Smoked Sticky Toffee Pork Belly

Every once in a while, you have an epiphany. I can't credit my latest epiphany to my own creative juices, but more to probably my biggest hero in the culinary world. Richard H Turner is the man that I wish I was, he's a legendary BBQ chef, a restaurateur of some repute (heard of Hawksmoor, or Pit Cue??), a butcher probably of even more repute (heard of Turner and George?), an author of one of the best porcine cookery books known to man (heard of Hog?), and has forgotten more about pigs than I will ever know!

So, when you buy the latest book from your food hero, (having already devoured Pit Cue Co, my previously favourite book), and you flick through the pages, and then you are forced to STOP!!!! Hold on, I'm sure it can't be, but it looks like I've just flicked past a recipe called "Sticky Toffee Pork Belly"? Really? In all truth, could there ever be a more enticing recipe title than that? Well maybe not for many people, but for me, a self confessed pork freak never before has my excitement been so great at the mere name of a dish. It has everything I want; pork, in fact the belly of said porky beast....my favourite cut; bootstrap molasses, chili, muscovado sugar, more sugar, chinese 5 spice, soy sauce... the list of my favourite things just goes on and on. 2 litres of pork broth, how can that ever be seen as anything but incredible? This was one of those absolutely "must try" recipes, and it had to be served to people that I know would appreciate it. Step forward my wonderful wife, the perpetual size 8 woman who seems to consume thousands of calories with no weight gain whatsoever, and my old friend "posh" Matt, the only man to go to one of the best schools in the country and end up as an estate agent (I know he wont mind me saying that, but his parents and long passed grandparents probably might!).

The cooking method is simple. You braise the meat in all sorts of filthy loveliness for a long time, then Richard's recipe says to roast in the oven for 20 minutes. Now, this is where my epiphany kicks in and the final outcome changes for what I think is the better. My thinking, is that the final 20 minutes of oven heat at 220c, could easily be converted to a couple of hours at 125c in thick apple wood smoke to build up an amazing smoky "bark", followed by a final 20 minutes at 220c to get some crispiness going on. This also gave me and Matt plenty of time to muck about with the Big Green Egg, getting the temperature right, while drinking quite a lot of cider. Apples and pork are the perfect match after all!









The meat is braised on the bone, which after a few hours in the broth just pop out with minimal fuss along with the smaller gnarly little white bone bits that you see in proper bacon. Pictures to the side and below show the stages of smoking, ending up with a lovely black bark, that looks like burn to the uninitiated, but to those in the know is a massive layer of smoky flavour.

Richard suggests serving with Pak Choi and steamed rice, so who am I to disagree and go against the legend?! The sauce ends up as a really rather disgustingly rich and flavoursome syrup that adds an amazing sweetness and spiciness to the finished dish. I would recommend this dish to absolutely anybody that likes pork belly. One of my previous posts suggests that I am yet to find my favourite way of cooking pork belly. Well, my epiphany is, that I have found it, and will shout about it long and loud!!

Recipe  serves 4, but you might want to use a larger piece of belly

1.5kg piece of thick end pork belly, skin on, bone in. Buy the best you can afford.

For the Brine
I know the point of brining is to retain moisture when cooking meat in dry heat. This recipe involves braising so brining is probably pointless from one point of view, but from a flavour point of view I thought an overnight soak in apple juice, sugar, salt and water couldn't do any harm.

1 litre Apple Juice
1 litre Water
110g table salt
55g brown sugar

For the Braising Liquid

20g Maldon Sea Salt Flakes
2 litres Pork Broth
1/2 tsp chines five spice powder
2 fresh chillies finely chopped
Heaped 1/4 tsp yellow mustard seeds
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp black peppercorns
100ml blackstrap molasses (sometimes called cane molasses, available at Sous Chef.
100ml light soy sauce
100g stoned dates chopped
100g light brown muscovado sugar
100g dark brown muscovado sugar

The Brine

Mix all the ingredients until dissolved then submerge the pork belly overnight. Rinse off and dry with paper towels.

Generously salt the pork, then leave uncovered for an hour. Given that I'd already brined the meat, I did wonder if this was necessary, however I went with it. After an hour, rinse the salt off.

The Braise

Put the pork belly in a large saucepan and cover with the pork broth and all the other ingredients. Bring up to the boil then turn down to a simmer. It will take somewhere between 2 and 3 hours depending on the thickness of your piece of belly. Mine took just over 3 as it was very thick. You should be able to push a skewer through with ease, or pop one of the rib bones out with very little resistance.

Remove the meat from the broth carefully, and then pop out all the rib bones and other sinews. They should all come away from the meat easily and cleanly.

At this point, the recipe in the book suggests 20 minutes in a 220c oven, however I went off piste and decided to smoke it for 2 hours at 130c in the Big Green Egg until it was very dark, then upped the temperature to 200c for 10 minutes which gave it a lovely crunch around the edges. I added the olive oil drizzled pak choi to the Egg for the final 10 minutes which came out perfectly with still a nice crunch but a bit of caramelisation.

Strain the braising liquid in to another pan, then boil hard until reduced to a lovely sticky syrupy consistency. Serve with the pak choi, rice and the sauce. Then prepare yourself to be assaulted in the mouth, and then be ready to assault any other diners in order to get seconds!

Sweet and Sour Pork

Yes, Pork tonight. Feels like I haven't had any pork for ages.

It is ages, it is 24 hours in total which is plenty long enough for anyone.

Hang on, no, I had a roast ham sandwich courtesy of my mother at lunch time.

Anyway, I used to make Sweet and Sour pork at university using good old Uncle Ben's sauce in a jar. I'd overcrowd the pan ridiculously with way too much meat, inadvertently steam it so that it was a lovely insipid grey colour. Then I'd let all the water boil away, add some more oil and get some colour on the meat, (which obviously completely dried it out), then added the wonderful sauce, full of natural flavours and colours! To be honest, it was actually nicer than the standard tuna bakes everyone else was knocking out using even better quality "Dolmio" sauces!

I then discovered the joys of Chinese takeaway sweet and sour pork. I was brought up in a small village a long way from proper civilisation (places that had takeaways) so my experience of Chinese takeaway food was a little limited. We did have takeaways but usually had what my parents advised I would like, like egg foo yung, chop suey, sweet and sour chicken balls, spring rolls etc. We did in fact eat in a couple of posh Chinese restaurants fairly regularly, the Chung Ying in Birmingham for one which is still going and still has an excellent reputation. Then another in Lutterworth that used to be called the Paper Tiger that was excellent back in the day (we're talking early to mid 80s here). There was also one up in Cheshire near Frodsham I think, near where my parents relocated to. The point I am actually going to make when I eventually get there, is that this was decent Chinese restaurant food where we were spoiled rotten by things like chicken and sweetcorn soup (the lovely stuff with the egg white whisked through it to give that wonderful snot like consistency!), crispy duck in pancakes, and the wonderful Yuk Sung at the Chung Ying which to a young lad was an unbelievable experience. How could lettuce ever be involved in a dish that good?? Takeaway style sweet and sour pork as a result was something I discovered and fell in love with later on in my life, and resolved to make an equivalent version.

This version, unlike my student attempts, uses the deep fat fryer which in my book can never, ever be a bad thing. In moderation (ish) of course. So you coat and fry the pork, make a simple sweet and sour sauce, then add cooked carrots, spring onions and black sesame seeds. It's incredible, even if I do say so myself. This also works extremely well with pork belly that has been braised in aromatic stock, then dried and deep fried. This turns it in to an amazingly decadent dish which is disappointing only in that you can never eat as much as you think you should do, due to the immense richness of deep fried fatty pork belly.

Recipe - serves 4

600g pork cut into strips (whatever cut you fancy, I used loin chops which are tender, however I also like using shoulder steaks which aren't tender cooked for this length of time, however you get a nice chew!)
Spring Onions
Black Sesame Seeds
Cooked sliced carrots

Coating
4 tbs Self Raising Flour
2 tbs Rice Flour
2 tbs Potato Flour
2 tsp Chinese 5 Spice Powder
1 good pinch of Salt
1 good pinch of White Pepper

Sauce
225 ml Pineapple Juice
80 ml Water
3 tbs Distilled Vinegar
3 tbs Cornflour
2 tbs Soy Sauce
60g Soft Dark Brown Sugar

For the pork - Heat a deep fat fryer, or a wok half full with vegetable oil to 180c. Combine all the coating ingredients in a strong freezer or food bag. Drop the strips of pork in to the bag, close the top and give it a right good shake to ensure all the pork gets covered. Deep fry for no more than 3 minutes, then lift out the oil. Just before adding to the sweet and sour sauce, drop the pork in again for another minute to crisp it up.

For the Sauce - Combine all the ingredients in a pan and heat, stirring until thickened to your preference.

If you don't want to make your own sauce, then use 2 or 3 packets of Blue Dragon Sweet and Sour Stir Fry sachets. As mentioned somewhere else on this blog, they really are extremely nice. They have that cloying sweetness then sourness that hurts the back of your tongue, as per the takeaway sauce. Have I sold it to you?!

To Serve - Having given the pork it's last 1 minutes blast in the fryer, drop it straight in to the sauce, adding the cooked carrots, chopped spring onion and a tablespoon or so of black sesame seeds. Toss it all together over a high heat until it is sizzling hot. Serve with buttered long grain rice, or make yourself some special fried rice for the authentic takeaway experience!

Pork Belly Buns

When I told my wife I'd just ordered the Momofuku book, she looked at me with a strange expression. It's not the most instantly acceptable book title to us straight laced Brits (?!?) however once I explained that it was actually the name of a restaurant (at least one) and that the author David Chang was famous for cooking pork belly did she realise that I was serious. My wife you see has come to terms with my pork obsession. Fortunately she is partial to the piggy also, although our early dating was fraught with danger as she was a vegetarian for over 5 years prior to us meeting. She did well though, I think she was tucking in to her first rare steak a good 4 weeks after we starting seeing each other. A lesson in abstinence right there!!

So, to the buns. I've made steamed buns, and the outcome is really very good indeed. It's a major pain in the bum though as you have to prove, then roll in to golf ball sized pieces, then prove, then roll out in to slipper shapes, prove, fold over an oiled chopstick so that it looks like a tongue, then prove, then steam, then burn your fingers many times while trying to prise the two tongue flaps apart in order to fill them with filth. The recipe I use makes about 48 of them, so it does get pretty tedious. If you are faced with a wet weekend with naff all else to do, then it's well worth the effort. However, on a miserable work day Tuesday in July (today) when the sun should be shining, there is an alternative. Some purists may call it cheating, I however call it eating! If you don't cut corners once in a while you will either go hungry or end up eating bland rubbish. I occasionally get an "attack of the buns", and that happened today at about 1pm. Way too late in the day to start making dough with the multiple proves given that we like to eat with the kids between 5.30 and 6pm. Given also that I had not done any preparation in terms of the pork belly, so the whole meal was going to be a quick version. Step in some shop bought Taiwanese Steamed Buns. I've failed in my quest to source said tongue shaped beauties, unless you want to order 500 from one of the frozen food delivery specialists. Instead, I found these buns at Starry Asian Market Online.


It's a brilliant website, and they stock all sorts of oriental delights that you'd struggle to find elsewhere. Customer service is brilliant, and delivery is super quick. You get stung by about a tenner for frozen food delivery, so ordering in bulk is worthwhile. So, I'm going to cheat today. Will it be any less tasty though? We shall see. 10 minutes in the steamer from frozen. Cheating or not, that's pretty exciting!!


This dish is missing something. Oh yes, filth! As per usual, my first thought under any circumstances when thinking about what meat to cook, is pork. More specifically pork belly. It's kind of like some people's fish fingers or frozen burgers. When you can't think what to cook for tea, I think pork belly. I've always got pork belly, I buy large amounts each time I visit the butcher, vacuum seal it then freeze it. Probably better if it's fresh, but given the amount of salting, brining, marinating, smoking, slow roasting, braising, deep frying, searing and various other torturous techniques I subject the poor fatty cut to, I can't see that it could make that much difference at all. In this instance, all that is called for is moist meat, with a crispy skin and a hint of saltiness. Chang's recipe calls for skinless belly, which I almost can never bring myself to do. Don't get me wrong, if you look at my twitter image, you'll spot dried pork skin that's been deep fried and puffed outrageously. However, more often than not, I prefer the skin to stay on, even when advised to remove by legendary pork geniuses.

I decided to use the Big Green Egg, as everything I have cooked on it so far has been the best I've ever produced without exception. I salted the meat for an hour (more is better but needs must), then a simple blast for an hour at around 230c, basting with the rendered fat after 30 minutes, then another hour at about 130c, although the temperature for most of the cook was higher than that. It seems that getting a Big Green Egg to drop 100c isn't that straight forward. I ended up putting the "snuffer" on to effectively put the thing out. Even then, it remained around the 130c mark for ages afterwards. As a result, I covered the tray with foil for the final hour. I'd already got a nicely crispy skin. The image shows the belly skin side down which actually helped crisp the skin further. The meat ended up as expected, with a crispy top and bottom, with a lovely moist inside. My absolute perfect range of textures and flavours. You can see the moisture glistening away, with a lovely crispy outer layer.

All that remained was to slice some cucumber and drop into a bowl of my universal pickle mix, slice some spring onion, and get the hoisin sauce out the fridge. Seriously, no one expects you to make your own hoisin sauce on a weeknight do they?! I spread both sides of the split bun with hoisin, added some cucumber slices, sprinkled with spring onion, then a sprinkle also of chopped fresh coriander (I love it with pork belly!), then sandwich together and enjoy one of the best mouthfuls of food you can imagine. It's no wonder this flavour combination has made David Chang a legend. If some people want to call me a cheat, then so be it, enjoy your fish fingers and frozen burgers!

BBQ Sauce

Having tried making many BBQ sauces over the years, and many more recently with my sudden excitement with all things American style BBQ, I have always been unimpressed by the result. To the extent that I resorted to Heinz smoky BBQ sauce as it was completely inoffensive. In actual fact, mixed with a bit of hot chili sauce it was even verging on good...

That was until I bought the book "Hog" by Richard H Turner. I've been a fan of Richard's for a while now having bought the Hawksmoor at Home and Pit Cue Co books, both of which he is involved in. Having made the investment in a Big Green Egg, it seemed a shame to spend hours slow cooking and smoking various bits of animal to then smother it in a mass produced sauce.

So below, is the current recipe from Richard, although he states quite clearly in the book that it is likely to carry on evolving. The ingredients list is extensive and uses large quantities of things like maple syrup and French's mustard. If you buy a standard sized bottle of French's, you'll need to go and get another one!

One final word of warning. Chipotle! I used the amount suggested below, and you end up with one hell of a fiery sauce. Perfect for my taste, however if you want to serve to kids, the elderly, or the infirm perhaps halve or even quarter the amount of chipotle you put in!

For the spice mix;
2 tsp fennel seeds
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp coriander seeds
2 tsp celery seeds
2 tsp black peppercorns.

Put all the ingredients in to a large dry saucepan and toast until you can smell the lovely pungent flavours.

For the sauce;
2 white onions grated
3 garlic cloves grated
50ml veg oil
250ml apple juice
250ml cider vinegar
2 apples cored, peeled and grated
50g smoked sea salt flakes (Maldon do them, and are widely stocked in supermarkets)
125g canned chipotle peppers (I get mine, along with many other harder to source ingredients from Sous Chef. Great company with excellent customer service)
250ml maple syrup
250ml French's mustard
250ml Blackstrap Molasses (Also from Sous Chef)
250g Apricot Preserve
250g canned tomatoes

Add the onions, garlic and oil to the toasted spices and cook on medium heat for 10 minutes or more until the onions are really soft. Add the apple juice and cider vinegar and simmer until reduced by a third. (I use a chopstick like a dipstick to gauge the amount of reduction). Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer for 10 minutes.

Blitz the sauce in a blender, then pass through a fine sieve. The recipe makes about 1.5 litres and will keep in sterilized jars in the fridge for a good while. Makes a nice present as well!

BBQ Pork Steaks with BBQ Sauce "mop"

I've been spending rather a long time researching American style BBQ recently, and have been experimenting with BBQ techniques. New techniques that I have fallen for such as the "reverse sear", then of course the classic "low and slow", and am building myself up to try out a "clinch" where you get your coals absolutely red hot, then place your meat (steak, I'm thinking) directly on to the coals. Apparently you get an incredibly crispy exterior, with a hot but moist interior, with very little coal sticking to the meat itself. Another day maybe, still feels scary to chuck top quality rib eye steaks on to red hot coals though!!

Today, for a change, we were having pork. As I've said before, I get my pork from Joseph Morris butchers in Leicestershire. A large percentage of their meat is locally sourced, and slaughtered on site. As such, I'm happy to eat pork from there slightly pink, or "blushing" as some might say. I'd not risk this with supermarket pork. As much as they say they know where their meat comes from, I'm not convinced at all. The horse meat scandal is still very recent, and just shows that the supermarkets trust their suppliers, which is clearly misplaced on occasion, Personally, I like horse meat (medium rare with tarragon butter), however it's the principal that matters here. What staggers me also, and I'll climb down from my soap box in a minute, is that the butchers is LOADS cheaper than the big stores. Better meat, better provenance but you have to put up with spending less of your hard earned to get that sort of quality.....madness!

Anyway, all the fancy BBQ techniques aside, a pork steak benefits from direct cooking over a medium to high heat. So, with that in mind I set my BBQ up to about 180c with a cast iron searing grate in place. I had brined the steaks first in 500ml Apple Juice, 500ml water, 4 tbsp table salt, and 4 tbsp muscavado sugar for about 90 minutes. I then dropped them on to the griddle, then before closing the lid I "mopped" them with this amazing BBQ sauce.

I then turned them every 3 minutes, mopping the newly exposed side every time until the internal temperature of the pork was about 58c, knowing that as a result of the high-ish heat of the grilling, after 10 minutes resting the meat would be perfect.

And so it was. It sounds very arrogant doesn't it, that the meat was "perfect"? Well let me assure you that I take no responsibility for that. The combination of the advice found on the Big Green Egg forum in the USA, and the Big Green Egg itself are the reasons behind the successes. So far, I have cooked maybe 15 times on the Egg, and had only one instance of imperfection whereby I didn't smoke my ox cheeks for long enough, and should have then foiled them with some stock in the tray for much longer than I did........ you live and learn. Next time, I'm sure they'll be up to scratch. Everything else has been eye openingly (a word?) good. For someone like me, who has many many bits of kitchen kit, including a sous vide bath, and an 11kw wok burner for example, both of which have provided me many failures. My first attempt at stir frying on the burner resulted in me pouring in some vegetable oil, only for it to instantly and violently ignite. That's one way to season the wok I guess! The Egg therefore  in contrast is such a treat to deal with. I have perfected many dishes in the bath, and on the burner, but with many attempts, whereas the Egg just seems so bomb proof.

I served it with a pearl barley and chorizo stew spiced with cumin, and some finely shredded Chinese leaf, with more BBQ sauce and coriander. I had considered trying to plate this elegantly (not my strong point), then realised that this was wholesome and homely food, so for god's sake, just whack a decent portion on the plates and eat it like a Viking! We used knives and forks so not particularly Viking-ish, but the grunts, slurps and general noshing noises gave a nod to the Norse types! I'm sure they'd have loved pearl barley stew!!

Boerewors On the Big Green Egg

Everybody thinks their butcher is the best right? That's why we use them. The local butcher I use is Joseph Morris in South Kilworth, South Leicestershire. We live in North Northants, so only have to travel 6 miles or so to get to them. There are a couple of butchers closer to us, but none that stand even close to JoMo (the kids updated the name, pretty street huh?!) It's a fantastic business, with 3 sites now, and boast one of the only EC approved abattoirs affiliated to a butchery. I occasionally go to the Rugby shop that has two counters. You turn right to go to the "UK" counter, where you get all the normal recognised cuts of meat that we know and love. However, more fun is to turn left to the "rest of the world" counter. Here, you get the much more interesting meats and cuts favoured by our European, African or West Indian friends. Cuts like beef brisket on the bone, short rib of beef, goat, beef knuckle, pork hock leg, pork collar butt to name but a few. It was while I was there that I spotted about a kilometer of Boerewors sausage. I've eaten Boerwors at a South African friends house that they had made themselves. This was some years ago, but the flavour and texture of that sausage has stayed with me. It's predominantly minced beef, with half as much minced pork, then spices such as corriander seeds, cloves, nutmeg and all spice. The great thing at JoMo, is that you order it by the number of "cricket stump" lengths you want
. I went for 2 cricket stumps, which would serve 4 hungry adults easily. As we are a family of 2 adults and 2 young girls, we had leftovers which were put to great use, which I will write up soon!

I did another "reverse sear" on the Big Green Egg, which can be done easily on traditional BBQ's or conventional ovens and a grill. The butcher recommended I skewered it in to a ring to make turning it over easy without it breaking up. If I was cooking this over direct heat (normal BBQ, over coals or gas) then I would have unraveled it a bit to make sure it all cooked evenly, but with the reverse sear technique, I was able to cook it perfectly in a tight ring. One word of warning, they are quite fatty, so be careful if cooking over direct heat on a BBQ as the fat will catch fire. The beauty of the Egg is that you always cook with the lid closed so the flames are snuffed out.

I served the Boerewors with broccoli cheese, braised hispi cabbage and pickled carrot and red onion. The flavour of the sausage is incredible, the nutmeg really comes through and just makes it so comforting. I think next time, I will be ordering a full set of cricket stumps. From both ends of the wicket. Including bails!!!!

BBQ Pork Belly Rib Slices with Cauliflower Rice

Pork belly. What more can be said about pork belly? It has been my favourite cut of meat for many more years than I care to remember. I've cooked more of the stuff in different ways than any other meat and yet I'm still not able to say which my favourite way of cooking it is. Do I prefer the traditionally slow cooked piece of belly with crunchy salty skin and moist meat, or do I prefer slow braised, dried, sliced and deep fried with a sweet and sour sauce?

 I don't think I have found the ultimate method yet, and will continue to experiment, however I must say that the belly in this dish is right up there on my "best ways to cook belly" list.

 I started by brining belly slices from the butcher in a brine with just water, salt and brown sugar for 4 hours. After this, you could see the meat had changed colour, with a darker shade than pre brine.






I then smoked them over indirect heat for 4 hours at about 110c using apple wood chunks soaked in water.






At this point I cranked up the heat to around 170c and started to mop the slices with BBQ sauce every 10 minutes. (Sauce recipe here) After a few mops, a lovely thick sticky glaze was starting to appear, with lots of caramelisation, and joy of joys, the skin was starting to pop and crackle. I left them for a final 20 minutes to crisp up even more then pulled them from the fire.





They were absolutely delicious. The perfect combination of crunch from the skin, the really sticky, highly flavoured glaze, then soft and moist meat within. Served with cauliflower rice (which feels like it must be bad for you, but isn't at all) and a simple chopped salad. Give the cauliflower a go, you'll probably be as surprised by it as I was.

Put the florets from a whole cauliflower in a food processor and blitz until rice/cous cous sized. Stir fry it in a little oil, until it starts to soften, this doesn't take too long at all. When it's really hot, stir in a whisked up egg until it's distributed all the way through keeping it on a high heat to set the egg. Then stir in whatever you fancy, I like diced carrot, peas and sweetcorn, all precooked. Then to finish stir through some sesame oil and some light soy sauce to taste. Shouldn't need any more seasoning, but that's entirely up to you. It's a really healthy alternative to fried rice

Pigs Cheeks with Pickled Vegetables and Spicy BBQ Sauce

Yep, more cheeks. I seem to be having a little love affair with cheeks at the moment, be they pigs or ox. Having joined the Big Green Egg forum in the US, I have taken all sorts of advice following my ox cheek effort. I've put in to practice much of that advice and I'm pleased to say, that these pigs cheeks were hands down the best I've ever cooked.

We had them as a family, the kids thoroughly enjoyed them, although they had different sides, but we all had seconds. I basically had the same meal twice!

Cooking this dish caused a first, and hopefully a last. I was bringing the Big Green Egg up to temperature to sear the cheeks over flame. You need to "burp" your egg when you open it, as with the lid down, the flames are snuffed out leaving just red hot glowing coals. You need to lift the lid an inch or two and give it a little waft. Failure to do so adequately causes a load of cold air to get to the coals, which then creates a whole lot of flames "Backdraft" style. (Great film!) The flames licked right up my forearm removing most of the hairs which is a great look. So, I will now be burping more effectively from now on, and also will always wear my fire proof oven mitt!

For the cheeks - serves 2 adults and 2 children
12 pigs cheeks - fat trimmed off
6 tbs Memphis Rub - recipe here
500ml Pork or Chicken Stock

To Serve
Pickled carrot, red onion and red chili pepper - pickle mix recipe here
Pickled Lettuce, Garlic and Dill - same pickle mix as above
BBQ Sauce - recipe here
Equal amounts of French's mustard and Greek yogurt stirred together
Sweet Smoked Paprika
Salt

Method
1. Cover the cheeks with the rub mix, make sure they are covered all over.
2. Cover the dish with clingfilm and refrigerate overnight.
3. Heat a Big Green Egg or BBQ to high heat. When Hot brush the griddle with oil. (Use long handled tongs, and dip wadded up kitchen roll in to the oil)
4. Sear the cheeks on both sides until you have some nice caramelisation marks
5. Take them off the heat and put in to a roasting tray.
6. Convert the egg or BBQ to indirect heat, and drop the temperature to 160c. The addition of the cold ceramic plate setter and the cold steel griddle helps to do this reasonably quickly.
7. Put the cheeks back in to the heat, and leave well alone for 2 hours. After which remove them and drop the heat to 125c
8. Pour about half and inch of stock in to the tray, then cover tightly with tin foil and place back on the egg for another 2 hours.
9. Crank the heat up again to about 200c, and remove the foil from the tray. Baste the cheeks with the juices in the tray, then top up with stock if you need to. Leave for another 30 minutes, basting every 10.
10. Serve up! There's no need to rest the cheeks for any more than 5 minutes. Resting meat for longer periods is really for meat that has been cooked at high temperatures, reasonably quickly, like a steak, or a joint of beef. This is not the case here! Sit the cheeks on the pickled lettuce, that is sitting in a puddle of BBQ sauce. Add some pickled pepper and red onion, a dollop of mustard yogurt, and a small pile of the sweet smoked paprika and salt. The idea is that you can sprinkle over as much or as little of this as you want. Don't expect there to be any leftovers!

Quick Summer Prawns

As most people in the UK will be more than aware, the 1st July was one of the hottest days on record. Much of the day, there was cloud cover so it was unusually humid to boot. The most sensible thing to have done for dinner, was either a takeaway, or a salad with cold meats that required no cooking. But no, not me. Clever nuts here decided to fire up the Big Green Egg, just to add that little extra heat to the situation!

I wasn't completely stupid. I decided to cook something that required very little time on the egg so that I could snuff it out again as soon as humanly possible! My thoughts immediately turned to prawns. Great big juicy king prawns in olive oil, garlic, lemon rind, coriander and parsley. Obviously, these could be easily done under a hot grill or on a conventional BBQ.













I cooked them with the egg set for indirect cooking at around 200c for 5 minutes. They came out perfectly juicy and packing serious flavour. A big squirt of fresh lemon juice and some seasoning and they were ready to go.

To serve, I had made a batch of peperonata the day before to go with some chicken thighs I had also cooked on the egg. Seemed sensible to pair lovely rich pepper, onion and tomato stew with the zingy, crisp lemony notes of the prawns. Then some finely shredded Chinese leaf cabbage with Caesar dressing stirred through on the side.  

I'll post my recipes soon for both the peperonata and a really quick, easy Caesar dressing that involves no messing about with egg yolks and anchovies.

Smoked Duck Breast with Puy Lentils and Mushroom Pate

I'm originally from Leicestershire where "ey up me duck" is often used as a way of saying hello to someone you are fond of. Fair enough. As it happens, I am very fond of duck. Do you see what I did there? Incredibly witty statements aside, duck breasts are a fantastic treat when pan fried, or pan fried then oven roasted. I've also had some success with sous vide duck breasts. If you're not feeling so flush, then the legs can be obtained pretty reasonably and stand up well to roasting, or if you are feeling like a bit of France in your kitchen you can confit them easily at home. Another time maybe.

Continuing my theme of experimenting on the Big Green Egg, I considered just using it as an oven, then thought of a rather nice cold starter I had not too long ago of smoked duck with caper berries and a pomegranate dressing. This got me thinking as to what hot smoked duck might be like. Well, I'm pleased to report that hot smoked duck is very good indeed. I used the recipe on the Big Green Egg website as a guide for temperatures and timings. You can see the recipe here. As the duck breast is not a great big hunk of meat, it doesn't take long to cook, with the end result being a lovely light smoky background hit that doesn't over power the flavour of the breast itself. I then pan fried them briefly skin side down to get the skin nice and crispy as the smoking process doesn't do much for an attractive looking skin. This obviously kept the breasts hot, and as a result of resting them in foil for 5 minutes, the dark pinkness that I normally hope to achieve with a duck breast was somewhat paler, however due to the way the breasts were cooked and the unique design of the kamodo style cooker, the breasts remained incredibly moist and tender.

I served them with a puy lentil stew, made simply by simmering the lentils in a strong chicken stock, draining, then adding some finely chopped sun dried tomatoes, a small crushed garlic clove, and a good glug of olive oil. You need to stir the garlic through as soon as you've drained the lentils which allows the residual heat to take the sting out of the garlic. I nabbed the idea from my sister who lives in Italy who does a similar thing with green beans. You get a wonderful hit of garlic without the rawness. Probably best not to have them just before an intimate conversation with someone!

I then made what I called a mushroom pate but isn't, by sauteing finely chopped mushroom in butter with more garlic, cooling it, then stirred in some creme fraiche and seasoning. Finally just a sprinkle of coriander to finish it off.


Hey, it were right lovely me duck!

Smoked Ox Cheek with BBQ Sauce and Horseradish Creme Fraiche

Did I mention that I liked pig's cheeks? Well, I like ox cheeks almost as much! My mum makes a wonderful ox cheek stew; spicy, rich and unctuous. However, being a newcomer to the Big Green Egg, I decided to see what ox cheeks would be like smoked low and slow.

I coated the cheeks in French's mustard, then applied a rub and left overnight in clingfilm.

The rub was a "Memphis" rub from Stephen Raichlen's book "Barbecue! Bible". Really simple to assemble and the provider of a delicious flavour base on which to build the smokey end effect.

Memphis Rub
1/4 cup sweet paprika
1 tbs dark brown sugar
1 tbs granulated sugar
2 tsp salt
2 tsp MSG (Optional. I have MSG in the form of "gourmet powder" but it's not a powder, it's like hundreds and thousands, so I ground it up in my Bamix grinder to a fine powder)
1 tsp celery salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 to 3 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp mustard powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder

Just put everything in to a screw top jar, put the lid on and shake. It will keep for at least 6 months.

Then it was time to set the Egg going, and attempt to keep it around the 110c mark. After much faffing about closing the top a nano meter, then closing the bottom vent by the width of an ants leg, I got a stable 110c. I dropped some soaked hickory chips in there and left the cheeks to smoke for about 7 hours.

I couldn't help sneaking a peak after about 5 hours and was met by an amazing smoky smell, and decided at this point to start mopping them with some BBQ sauce. The sauce recipe I use is from Richard Turner's book "Hog". It's a wonderful sauce, if a little on the spicy side. If you prefer your BBQ sauce to be a little more user friendly, then halve the amount of chipotle peppers. I however like it spicy so went with the full amount.


BBQ Sauce

For the spice mix;
2 tsp fennel seeds
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp coriander seeds
2 tsp celery seeds
2 tsp black peppercorns.

Put all the ingredients in to a large dry saucepan and toast until you can smell the lovely pungent flavours.

2 white onions grated
3 garlic cloves grated
50ml veg oil
250ml apple juice
250ml cider vinegar
2 apples cored, peeled and grated
50g smoked sea salt flakes (Maldon do them, and are widely stocked in supermarkets)
125g canned chipotle peppers (I get mine, along with many other harder to source ingredients from Sous Chef. Great company with excellent customer service)
250ml maple syrup
250ml French's mustard
250ml Blackstrap Molasses (Also from Sous Chef)
250g Apricot Preserve
250g canned tomatoes

Add the onions, garlic and oil to the toasted spices and cook on medium heat for 10 minutes or more until the onions are really soft. Add the apple juice and cider vinegar and simmer until reduced by a third. (I use a chopstick like a dipstick to gauge the amount of reduction). Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer for 10 minutes.

Blitz the sauce in a blender, then pass through a fine sieve. The recipe makes about 1.5 litres and will keep in sterilized jars for a good while.

After many mops, the end result looked fairly delicious. The meat was soft and springy to the touch but didn't yield as much as I thought it would. I half expected my finger to go straight through. As it turned out, the meat had a good bite to it, not what I had anticipated but was actually pretty darn good to eat. I think next time, I might braise the cheeks for a while first in a low oven, and then smoke them and add the sticky glaze.











 I made a simple sauce of creamed horseradish stirred through some creme fraiche and served with new potatoes from my dad's garden, broccoli and fennel spiced pickled cabbage, with a slurp of that lovely BBQ sauce to keep the taste buds tingling.




If you look at the picture above carefully, you can see lines of connective tissue still running through the meat. This is what is giving it the bite and slight chewiness (that I found really quite pleasing). Cooking for another few hours might cause this to break down but I would be concerned about dryness. As ox cheek is not an expensive cut, I will be experimenting with a much longer cook, braising the meat first in a low oven, and also will try cooking the meat in the sous vide for a long time first pre-smoke. I'll let you know how I get on!

Healthy Chicken Spring Rolls

Everyone loves a spring roll right? The lovely fried crispy outside with a nuclear hot inside bursting with flavour. Teamed with a lovely spicy dipping sauce, they make a great starter or side dish.

I had bought some rice pancakes for spring rolls from a local farm shop that has diversified it's range and now sells all manner of exotic produce. I was hugely tempted by the frozen Gyoza and Dim Sum on offer, but these times see me on a diet, so while still wanting something interesting thought that a spring roll might be slightly better for me......what with them being deep fried?!! I was about to put the packet back when I read the back and it said you could shallow fry, deep fry or steam them. Steamed spring rolls? Now there's a thought.

[Scroll to the bottom for the recipe]

I often buy things that I expect to sit in the cupboard for months before I either pluck up the courage to use them, or an opportunity arises that is perfect for their use. Having recently invested in a Big Green Egg, that opportunity came quite quickly. When the egg is fired up, it seems a shame (even wasteful!) to skimp on portion sizes and as a result had smoked way too many chicken wings (from Joseph Morris the butchers) over the weekend. I was tempted to just reheat them and serve them for a family meal, as chicken wings are a guaranteed way of getting quality protein in to the kids. Then I remembered my spring roll pancakes.

Expecting soft and pliable pancakes to come out of the packet I was surprised to find stiff white sheets of what looked like gelatin. They had the same crisscross pattern, and very similar pliability.

You soak them in warm water for 15 seconds, after which the tricky bit begins. You have to be very careful as they become very delicate, and stick to themselves in the same way that really clingy clingfilm does.If you look carefully at the picture below, you can just about make out the now almost completely see through pancake.

Quite frustrating, but with a bit of perseverance (and a couple of wrappers that stuck to themselves so passionately that I had to bin them) I assembled 12 little bundles of joy.
I used the leftover chicken wing meat, seasoned with some sweet and sour sauce I had made at the weekend, then chopped spring onion, black sesame seeds and some blanched carrot matchsticks.

Then all that remains is to steam them all for 10 minutes, I had to do them in batches of 4 so as not to crowd the steamer. Next time I will either oil the steamer, or sit each roll on it's own piece of greaseproof paper, as getting them out neatly was a challenge.

They were delicious, and disappeared off the kids plates in a matter of seconds. Certainly something I'll be doing again, and in the not too distant future when the diet is done, I will be deep frying some as well. The thought of crispy outside, soft inside and a spicy hit from something like a sriracha sauce is exciting me greatly. Watch this space! 

Recipe
N.B. Weights or amounts will vary depending on the amount of leftover chicken you have

- Rice Pancakes for Spring Rolls ( I used Blue Dragon brand)
- Smoked Chicken Wing Meat ( or whatever chicken you have leftover)
- Spring onions, sliced
- Black Sesame Seeds
- Sweet and sour sauce (For speed, use a Blue Dragon sachet if you don't want to make your own)
- Carrot matchsticks

Method
1. Chop up the chicken meat in to fairly small pieces.
2. Mix the spring onion, sesame seeds and sweet and sour sauce in to the chicken. Taste, and season if necessary however the sweet and sour sauce and spring onion should provide ample flavour.
3. Meanwhile blanch the carrot matchsticks in salted water for no more than 1 minute then refresh in cold water
4. Soak the pancake sheets in warm water until they are soft and pliable. Then blot dry on a damp tea towel.
5. Place a few teaspoons of the chicken mixture in the centre of the pancake, top with carrots then roll them up. Bring the bottom of the pancake up over the filling, then do the same with both sides. Finally roll from the bottom up until you have a neat little package.
6. Steam for 10 minutes in an oiled bamboo steamer spaced well apart.Alternatively, you could deep fry at this point in oil at 180c for about 3 minutes I would guess, until the wrapper is brown and crispy, and the insides are piping hot.
7. Serve either as a starter with a dipping sauce, a light lunch or tea with an Oriental salad, or as part of a Chinese style banquet.....which we are always having in our house!?

Is the Big Green Egg all it's "Cracked" up to be?

In a word. Yes.


More to follow!

Memphis Rub

This rub is great for all pork products, especially pork shoulder and ribs.

Memphis Rub
1/4 cup sweet paprika
1 tbs dark brown sugar
1 tbs granulated sugar
2 tsp salt
2 tsp MSG (Optional. I have MSG in the form of "gourmet powder" but it's not a powder, it's like hundreds and thousands, so I ground it up in my Bamix grinder to a fine powder)
1 tsp celery salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 to 3 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp mustard powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder

*recipe taken from Steven Raichlen's Barbecue! Bible

Pickle Mix

I use this pickle mix for just about everything (well everything where pickling is required!). However, don't use it for Pickle Backs (recipe elsewhere on this blog under "drinks"). It will cause you pain. You need a sweeter pickle mix in my opinion for that.

Makes  just over 1.5 litres. I pour it in to kilner bottles and store in the fridge. It was last a very long time. It is pickling liquor after all!

1 litre cider vinegar
500g golden caster sugar
2 cinnamon sticks
1 tsp all spice berries
1 tbs fennel seeds
1 tbs coriander seeds
1 tbs black peppercorns
Star anise - no less than 4, no more than 6

Put everything in to a large saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. When the sugar has dissolved reduce to a simmer for 15 minutes. Worth putting your extractor fan on or opening the windows at this point, as your kitchen will start to smell very vinegary!

Turn the heat off, then straightaway cover with a double layer of clingfilm. Leave like this until it is completely cool, Then strain in to 2 x 1 litre sterilised bottles through a fine sieve until needed. I like to put one of the cinnamon sticks in to each bottle but that's entirely up to you.