Pulled Pork

I've seen many pulled pork recipes around and when I saw Crabby Cook's slow cooker pulled pork burger, I thought it's finally time to give it a try! I've only had pulled pork once at Bodeon's and to be honest, I can't remember how it tastes like as the ribs were better.

I added some herbs and spices that I think will go with the BBQ sauce pork. I don't have a slow cooker, so I used the oven and cooked it at a low temperature. I reduced the sauce after 8 hrs of cooking to concentrate the flavours. The meat was amazingly moist and tender after long hours of cooking and the sauce was very rich and flavourful, very very delicious! I served it with bread, and for the leftovers, I made some rumbledethump (minus the cheese since the pork was so tasty) the next day to go with it! This recipe is one of my favourites now and I will definitely make it again soon!

Ingredients:

• 2 kg Pork Shoulder Joint
• 1 large Onion - sliced
• 1 Red Chili - sliced
• 1 bottle (430g) HP Original BBQ Sauce (Classic Woodsmoke Flavour)
• 1 cup Apple Juice
• 1 tbs Paprika
• 1 tsp Cayenne Pepper
• 1 tsp Dried Oregano
• 1 tsp Dried Thyme
• 1 tsp Cumin
• 1 tsp Cinnamon Powder

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 120°C.
• Combine 1 cup of BBQ sauce and 1 cup apple juice.
• Whisk in paprika, cayenne pepper, oregano, thyme, cumin and cinnamon powder.
• Place pork shoulder, onion, chili and BBQ sauce mixture into an oven-proof pot.
• Cover and leave to cook for 8 hrs. There's no need to turn the pork around half way through.

For the sauce:

• After 8 hrs, strain all the juice into a saucepan.
• Simmer and reduce sauce to about 1 cup worth.
• Stir in the rest of the BBQ sauce.

To assemble:

• Shred pork.

• Pour reduced sauce over pork, mix and enjoy!

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A Week Ago - My Valentine's Day @ The Borough Market Part II

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's day. My Valentine's day started off with a brief visit to the Borough Market located in the heart of London. Apparently, it is one of the largest food market in the world. On Saturday, I posted part I of my brief Borough Market tour. Today, I will finish off my post with some delicious food we had and not to forget the scrummy sweets!

Spanish smoked panceta with paprika, Brindisa. Such wonderful flavours but I was too busy taking pictures and totally forgot to buy one!



The Veggie Table that sells hot, vegetarian food made using fresh, local produce. Not a big fan of veg so I didn't bother going near, apparently they sell amazing gluten-free veggie burgers. Here is an interview with the people who runs the Veggie Table if you are interested. I love the name, Veggie Table...vege-table..get it? Actually, the wild boar pointed that out to me, I was too blur to even realise...hehe



Yummy looking stuffed mushrooms.



More mushrooms...mushroom pâté, hand made with organic mushrooms from Pâté Moi. Sampled some and loved it, the flavour of mushrooms was very intense. The wild boar did not enjoy it as it was too mushroomy for him.



Richard Haward's oysters. Very fresh and delicious with just lemon and Tabasco. They often have very long queues, so you won't miss it.



Meat Pies from Sillfield Farm store. They specialise in wild boar, rare breed pigs, Herdwick sheep and pedigree poultry. They sell a wonderful range of meats, sausages, bacons, pies...



A long queue outside Baxter's for their burgers. The wild boar loves their wild boar sausage burger, but too bad, they ran out of it that day.



So, he went for the ostrich sausage burger instead.



It was very peppery and tasty but a bit dry as compared to the venison steak burger we had before this. Try the venison burger if you have a chance, it was very juicy and delicious! I was too busy eating the burger and forgot about pictures =P



Grilled cheese sandwiches! Look at that amount of cheese...do I have to say more? Yum yum!



The Raclette cheese being heated under a special machine. Just look at that bubbling cheese...



He then scraped the melted cheese over a plate of potatoes and gherkins.





The famous Flour Power City Bakery.



Their brownies are to die for. Very chocolatey and fudgy. Another must try.



Portugese egg tart and other yummy pastries.



A lady cutting an apple pie for us to sample.



Little pots of youghurt and mousse.



Some handmade chocolate truffles.



Biscuits for your valentine!



And finally, yummy cakes to end my brief tour of the Borough Market.



I hope you enjoyed this. Here is a detailed location map of traders, cafés, pubs and restaurants around the market. As you can see there are more than 150 of them and what I have shown is only a fraction of what Borough Market offers. Do drop by if you have a chance, you won't be disappointed!

Read part I here.

Borough Market
8 Southwark Street
London
SE1 1TL
Official website

Opening times:
Thursdays: 11am to 5pm
Fridays: 12pm to 6pm
Saturdays: 9am - 4pm

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A Week Ago - My Valentine's Day @ The Borough Market Part I

Exactly a week ago was Valentine's day. If you don't take it as a special day, I had a really wonderful time. We went to the London's famous Borough Market with our flatmate, pigged out, had dinner with friends at our favourite Chinese restaurant Mayflower, then hung out at Starbucks. But when you see couples on the streets with flowers and all lovey dovey, it was not at all romantic.

To me, it was Valentine's day afterall and the wild boar totally ignored it because he merged my Birthday which was exactly 2 weeks ago and V-day. No flowers, chocolates, surprises or even a simple V-day wish. It was just any other day.


My initial plan was to go to the market, shop for some ingredients, head back and cook a nice meal. I've been planning on what to cook for a week. But the wild boar had to make plans for dinner with friends and so a week 's worth of menu planning was off.


Anyway, I still had fun at the Borough Market but too little time. I wish I had a whole day instead of just 2 hrs. I would love to go there on my own one day so I can check out every single stall without any restrictions. I totally missed my favourite pate stall.

So, here's a brief guide of Borough Market.


First stop, a stall that sells a a range of Cool Chile Co. products. They specialise in Mexican ingredients such as white and blue corn tortillas, herbs and spices to dried chillies.





A range of Danilo Manco flavoured extra virgin olive oils.





Sea salts from Noirmoutier, France.





A range of Scotch whisky for tasting. The wild boar drank a shot and got a bit dizzy.





Chegworth Valley Juices made from freshly pressed fruits. It features a large range of 100% pure apple juices and other aromatic blends using pears, raspberries, strawberries, beetroot, rhubarb, blackcurrants, and blackberries.





We each had a cup of hot apple cinnamon drink made with Chegworth Valley Bramley Apple Juice to keep ourselves warm. It was very sweet and delicious.





A stall that sells a wide range of mushrooms including wild and exotic ones.





The olive stall. A man scooping some green olives with garlic for the wild boar. The olives were really good as they were not as salty as the ones we normally eat.





L'ubriaco (drunk cheese). Cheese matured in red wine from Treviso, Italy.





All time favourite Comte cheese from the Borough Cheese Company. I would grab many a few pieces of their samples everytime I walk pass their stall. It is a type of French cheese, firm, quite mild and nutty.





Game hanging on hooks at a stall.





Pork counter.





A wide range of bacon.





There was a long queue at an Italian stand selling parma ham and mozzarella. I love parma ham so I had to give it a try. We bought about 10 slices and cost about £8. Not cheap, but it was really good. The amount of salt was just right and it tasted so good. But I find it a bit too thinly sliced.





Spanish hams at Brindisa that specialises in Spanish foods.





Spanish cookbook with wonderful Spanish recipes.





To be continued...


Read part II here.


Borough Market
8 Southwark Street

London
SE1 1TL
Official website

Opening times:
Thursdays: 11am to 5pm
Fridays: 12pm to 6pm
Saturdays: 9am - 4pm

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Copycat Time - Warm Butternut Squash & Chickpea Salad with Tahini Dressing

I came across this recipe at Smitten Kitchen awhile ago and was intrigued by its colours and flavours. Sweet butternut squash with a tangy and nutty dressing - all my favourite flavours! This recipe was actually adapted from another blogger - Molly Wizenberg of Orangette, who adapted it from a cookbook. Oh, and I saw an adaptation of this recipe at The Duo Dishes, which sounded amazing as well. Yeap, that's how the food blogosphere works, amazing isn't it.


We all enjoyed the salad, loved the flavours and the dressing was amazing. All the ingredients and flavours went very well together. I added a bit of sugar to the dressing to add a bit of sweetness. This recipe is definitely a keeper!

Ingredients:
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen, who adapted from Orangette, who adapted it from Casa Moro...

For salad:

• 320g Butternut Squash
• 1 Garlic Clove - pressed
• 1 tbs Olive Oil
• A pinch of salt
• 1/3 Red Onion - sliced/ diced
• 3/4 cup Chickpeas
• 1 handful of Coriander - chopped

For tahihi dressing:

• 2 tbs Tahini
• 1 Garlic Clove - pressed
• Juice of 1/2 Lemon
• 1 tbs Olive Oil
• 2 tbs Water (or more)
• Salt
• Sugar

Directions:
For salad:

• Preheat oven to 220°C.
• In a baking sheet/ dish, toss together butternut squash, pressed garlic, olive oil and a pinch of salt.
• Roast until soft (about 20 mins).
• Remove and place in a salad bowl.
  

For tahini dressing:

• In a small bowl, whisk together tahini, lemon juice and pressed garlic.
• Mix in olive oil.
• Whisk in water. Add more water to get the consistency you desire.
• Add salt and sugar to taste.

To assemble:

• Toss together butternut squash, red onion, chickpeas and coriander.
• Mix in some of the tahini dressing (I only added about 3/4 of the dressing and that was enough for me) and serve.

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Linguine in Creamy Chorizo Tomato Sauce with Seared Scallops

By now, some of you should know that I have a thing for linguine. Most of my pasta dishes were made with it even spaghetti bolognese ( I had to call it linguine alla bolognese). I prefer its texture to spaghetti and I find that it holds on to sauces quite well because of its larger surface area.


I love pasta as it often involves simple ingredients, very little prep time yet very delicious - my comfort food. This is another very simple yet yummy pasta dish, perfect as a weekday meal.

Ingredients: serves 3

• Linguine

For creamy chorizo tomato sauce:

• 100g Chorizo - sliced
• 3 cloves Garlic - pressed
• 1 can Canned Plum Tomatoes
• 3 slices Sun-Dried Tomatoes - coarsely chopped
• A bunch of Fresh Thyme - stem discarded, leaves chopped
• A bunch of Fresh Rosemary - stem discarded, leaves chopped
• 2 Dried Bay Leaves
• 1 tsp Paprika
• 1 tbs Creme Fraiche
• Brown Sugar
• Chopped Parsley (garnishing)

Directions:

• Brown chorizo in a heated non-stick pan without oil.
• Add garlic and fry until fragrant.
• Add plum tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, thyme, rosemary, bay leaves and paprika.
• Bring to boil then lower heat to simmer.
• Simmer for at least 30 mins.
  
• Add brown sugar to taste.
• Stir in creme fraiche.
• Cook linguine in a large pot of boiling water according to the pasta packaging instructions. Drain.
• Mix linguine and sauce.
• Sprinkle some parsley and serve.

Seared Scallops with Paprika

Ingredients:

• 9 Scallops
• Salt
• Freshly Ground Black Pepper
• Paprika
• 1 tbs Butter
• 1 tbs Olive Oil

Directions:

• Wash scallops and pat dry.
• Season both sides with salt, black pepper and paprika.
• Heat up butter and oil in pan.
• Add scallops once butter and oil starts smoking.
• Sear scallops for about 1 1/2 mins each side.
• Serve!

I am sending this to Wiffy at Noobcook who is hosting the #101 edition of Presto Pasta Nights.

and Lore's Original Recipes.

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They Have Feet!!!

This was my second attempt in making macarons and they have feet! My first attempt was a total failure. I think I screwed up macaronage and ended up with flat biscuit-like macarons. The batter spread out as soon as I piped it out and stayed flat after baking. I also added chopped nuts into the batter and that might also contributed to my failed macarons.


I don't particularly like macarons because they are too sweet for my liking, but I like the challenge of making perfect macarons. So, I decided to try again and make it as a valentine's day treat. I printed out Helen's (from Tartelette) article with step-by-step recipe on the second issue of Desserts Magazine, read it may times and followed her tips.

For the shells:

• 100 g Egg Whites (about 3 eggs) - left in fridge for 48 hrs
• 40 g Granulated Sugar
• 200 g Powdered Sugar
• 110 g Whole Blanched Almonds - processed in food processor

Detailed instructions can be found here.


I did not pipe out the batter using a pastry tipas I don't have a big enough pastry nozzle. I filled a zip lock bag, snipped off the corner and squeezed the batter through the hole. They were uneven and ugly because of my crappy piping skills. I sprinkled some toasted almond flakes on some of the rounds.





I sprinkled some green tea powder on these.





I left them out for an hour to harden their shells a bit and baked them at 150°C for about 10 mins.


And look! They have feet !! I was jumping around with joy, showing off to the wild boar and Jade.





But... the feet were too thin and the macarons were hollow! ARghhh....another failure.





This was not the only failure. The green tea filling I made was runny but it was DELICIOUS! I was so tempted to drink the whole bowl of it. We ended up using the macaron shells as a little bowls, filling them with the creamy green tea sauce. They were really yummy, just don't think of them as macarons. The wild boar named them Nutty Clam Shells with Green Tea Filling.

For white chocolate and green tea filling:

• 3/4 cup Elmlea Light Double Cream
• 80g White Chocolate
• 2 tsp Green Tea Powder

Simply warm up the double cream and whisk in white chocolate and green tea powder.


And these were filled with crunchy peanut butter! Yummilicious!

Overall, they were yummy stuff and I think this was a big improvement. So I guess practice really makes perfect!


Happy Belated Valentine's Day! I hope you all had a great day yesterday. Will be posting about what we did yesterday once I get all my pictures uploaded.


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