Recipe CVI - Pork Belly Stew with Honey and Beans

How do you know when a recipe is fully rounded or not? When you have adapted it three or four times to reach the right flavour and ingredients. This recipe will take some time before it reaches its roundedness, but here is a good base from which to adapt. It is extraordinarily simple to make and your house will smell utterly delicious for hours.

Ingredients (for four people):

A medium-sized ceramic or cast iron casserole dish with a lid

Some butter for frying

500g sliced pork belly, cut into strips or left whole - your choice

4 potatoes

4 large cloves of garlic

1 onion

A cup of broad beans (but chick peas, lentils or something similar will also do)

A cup of yellow peas*

A bouquet garni (fresh herbs - sage, rosemary, thyme, etc...)

Some coarsely ground black pepper

2 tablespoons of honey

Salt and water

*fresh yellow peas are rock hard and you should either leave them to soak in water overnight before you use them, or you should cook them for at the very least 2 hours. I chose the latter, as it fit the recipe.

Instructions:

Switch the oven on to about 170°C. Put 2 of the garlic cloves in some butter and allow it to brown. Then remove the garlic from the oil. This will give your casserole a hint of garlic without overpowering it.

Then add the pork with a dusting of salt. Brown it until sealed, then add the black pepper, onion, the rest of the garlic and bouquet garni.

Give it a stir, allow the onion to sweat a little, then put in the yellow peas, broad beans, potatoes and honey. Give it a very good mixing so the yellow peas sink to the bottom. Add water until almost to the level of the ingredients, a good shake of the salt pot and bring it to the boil.

You can then put it into the oven. Give it a minimum of 2 hours, keep trying the yellow peas as they will be the last to be ready. Everything else will be so succulent and moist, and should have a prevailing taste of honey without being overbearing.

Take it out of the oven every 30-45 minutes to fill up with water and to add a sprinkle of salt.

Recipe LXXX - Czech-style Braised Red Cabbage with Roast Pork, Brussels Sprouts and Carrots

On 28th December, I will be returning to my true home, the place I feel most like me, the place that loves me like a favourite aunt, Prague. I will only be there for six days, but the knowledge I will return to Base Camp is what keeps me going every day through the dark hours. The Czech Republic is one of Europe's best-kept secrets when it comes to food. I decided to recreate one of the dishes that will fill my stomach when I arrive.

Ingredients for the cabbage:
1 red cabbage
1 piece of fennel, sliced, but not too small
10 peppercorns
2 apples, chopped
1 onion, cut into rings
1 glass cherry schnapps
1 litre beef stock, warmed up
1 knob of butter
(Sultanas are also good with this dish! You are also welcome to add other things that would suit it: red onions or shallots, parsnip, pumpkin,  whatever...)


Instructions:
Take a large saucepan and melt some butter in the bottom on a medium-low heat. Add the fennel, a little salt and stir until it sweats. Then the onions and peppercorns. Finally, add the apples 2 minutes before you put in the red cabbage. Stir continuously.



Add the cabbage and continue stirring for a good 5 minutes. This allows the vegetables to get softer without burning.



Put in a good 20cl of fruit schnapps. I used cherry, as it's also a red fruit. Allow it to bubble in the bottom, then continue stirring.



Add the beef stock and put on the lid. Turn the heat right down and allow everything to run for as long as two hours, always checking the liquid level. With the right saucepan, nothing should escape, and you should end up with a truly delicious jus.



I served it with roast pork belly with crackling, roast carrots and Brussels sprouts.



To get a hard roast pork skin:
All you need to do is put the oven on at a low 150°C, cut your pork skin at each end a couple of gashes (this hardens it more easily), not forgetting to rub salt over it, baste your pork in the oil, put the pork in the baking tray with the skin facing upwards, leave some butter on top of it and allow it to melt in the oven. After 45 minutes, you can add the sliced carrots and baste the pork a little more. After an hour, turn the heat up to 200°C. For extra crackliness to the skin, spread some honey or caramel on it 10 minutes before removing it from the oven.

To get a tasty Brussels sprout:
After boiling in salt water, pour out the water and put a knob of butter in the pan. Once sizzling, add the sprouts, stirring constantly. Put in some ground black pepper and grate some nutmeg over it.

Recipe LVI - Dandelion Syrup

It's been raining all week here. I had a window of one day in which to cut the grass. That was a week ago, so the grass is once again overgrown and dandelions rule the land. Here's a recipe so simple and so immensely satisfying that you'll be picking up your bucket and heading to the garden to exact retribution on all those yellow vermin that keep springing up on your ruined lawn.



Ingredients:
150 dandelion heads
1 bag of sugar
1 lemon
+/- 400ml of water

Instructions:
Go into your garden or to the local park and deadhead 150 dandelions, making quite sure you're doing it in an area where no dogs/cats could have left a message there.



Squeeze one lemon into a large saucepan, then add about 400ml of water. Put your dandelion heads into it, give it a good drowning with a kitchen implement and bring to the boil, keeping a lid on the saucepan for the whole time. Once boiling, reduce the flame and allow to simmer for between 60 and 90 minutes.



Take it off the heat and leave it overnight with the lid on (to stop insects flying into it). The next day, take a strainer and a large measuring jug and strain the dandelions out of the liquid. You will not get everything out. With a potato masher, crush the remaining liquid out of the dandelions. You will be surprised how much is still to come out. It is also important as this contains a lot of the flavour.



In the end, I got about 350ml-400ml of juice from it.



Put it into a clean (smaller) saucepan. It is important to measure how much liquid you have, because you need double the amount of sugar to add to it.
Sugar 2:1 Liquid



Bring the mixture to the boil once more, for between 20 and 40 minutes, until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is clear. During this time, you could wash up three or four jars. I always keep a lot of mine in case they come in handy. This recipe is an ideal gift for a neighbour or friend.



TIP: Dandelion syrup is an ideal accompaniment for the following things:
Brie baguette/sandwich (with hazelnuts and watercress or rocket salad)
Drizzled over the skin of roast belly of pork
Added to your vinaigrette as a sweetener
A topping/filling for numerous tarts and cakes
In a cup of black tea as a sweetener
A soother for a cold or sore throat (with hot water)