Sunday Lunch Special - Roast Pork Dinner

Tonight I went back to my early childhood with dinner. We used to go to our Grandpa and Nanna's every so often for Sunday lunch and almost without fail, because of our convict background I suspect, we'd have a roast dinner. Either lamb or pork with crackling.

These days pork isn't what it used to be 25 or 30 years ago. Because of the way society has changed pork has been bred to be leaner than it used to be, but you can still enjoy a throwback to, at least my, childhood.

For this recipe your best bet is to get a boned shoulder. If you can't get that, you can do what I did and get a piece of pork belly and either stuff and roll it or roll it around a small pork loin.

If you use a pork belly or boned shoulder, you're better off scoring it before you roll it. Use a very sharp knife or like me, a razor blade. Just make sure you wash the razor blade first!!

You only want to get through the skin, DON'T cut through the meat at all. Score it about 1cm (1/2") apart.

Once you've scored your meat, you're going to have to shape it. As I mentioned, I rolled mine around a loin.

Next, you'll have to tie it. This "technique" can be used for any meat dish that you need to tie. Here is a very good explanation from Bon Appetit: How to tie meat Here are a couple of photo's so you get the idea.

Now that you've scored and rolled the roast, you need to salt it. All you have to do is get salt (I used kosher salt because I can't get cooking salt here.) and rub it all over the skin. Don't use too much or all you'll end up tasting is salt.

While you're buggering around with your pork, you need to pre-heat your oven to 500F (260C). Now just put your roast on a rack in the roasting pan and put it in the oven for 20 - 30 minutes, until the skin is blistering and crackling.

After 20 - 30 minutes, turn the oven down to 350F (180C) for the rest of the cooking time. Now, you want to roast your meat for 30 minutes for every 500g (1lb) plus an extra 30 minutes. So it's important to weigh or have weighed your roast so you know how long to cook it for.

We also had roast veggies with ours, potato, butternut, sweet potato and carrots. Just make sure you cut the veggies about the same size. I just put about a tablespoon or so of oil in another roasting pan and pre-heated that in the oven while I prepared the veggies. Put the pan on the shelf above the roast 1 hour before the end of the cooking time. When there's 30 minutes to go, take out the veggies, turn them over and put them back in the oven.

Hopefully, when the timer goes off, your meat will look something like this.

Of course you'll want to have gravy with your roast, so why not make it from scratch. It will taste so much better than anything that comes out of a packet and is very simple to make.

Put your roast on a plate and return it to the oven to rest. Make sure you've turned the oven off!!!!

Pour off all but 1-2 tablespoons of the meat drippings from the pan and put that on the stove over a medium-ish heat. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of AP flour (Plain flour) and mix that thoroughly with the drippings, making sure you scrape the bottom of the roasting pan. (That's where some of the best flavours are!)

Let that cook off for a couple of minutes, then add, a bit at a time, some mild beef or vegetable stock. I say mild beef stock, because you don't want the gravy to overpower the meat and veggies, just compliment it. If you're having boiled veggies, you can use the vegetable water in the gravy.

As you add the liquid, make sure you stir it constantly so you don't end up with lumps. I usually add some stock and stir until it gets thick, add some more stock and stir, etc, etc. You'll need 2 cups of whatever liquid you are using. Once you've used all the liquid, turn your burner down and let the gravy simmer for 5-10 minutes, stirring every now and again to break up and "skin" that forms on top.

When your gravy is done, all you need to do is carve your meat and plate up.

So there you go. A fairly typical Australian/New Zealand/English Sunday lunch or a great dinner when the weather turns cold.

Hope you enjoy.

Matt

Fish and Chips

There's nothing better than a rainy cold night, watching Doctor Who and eating fish and chips. Unfortunately, what passes for fish and chips around here, is not real good. So the solution is to make your own.

I did a lot of searching to find recipes that replicate what you can get from fish and chip shops back in Australia.


So, with that said, here's what I had.

Chips

200g Russet potatoes per person
Deep fryer with peanut oil

Method

1. Peel your potatoes, then for thick-cut chips, cut into ½ inch slices then slice these into ½ inch wide chips. For shoestring style, cut into ¼ inch slices, then slice these ¼ inch thick.

 

 

2. Wash the chips in water then drain on kitchen paper.

3. Place the chips in a pan of cold water, bring to the boil and gently simmer for a couple minutes for shoestring and about 10 minutes for thick cut. Drain in a colander and leave to cool.

4. Pre-heat oil to 250°F (120C), or as low as you can go, in a deep fryer. Blanch your chips two or three handfuls at a time until they are soft but not coloured, about 5 minutes. Remove from the oil and drain. You can store the chips in this state in the fridge for up to a couple of days.

5. To serve the chips, re-fry them in hot oil 375°F (190C) until they are crisp, season lightly and serve immediately.

Of course, you HAVE to have chips with chicken salt.

Next, the fish. The batter I used for this is pretty much exactly the same as you'd get from any take-a-way shop. (I'm a bit of a traditionalist.) I've tried beer batter and using soda water to "lighten" it up, but if I wanted to eat tempura, then I'd make tempura. 


The fish doesn't come out greasy at all and I'll tell you why...when you deep fry it in a batter, the batter is what gets fried by the oil and acts like a barrier so the fish actually steams inside the batter.


Also, if you don't have self-raising flour, you can "make" it by adding 2 teaspoons of baking powder to 1 cup of plain (all purpose) flour.

4 x fish fillets (any white flesh fish) completely thawed if frozen!!
Plain flour
Salt and Pepper

For the batter:
4 oz (110 g) self-raising flour
½ teaspoon salt
5 fl oz (150 ml) water, plus 1 scant tablespoon

Method
Preheat the deep fryer to 375°F (190°C). Or 1/3 fill a deep saucepan with vegetable oil and place over a medium heat.
Sift the flour and salt into a mixing bowl, then gradually add the water, whisking continuously until the batter is smooth and free from lumps. Or, if you want to use a blender, add liquid, then dry ingredients and blend until smooth.
The batter is the right consistency when, if a finger is drawn across the back of a spoon coated in the batter, a sharp decisive trail is left behind.

Check the batter seasoning and adjust to taste with salt and pepper.

To deep fry:
Liberally dust each fillet of fish in the prepared flour.
Lift each fillet from the flour and lower into the batter, ensuring each fillet is generously coated.
Gently lower the fish into the oil (gently to avoid any splash!).
Leave the fish to cook for 3-5 minutes depending on size.
As the fish cooks the batter will darken in colour and when each fish is nearly cooked it will rise to float on the oil's surface.
Remove the fish from the oil with the fryer basket or a slotted spoon.
Place the fish on a wire rack to drain.
Sprinkle a little salt across each fillet to soak up any excess oil.

Where you went wrong:
No rise in the batter when cooked: The cooking oil wasn't hot enough
The fish cooks slowly and remains soggy: The cooking oil was not hot enough
The batter falls off when cooked: The fish was not liberally coated in flour / or the fish was pre frozen and not defrosted properly before cooking / the batter was too thin.

Too thin: Add more flour and whisk through.
Too thick: Add a little water.
Too bland: Add salt, pepper or lemon juice.

As you can see from the pictures above, I also made some crab sticks and had a bash at Dim Sims. The dim sims didn't come out too good but here is the recipe for them anyway. BTW, dim sims were invented in Australia by a Chinese immigrant...here's a wiki on the subject: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dim_sim

 

1 packet Wanton wrappers

1 lb Pork mince

1 finely chopped onion

1/4 finely chopped Chinese cabbage

1 tsp minced garlic

1 tsp minced ginger

2 tbsp fresh coriander

1 tbsp soy sauce

Directions:

Combine pork mince with onion, cabbage, garlic, coriander, ginger and soy sauce in a bowl, then place spoonfuls of mixture in wanton wrappers and wrap up.

Place in pre-heated deep fryer until golden brown or steam until wrapper is almost translucent.

Note that steaming takes a little bit longer to cook the meat than deep frying.

I think that mine were way too big, so the inside didn't cook before the outside was too cooked. I have made them successfully once before, so I might have to give it another go.

Hope you have a go at this...it really does taste good and pretty authentic.

Enjoy.

Matt