Chinese style braised Pork rashers with Asian greens

Ever wandered past the pork section in woolies and seen pork rashers & wondered what the heck do i do with those?? Well I found the answer - this is delicious!  Soo guilty but its sweet & salty chinese pork belly goodness.  Enjoy on a cold indulgent night :)

Recipe from Julie Goodwin's 'The heart of the home' recipe book.

Serves 4

Ingredients
1.5kg Pork rashers (pork belly strips) - this is the amount in the recipe. I cooked 8 & it was plenty for 2 with leftovers so maybe go by 4 strips per person.
1tsp  Chinese Five Spice
5cm piece ginger peeled & finely sliced (into matchstick-type pieces)
4 garlic cloves - crushed & sliced
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup oyster sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp chilli powder
2 tbs corn flour

1 Bunch of Bok Choy, or pak choy or similar

Rice to serve

In a large pot over medium high heat, place the pork with 3 cups of water. Add the chinese five spice, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, oyster sauce, brown sugar & chilli powder. Stir together and bring to the boil.

Reduce the heat to low and simmer uncovered for about an hour or until the pork skin is gelatinous and the meat tender.

Remove the pork from the pot and increase the heat to high. Cook for 5 mins at a rapid boil to reduce the sauce by around half.

Dissolve the cornflour in 1/4 cup of water and stir into the sauce. Simmer for a minute or so until the cornflour is cooked in and the sauce has thickened.  Serve the rashers with fluffy white rice & a side of pan tossed asian greens with a sprinkle of sesame oil if you have it in stock.

Yum.

Mediterranean Chicken - So cheap & easy!

This ones a great regular recipe because its cheap, using chicken drumsticks & cutlets, and can be packed full of veg if you'd like. Also its super easy.

Serves 4

Ingredients

4 Chicken Drumsticks
4 Chicken Thigh Cutlets (or thigh fillets, or marylands, whichever.)
1/2 cup pitted olives
1 red onion - sliced in wedges
1 tin chopped tomatoes (400g)
1/2 cup dry white wine (optional - can use chicken stock to replace)
1 zucchini - diced
3 garlic cloves - crushed
2 sprigs rosemary
lemon wedge

Cooked rice to serve

Tune oven to 220 degrees fan forced.
Start by browning all chicken pieces in batches with a little olive oil.  Add these to a large oven proof baking dish.
Sprinkle overtop with olives, onion, zucchini, garlic, rosemary, and drizzle over white wine & tinned tomatoes.  Season with salt & pepper.
Should look a little something like this:

Place uncovered in oven for around 20 mins & turn mix around once during this time. This should brown on the top.
Now removed & cover with aluminium foil & reduce oven to 150 degrees. Place back in oven & cook for around 2 hours.
Now remove & uncover again, turn the mix about a bit, and put back in oven on 180  to brown on top & reduce the liquid a bit (20 minutes ish.).

All done!  I take an extra 5 mins & go through to pull the meat off the bones (for fussy husband) but this is easy because by now the meat falls off the bones anyway.

Squeeze the lemon overtop & Serve with fluffy rice!

Not the most gourmet of photos but the husband wanted his dinner so i had to hurry :)

Lunchbox staples: Banana & Choc Bit Muffins

These are a regular feature in our house. I was given a recipe for muffins a while ago by a good friend & since then after many attempts & much criticism from the husband that they werent "cakey" enough, its been tweaked til I/he was happy with them.

Now these are far from a healthy treat but you can substiute the butter with olive oil & the sugar with honey if you'd prefer.  But comon. These are way tastier.

Makes 12

Ingredients
2 cups Self raising Flour
3/4 caster sugar
3 eggs (you can get away with 2 just fine. the 3rd egg makes it 'cakier')
1 tsp vanilla essence
125gm melted butter
1 overripe banana, mashed
1 cup milk
1/2 to 1 cup  choc chips - add as much as you desire
Baking Paper or muffin cases

Tune fan forced oven to 180 degrees.   If you are using baking paper, cut squares around 10cm x 10cm (ish) and press into muffin tray. I honestly find baking paper way better if you can be bothered to cut them up. No sticking at all. Otherwise use muffin cases.

Combine sifted flour & sugar into a large bowl.

In another bowl, combine wet ingredients - whisked eggs, vanilla essence, melted butter, mashed banana, milk.  Combine these well.

Make a well in the dry ingredients bowl & add the wet ingredients.  Using a wooden spoon or something similar, make large turning movements to fold in all the ingredients. Do not overmix - this will produce tough muffins.  It may take a few turns to get all the flour combined in but dont worry about small pockets of flour, these will cook out. 

Finally add the choc chips & give a light stir.

Add about 2 tbs to fill each case in muffin tray.  I fill to the brim because this way they overflow & look like those lovely muffins you see in the cafes.

Bake for around 20 mins or until lightly golden brown & a skewer comes out clean.  Its worth watching the oven closely - you dont want to overcook.

These will last around 3 days in the pantry or up to a week in the fridge.

Enjoy!

Sundays are made of these..

Poached Eggs, Bacon, Spinach, Avo & Vege relish on toasted Turkish Bread.

Ahh yum yum yum.  Snoozy sunday brekky. I dont think a recipe is required for this? I just wanted to show off what i ate thismorning pretty much.  I have however found the best way to poach eggs (that im aware of) is to get a large pot of water between simmering & boiling, add a few dash's of vinigar and slowly as you can drop the egg into the water. It looks a mess but it all comes together in the end. If anyone else has a better suggestion for this please post :)  I will however suggest using a good dollop of this stuff:

So delicious!!

Finish off with a drink by the fire & this is our sunday sorted :)  Hope you all had a great weekend!!

Lazy saturday lunch. Homemade Ribbon Pasta with proscuitto, torn mint, peas & parmesan

My first recipe post!! More than a little excited.  This idea, while not a new one, has been in the works for a while so feels good to finally get it underway. Righto, moving on.

Our lazy Saturday lunch – this isn’t the quickest recipe to make but I feel its worth the effort.

I tore this out of a Country Style magazine while waiting in the doctors office. Yes im one of those people.  I have begun making pasta myself when time allows and gradually feel im getting the hang of it.  This uses a pasta machine which not all households have but its just as easily done with a rolling pin.  Served at room temp, the flavours of this pasta salad  are fresh & sharp but have a beautiful soft texture if you get the pasta right.  

This is a Steve Cumper recipe (originally a Maggie Beer) from the Country Living Oct 2011 issue - though i have made some alterations.

Ingredients

2 & 1/3 cups ‘00’ pasta flour  (you can find this in woollies.)

Pinch salt

4 eggs

300g prosciutto, thinly sliced

2 cups cooked peas (good substitute also would be quick pan fried snow peas or any crunchy greens)

¾ cup torn mint leaves

2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/3 cup white wine vinegar

1 cup grated or crumbled parmesan

Clear your kitchen bench top to have a good sized clean & dry area for kneading the pasta dough.  Make a pile of the pasta flour on your benchtop, add salt.  Using a fork, make a rough well in the centre sufficient enough for the eggs.

Crack eggs into the centre – try to make sure the sides are tall enough to stop overflow.

Using a fork again begin whisking the eggs into the flour, gradually drawing in more flour as you go. As the wet mixture thickens, ditch the fork and use your hands.  Draw & roll the flour & eggs together and begin kneading.  Work the mixture until it is thoroughly combined & a smooth on the surface.  Check that it is combined well enough by pulling it apart & checking for pockets of flour. If you find any, keep kneading.

Now roll the mix into a ball, wrap with clingwrap & put aside for at least half an hour. I left mine for a good few hours so you can make this in advance.

Before creating pasta – get a large pot of salted & oiled boiling water on.

Childs play

If you have a pasta machine -  Unwrap the ball & push the ball into a disc & cut it into quarters.  Beginning with 1 of the quarters, roll it through the machine on setting 1,  once through, fold it onto itself again (I wish I had taken a photo of this but I forgot. Dang. Lesson 1 learnt.) The dough will be a oval shape on the first run through fold both sides in as if your closing cupboard doors. (heck I hope that makes sense.) and run through again and again until you have a nice rectangular shape. You’ll learn to pull a little when needed as it runs through to get the right shape.

Sprinkle with flour between each setting & run through all settings until you reach 7.  You’ll probably need to cut the pasta in half by around setting 4 as it gets pretty long.  Lay out the pieces & using  sharp knife, make long cuts creating ribbons about 2-3cm wide. Don’t be perfect with it -  think rustic.  Lightly flour pieces before resting them on your countertop. Don’t overlap them if you can help it.

Using a rolling pin – ok, I haven’t personally done this but I have been told its pretty easy. Unwrap the ball & push the ball into a disc & cut it into quarters.  Beginning with one quarter, roll out pasta with rolling pin, trying to maintain a roughly rectangular shape, until you have a thinness of around your average linguine pasta (about 1mm thick). Cut into 2-3cm wide ribbons – try not to make them longer than, say 20cm. Its got to be easy enough to eat.

As you make each batch of pasta (about 8 ribbons or so) throw it into the boiling water for around 4 mins.  Use a strainer to fish them out & blanch in cold water. Thoroughly shake dry & toss olive oil through the pasta with your hands to prevent sticking. Set cooked pasta aside in your serving bowl. With each fresh batch you add to the bowl – give it a mix with your hands to prevent sticking.

Now all the hard works done! 

Tear up the prosciutto into long strips, add the cooked peas, torn mint, & sprinkle the cup of parmesan overtop.  Whisk together the vinegar, olive oil & salt & pepper & trickle overtop of individual serves when serving.

Enjoy!

This is home ec.

Hi and welcome to home ec. !   This blog is designed to share my home ideas to help with household dilemma's such as "what the flip do I make for dinner tonight??".  I am a housewife & a mother of 2 young brats (3 years old & 4 mths old) and the idea behind this page is to share what money-saving, time-saving & delicious discoveries I've found through my last 4 years of marriage.  Prior to marrying Ben, I rarely cooked, never baked, and had never budgeted for a thing.  So, being thrown into the world of house-wifery, I was out of my depth.  Through many, many mistakes over this time I have found which tried & true recipes work in the weekly dinner rotation & how to make some awesomely delicious meals using everyday, found-in-the-pantry items. Think Julie Goodwin stylie.  Most of what I make is made from scratch, saving time, money & also making you feel pretty damn awesome for actually making something from scratch. Not all recipes are my own & I’ll give credit where credits due & add links to any beautiful recipes I’ve found & tried myself.

On this page I’ll be posting as regularly as my grommets allow me to, updating you with photos of what I’ve done for meals this week with the recipe entailed.  Included in this will be sweet things that are great for lunch boxes. I have a husband that eats like a horse so I have to keep the pantry well stocked with ready to throw-in-the-esky snacks.

Also, you’ll find me putting up budget-saving ideas & tips, creative ideas to keep the little lids happy, and easy DYI home décor & small building projects using basic tools.

Anyway I hope you enjoy what I put up & please jump on & ‘like’ my facebook page to be updated with each new post. Thanks for listening!

https://www.facebook.com/homeecliving

Jen.