Easy and flavoursome. Pork, Oriental Style, with Honey and Soy Sauce

I do love a recipe that requires the minimum of faff with stuff I invariably have in the cupboard and that takes very little time to cook because, whisper it, I sometimes really and truly cannot be bothered. Do you ever get like that? Maybe it is if I am tired, or 'cooked' out, or would just prefer to be somewhere else than the kitchen. A restaurant, if I am lucky. Or in the bath. A bubbly bath. With candles. This recipe relies on you remembering to marinade the pork for a couple of hours, and stand around for the 10 minutes or so it takes to cook the pork and assemble the rest of the dish.

I think Michel Roux Jr is fab. I adore watching him on the television. I adore his passion for food and his attention to detail and his sheer culinary skill. And, whilst outward impressions may be misleading, he just seems like a really nice bloke, and so I was very pleased to receive his cookery book as a present. I have cooked a few of the recipes which were all stunning. When I saw this recipe, relatively lacking in faff, I decided that maybe this was the way to create something Michelin starred in no time. Well, I don't know about the Michelin star, but this is tasty and more importantly in terms of this blog, Lola and Finn liked the sweetness of the pork and the noodles, and in their book 'noodles' means 'pasta' and is therefore the best food ever.

I had to alter the cut of pork I used. Michel Roux Jr recommends neck end pork chops because of their fat content, and when I cook this again, I will look for a fattier chop. However, as this was one of these dishes that I chose to cook on a whim, I subbed the pork escalopes I had in the freezer. Whilst the fat content was missing, the marinade still gave the pork a lovely flavour.  I served this with steamed vegetables and noodles and apart from the vegetables on Lola and Finn's part, the meal was enjoyed by all. By using the three escalopes, I think I had probably reduced the amount of meat from the original recipe, but I kept the marinade quantity the same, because I wanted to have a little extra to put on the escalopes as I was cooking them in the hope that it would create a little sauciness for the vegetables and noodles. I pan fried these by the way, rather than grilling them.

Pork with Honey and Soy Sauce adapted slightly from 'Grilled Neck End Pork Chops, Oriental Style', taken from 'Cooking with the Master Chef' by Michel Roux Jr.

Serves mum, dad, Lola and Finn

Ingredients:

3 pork escalopes (the original suggests six neck end pork chops, rind off)

3 garlic cloves, chopped

2 tbsp fish sauce

2 tbsp oyster sauce

3 tbsp light soy sauce

1 tbsp honey

juice of 1 orange

coarsely ground black pepper

a little chopped coriander, for garnish

Method:

Marinade the chops by putting them in a non reactive dish and adding the garlic, the 'sauces' the honey, the soy and the orange. Mix well and rub the marinade over the meat. Leave for at least a couple of hours in the fridge, covered in cling film.

Preheat the grill, if you are grilling, or the barbecue, or the griddle or the frying pan. Place the meat on the hot surface and cook until ready. Mine took about five minutes or so either side.

Serve with whatever you like. I steamed some sliced vegetables and noodles to accompany the pork.

Inspired by Lola and something in the bakery window: Magnolia Flower Bouquet Cake

The fact of the matter is that I am not great at decorating cakes. I love (and am very envious of) those who are able to decorate cakes in such pretty and intricate ways and whilst I might possess a tiny bit of artistry, I am too heavy handed to capitalise on any creativity that might be going on in my mind.

However, walking past the bakery window a few weeks ago and seeing something similar to what you have here (and baulking at the price of it!) made me think that I could possibly create something similar. And seeing as Lola and I have spent the last week or so creating paper flowers for her Easter bonnet for today's parade, I felt suitably confident to give these flowers a go. Whilst I am on the subject, here's Lola:

The recipe is that which Magnolia Bakery uses for their vanilla cupcakes, and though I have that book, I used Joanna Weinberg's 'How to feed your family with relish' as the basis, because the quantity stipulated that it made 24 cupcakes: enough to create the layer cake base, the cupcakes required for the 'bouquet' and enough spares for Lola, Finn and the cook's 'perks'. I cooked the cake base as one and then split it after baking, as I didn't have two layer cake pans small enough; I wanted a narrower base to somehow make the attached cupcakes stand out. I attached the cupcakes with bamboo skewers (you could use toothpicks) and then tried to create the flower 'illusion' with some random green sugar paste leaves scattered here and there.

This is, it has to be said, a bit faffy, and does take time to create, but I did it whilst I was at home for the day, pottering in the kitchen, garden, etc. and came and went from the task as I pleased. This is the epitome of laid back baking, though thinking about it, all cake making should have that therapeutic quality if you ask me.

For the first attempt I think it looks okay. I expect very little from my cake decorating exploits but if you squint, it sort of looks like a bouquet. Sort of.

Flower Bouquet Cake, made using the cupcake recipe from the Magnolia Bakery, via 'How to feed your friends with relish' by Joanna Weinberg

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups self-raising flour

1 1/4 cups plain flour

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

2 cups sugar

4 large eggs, at room temperature

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the frosting:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

6 to 8 cups icing sugar

1/2 cup milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

And in addition:

5 tablespoons of jam to fill the layer cake (I used cherry, mainly because I adore it with this frosting!)

Green sugar paste (about 50g) for the leaves (though I suppose you could use evergreen leaves from the garden, well washed)

6 wooden skewers or toothpicks

cake decorations, (dragees, baubles, etc) to make your flowers look like flowers

Bright tissue/crepe paper

a cake tin

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180c

Prepare at least six muffin/cupcake tins (though I used individual silicone ones) and a smallish cake tin (Mine was a deep 7 inch across spring form tin)

In a small bowl, combine the flours. Set aside.

In a large bowl, or in a mixer bowl cream the butter and the sugar until fluffy, at least 3 minutes.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. Ensure that you only beat the mixture until the flour is combined. Don't over beat.

Scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended.

Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake tin firstly, filling at least seven of them about 3/4 full.

Then fill the cake pan with the mixture. Fill to about 2/3 full.

With any remaining batter, make more cupcakes. I experimented with some smaller cupcakes (like petit fours size which in the end I didn't use but were eaten nonetheless.

Bake the cupcakes for 20 to 25 minutes or so, or until a cake tester inserted into the centre of the cupcake comes out clean and they are golden and springy to the touch. The cake will take longer, approximately 40 minutes, but test in the same way that you tested the 'doneness' of the cupcakes.

Allow everything to cool completely on wire racks about 10/15 minutes of them coming out of the oven..

For the frosting, place the butter in a large mixing bowl.

Add 4 cups of the sugar and then the milk and vanilla.

On the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat until smooth and creamy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Gradually add the remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition (about 2 minutes), until the icing is thick enough to be of good spreading consistency. You must beat the frosting for a long enough time for this to happen. Taste the icing regularly; you may find you do not need all of the sugar.

Once you're happy with the frosting, take some out and put into a separate bowl. Add your desired food colouring (I used pastes) and mix in until the colour is distributed evenly through the frosting.

Pipe the frosting onto some of the cupcakes in a firm, swift circular motion. I worked (mostly) from the outside inwards.

Take some more frosting from the mixer bowl and transfer to another bowl (I washed out the bowl and icing bag that I had initially used). Add a different food colour and beat again until even distributed. Pipe the frosting onto the remaining cupcakes.

Split the cake in half, and top the bottom half with jam and the bottom of the top layer with any remaining frosting. Put the cake layers back together.

Take the crepe/tissue paper and place it into the bottom of a cake tin. Scrunch the edges up a little if you like. Place the layer cake in the cake tin, on top of the paper.

Put the toothpicks/skewers into the cake and then gently push the cupcakes on to the skewers, attaching them to the cake.

Roll out the sugar paste and cut out leaf shapes. Attach them to the cake.

If you need to, apply some cake decorations to the centre of the cupcakes to make the icing look a little more flower like.

And....you're done. Pat yourself on the back and put the kettle on.

Not before time: Banana Cake with Chocolate Frosting.

There are some pairings that are meant to be together: Cheese and onion, strawberries and cream, me and Phill (Ugh, far too soppy!!) and I am going to add to that chocolate and banana, firstly because I can, and secondly because it's the truth, as this cake proves.

Starting my cookery journey as a Barefoot Contessa fan led me to search out somewhere where I could join in with conversations involving a pound of butter and 'good' vanilla, I found myself amidst the wonderful ladies and gents of the Barefoot Contessa Message Board. From the foodie conversations there I began to discover more about American cookery and baking, which led me to looking for a cookbook with American recipes. Now I would be lying if I told you that I have only bought one cookbook on American cakes (because in truth another shelf was commandeered for housing more of the things) but a particular favourite is 'Southern Cakes' which is where this recipe is from. It's a stunningly good book full of cakes I had never really heard of, steeped in the tradition of the American South, with little preambles about where the recipes originated. This cake is one that I make frequently from this book, and whilst I am sure there are variations of banana and chocolate cake in other areas of the world, this one is pretty damn good.

Several words about bananas. I don't know whether I have been unlucky or not, but if there is such a thing as substandard bananas then I have bought them in the recent past. They were green one day, yellow with black speckles the next day and tasted like cotton wool. Not tasty enough to eat and certainly unsuitable for baking. Your bananas need to be quite ripe, preferably black speckled in their skins, and actually smell (and taste!) of banana. And Fairtrade preferably, but that's because I like to think I am helping out.

My tweaks from the original recipe were to substitute natural yoghurt for the buttermilk (because I didn't have any; I know you can make your own but...you know how it is sometimes) and I added a pinch of salt and 'good' vanilla to the frosting, because I am a Barefoot Contessa fan and that is what she would do.

Banana Cake with Chocolate Frosting, adapted from Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott

Ingredients (in cups, for it is an American recipe).

For the cake:

2 cups plain flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup of butter, or 1 1/2 sticks (or if you're in the UK, 3/4 of a pack)

1 1/2 cups of sugar

3 large eggs

1/2 cup of natural yoghurt

1 1/2 cups riped bananas (about 3 medium bananas)

For the frosting:

1/2 cup (or 1 stick, or 1/2 pack if you are in the UK) butter

1/3 cup of cocoa (I used Green and Blacks)

1/3 cup of evaporated milk, or 'half and half' (for those of us in the UK who have no clue about half and half I made the quantity up by mixing half double cream and half milk to create something akin to 'half and half')

4 cups icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180c, and prepare two 9 inch cake tins

Combine the butter and the sugar, beating well until pale and fluffy.

Add the eggs one by one, until totally incorporated. After the last egg is beaten in, add the vanilla and mix in.

Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and then add half to the batter, and mix in until the flour mixture has been just incorporated. At this point add the yoghurt. Gently mix in, then add the remaining flour and mix until just combined. Do not over beat at this stage, and if necessary use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl at this stage to ensure all the ingredients are incorporated.

Lastly, add the bananas, mixing through until just combined.

Pour the mixture into the prepared baking tins. Place in the oven and bake for about 25 - 30 minutes or until the cakes are golden brown and springy to the touch. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting, beat the butter until soft. Meantime, in a small saucepan, mix together the cocoa, the 'hlaf and half' mixture and the vanilla and salt. Put this on a medium/low heat and mix until the cocoa has dissolved.

Add the cocoa mixture to the beaten butter and mix in quickly. Add the icing sugar at this stage. Put two cups in first and mix in before adding the next two cups. Beat the mixture on a low speed for as long as it take you to get a smooth thick mixture which is easily spreadable.

Spread the mixture generously over the top of one of the cakes. Top with the other and then frost the top of the cake in a swirling motion. If you like and you are better at frosting a cake than me you can frost the sides too, but I found that I didn't quite have enough frosting to do it.

Really, really, really good with a cup of tea. Enjoy!

Almost like barbecuing - Turkey Kofte (or maybe kofta) with Middle East Potatoes

As appears usual these days, here in Northern England we are having our Summer in March/April, presumably leaving June, July and August free for walls of rain and gales to hit us, as has happened since about 2006. The only reason I remember 2006 so firmly is that it is the year Lola was born, on 20th May, and the ensuing months were gloriously hot. Lola slept in a nappy only, 4 o' clock feeds were wonderful, with the sun peeping over the horizon, the heat already beginning to rise and there was that perceptible presence of the Summer stillness and light, where you know it is going to be a beautiful, beautiful day. It was a Summer of eating outside, the smell of barbecue (not always pleasant; some of our neighbours use petrol to get their barbecues going I think) and lots of chatter were the backdrop as the sun slowly sank in the west. 

So now, when our esteemed weather forecasters tell us that we might be having half an hour of decent weather one weekend, the supermarkets pile the fridge cabinets with suitable barbecue fare, these days often on sticks and covered with some unidentifiable sauce or marinade. They never look appealing, |I suspect they use meat of poor quality and I suspect its inferior flavour is masked by the dayglo coating, so I make my own. They might not be pretty but with the usual accompaniments they taste pretty good.

I was very lucky (though after dropping several hundred hints) for Mother's Day to get Tasmasin Day Lewis' newest cookbook, 'Food you can't say no to' and as usual I was not disappointed. I adore her cookbooks and the way she writes so eloquently about food. You can't help but want to make each recipe. I saw her recipe for turkey kofte and decided this would be the first recipe to try, mainly because I had the ingredients to hand and the sun was shining outside, and this sort of food to me is sunshine food. If I had had a barbecue ready primed, I might have asked Phill to put them on it, but I settled for the hot plate instead.

To accompany this I made something which I loosely called 'Middle East Potatoes' for want of a better term. Years ago I went to a Lebanese restaurant and had something vaguely similar. I asked about the recipe and remember some of the ingredients enough to scribble them down. It's quite a fluid recipe in that it depends on very much on taste and I adjust quantities throughout the cooking process, but basically it's potatoes, cumin, coriander, cayenne, lime, and salt. I piled the leftovers of this into the remaining pitta bread the next day and it wasn't elegant, but it was good. Very good.

Anyway, I have rambled on jumping from one idea to another, I should get down to giving you the recipe:

Turkey Kofte - adapted from 'Food You Can't Say No To' by Tamasin Day Lewis, with Middle East Potatoes, Yoghurt, cucumber and coriander dip and pitta bread.

Serves Mum, Dad, Lola and Finn generously

Ingredients:

500g free-range turkey mince
1 tbsp finely chopped coriander leaves
1 tbsp finely chopped mint leaves (though I confess I used a tsp of dried mint)
2 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tsp garam masala
1 tbsp olive oil
A finger of fresh root ginger, coarsely grated, skin on (I didn't use this)

A small onion, diced finely
1 large garlic clove, peeled and crushed
sea salt and black pepper
½ tsp dried chilli flakes

 Pre-soak eight long bamboo skewers in water (to prevent them scorching).

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl with your hands and form into eight bullrush shapes, pressing them onto long bamboo skewers and setting them aside on a plate until you are ready to cook them. Note: Turkey mince is extraordinarily bland, and as such you will need plenty of salt and pepper to lift the flavour, something like three to four teaspoons of salt maybe depending on taste. You'll need to add a teaspoon at a time and just taste a smidge of the mixture on the tip of your tongue to see if it is flavourful enough.

Heat up the barbecue or an oiled griddle. Cook the turkey kofte for about two minutes on each of the four sides, i.e. eight minutes in total or until cooked right through. Mine needed longer than the two minutes per side, probably because mine were not what you would call 'slimline'.

For the Middle East Potatoes (Serves 2, generously)

Olive oil, about 5 - 6 tbsp

About 10 small waxy potatoes, quartered

One small onion, diced quite small

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1/2 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp cumin

A little cayenne pepper, to taste

a handful of chopped coriander

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

the juice of half a lime

Method:

 

Heat the oil in a frying pan or pot and add the onions. Saute until translucent, then add the garlic. Cook until fragrant.

 

Add the cubed potatoes and fry, trying to ensure that they brown on each side a little. You may have to keep scraping the pan occasionally and be prepared to add a little more olive oil if sticking is a problem.

 

 

 

Once the potatoes are part way cooked add the rest of the ingredients, except the chopped coriander and the lime. At this point I stirred the mixture and covered mine on a low heat to steam the potatoes into cooking completely. You should cook the mixture until the potatoes are soft but not disintegrating. Check for seasoning, then add the coriander and the lime.

 

For the yoghurt, cucumber and coriander dip:

200ml greek yoghurt

salt and pepper to taste

slices of cucumber

1 tbsp of coriander

a squeeze of lime juice

Combine the ingredients in a small bowl and check seasoning. Set aside.

***

To serve, place the kofte on a plate, still skewered if you like (I took them off the skewer for Lola and Finn) add some potato, some dip and some toasted pitta bread. Sweet chilli sauce, by the way, was on hand for those who need it.