Roast Pork Belly, Red Pepper Pesto and Chocolate Pudding

As I had a pork belly in the freezer which was begging to be cooked, and after watching my favourite (as I have stated on many occasions), cook on TV the other week, I thought there was no better time to try her recipe. My mums favourite meat is pork and as she had been over during the day to spend some time with Reubs while I took Harry on a day trip it seemed that all things were lining up to make this. The pork belly is cooked in a hot oven to get the crackling going then you pour in some milk and reduce the temperature to finish the cooking process. I have heard about this method of cooking with milk and was really keen to give it a go. It was delicious! The fat rendered out of the pork and that combined with the milk, made the meat beautifully tender. It was good to have lost most of the fat off the meat in the cooking process as pork belly can be pretty fatty and therefore it can be quite rich and not very good for you. I served it with red pepper pesto, thyme roasted waxy potatoes and sauteed courgettes. It was so nice to see some of the summer vegetables creeping onto the shelves again. Prices are still pretty horrendous but at least the product in grown in NZ. I prefer to eat locally grown fruit and vegetables as I hate the idea of the food miles just to import usually substandard product.

Anyway I'll get off my high horse (which I really shouldn't be on anyway) to tell you about the red pepper pesto. It was lovely! Again red peppers are pricey a this time of year so I only made half the quantity, (which made loads anyway). The fresh coriander gave it a different flavour altogether from a pesto made with parmesan and somehow made it taste more light and 'fresh'. It could be used in so many different ways. You could have it on pasta, use it as a dip, put it on a sandwich, use it as a sauce for loads of different things and so on.

I didn't post a photo of the pork first up as I don't think it looks very pretty on the plate but here it is....

Because mum was here I thought I would whip up a dessert. I have made this self saucing chocolate pudding for years and it is a fantastic, easy and very yummy recipe. I have found that all too often these puddings can be insipid and flavourless but this one does not disappoint. We had it with softly whipped cream. It's also good with ice cream and, (unfortunately for me), reheats very well the next day. 

Self Saucing Double Chocolate Pudding

1 c self raising flour

1/4 c cocoa

1/2 c firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 c milk

1 egg

60 gms melted butter

1/2 c chocolate chips (you could add a bit more if you wanted)

Mix and put into a greased dish.

Sauce

1/2 c firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 c cocoa

Mix together and sprinkle over the batter

Pour over 1 3/4 c boiling water.

Bake at 180 C for about 50 mins.

Dinner ala Rick Stein

Tonight for dinner I really felt like something fresh and tasty. For ages I have had Rick Steins latest book called 'Far Eastern Odyssey' and even though I have looked through it avidly, I have not yet made anything out of it. This is typical of me. I'm totally obsessed with cookbooks and cooking magazines but end up feeling totally overwhelmed by all the wonderful recipes I want to make that I end up sticking to my favourites. The only deviation from this is baking recipes as I often try new things. Anyway my lovely friend Michele (otherwise known as Moish) has also bought this book and the other day she made these Pork Balls with Peanut Dipping Sauce. This inspired me to get motivated and as I had some pork mince in the freezer it was a toss up between this dish and one which had an Asian style broth with grilled pork patties and fresh rice noodles. I decided to make my decision when I got to the Fruit and Vege shop. They didn't have any fresh rice noodles and nor did the butcher have any chicken carcasses left to make the stock so the Vietnamese pork ball it was. The sauce is a Peanut dipping sauce but isn't anything like the Indonesian or Thai style. It has Tamarind pulp and fish sauce amongst other bits and pieces. I thought it was lovely but I think I prefer the Thai or Indonesian style a bit better. The pork balls were very easy to make and the only thing I changed was that I cut back on the garlic a bit as to get the 20 gms garlic meant putting in about 7-8 decent sized cloves. I put in about 4 and I think that was plenty as the recipe only had 500 gms of pork mince in it. Although the meatballs were supposed to be threaded onto a skewer and grilled, I just cooked mine in a frying pan. I served them with plain rice and a salad of iceberg lettuce, cucumber, carrot and fresh coriander and mint. In a deviation from the recipe I ate mine wrapped in the lettuce leaves with the sauce and fresh herbs. All up it was a lovely light but tasty and filling dinner.