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Slow Cooked Pulled Pork

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 medium yellow onions, thinly sliced
  • 4 medium garlic cloves, thinly sliced
  • 1 cup chicken stock or low-sodium chicken broth
  • 1 tablespoon packed dark brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon chili powder
  • 1 tablespoon kosher salt, plus more as needed
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 (4-1/2- to 5-pound) boneless or bone-in pork shoulder (also known as pork butt), twine or netting removed
  • 2 cups barbecue sauce (optional)
INSTRUCTIONS
  1. Place the onions and garlic in an even layer in the slow cooker and pour in the stock or broth. Combine the sugar, chili powder, measured salt, cumin, and cinnamon in a small bowl. Pat the pork dry with paper towels. Rub the spice mixture all over the pork and place the meat on top of the onions and garlic. Cover and cook until the pork is fork tender, about 6 to 8 hours on high or 8 to 10 hours on low.
  2. Turn off the slow cooker and remove the pork to a cutting board. Set a fine-mesh strainer over a medium heatproof bowl. Pour the onion mixture from the slow cooker through the strainer and return the solids to the slow cooker. Set the strained liquid aside.
  3. If the pork has a bone, remove and discard it. Using 2 forks, shred the meat into bite-sized pieces, discarding any large pieces of fat. Return the shredded meat to the slow cooker, add the barbecue sauce, if using, and mix to combine. If you’re not using barbecue sauce, use a spoon to skim and discard the fat from the surface of the strained cooking liquid, and then add 1/4 cup of the liquid at a time to the slow cooker until the pork is just moistened. Taste and season with salt as needed.
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Black Cherry Cheesecake

Serves: 10

Takes: 1.5 hours + chilling

For the base:

  • 150g (5oz) digestive biscuits
  • 75g (3oz) unsalted butter, melted
  • 1tbsp caster sugar

For the filling:

  • 800g (1 ¾lb) cream cheese, at room temperature
  • 150g (5oz) caster sugar
  • 3 medium eggs, lightly whisked
  • 1 x 142ml tub double cream
  • zest and juice of 1 lemon

For the topping:

  • 2 x 125g punnets black cherry, stones removed (or use 1 can of black cherry in light syrup)
  • 3tbsp caster sugar
  • 1tsp cornflour

Method:

  1. Preheat the oven to 160 degree C (gas mark 3).
  2. Crush biscuits, put in a bowl. Stir in butter and sugar. Tip into a 22.5cm (9 inch) springform tin and press firmly. Chill until set.
  3. Beat cream cheese with sugar until smooth. gradually beat in the egges. Stir in cream and lemon and pour onto base.
  4. Bake for an hour, until set. Cover and leave to cool on a wire rack, then refrigerate for at least five hours or overnight.
  5. Heat topping ingredients until black cherry soften. Pour over cheesecake and chill until set, or spoon over just before serving.

N.B. Blueberry as topping is delicious too. 🙂

*** Lemon Jelly topping***

  • 4 sheets gelatine
  • 250ml cold water
  • 180g caster sugar
  • 1 lemon – both juice & zest

Dissolve gelatine in 100 ml of water. Put 150ml of water in a pan with sugar, lemon juice and zest and heat until sugar dissolved. Take off the heat then add gelatine. Pour over cheesecake and chill until set.

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Key Lime Cheesecake

Ingredients

Crust

  • 30 chocolate wafers (enough to make 1 1/2 cups of chocolate crumbs)
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

Coulis / Syrup

  • 1 cup water
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 key limes, juiced (can use limes to substitute)
  • Candied hibiscus flowers, or dried cranberries

Filling

  • 5 egg yolks
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup key lime juice
  • 1 tablespoon key lime zest
  • 2 cups whipped cream cheese, softened
  • 1 cup mascarpone cheese

Meringues

  • 5 egg whites
  • 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoon white vinegar

Directions

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C (375 degrees F).

To make the crust: Put all the chocolate wafers in a resealable bag and then crush them into fine crumbs. Pour the crumbs into a medium mixing bowl and add the melted unsalted butter, then mix to incorporate. Mould the crumb crust into the bottom of a springform pan, about 1/4-inch thick. Bring it up the sides a little bit, about a 1/2-inch. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Remove and cool on counter.

To make the coulis /syrup: Heat a pot over medium heat. Pour in the water, sugar and bring to a boil. Add the key lime juice and candied hibiscus flowers, stir. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 10 minutes, until slightly reduced.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F).

To make the cheesecake filling: In a large bowl add the egg yolks, brown sugar, key lime juice, lime zest, and whisk together. Add the cream cheese and mascarpone then mix with electric beater for another 15 seconds. Set aside.

To make the meringue: Whip the egg whites together with 3 tablespoons granulated sugar and white vinegar. Delicately fold this meringue into the cheesecake mixture. Pour evenly into the springform cake tin over the chocolate crust.

Place 2 layers of wide aluminum foil into a large roasting pan. Put the cake in the middle of the foil. Bring the foil up the sides to create a seal, do not cover cake. Pour water into the roasting pan, half way up the sides of the cake tin. Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour 30 minutes depending on your oven. Allow the cake to cool completely on the countertop, then refrigerate overnight. Serve each slice of this cheesecake drizzled with a tablespoon or 2 of key lime and hibiscus coulis/syrup.

*source: Nadia G.’s Bitchin’ Kitchen.

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Home Made Green Pesto

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup packed fresh basil leavesHome made pesto
  • 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
  • 1 small clove garlic
  • 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • Salt & ground black pepper
  • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Methods:

  1. In a food processor, blend together all the above ingredients except the extra virgin olive oil.
  2. While blending, slowly drizzle in the olive oil. Blend until smooth.
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Quick and Easy Home Made Hoisin Sauce

Ingredients:

  • 2 tablespoons thick sweet soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoons garlic black bean sauce
  • 1 tablespoon honey or molasses or brown sugar
  • 2 teaspoons white vinegar (optional)
  • 2 teaspoon sesame oil
  • Few drops of chilli sauce (optional)
  • 1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Method:

Simply mix together.

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Shiny Heavy Machine!

Test drove my shiny heavy machine today. (Yay! New toy! 🙂 )

Made two cakes and some Chelsea buns. Machine is great, unfortunately the cook is not so fab 🙁 . I thought that I am reasonably tidy when it comes to cooking, but today I was a very messy baker – flour, sugar, butter everywhere. Chelsea bun dough didn’t risen as much as I would like which is disappointing… 🙁 . Was it because of my heavy handed approach or not enough yeast being used I wonder?

Need more practice I think.

 

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49歲的心情

昨天是我的49歲生日. 就如我所願的這麼淡淡的過去. 早晨和家人到Bradgte Park 去晃盪, 享受難得一現的陽光, 都已經是春天了, 天氣還是這樣的刮著冷風. 然而站在山丘上俯視遠望, 心裡頭卻舒暢不已.

多年前讀過一本書叫做”40歲的心情”, 書中的諸位作家經由文筆流露他們的感觸和遠望. 我在30 多歲時讀了但不懂得體會, 心想等自己到了40 就或許懂得吧! 40歲來了, 也去了, 還是沒有太大的感觸. 如今再捧起這本書, 讀了兩三篇就看不下去了… 不是覺得感動, 而是覺得這些文章的源處是”為感觸文章而寫的感觸” 有些為賦新詞強說愁的感覺. 或許我沒有資格, 不該這麼批評這些名作家.

不得不坦白承認的是, 雖然有時很羨慕那些有才華, 有權勢的人; 當個平凡人到底是比較簡單的事. 管別人怎麼想, 只要仰俯無愧, 心中光明, 不辜負自己的生命 就也算是及格過關吧!

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Pottery Junkie

After more than ten years, I decided to take up pottery lessons again, but this time with serious determination of mastering the craft. Looking at all things I made, thought it might be interesting to compare them and find out whether I am making any progress this time round.

These were the stuff I made then:

  • Methods used: pinch pot, slabs, coiled pot.
  • Glaze: didn’t part of them, but never really learnt about the types of glaze

And these were the things I made since September 2012:

This time I am very fortunate to have an excellent mature tutor Mr Hinson to guide the class through different techniques, teach us the knowledge of various glazes, with various demonstrations.

In some ways, the projects I made this time were not as pretty or perfect as those made 10 years ago, but I am happy with them as I managed to do them independently from the beginning to the end.

  • Methods used: pinch pot, coiled, slabs, moulding, English slipware
  • Glaze learnt: earthen ware glaze, stone ware glaze, slip, trailing slip

So, as they say “practice make perfect”, I need to keep up with my learning, hopefully one day I can actually produce some perfect objects.

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Walkie! Walkie!

Ryan and I were out walking along Ashby Canal – from Donisthorpe to Moira this morning. Took the camera with me, so this walk took us over 2 hours but we saw some beautiful scenes.  Though cold, but felt energised after walking in this bright, crisp morning.

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Pottery Owl

Collected the 1st pottery that I made after started the evening course in September. Kind of pleased with the finishing result, only wish that I could be more artistic.