Smoked Pork Roast with Crackling

Crackling, if we ever move fron the UK, I will miss you the most... 

I had never heard of 'crackling' until I was forty and a newly minted British resident. Crackling is nothing more than the skin of the pig that is wrapped around a pork roast. It works a gastronomic hat trick by keeping the meat moist, uuuuuuuuuunnnnn-believably flavourful and lastly (bestly, too) roasts up into a crunchy, salty, rich nosh. Although crackling is meant to be served along side the carved roast, in my family's case, it is always eaten within seconds of cooling down and being chopped; on more than one occasion, fingers have been narrowly missed by the chef's knife as little hands dark onto the cutting board to snatch a crunchy rectangle of crackling.

Crackling is plentiful here in the UK; many Brits would not consider buying a pork roast without it. In the US though, it is unheard of. Bring your butcher a batch of homemade chocolate chip cookies then ask him to wrap the skin around a pork roast (make sure that he scores the skin before wrapping-- this helps it crisp up).

If you do not have a smoker (I've not got anything fancy, just a Webber charcoal grill), roast this up inside in the oven-- it will be equally tasty.


2 kg (4.5 pound) pork roast with crackling
1 large bunch rosemary
Sea salt chards or flakes

1) Get the grill, smoker or oven going. For my grill, I simply pile the charcoal up into a pyramid (as you would to cook burgers), and once the coals are ashen and red hot, push them equally to either side of the grill, place the grate on. Soak the wood chips for 30 minutes. For the oven: Pre-heat to 170C (350F).

2) Snake the rosemary snuggly underneath the pork roast-- sort of wedging it up into the meat. Rub the outside of the roast with sea salt. That's it. Scatter a handful of wet wood chips onto the hot coals then place the roast onto the middle of the grill, so that there are no hot coals directly beneath it. Cover and smoke for about three hours-- make sure to keep adding coals and more wood chips about every 30-45 minutes. In the oven: Forget about it and let it roast away filling your kitchen with the maddening aroma of pork, crackling and rosemary for three hours.

3) When the roast is mahogany in colour, remove to a platter, cut the butcher's twine off the crackling and remove the crackling from the roast. Place it into an oven set at 200C (400F) for 10 minutes to really crisp it up. Slice the meat, discard the rosemary and crack the crackling into bite size pieces.

Serves 8-10

Irish Soda Bread: Or, the best things to bake on Sunday morning

Irish soda bread takes about three minutes to mix up (literally) and just 30 minutes to bake (no rising time). It's great for the impatient baker. The hardest part about this recipe is not cutting a slice as soon as it is pulled from the oven, hot, golden, crunchy…

If you can manage, allow the bread to rest and cool for 15 minutes before eating slice after slice with lashings of butter.




Click here to watch JennyB demo this recipe

Basic, perfect soda bread

12 ounces self-rising flour

½ teaspoon baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)

½ teaspoon salt

½ pint buttermilk

Couple of tablespoons flour for kneading

This basic recipe is awesome as is, but you could also add a handful of grated sharp cheese, like mature cheddar, aged Gouda or Parmesan (scatter some over top before baking, too), or a handful or dried fruit. A teaspoon or two of dried herbs, like dill weed or caraway and a minced shallot or small onion.

1) Pre-heat oven to 200C (400F). Grab a large bowl and mix the dry ingredients together, stir in the buttermilk. If you are adding in cheese, dried fruit or herbs, mix those in now. Sprinkle over a bit more flour and knead for a minute or two (the dough will be wet, not like bread or pizza dough).

2) Turn the dough out onto a baking tray lined with parchment or a non-stick baking liner, shape roughly into a circle and cut a cross into the top. If you want the loaf to be shiny, brush with a whisked egg. Bake for about 30 minutes, until the loaf sounds hallow when the bottom is tapped.

Market Day Potato and Leek Soup

This soup is a generous soup; it can be as simple or elaborate as you like, and is almost impossible to screw up. Make it with salted water rather than chicken stock and it is vegan. Follow the recipe below, finishing with diced, smoked ham and shredded mature cheddar cheese and it is a stand-alone meal.

3 pounds potatoes (any type, the fresher the better), peeled and cut into chunks
1 and 1/2 pounds fresh leeks, (trimmed of very dark green bit and mustachey looking end), washed and cut into thick rounds
Chicken or vegetable stock or salted water

Finishing options: Cream, diced, smoked ham, grated mature cheddar cheese, crunchy croutons


Drop the potatoes and leeks into a deep soup pot and cover with stock or salted water to come 3 inches about the veg. Simmer until soft, about 30 minutes. Puree with an immersion blender, or transfer to a food processor and process. Alternatively, go way old school and mash with a potato masher for a chunkier soup.

Finish with a drizzle of cream (or milk, if you'd rather) and a scattering of ham, cheese and/or croutons. Let the kids add in the bits that they like, as if they are making the soup 'theirs'

Hard to say how many this serves, a lot depends on the pot you use. In my pot it made enough for 8 servings.

Oven Baked Fish Cakes

If you cook only one thing in your life, let this be it. I have made countless fish cakes—I LOVE fish cakes—but this recipe takes the cake. It is simply delicious. It is made with an ingredient I was unaware of until we moved to the UK-- smoked haddock. More delicate than smoked salmon, it adds so much to a regular fish cake. If you can not get your hands on smoked haddock, use 1 part smoked salmon to 2 parts fresh salmon or cod and don't cook the smoked salmon. 

1 pound potatoes, peeled

1 small yellow onion, minced

1 pound smoked, undyed haddock or cod

½ pound inexpensive, mild white fish (coley/pollock, cod, scrod, halibut, etc)

Small handful of chopped, fresh parsley

1 extra large egg, or 2 small ones, whisked

8 slices streaky, smoked bacon

1) Boil the potatoes. 3 minutes before they are done, add the chopped onion to the pot of potatoes to cook. Drain and set aside.

2) While the potatoes are boiling away, slip both fish into a saucepan and come close to covering with milk. Cover with a lid and gently simmer for 5 minutes, keep covered and remove from heat to steep for 10 minutes more.

3) Mash the potatoes and onions together. Add 2 tablespoons of the fish milk to the mash. Flake the poached fish into the mash, try not to brake up the fish too much. Stir in the parsley and whisked egg(s). Combine well, cover and set in the refrigerator for 30 minutes, but up to 24 hours.

4) Pre-heat the oven to 200C (400F). Spray a baking pan with non-stick spray. Shape the fish/potato mixture into 8 thick ovals. Wrap one piece of bacon around each cake, tucking the bacon ends beneath the fish cake. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the bacon is crisped up and the fish cake is golden in spots.

Fish cakes sans bacon...

Makes 4 servings (2 patties each). Great served with a poached egg on top for brunch, lunch or dinner.

B. Mary’s Crab Aspic

Aspic is very a very old fashioned type of dish. If you like Bloody Marys, you may just like recipe. I love it, for sentimental reasons… It's nice to serve as a light salad before a heavy entrée, or for a luncheon.

¼ cup orange juice

4 leaves gelatin

2 and ¾ cups tomato juice

Several dashes of Worcestershire sauce

2 teaspoons Old Bay Seasoning

1 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon prepared horseradish

2 green onions, trimmed and sliced thin

¼ cup pimento stuffed green olives, sliced

¼ cup celery, sliced thin

1 tin good quality crabmeat, drained (optional)

1) Place the gelatin leaves into a bowl with the cool orange juice. Allow to sit for 10 minutes, as you chop the rest of the ingredients.

2) Heat the tomato juice, Worcestershire, Old Bay, sugar and horseradish until simmering, remove from heat and tip in the prepared o.j. gelatin. Stir until the gelatin is dissolved, then add in the crab, olives and celery. Pour into small, individual molds and place in the refrigerator until set and firm (note: it will never get ‘hard’ just firm).

Makes 6-9 servings, depending on size of molds. To serve, place an aspic on top of lettuce. Can serve with a lemon wedge.

Easiest, Tastiest Beef Barley Stew

I love making a big pot of beef stew when it is cold and rainy outside. Living in the UK gives me the opportunity to make it alot. This recipe is utterly simple and absolutely doable when you have no time to prep, but loads of time to let the stew bubble away. I skipped browning the beef and use store bought beef stock-- even beef bouillon cubes work. Don't skip the anchovies (yes, anchovies!)-- they do not add a bit of fishy taste, just enhance the beefieness of the stew. Trust me on this one. All the ingredients sort of melt together (except for the beef) making a wondefully rich stew.

3 pounds cubed stewing beef
1 pound oxtail, cut into pieces (optional,  but adds alot of flavour to the dish)
1 large yellow onion, peeled and sliced thin
1/2 a celeriac root (celery root), peeled and shredded
1 tin diced tomatoes (juice and all)
1 cup beef stock or water with bouillon cubes
1/4 cup flour
1 cup red wine
3 anchovy fillets, rinsed
1/2 cup pearl barley

1) Place the beef cubes and oxtail into a deep oven-proof dish

(I use a very deep earthenware casserole dish).

2) Layer in the slices of onion,

...then the shredded celeriac

3) Shake the stock and the flour together in a jar until smooth then pour it, the wine and the tomatoes into the pot. Push the anchovies in there, too (just do it!).

4) Cover tightly and place into a 300F (150C) oven and forget about it. It will slowly simmer for hours (minimum 3-- in which case you need to raise the temp by 50 degrees-- but up to 6 hours), until the meat is ten-der. Mmmmmmmmm!

5) 45 minutes before you are ready to eat, take all of the meat out of the pot with a slotted spoon, chip away what you can from the oxtail (but it was more for flavour than its meat) and discard the remining tail. Pour the pearl barley into the (now) rich gravy. Stir to submerge the barley. Add the meat back in, cover and back into the oven it goes for about 45 minutes, until the barley is puffed and soft.

Serves 4-6 alongside some crusty bread rolls....

Celeriac and Stilton Soup

This soup could not be more simple...or delicious. It takes just 25 minutes to make, but tastes as if you slaved over it! Great for parties or just cuddled up at home on a cold winter night.

2 and ½ pounds celeriac (celery root), trimmed of tough outer bit and cut into large chunks
2 leeks, white and light green part only, trimmed, washed of grit, cut into chunks
8 cups chicken stock (or vegetable stock)
½ teaspoon celery seed (if you don’t have this—no worries)
6 to 10 ounces single cream (depending on how luxurious you want to be)
6 ounces Stilton cheese, crumbled (or any good quality blue cheese)
Sea salt to taste

1) Place the celeriac, leeks, celery seed and chicken stock into a large soup pot, cover and bring to a strong simmer. Once it is simmering start timing and cook for about 20 minutes, until the celeriac chunks are tender.

2) Use an immersion blender and puree the soup until smooth. Pour in the cream, stir. Remove the soup pot from the heat. Crumble in the cheese; stir until it melts then season with salt. Taste and serve.

Can be made the day before and gently reheated on the stove. Makes 6-8 servings.

Kedgeree

I’d never heard of Kedgeree before, but found it in many of the British cookbooks that I have been collecting since moving here. It is a Scottish dish intended for breakfast, but I served for a nice supper last weekend. It was so delicious, and I made so much that we had it again for breakfast the next morning.
You will see that there are Indian influences in this dish. It is my understanding that this is so because the Scottish troops took the recipe with them to Indian during the British Raj; it was changed, enhanced and returned to the UK a better dish.
I took this version of Kedgeree from a Gordon Ramsay cookbook—changed just a little of it—it is lovely.


675 mls or 3 and ¾ cups chicken broth
Pinch of saffron threads
½ pound fresh salmon fillets
¼ pound smoked salmon fillet
¼ pound raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 knob (tablespoon) butter
1 large French shallot (or two round shallots) finely chopped
½ teaspoon mild curry powder
350 grams or 12 ounces basmati rice
4-6 fresh eggs (number of eggs depends on how many people you are serving)
Handful of flat leaf parsley, chopped

1) Heat the chicken broth and saffron to a boil. Slip the salmon fillets in to the boiling stock and bring back just to a simmer. Cook gently for 4 to 5 minutes. Remove fish to a plate. Bring the stock back to a boil and add in the smoked salmon and shrimp, bring to a simmer and cook gently for just 2 minutes, until the shrimp are just pink and firm but still very tender. Remove to the same plate as the salmon.

2) Pour the stock into a bowl and wipe out the cooking pot. Add in the olive oil and butter and place over medium heat. When the butter is frothy, add in the chopped shallots and sauté until translucent—just a few minutes. Add in the curry powder and stir. Now tip in the rice and cook the rice until all of the grains are coated in butter/oil/curry powder. Now, pour in the stock, stir and bring to a gently simmer. Cover and cook for 10 minutes, making sure that it is just gently simmering, neither cooking too low or boiling. Try not to lift the lid, if possible. After 10 minutes, remove from the heat, do not lift the lid, and allow the rice to steam.

3) While the rice is steaming, flake the fish into large chunks; leave the shrimp whole unless they are quite large.

4) At the same time, bring a pot of water to a boil and gently lower as the eggs in their shells—you are poaching the eggs to serve on top of the rice, poach as many as you have eaters. Once the water comes back to a very strong simmer, set a timer and cook for 4 and ½ minutes exactly. This will yield cooked, but runny yolks. If you do not like runny yolks you must be crazy, you can hard boil the eggs and chop them up to add at the end.

5) Now, when the rice is done, fluff with a fork and stir in the parsley, then gently stir in the flaked fish and shrimp. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Mound onto individual plates. Very gently, peel the poached eggs, placing one on top of each dish of Kedgeree, salt each egg with flakes of seas salt. Serve immediately, letting the diners break open the poached eggs allowing the yolk to seep down into the rice

Serves 4-6 depending on hunger of guests.

Baked Potato Casserole

So many of the recipes I write about as having, ‘big flavors’. I love intense flavors. This dish, however does not have big, bold flavors. What it does have is that great comfort factor. Crunchy, savory potatoes, baked twice and topped with your favorites; sour cream, chives, cheddar cheese, even crumbled bacon if you like. It is a great way to use up left-over baked potatoes.

1 kg (a heavy 2 pounds) potatoes, any type you like, skins left on, baked and cooled
Vegetable oil, olive oil or melted butter
Sea salt
Toppings of your choice-- sour cream, chopped chives, shredded cheese, crumbled bacon…

1) Pre-heat oven to 200C (400F). Cut baked, cooled potatoes up into bit size chunks. You can use potatoes that have been baked the night before, or bake them earlier in the day and allow to cool at room temperature.

2) Toss potato chunks lightly with oil or melted butter. Sprinkle with salt, layer into a greased baking dish that will hold them snuggly-- this will create crunchy tops with soft bottom bits, if you want more crunchy, spread the potatoes on a larger baking sheet (lined with parchment paper) in one layer. Roast the potatoes for 25-45 minutes, depending on desired crunchiness.

3) If you would like melted cheese over top, scatter shredded cheese on during the last 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and drizzle with sour cream, sprinkle with chives or bacon-- whatever you like. Serve hot.

Serves 4