves. Drizzle with dressing before serving.
To make dressing - combine all ingredients in a small bowl and whisk until smooth.

Mock Chicken Sandwich Filling

This is my favourite sandwich filling. It evolved from the days of the old Coolgardie Safe where the only cheese in the house came in the familiar blue packet and was kept in the pantry. So I always make sure I have some on hand. This is great for kid's lunchboxes now summer is here, freezes really well and is yummy on toast for breakfast. It keeps for a week or more in the fridge - if it ever lasts that long. My kids prefer to call it Savoury Cheese but country people know it by it's real name.


MOCK CHICKEN SANDWICH FILLING












Ingredients:
1 large ripe tomato
1 small onion, finely chopped
Sprinkle of mixed herbs - about 1/3 of a teaspoon. More if you like the flavour.
125 Kraft cheddar cheese
1 beaten egg
1 teaspoon butter
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:
Saute chopped onion in butter in pan. Peel the tomato by briefly immersing it in boiling water until the skin is loose. Chop finely and add to pan along with the mixed herbs. Simmer for 5 to 10 minutes until liquid is reduced.
Grate cheese and add to pan. Stir over low heat until melted. Do not allow to boil. Add the beaten egg and cook for 1 minute. Season to taste. Cool in the fridge before use.

The mixture will set upon cooling. If boiled, it curdles. The flavour is the same but the texture isn't. It just doesn't spread as smoothly.

 I'm a huge fan of Heston Blumenthal. I watched the episode where he showed British Airways what was needed to recreate their Shepherd's Pie for high altitude passengers. It was the 'fifth' flavour we taste. Umami. If you ever feel a meat dish need a little bit of 'something' to enhance the flavour, this is what you need. Umami paste. I just made some  thanks to the generous sharing of the recipe by Tenina. (tenina.com/2011/08/umami-paste/)  Her recipe is for a  Thermomix  but I didn't have one so adapted it for my 'Bullet' although I think any blender will work as well. My paste is creamier but has set beautifully and tastes amazing.

Umami Paste

300g Roma tomatoes
90g Parmesan cheese
80g toasted walnuts
1 teaspoon Dulse flakes - available from health food shops
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
3 anchovies

Core the tomatoes and blitz in the blender attachment of the Bullet. Transfer the puree to a glass or plastic jug, cover with plastic wrap, pierced a few times, and cook  in the microwave for 5 minutes. Strain through a piece of chux placed in a sieve. Retain the juice.

(Dehydrate the tomato solids in a warm oven, or like I did, on baking paper in a small pan on my wood fire. Blitz until finely milled and use in soups and stews.)

Toast walnuts in a pan over a low heat. Blitz in three lots in the Bullet using one of the cups. Blitzs the parmesan in three lots as well. This gives a fine milled product.

Add all ingrediets together in a large Bullet cup or blender attachment and blend for 30 seconds to combine.
Pour into sterilised jars and keep in the refrigerator.

I found these cute little jars very cheaply in Red Dot and filled three of them with the mixture. I added a tablespoon of the mix to my normal Shepherds Pie recipe and it tastes amazing.

QUINCE PASTE

My quince tree is laden with huge fruit so it's time to dig out the quince paste recipe. Even after three years of making it I still find it difficult to judge when it has cooked enough. I think I need to be more patient and leave it to dry for a month or so. It's difficult to do because it is so delicious I want to tuck into it straight away.

BASIC QUINCE PASTE
5 or 6 quinces
water
sugar.

Prepare a large bowl of water. Add juice of a lemon to prevent discolouration when you add the quartered fruit. Peel and core quinces. Cut the quinces into quarters and place in the water. Set aside.

Place the peel and the cores into a large pan, cover with water and simmer, uncovered for an hour. Strain, squeezing out as much liquid as possible.

Weigh the quince quarters and add to a large heavy bottomed pot. Add the strained liquid and bring to the boil. Simmer, uncovered,  for about an hour, stirring occasionally. When the fruit is soft, place fruit and liquid in a food processor. Puree until smooth.

Return the pureed fruit to the pot and add sugar in a ratio of 3 of fruit to 2 of sugar. Eg, for 600g fruit, add 400g sugar. Simmer slowly for 3 - 5 hours until the paste changes to a dark rose colour and the bottom of the pot is visible when the paste is stirred. It must be very thick.

Pour into an greased tray. The tray size varies depending on the size of the fruit. I use an 18cm x 27cm tray. Leave it to cool overnight. It should be solid but still sticky. (If it isn't, either use it as jam or recook it until it will set.) Turn the slab out onto chux and wrap it up. Place it on a wire rack and keep it in a cool, dark place for a month. When the surface has dried out, the paste is ready to eat.

FLAVOUR IT UP.
 I like to add the juice and peel of a lemon to the pot of cores and peel. I also love to add chopped ginger to the cooked quince mix.