Butterscotch & Chocolate Cookie Cake

Again, cake decorating is not my forte and I do prefer making savoury food but every now and again I get a baking/dessert binge! 

The recipe is a simple butterscotch sponge with a buttercream I 'luckily' messed up. I got the quantities wrong and added too much chocolate, but it worked out well and formed a soft "crust" with lots of crunchy cookie bits in it.

Sponge Ingredients

225g Butter, softened

225g Self raising flour, sieved

225g Caster sugar

4 Eggs

2tsp Baking powder

1tsp Vanilla extract (not essence)

3tbsp Butterscotch angel delight

Method

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees celcius and grease two 20cm sandwich tins and line with baking parchment. 

Beat together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy. 

One egg at a time: beat the egg into a bowl, whisk air into the egg, add the egg to the sugar/butter and mix thoroughly. Do this with each egg until all the eggs have been added. Then add the vanilla extract and stir in

Gradually sift the flour, baking powder and angel delight into the eggs/sugar/butter mix folding in the flour thoroughly. Until you end up with a smooth cake batter

Divide the batter evenly between the two tins and using a palette knife spread the mixture evenly in the pan. 

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a skewer pierced in the cake comes out clean.

Place the tins on a wire rack and let to cool

Buttercream Ingredients:

75g Butter

175g Icing suger, sieved

115g Galaxy Cookie Crumble bar

Method

Mix all the ingredients except the chocolate together to create a usual buttercream 

In a bains marie gently melt the chocolate until it has become completely melted. Gradually stir into the buttercream until all the chocolate has been used. 

Give it 5 or 10 minutes to cool at room temperature as the heat from the chocolate may affect the butter. After 10 minutes spread a third of buttercream over the first cake to use like cement, then place the second cake on top.

Using a palette knife spread the remaining buttercream on the top of the cake and even out. You can serve the cake on its own, with ice cream or cream poured over it. My preference is with a quenelle of lightly whipped cream (with half a tsp in the cream)

Sausage & Pearl Barley Cassoulet

I absolutely love autumnal hearty food and cassoulet is the best of a stew and bangers and mash (that is, if you serve it with mash!)

Cassoulet originates from the southern regions of France and would typically contain pork sausages, haricot beans and use duck or goose fat as a base for the sauce. It's named after it's cooking pot the cassole- a deep earthenware pot.

I would always use a herby/peppery sausage for this dish. Lincolnshire or Cumberland would be ideal. My recipe has some personal touches. The pearl barley bulks the dish out and the black pudding adds a rich peppery note to it, but you can leave it out and/or add extra vegetables such as parsnips or turnips if you wish!

One time I made this dish I didn't have any potatoes but had a large swede in the fridge and would highly recommend serving the cassoulet with mashed swede as the creamy flavour of the swede balances well with the richness in the cassoulet.

Ingredients

9 Large sausages

400g Shallots

500g Chantenay Carrots

100g Black pudding

100g Pearl barley

400g Tin chopped tomatoes

400g Tin baked beans

1tbsp Tomato puree

1tbsp Dijon mustard

1tbsp Balsamic Vinegar

1tbsp Worcestershire Sauce

2 Knorr rich beef stock pots (or similar)

500ml Red wine

Salt & Pepper

Method

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees celcius. Peel and take the tops of the carrots, peel the shallots and chop the black pudding into 1cm thick discs

Pour half a tbsp of olive oil into a frying pan and turn the hob onto a high heat. Brown off the sausages and cook the black pudding lightly on both sides. Transfer the meat to a casserole or oven proof dish

In the same pan melt a knob of butter and add the vegetables- cook for 5 minutes and transfer them to the casserole as well.

Pour the wine into the pan along with the chopped tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, worcestershire sauce, dijon mustard and tomato puree and some salt & pepper. Heat for 5 minutes, then pour into the casserole.

Clear any residue in the pan with around 100ml of water and pour that into the casserole along with the pearl barley and baked beans. Cover and place in the oven to cook for around 1 hour- making sure to stir and taste for seasoning. If you need to thicken the sauce, put 1tbsp of cornflour into a mug and stir in some warm water and add to the dish- return for to the oven for 10 minutes to cook off the cornflour.

Chocolate Pepsi Cake

I can't take full credit for this recipe, it comes from James Martin's 'Desserts' book, however I slightly adapted it to suit as a dessert when working as head chef.

It sounds odd at first but the Pepsi enhances the flavour of the Chocolate, making it deliciously rich and almost gives the cake a little 'fizz' to it. It's got to be full fat pepsi too- I tried with diet and max but just doesnt work!

Its fantastic served as it is with cream poured over it or warmed up in the microwave so the icing goes all gooey and served with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream

For The Cake

250g Butter

250g Self-raising flour

300g Caster sugar

3tbsp Cocoa powder

1tsp Vanila extract

1tsp Baking powder

200ml Full fat pepsi

75ml Whole milk

2 Eggs

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees celcius and grease a 24cm cake tin and line with baking parchment

Sift the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder into a mixing bowl. In a jug have the pepsi, milk and vanilla extract ready to add to the mix. Crack the eggs into a separate bowl and beat well.

On a low heat melt the butter. Don't melt in the microwave as you want to clarify the butter-  this means that you will see a clear layer on top of a milky layer. 

Once the butter has reached this stage, add it into the dry ingredients, pour in the milk/vanilla/pepsi mix and beaten eggs. Mix gently but thoroughly.

It will look very runny at this point but don't worry as it will solidify during cooking. Pour into the baking tin and bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin on a wire rack before turning out- if you turn out too early it will just fall apart.

For the icing:

60g Softened butter

200g Icing sugar

2-3tbsp Cocoa powder

2tbsp Pepsi

1tbsp Whole milk

Sift the icing sugar into a mixing bowl, add the rest of the ingredients and mix thoroughly until it reaches a smooth "paste" using a palate knife or silicone spatula spread the icing over the top of the cake. Enjoy!

Carrot And Coriander Soup

I developed this recipe when our veg supplier had a glut of carrots and was selling them at a fantastic rate. You can get a kilo of carrots for around 60p all year round so this is a great recipe to do meals on the cheap.

The cardamom, cumin and ginger is a personal touch but if you can leave them out if you prefer.

Ingredients

1.6kg Carrots

3 Large onions

30g Bunch of Coriander

2L Chicken/Vegetable stock

10 Cardamom pods

1/2tsp Ground ginger

1/2tsp Ground cumin

Olive oil

Salt & Pepper

Method

Take the tops off and peel the carrots, peel and roughly chop the onions. Put a large saucepan/stockpot on a high heat with about 3tbsp of olive oil. When the oil is hot add the cardamom pods and heat until the pods have sightly browned. 

Take the pods out of the oil and discard and turn the hob down to a low heat, giving the oil a few minutes to cool down as well. Put the onions into the pan and sweat off with the lid on until translucent- make sure you don't brown the onions.

Add the ginger and cumin and a little salt & pepper and cook for a couple of minutes to let the onions absorb the flavour. Add in the carrots and the stock, increase the heat and bring to the boil.

Reduce to a medium heat and simmer unit the carrots are soft and then blitz with a stick blender or in a food processor. Return to a low heat. 

Strip the leaves off the coriander stalks and roughly chop. Add to the soup and let simmer for 10 minutes. Serve (swirl of cream optional!)

Cooking Steak

Every wednesday at the gastropub I worked at we'd hold a steak night and I came to the opinion that cooking steak is a delicate balance of science and art and you can't just stick to a set recipe- every steak is different.

I thought, like my potato post, i'd share a few tips that you can follow that will help your steak be tender and juicy no matter what. This will be a long post as there's a lot to write about!

Aged Meat
You'll notice that a lot of celebrity chefs and supermarkets are talking about aged beef and they're right to do so. After the animal is slaughtered and cleaned it's usually hung for a period of 21-34 days. 

This allows for two processes to take place. Firstly, moisture is evaporated from the muscle creating a greater concentration of beef flavour and taste. Secondly, the beef's natural enzymes break down the connective tissue helping create more tender meat.

Choosing your steak
What cut you choose is down to personal preference- I love rib eye as I find it has that perfect balance of tenderness and flavour. People will often choose fillet because of it's 'melt in the mouth' texture but because of the little amount of fat it will have less natural flavour than say a sirloin steak. ALWAYS look for a good amount of fat on your steak. If you choose a steak without any fat you might as well eat cardboard. FAT=FLAVOUR. It also helps to keep the meat juicy while it cooks. A good steak will have a nice thick amount of fat around the 'eye' of the meat and marbling of fat throughout the meat. Also look at the colour. Steaks that are bright red haven't been hung enough, look for a deep burgundy colour.

Rump: Taken from the back top end of the cow. It's full of flavour but is a lot firmer than other cuts. Because of the connective tissue it can be a bit chewy when cooked rare, so does need a bit more time in the griddle/pan

Sirloin: Sirloin is taken from the top of the animal just forward of the rump. Its a very tender cut but with less flavour than the rump. It carries only one strip of fat along the top of the steak means it's ideal for those that like it rare

Rib eye: Taken from the fore rib, it's beautifully marbled and has an 'eye' of fat in the middle. Its perfect rare or medium rare but if you prefer a more well done steak turn the heat down and cook for a bit longer to avoid the outside going leathery

T-Bone or Porterhouse: Cut on the bone the T-Bone comes from the rib end of the sirloin. With this cut you get the best of both worlds, you get sirloin on one part of the bone and fillet on the other. It's a thick cut and because it's two steaks in one and on the bone it makes cooking it difficult. I usually sear it on a really hot griddle and then transfer to the oven on a low heat

Fillet: This cut is taken from the inside of the Sirloin. It's a muscle that does absolutely no work and is amazingly tender because of the lack of fat, the downside is it lacks flavour and needs sprucing up with some sort of sauce. The fillet is divided into three types of cut. Filet Mignon is taken from the tail end of the fillet. Tournedos is the french term for a small compact steak and comes from the middle of the steak. The Chateaubriand comes from the thickest end of the steak and is ideal for beef wellington, or if you just love a big portion!  

Feather Steak: These steaks are taken from the blade of the cow and have a feather like marbling of fat in the middle. They're ideal for quick cooking and in sandwiches

Cooking your Steak
Forgetting cooking times if you follow these tips then your steaks will be amazing.

Take your steak out of the packaging: Whether it's from a supermarket or butcher, as soon as possible take the steak out of its packaging and put it on a wire rack in your fridge. Let the air get to it, this allows the enzymes to continue breaking down the proteins in the meat ensuring it stays tender

Let it get to room temperature: 
Imagine being freezing cold and jumping in a boiling hot bath. Your muscles will seize up. This is exactly the same principle with steak. If you take it straight from the fridge and put it in a searing hot pan then the muscle fibres will seize up and the steak will just lose any tenderness

Get the pan searing hot:
Whether you're using a frying pan or a griddle pan, make sure it is smoking hot. Not only will it avoid your steak stewing/boiling and losing any flavour and texture; it starts a process called the Maillard reaction. This is a process that develops all the flavours within the steak.

Oil and seasoning:
Make sure you oil the steak and not the pan. If the pan is swimming in oil then it will just focus the heat on the surface of the steak (stopping the Maillard reaction from taking place) so brush the steak with olive oil instead. DON'T season with pepper before cooking! At the heat needed to cook the steak properly the pepper will burn and taint the steak. Season with pepper after cooking but only use salt beforehand.

Cooking times:
As i said at the beginning of this post every steak is different so you can't use a set cooking time for rare or medium well. The best way to judge whether your steak is cooked to preference is to test it by prodding. The firmer the steak when prodded the more well cooked the meat is. Rare should be like prodding your cheek, medium rare the tip of your nose (also when blood starts piercing the surface of the meat thats a key visual pointer) your chin medium and your forehead well done.

Let the meat rest:
Rest the steak for half the time that you cooked it for. Transfer the meat from the pan to a warm plate/tray and cover loosely with foil, if you cover it tightly then the meat will sweat and lose moisture. Allowing the meat to rest makes sure that the juices, which have been driven to the centre of the steak by the heat, redistribute throughout the muscle fibres of the steak and be reabsorbed. This means that the meat will lose less juice when you cut it and be more juicy.

Happy eating!

  

Smoked Salmon & Chervil Risotto

I'm not a lover of salmon but I'm told this was a lovely dish by my customers! The key to a good risotto is tender loving care. You just need to be patient, keep stirring and add that stock little by little. The flavours all blend together, you get the smokey salmon, the freshness of the chervil and creamyness of the rice. If you cant find chervil then curly works great as a substitute.

A key tip for risottos is to keep the stock simmering on the hob while you're cooking the risotto. If you add cold stock into the risotto it will just slow down the cooking process and take longer and over cook the other ingredients- common sense really! This recipe will serve two

Ingredients
150g Arborio rice
170g Smoked Salmon, roughly chopped
1 Medium onion, finely chopped
1 Garlic clove finely chopped
1 Handful of chervil roughly chopped
1 1/2L Vegetable stock
250ml Dry white wine
1tbsp Butter
Salt & Pepper

Method
On a medium heat add a tbsp of olive oil and sweat off the onions and garlic. 

Increase the heat to medium-high and add the rice and cook for 5 minutes. Then add the wine and cook off the alcohol and reduce for 2-3 minutes. 

A ladle full at a time add the stock, constantly stirring the rice, allowing the rice to absorb the stock before adding another one. Keep repeating this process.

When the rice is 'Al Dente' or has a little bite to it, add the salmon, chervil and butter. Cook for 5 minutes to allow the flavours to mix and add a little more stock if necessary. It should be a creamy consistency.

Adjust seasoning to taste and serve

Vanilla & Double Chocolate Cake

I'll admit, when it comes to cake decorating i'm not the world's greatest but the flavour is all there. I've had a bit of a baking binge lately and this was one of my creations. I found a lovely recipe for a plain sponge in a Mary Berry book I had hidden away and adapted it and just used some white and milk chocolate spread in the buttercream.

Ingredients

Sponge:

225g Butter, softened

225g Self-raising flour

225g Caster sugar

4 Medium eggs

1tsp Baking powder

1tsp Vanilla Extract (not essence) 

1/2tbsp Golden syrup

Buttercream:

75g Butter, softened

175g Icing sugar

1tbsp Milk

2-3tbsp Milk & white chocolate spread

Method

Preheat oven to 160 degrees celcius and grease and line two 20cm sandwich tins

Cream the butter and the sugar together until pale and fluffy

Beat each egg individually and add to the mixture and then beat the egg one by one into the mixture and then stir in the vanilla extract and golden syrup

Gradually sift the flour into the mixture and mix thoroughly

Divide the mix evenly between the two sandwich tins and put in the oven. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a skewer comes out of the cake clean.

Place the cake tin on a cooling rack and let cool.

Meanwhile, make the buttercream by adding all the ingredients in (making sure you sift the icing sugar). When the cakes have cooled, turn out of the tins and peel off the baking paper. Spread half the mixture on top of one cake and then firmly push the other cake down  on top and then spread the remainder of the buttercream on the top of the cake.

Sweet Potato Soup

This soup is fantastic in the winter months and sweet potatoes are in season so it's a cheap meal! 

It's one of my favourites as it's extremely filling, has a great texture and is full of flavour. I tend to find potato based soups, like leek and potato tend to be quite bland which is the opposite with this recipe. If you fancy another layer of flavour roast some red peppers, take the skins off and add them in.

Ingredients

1.5kg Sweet potatoes

3 Large white onions

4 Large carrots

2tbsp White wine vinegar

1/2tsp Smoked Paprika

1.75L Chicken or vegetable stock

Salt & Pepper

Method

Peel and roughly chop all the vegetables

On a medium to low heat sweat off the onions with a touch of salt and pepper- cook them with the lid on and don't caramelise them. Cook until translucent.

Add the vinegar and carrots and cook for a further 2 minutes.

Add the sweet potato and stock and increase the heat. Bring the stock to the boil and then reduce to a simmer.

Cook until all the veg is soft and blitz with a stick blender or in a food processor.

Return the pan to a low heat and adjust the seasoning to taste.

Serve it with crusty bread and if you're feeling fancy a swirl of cream!

Soda Bread

This is a great recipe to have up your sleeve if you love fresh bread but don't necessarily have the patience! 

I love this recipe because it doesn't need yeast (a store-cupboard ingredient I often find myself without) and you don't need to let the dough proove. The reaction between the acidity in the milk and the bicarbonate of soda does all the rising. 

It goes great with soups or hearty winter warmers and makes great croutons for salads. Use this recipe as a base and experiment with different flavours; you could jazz it up byadding things like sundried tomatoes into the dough or just something simple like a tablespoon of dried oregano.

Ingredients

300g Strong bread flour

1tsp Bicarbonate of soda

1tsp Salt

250ml Whole Milk

1tbsp White vinegar

Method

Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees celcius, grease and line a baking tray and add the vinegar to the milk.

Place all the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl

Gradually mix the milk into the dry ingredients to form a dough

Roughly knead the dough but take care not to knead it too much as it'll push all of the air out of it.

Roll the dough into a dome shape and cut a cross about 1-2cm deep into the top.

Place on the lined tray and bake for 30-40 minutes. 

Moules Marinière

This mussels recipe was always a pub favourite, especially the summer. I used to serve a kilo of them with a big bowl of french fries and crusty bread. It's a great sharing dish with everybody getting stuck in and always looks good on the table.

I can't stress how important it is to thoroughly clean and check all the mussels. Not only do you not want to get bits of sand/shell in your meal but you really need to check each and every one of the mussells to check if they're still alive. A live mussel should either be firmly closed, or shut firmly when squeezed. Any that are from slightly open to wide open- discard otherwise you'll risk getting yourself or family/friends ill! 

Ingredients

1kg Live mussels

1 Garlic clove- crushed

2 Shallots- finely chopped

15g Butter

120ml Dry white wine

120ml Double Cream

A handful of parsley leaves- coarsely chopped

Salt & Pepper

Method

Give the mussels a thorough wash under running cold water. Pull out the fibrous beards and with a paring knife knock off any barnacles- or you could ask your fishmonger. Make sure to check for dead mussels by doing what I mentioned above.

On a low heat soften the garlic and shallots in the butter with seasoning- not too much salt as the shellfish will be salty itself. 

Add the mussels and the wine. Turn up the heat and then cover the pan. The mussels will steam in their own juices and open up within 3-4 minutes. Give the pan a shake every now and then.

Add the cream and parsley and return to the heat for 2 minutes or until all of the mussels have opened up. 

Take off the heat and serve in either one large sharing bowl with the cooking juices or individuals. Serve with plenty of crusty bread (and french fries). I like to have mine with a dry white wine like Chablis or Chardonnay

Potatoes

Following on from my post on roast potatoes and talking about how important the variety of potato is I thought I'd write a post on which varieties are best for different methods of cooking. You may not get all of these in the supermarkets but your local greengrocer may stock them.

Without getting too technical, Potatoes generally fall into two categories: floury or waxy. You can get potatoes that fall inbetween that are called 'all rounders' like Maris Piper or King Edward

Floury potatoes are high in starch and turn fluffy when cooked. This makes them great for baking, roasting and frying but they don't hold their shape so avoid using them in dishes like casseroles, gratins and potato salads.

Waxy potatoes have a low starch content that holds its shape well after cooking, this makes them ideal for exactly the dishes that floury potatoes aren't like gratins or potato salads or even just serving boiled.

Roasting, Frying, Chips

Rooster, Marfona, Nadine, Red Duke of York,

Exquisa, Melody, Charlotte, Desiree 

Chopin, Victoria, Annabelle, Harmony

Mashed

Apache, Estima, Fianna, Lady Balfour

Marabel, Romano, Saxon, Vivaldi

Jacket

Dunbar Rover, Cara, Innovator, 

Red King Edward, Rooster, Yukon Gold

Kerr's Pink, Shetland Black

Boiled, Steamed

Anya, Bambino, Carlingford, Corolle

Inca Dawn, Nicola, Dundrod, Estima

Galante, Marabel, Premiere, Osprey

Roast Potatoes

Something a lot of people seem to ask me is how to cook a good roast potato. Most people would say that goose or duck fat is the answer but a lot of it boils down to (excuse the pun!) the variety of the potato and preparing it in the right way. 

You can get main crop potatoes like Maris Piper and King Edward all year round but personally, I find these lack as much flavour as some of the early or late crop varieties. So if you can find the following potatoes in your supermarket or greengrocers then choose these over the regular varieties:

Rooster

Charlotte

Annabelle

Victoria

Red Duke Of York

Marfona

What you'll need:

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Cornflour or Semolina

Salt

You can substitute the oil for duck or goose fat but it's really not necessary.

Peel and cut your potatoes and put them in a large pan with cold salted water. Bring the water to the boil and allow the potatoes to parboil for 1-2 minutes.

Drain and place the potatoes on a cooling rack and leave for one hour. This is the important part- none of this putting back in the pan and shaking around business. The cooling will allow the starch to re-crystalise and will help form a crispy skin and get that inside nice and fluffy. 

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees celcius. When hot, pour a generous amount of oil into a baking tray and allow the oil to heat.

Dust the potaotes with the cornflour/semolina and put them in the tray, turning to make sure all the potatoes have had a covering of oil and season with salt (season with pepper after cooking or the pepper will burn). Cook for 40-50 minutes turning occasionally

White Chocolate & Salted Caramel Semi-Freddo

This is a really simple, but really delcious dessert. In Italian it means 'half frozen' and is basically what it says on the tin- a half frozen ice cream/mousse. You can experiment with a variety of flavours and stir in some of your favourite chocolate snacks- putting whole maltesers in is one of my favourites!

Ingredients: 

Butter for greasing

300g White chocolate

4 Eggs

100g Caster sugar

600ml Double cream

1tsp Vanilla extract

140g Crushed daim bars

Method

Grease a 1kg loaf tin and line with 2 layers of cling film, leaving enough overlapping to cover the contents of the tin

Break up the chocolate and melt in a Bains-Marie- you can melt it in a microwave but I always prefer to melt it this way to avoid it burning. 

Place the eggs and sugar in a mixing bowl and whisk until pale, thick and fluffy.

Put the cream and vanilla extract in a separate bowl and whisk until it forms soft peaks. 

Stir in the chocolate into the egg mixture and then fold the cream into the chocolate mixture. Freeze overnight.

10 minutes before you want to serve it, remove from the freezer and cut into slices. Then just let it sit at room temperature until it becomes 'half frozen'!

Chipotle Pulled Pork With Ancho Chilli & SoCo Glaze

Pulled pork has become extremely popular in the last couple of years and I've become extremely addicted to it! When I was in Los Angeles last summer any time I went out to eat I'd get the pulled pork. 

You can buy plenty of 'bung in the oven' pulled pork packs in the supermarket but if you make your own you get double the flavour and double the product. For the same price you can get about 6-8 extra portions of homemade pulled pork compared to a supermarket pack. You can get a decent sized pork shoulder for about £8-10.

If you can't get Chipotle & Ancho chillies just use regular dried chillies, you can also leave the Southern Comfort out if you havent got any to hand/don't want to buy any. 

Ingredients

1 Pork boneless pork shoulder

4 Cloves of garlic

1 Bunch of fresh thyme

3 tbsp Light brown sugar

5 tbsp Smoked Paprika

2 Chipotle Chillies

1 Ancho Chilli

5 Red Onions

50ml Southern Comfort

5 tbsp Tomato Ketchup

1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Method

Start off by removing the rind from the pork shoulder. It won't matter if there's a small amount of fat left from taking this off as it will all render down while it's cooking and help keep the meat nice and juicy. If you can't do this your butcher will do it for you.

Don't throw away the rind as you can make some great crackling to snack on from it!

Crush the garlic, chop the chipotle chilli and strip the leaves off of half of your thyme stalks. And in a large bowl mix the garlic, paprika, sugar, chills and thyme leaves with enough olive oil to create a paste. Rub this all over the pork- make sure you cover every centimeter of the pork to get maximum flavour.

Leave this for at least an hour- it's even better if you do it 24-48 hours before you want to cook it.

Pre-heat your oven to 130 degrees celcius. Peel and halve the onions. In a large crock-pot or oven proof dish place the onions and remaining thyme stalks to form a base for the pork. Pour a cup of water in to stop any direct heat getting to the pork. Put the pork on top of the onions and thyme and cook for an hour without the lid on the pot. After that hour put the lid on and cook for a further 5 hours. Take out of the oven and shred the meat

Sieve the cooking juices and strain the fat. Add the onions back to the juice and blitz with a stick blender/food processor. Sieve again to thin out and add the southen comfort, tomato ketchup and worcestershire sauce. On a low heat reduce the juices by half and then stir into the meat. 

Serve the pork how you want! It's great on it's own in a bun but you can use it in salads or in potato skins.

BBQ Pizzas

I tried this out when I spent last summer in Los Angeles. Was far too hot to keep the oven going and everybody had a gas BBQ so this was an ideal recipe. It's great for kids parties or a grown up pizza party as they work best when you make an individual pizza and everybody can build their own pizza! For this recipe i'm just going for an easy Margherita, but you can add whatever you want.

Ingredients

Pizza dough (see my other posts)

Pomodoro sauce (see my recipe)

Monterey Jack cheese (cheddar is just as good)

Parmesan or Pecorino cheese

Salad to serve (I like to use rocket)

Method

Dust your work surface and rolling pin with plain flour and roll out your pizza dough into individual rounds (don't worry about a perfect shape, square pizzas would fit on the grill better!)

Warm your pomodoro sauce on the hob and grate your cheese.

If you've got a gas BBQ set it to a medium heat. If you use coal then you can work with a high heat just be careful not to char your pizza base.

Bring all the ingredients to the BBQ. You can either use olive oil but I found those 'low cal' spray oils work best for this- brush your pizza base with olive oil or spray with the oil spray and place on the BBQ. 

Don't try to move the base too early otherwise it'll just stick to the grill and fall apart so after a minute use your spatula and see if you can ease the base from the grill. When you can, spray/brush. the side of the base that's up with oil

Straight away spread the pomodoro over the base and top with cheese. Close the lid on the BBQ and allow it to cook until the cheese has melted.

Transfer to a plate and top with Salad.

Pizza Dough

Full credit has to go to Gordon Ramsay for this recipe. I've tried a few different dough recipes and this one is tried and tested. It works the best out of the recipes i've tried and I've loved using it for my pizza creations.

Ingredients

2 tsp Fast action dried yeast

250ml Tepid water

600g Strong plain bread flour

1 tbsp Olive oil

Method

Stir the yeast into the water and leave it to stand for a few minutes.

Tip the flour into a food processor and add the oil, then with the processor running on low, pour in the yeast liquid. Keep the food processor running until the dough is smooth and leaves the side of the bowl clean.

Transfer the dough to a bowl, cover with cling film and leave in a warm place to proove until it's doubled in volume.

My Pomodoro Sauce

In Italian Pomodoro literally translates as 'Tomato' so this recipe is just a posh name for a Tomato Sauce. A lot of people would say that you can just go ahead and buy a pasta sauce and admittedly there are a good amount of products out there. But they're mostly packed full of preservatives, sugar and you wont get the satisfaction of knowing you made it! 

If you've not got sundried tomatoes its not a problem, i just like to add them for extra richness and you can substitute the brown sugar for caster or even granulated- it just helps bring the sweetness out of the onions along with the vinegar.

Ingredients

400g Passata

1/2 Carrot peeled and grated

1/2 Red onion finely chopped

6-8 Sundried tomatoes chopped

2 tbsp Balsamic vinegar

1/2 tbsp Brown sugar

1 tbsp Oregano

Salt & Pepper

Method

On a low heat sweat the onions and carrots together with the lid on the pan until the onions are translucent. Don't caramelise/brown the onions! You don't want the onions to overpower the taste of the tomatoes.

Slightly increase the heat and add the sugar, sundried tomatoes and vinegar. Cook until the vinegar has reduced slightly.

Add the oregano and cook for a further 2-3 minutes

Add the passata and season

Reduce the liquid by half and adjust the seasoning to taste. You can either blend the sauce with a stick blender/in a food processor if you like a smooth sauce, or just use it as it is.

Stir into cooked pasta and sprinkle with Parmesan

Cream Of Tomato Soup

I love homemade soups. They're fresh, cheap and far more filling than tins! I like to use different varieties of tomatoes to give a variety of flavour, so go ahead and stick any tomatoes you can find at your green grocers or supermarket.

Ingredients

2 Large onions

250g Chantenay carrots (or 3 large carrots)

20 Salad tomatoes

600g Cherry tomatoes

2 Beef tomatoes

3 Chicken stock cubes

1 tbsp Tomato puree

1 tbsp Balsamic Vinegar

1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce

150ml Single cream

Salt & Pepper

Method

Chop all the vegetables (you can leave the skin on the carrot, just wash beforehand). On a low heat sweat off the onions with the lid on. When they've turned translucent add the arrots. Cover and cook for a further 5 minutes.

Increase to a medium heat and add the balsamic vinegar and worcestershire sauce. Cook for a minute to remove the acidity and then add the tomato puree and the fresh tomatoes with a little seasoning.

When most of the tomatoes have released their water add the stock cubes- there's no need to pre-make stock as the tomatoes should provide enough liquid but top up with water if all the ingredients arent covered.

On a low heat simmer until the carrots are soft enough to blend.

Blitz with a hand blender (or in a food processor) and pass through a sieve. Return the soup to a pan, add 100ml of cream and adjust the seasoning to taste. Cook for 10 minutes to cook off the cream.

If you feel like being posh serve with a little swirl of cream and crusty bread.