BBQ Pork Belly and Asian Noodle Salad

It's been a while since my last post and with all the heat we have been having lately I thought i'd give you this little number!!

It's a nice, light little lunch packed with plenty of flavour.

For the Pork

I would normally slow cook a whole belly, but I cook for around 90 so get your butcher to cut a few 6oz slices.

Lay your Pork slices in a roasting tin and smother with your favourite BBQ sauce or knock up your own. I do 2 parts ketchup to 1 part brown sauce, some mixed herbs and a Tbs honey.

Cover with foil and whack it in a pre heated oven on around 150c. We need it to slow cook so the fat melts into the meat making it really tender. A 1 1/2 inch slice should be done in about an hour.

While all that's going on, fill a bowl with just boiled water and chuck some rice noodles in. Leave them to soak for around 10 minutes then run the cold tap over them to stop the cooking process.

For the Salad you need

2 Sliced peppers
3 Cloves chopped garlic
2 Sliced onions
3 chopped Spring onions
2 Chopped chilli (more if you like spice)
2 Pak Choi
1 small bunch Coriander
1 bag Salad leaves
Soy sauce
Tbs sugar
2 Tbs Sesame oil (veg oil will do)

Heat 2 Tbs oil in a wok and chuck in your peppers garlic sliced onions and chilli.

When they start to soften add the spring onion and Pak Choi. Now's the time to lob in your sugar and a few dashes of soy sauce. Check.for seasoning and allow to cool.

Mix all the cooked ingredients with the chilled drained noodles and chuck in your salad leaves and coriander.

Dress your plate with the noodle salad and Pork, drizzling some of the Porks cooking sauce around the outside.

Sorted

Tomato and Mango Chicken

Well its the school holidays and for me that means one thing, the company I work for let me loose in other peoples kitchens!!

Today I was covering a work mate and he had Tomato and Mango Chicken on the menu.

Unfortunately I didn't take a picture but believe me when I say it looked pretty good.

This recipe is really quick and easy and tastes great....

So

Mix together

3 parts tomato ketchup
2 parts mango chutney
1 part cream

It should look like 80's classic prawn cocktail sauce, smack this over your chosen cut of chicken and bang it in a pre heated oven.

It comes out looking like a shiny tandoori because of the sugar in the ketchup.

Piri Piri Pork

Ok so to try and help warm everyone up I knocked up this Piri Piri Pork dish.

A favourite flavour of mine and one I can't recall unleashing on the boys yet, but it went down a storm!!

The pork steaks themselves are just dusted with cajun spice and oven roasted on 185c for around 25 mins.

Piri Piri Sauce

I used
6 good sized red chillis
6 cloves of garlic
Drizzle of oil
Can chopped tomatoes
Some veg stock powder
Sugar

First roast off the chilli and garlic until they start to char round the edges and chuck them in a food blender.

Lob in your chopped tomatoes then add your stock powder to taste.

At this point slowly add some sugar and keep tasting. The sugar rounds off the flavour of the chilli and brings your tomato to life!!

Have a go!!

I served mine with new potatoes and a sweetcorn puree.

It's Roasting!!!

Ok so its been the hottest day so far and what did I put in the menu last week for today??? Roast chicken!! Luckily im allowed to change the menu so I turned it into a roasted chicken salad. Topped with carrot and courgette spaghetti, vacuumed cucumber ribbons and a dressing I made using balsamic vinegar, olive oil, stock from the chicken and xantham gum! Not really a product you will find in a normal school kitchen but hey!! I'll be doing more with this as time goes on i'll show you the results and recipes.

Enjoy

leavers dinner

As its nearing the last day of school for the year 13 boarders we thought it would be good to give them a special meal, historically its been a BBQ, but with the weather being terrible I thought it would be nice to give a proper 3 course meal. So with my starter inspired by my love of Indian food, the main a poshed up steak and chips and every chef pudding nemesis the chocolate fondant the night went better than expected!!

Here's the menu and pics.

Starter

Tandoori chicken ravioli with Dahl mint yoghurt, micro coriander and truffle oil

Massive thanks to Nisha Katona my new twitter buddy for inspiring the pasta!!!

Main

Sous vide steak with pomme neuf balsamic roasted cherry tomatoes and a horse radish cream.

Dessert

Chocolate fondant with cardamom infused ice cream.

Again massive thanks to all the staff involved in making it a night to remember.

I'd also just like thank you all for helping make our state run boarding school "outstanding" by ofsted standards, the food we produce on our budget and the standards we set ourselves are nothing short of amazing and the hard work you all put in doesn't go unnoticed. 

Thai Style Duck Salad

OK so during the half term holiday I've been in deep thought about what I can do different next and came up with this! Sounds expensive and looks a bit cheffy but really easy and surprisingly cheap.

Here's what I did.

For the duck.

To prepare the legs I got a roasting tin and chucked in about 8 sticks of lemon grass, on top of that stick your legs, its best to stab them a few times with a fork this let's the fat out and makes the duck more tender. Bang it in the oven on 200c for 30 mins. When its done let it cool and take off as much meat as humanly possible.

The salad

I used French mixed salad but use whatever floats your boat, I also roasted off some yellow cherry tomatoes with spring onion, grated carrot and chilli flakes with dark soy sauce and sweet chilli.
I really wanted to give a bit of crunch and at one point considered knocking up some croutons but that's pretty standard and not really out there enough for me so then my thoughts turned to prawn crackers, now do I chuck them on the side or lightly crunch them up and bang them on?? Neither! I found a pack of spring roll pastry sheets in the freezer chopped them into strips and fried them off. Top those off with a sprinkle of micro beetroot shoots and a squirt of sweet chilli sauce and you've got yourself a posh looking plate of really tasty food. 30 duck legs got me just over 100 portions loads came back for seconds and a few thirds!

Pulled Pork Bap

OK so back to school this week after a lovely 2 week break!! As always thought I'd try them with something new to our menu.

So with Pulled Pork being "in" at the moment I decided to give it my twist, and I couldn't just stop at the pork so made a chilli bread roll lemon and black pepper green beans and garlic roasted new potatoes to go with it. Oh and a choice of home made spiced apple sauce or mustard mayo to go with it.

Here's how I did it.

For the Pork

In a roasting tin pop in your pork shoulder ( I used 10 kilo but I'm feeding 90 ).

With this I chucked in 10 cloves of garlic a couple of sliced onions some Chinese 5 spice and white wine vinegar ( just enough to cover the bottom of the tin this helps tenderise the pork ).

Cover with parchment paper then foil and bang it in the oven on 180c for 3 hours, then take off the foil and paper and cook for another hour. I know its a long time to cook but its a hard working piece of meat so needs it. 

When its get 2 forks and pull it apart so its like strands of meat. 

In a pan chuck in a couple of glugs of oil, add some sliced onion chilli flakes a sprinkle of sugar Chinese 5 spice and honey.

Fry them off till the onion has softened then lob in that pork you just pulled apart.

Season to taste.

OK so that's the hard bit, its a bit cheffy and does tasks a while but the end result is so worth it!

For the bread

Same as my previous bread mix with the addition of chilli flakes 

For the sides

Chuck your new potatoes straight in the oven with some garlic butter.

After you have cooked your green beans drain and whack on some olive oil lemon juice and cracked black pepper to taste. 

Not the greatest pics I'm afraid!

Have a crack yourself!!!

Easy Melba Toast

OK so Melba toast is a notorious pain in the bum but my way is so much easier and looks better.

Normally you would toast your bread then cut the crusts off slice it in half so you have 2 really thin slices rub the now untoasted sides on the work surface to smooth it out then grill again! How much hassle is that?

My way

Preheat oven to 100c

Toast your bread

With a rolling pin flatten to your desired thickness

Cut crusts off and cut into triangles

Whack them in the oven until dried out ( about 15 mins ).

Job done!!

Boarders Christmas Dinner

Its the time of year all the boarders look forward to! The Christmas dinner. Last year was my first in the boarding house and with the menu already done and all the food ordered I had no input, this year was completely mine. Historically the menu has always been the standard Soup Main and Xmas pud, you can understand my concerns about my menu! Here it is!

Starter

Tomato and Basil Soup

Or

Chicken Liver Pate with Home made Melba Toast

Main

Roast Turkey

Or

Feta Cheese and Spinach Parcel

With 

Roast Potatoes (in duck fat for the carnivores)

Baton Carrots

Honey Roast Parsnips

Brussels sprouts

Pigs in Blankets

Sage and Onion Stuffing 

Rich Gravy

Dessert

Spiced Apple Slice with Home made Christmas Pudding Ice cream

Or

Lemon Tart

Admittedly not entirely ground breaking or too outrageous the very idea of a choice of starter and dessert and the fact that Christmas pudding as it should be didn't feature on the menu was enough to raise eyebrows with a majority of the boys and staff alike! 

With service out of the way it became clear that the night was a massive success and with comments like "best Christmas dinner in the school ever" ( from staff and boys!!!) I was happy! 

As always though I couldn't have pulled it off without the support and willingness to work even harder than they normally do from my team. Thanks guys!!

Here's a couple of pics of the Pate and Desserts and one of some bloke trying to look busy!!

Thanks again and have a very merry Christmas!!

Bangra Burgers

OK so it being Monday and all that brings I decided to bang out a few Bangra Burgers for lunch, basically an Indian inspired burger. ( I love a twist ). Truth be told I was asked by my boss to help her out a bit with recipes, I made two types Balti Beef and Keema Lamb, not enough for me to just make the burger so I made garlic naan inspired buns and a roasted pepper chutney garnished with fresh coriander and shiso cress.

So for the naan

My previous bread roll mix with added garlic powder and caraway seeds, when shaping the rolls you need to flatten them so they are about 1cm thick, this makes it look more naan like.

Balti Beef Burger

I used 5 kilo of beef mince and got 75 burgers.

This paste I used as a base for both burgers.

In a blender I put 7 green chillis

5 red chillis

1 bulb of garlic

A thumb size chunk of root ginger

2 onions

Mix half the paste with your beef and add 4 eggs, give it a good mix and chuck in some mild madras curry powder. Shape in to burgers and cook on 180c till cooked.

Keema Lamb Burger

So same as the beef but I used ground cumin ground coriander and garam masala instead of curry powder.

I was torn between serving them with fries or basmati rice so went for the rice. Whatever you choose you'll love these bad boys. Enjoy!!

Pasta Bolognaise

Ok for lunch today we had bolognaise and garlic bread ( home made ). I know everyone can do a good bolo but heres my tips to make it fantastic. So firstly the mince, I cook mine for 4 hours minimum this makes the meat really smooth. Tomatoes naturally contain sugar and acid so I always add some sugar and vinegar this makes them more tomatoey. My final tip and probably the most cheffy, the garlic. I blanche whole cloves with the bottom cut off 7 times ( in a pan of cold water and brought to the boil ). Then after the last boil give them a squeeze so the bitter middle pops out. This might sound like a bit of an effort to go to for a bolo but well worth it! Have a go! 

Gulab Jamun

OK so we are having an indian special night on Friday but I wanted to post the recipe for this amazing pud!! Its basically a doughnut in syrup.

So the recipe

1 cup plain flour
2 cups milk powder
1 knob melted butter
Splash of milk
1 cup sugar
1 cup water

All you need to do is mix the dry ingredients and the butter then slowly add some milk until it gets to a dough you can shape. Roll in to small balls a bit smaller than ping pong balls, chuck them in a deep fat fryer about 170c until golden then let them cool. Whilst they are cooling put your sugar and water in a pan and boil until it becomes a syrup ( about 10 mins ) when cooled to room temp glug it over your little doughnuts cover and leave for 30 mins. Job done. Try it!!!

Tuscan Style Sausage Pasta

So for lunch today we had Tuscan style sausage pasta, here's my way of doing it.

you will need

Pork sausage meat
Diced onion
Cajun spice
Veg stock
Chopped tomato
Sugar
Penne pasta

OK so fry your sausage meat like its mince beef. Chuck in your onions Cajun spice and veg stock. Then your chopped tomatoes season to taste, chopped tomatoes can taste tinny but chucking in a bit of sugar takes that away. Lob in your penne  pasta. Job done! I whacked on some garlic bread with mine. See my previous bread recipe and brush with garlic butter. Enjoy!!

Helping with the right choices

The biggest part of being at a boarding school isn't just the level of education its making it a home for the students that go there and a big part of that is the food. Sounds a bit silly but you get out what you put in. If the students aren't happy with the food provided it can have an affect on how they perform in lessons so we try to get them involved as much as possible, we hold a food council every term to try and fathom out what they really like and what's not a winner! It also gives us a chance to explain that even though I'd love to give them deep fried chips every day and chocolate its not what's best for them. With that in mind we hold a dish of the week competition where one of the boys gets to pick a meal of his choice for the entire boarding house admittedly it normally involves fries but it gives us as chefs chance to take that bacon cheese burger to a new level. And since we changed the standards from school canteen to restaurant and the way we take pride in how we plate the food I'm seeing more and more ask for chicken Caesar salad and duck chow mein. I'd much rather give seconds or thirds on a quality salad than frozen burger and chips and when you get some of the younger ones coming up and saying it was amazing you know you've done a good job. I wonder how many of them would have even entertained the idea of a healthy lunch before the improvements we have made??

Lemon Mousse

Everyone loves a good desert and this one turned out to be a real winner! Here's how I did it. So I had a bit of vanilla sponge wasn't enough to ice with lemon and really wanted a lemon desert. So I smashed it up so it was like bread crumbs and squeezed in the juice of 4 lemons then crammed it into 2 baking trays about half a cm thick and baked it in the oven 150c for 5 mins to set the base. Then I got some of my homemade yoghurt chucked in some more lemon juice and zest and whipped the life out of it. All that I had to do now was plate it so cut small disks piped on the mousse mix and dusted with cadburys chocolate powder. Its not what you have got its what you do with it. A little effort goes a long way!

Thai Style Beef Salad

So today's lunch was Thai style beef salad, sometimes the simple ingredients make the best dishes. All we have to do is think about how they get on the plate. For this I used beef strips lemon grass ginger chilli and garlic, a touch of soy and a bit of beef stock plus the salad. Cherry tomatoes red and yellow for colour bean sprouts beet shoots and the cucumber I sliced into ribbons just for a bit of difference. Not hard but looked very chefy and went down really well. Try it!!!

Chicken Biryani

Today's lunch was chicken biryani with home made naan and mango raita. Not bad eh!! Here's how I did it.

For the biryani

Sliced onion
Chilli
Garlic
Chicken ( I use diced leg and thigh, better flavour and breast can be dry )
Chicken stock
Salt and black pepper
Water
Curry powder
Dry rice

In a pan fry your onion chilli and garlic, get them nice and brown chuck in your chicken, when its nearly cooked give it a good whack of curry powder ( I know its cheating and I do use proper spices but its Monday and I've got £4 a day! ) its really important at this point to cook your spice for a good 5-10 mins this is called cooking out, basically it won't taste powdery. Now lob your rice in and if your using stock powder now's the time for that too. Stir it until its all coated then add your water/stock like your making risotto, a little at a time until the rice is cooked and you get the consistency you want. Done, I roasted some peppers and threw them on top last minute for a bit of decoration.

Naan bread my way

So I used my bread recipe and added some caraway seeds.

500g flour
7g yeast
300ml warm water
100ml oil ( sounds a lot but really helps the naan )
Pinch salt
Pinch sugar
25g caraway seeds

Mix the dry ingredients and slowly add the water and oil knead until  its a nice firm dough, leave to prove until double the size. Squash it back then shape into small balls, flatten them with a rolling pin into a naan shape. Lightly oil a frying pan ( I use a pastry brush ) and throw in your dough, brown on both sides brush with butter and eat with your amazing biryani!! Enjoy!

Cooking on a Budget

Cooking quality food on a tight budget is never easy and its really tempting to go down ready meal convenience crap but is that really what we want to do?? I get roughly £4 per head per day for breakfast  mid morning break lunch (including desert) afternoon snack and 3 course dinner. By making our own bread products cakes pasta and everything else we can think of we manage to enjoy theme nights smoked salmon on the salad bar home made ice cream and even the odd steak night chucked in. It can be done if we just make the effort!!