Pork and olive stew

This is perfect with some basmati rice, and some greens on the side. It vanished fairly quickly, but that’s because you have an ongoing love affair with olives – and have had since you were about six months old.

You’ll need:

400g pork shoulder (or something that will do well when stewed for a very long time), cut into chunks
half a jar of black olives
a tin of chopped tomatoes
1 onion, finely sliced
1 red pepper, sliced
a splosh of olive oil
1 tsp paprika
thyme, black pepper, a little salt

First of all, stick the oven on low – maybe 160 degrees C, and fish out a good, ovenproof casserole dish. We’re still using the old one your Dad went to college with.

Brown the pieces of pork in a little olive oil in a frying pan, and then tip into your casserole dish (I used some of the oil the olives were packed in). Fry the onions in the same pan until they turn translucent, and then add the red pepper. Cook for another couple of minutes until it too has softened. Chuck in the tin of chopped tomatoes, a good sprinkling of thyme, the paprika and lots of black pepper – and then bring to the boil. Tip this into the casserole dish with the pork.

Put the lid on (or cover with foil), and then sling the casserole dish in the oven for a couple of hours. Keep an eye on it – you may want to add a little more water near the end to stop it sticking. It’s ready when the pork falls apart – but it’ll keep in the oven for as long as you need it to (as long as you add enough water).

Courgettes stuffed wth pork, rice and mint

The weather's gone all summery, so we required something Mediterranean-ish for tea. Sadly, it won't last...

Makes enough for two. You'll need:

two large courgettes, halved lengthways, and with the insides scooped out
120g cooked rice (about 50g dry rice)
200g pork mince
a large handful of mint, finely chopped
an onion, finely chopped
a clove of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Stick the oven on at about 180 degrees C.

Brown the mince in a frying pan (you may need to add a little olive oil if it's very lean). Add the onion and garlic, and fry until they go translucent. Add the spices, and cook for a couple of minutes. Chuck in the innards of the courgettes, and cook for another couple of minutes until they've mushed down.

In a large bowl, mix this onion/courgette/mince conglomoration with the cooked rice. Add the chopped mint, and season with lots of black pepper and a little salt.

Place the courgettes in a baking dish, and stuff them with the rice/mince mixture. Cover with foil, and bake in the oven for 30 minutes, or until the courgettes have cooked through.

We ate this with a ridiculously hot tomato and chilli sauce. It'd also be nice with something a little tamer.

IKEA-style Swedish meatballs

You really like these at IKEA, so I attempted to make them at home. You were less convinced - probably due to the fact they came with rice, rather than chips!

The recipe's adapted from one on the Good Food website. You'll need:

400g pork mince
1 medium onion, very finely chopped
85g breadcrumbs (you could make them fresh, but I just used some from the freezer, without defrosting)
1 egg, beaten
a good slosh of olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons flour
500ml chicken stock (I used a stock cube, as I'd run out of anything more exciting)
a large handful of dill, finely chopped
salt and black pepper

First of all, you need to make the meatballs - that's the fun part. Chuck the mince, onion, breadcrumbs, egg and dill in a bowl, and squidge everything together. Shape into small balls - this made about 35-40 small ones (they tend to brown and cook faster, but you could go large if you like - just allow a little longer).

Heat a good slosh of olive oil in a large frying pan, and brown the meatballs over a reasonably high heat . You'll probably need to do this in 2 or 3 batches, unless you have an enormous frying pan. Take them out once done, and store them on a plate.

Remove any debris from the frying pan (there's inevitably a few bits of onion left lurking), and add the butter. Let it sizzle for a few seconds, and then sprinkle on the flour. Stir, and leave to cook for a couple of minutes - it'll turn gloriously brown, and take on the flavours of the meatballs. Season with salt and lots of black pepper.

Slowly and carefully whisk in the chicken stock - I did this in 3 or 4 stages, to avoid any lumps. Simmer until the sauce has thickened, then add the meatballs back in. Cover the pan with foil, and leave for 10-15 minutes, until the meatballs are completely cooked all the way through. You'll probably have to add a little more water/stock so the sauce doesn't turn to sludge.

We ate this with some rice, and some spring greens/broccoli doused in lemon and olive oil.

Pork with date and apple stuffing

Yet another use for cooking apples (Grandma gave us a bag a couple of weekends ago).

You'll need:

pork tenderloin (enough for three)
a good handful of breadcrumbs
1 egg, beaten
a handful of dates, roughly chopped
a cooking apple, peeled, cored and grated (or finely chopped)

Turn the oven on to about 190 degrees C.

Take your pork tenderloin, place some clingfilm over the top, and hit repeatedly with something heavy - I use my Grandma's old wooden rolling pin. The pork will gradually flatten in a pleasing fashion.

In a bowl, mix together the breadcrumbs, grated apple and chopped dates. Add the egg, and a couple of tablespoons of water, and mix everything together into a horrific mess.

Tear off a sheet of foil, and place the flattened pork on top. Dump the stuffing into the middle in a long sausage, then roll up the foil lengthways (which also rolls up the pork). Twist the ends, so that you have a giant meaty shiny Christmas cracker. Bake in the oven for about 40 minutes - then open up the foil, and see how well cooked the pork is. If you like a little bit of crispiness to the stuffing and/or pork, roast for another 10-15 minutes in the oven with the foil left open.

We ate this with some steamed green cabbage drizzled in soy sauce, and a mix of carrot and sweet potato.

Stir-fried pork with vegetables

We attempted to eat this with chopsticks. Lots of noodles went on the floor, but you had great fun.

You'll need:

a couple of boneless pork steaks, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
2 teaspoons cornflour
vegetables - we used peppers, onions and carrots (yes, not particularly Chinese I know, but it was whatever we had in the fridge)

First of all, stick your pork, a teaspoon of soy sauce, sugar, rice wine and cornflour all in a bowl, and leave to marinate. You could do this a while before you need it (overnight even), and just leave it in the fridge.

Slice your veg into strips. Heat a couple of tablespoons of oil (preferably sunflower or vegetable) in a frying pan/wok on a very high heat, and then stir fry the pork for a couple of minutes (or until it colours). Take out, set aside and keep warm.

In the meantime, add the veg to the wok, and stir fry for another couple of minutes. Chuck the pork back in, add a little water (or stock if you have it to hand) and cook for a minute. Pour in the rest of the soy sauce, mix well, and then serve.

We ate ours with noodles, but it'd be equally good with rice.

Roast pork (with especially crispy crackling)

I think crackling is probably your Dad's favourite thing (after curry and chicken dripping - not together, obviously). We made this for Big Meal For Jesus (BMFJ) yesterday, to Gran's instructions.

It's safe to say we've only just about recovered.

You'll need a large piece of pork to roast - we bought a shoulder of pork from North Acomb farm, but a pork loin would be just as nice.

First of all, you'll need to stick the oven on - at about 200 degrees C. You want it nice and hot for the first 20 - 30 minutes.

Then, wash your pork rind, and dry, really really thoroughly with some kitchen towels. Score the rind with a very sharp knife. Don't just do this a couple of times - you need to make a proper job of it. Then massage in some salt (not a huge amount, as you don't want to make the meat underneath too salty).

Stick in the oven for 20-30 minutes, then turn the oven down, and leave to roast. As a rough guide, you need to roast the meat for 30 minutes per 500g...

Once it's done, leave it to rest for 10-15 minutes before carving. We ate this with nubbled sprouts, parsnips, roast potatoes and Owen's special stuffing. It were great.

Pork and cabbage parcels

We spent this afternoon running round Homebase like a bunch of loons, looking for wallpaper samples. Sixteen rolls of paper later, we've found one we all quite like for the loo. You liked pretty much all the ones we tested up against the wall, especially if they were pink.

Tea was adapted from a Hugh Fearnley Whernley recipe. His leaned towards Eastern Europe, with dill and sour cream, whereas this one is a bit more Greek in its origins.

You'll need:

tomato sauce
a largish onion, finely chopped
two tins of chopped tomatoes
a clove of garlic, chopped
salt/pepper/thyme

Fry the onion and garlic in a little olive oil until they soften and turn translucent. Add the tomatoes and herbs, bring to the boil, and leave to simmer for 20 minutes or so.

parcels
12 large cabbage leaves (we used white cabbage, but savoy would also be nice)
500g pork mince
an onion, finely chopped
half a mug of rice
an egg, beaten
a few mushrooms, chopped
oregano, salt and pepper

Add a mug of cold water to the rice, and cook until soft (there shouldn't be any water to drain away). Stick in a large bowl.

Brown the pork mince, then add the onion, and fry until it's softened. Add this mixture to the rice.

To the rest of the pork/onion juices in the pan, add the mushrooms, and fry for a couple of minutes (you might need to add a little extra olive oil here). Chuck in your bowl with the rice/pork etc. Add the beaten egg, season well with the herbs/pepper, and squidge together.

Take your 12 large cabbage leaves, and blanch for 3 minutes in some boiling water. I had to do this in two batches, as I only had a small pan on the go. Shake most of the water off, and then stick a very large tablespoonful of the pork/rice mixture in the middle of each leaf, and fold up. Place fold side down in a large baking dish. Repeat ad nauseam until all leaves are parcelled.

Pour the tomato sauce over the top, and then stick in the oven at 180 degrees C for 30-40 minutes. We ate ours with grated cheese on the top...

Goulash

Slightly adapted from a Jamie Oliver version, and perfect at the end of a freezing cold day. You had a scarf, hat and gloves on, and ran all the way home from nursery to keep warm.

You'll need:

pork shoulder (I had about 400g of pork shoulder steaks, which I chopped up into chunks)
a couple of onions, sliced
a couple of peppers, sliced
a tin of tomatoes
half a teaspoon of paprika
half a teaspoon of hot smoked paprika
half a teaspoon of caraway seeds, ground
salt and pepper
a little wine vinegar (a couple of tablespoons)

Brown the chunks of pork in your stew pot, in a little olive oil. Chuck in the onions and the spices, and cook until the onions have softened and gone translucent. Add the peppers, and cook for a couple of minutes (I think some mushrooms would also go down well - so you could add them here).

Pour in the tin of tomatoes, the vinegar, and the salt and pepper and leave to simmer gently for a very long time - at least a couple of hours - until the pork falls apart. I did this on the hob today, as it's a bit ridiculous leaving on our oversized oven for a smallish pot of stew, but you could just bung it in the oven on very low.

We ate this with couscous, and some green vegetables. It'd also be lovely with rice, maybe with a little plain yoghurt or soured cream on the side.

Meatballs

It was an afternoon of biscuit making, followed by some squidging about of raw meat. It doesn't get much better than that.

I borrowed this from Nigella's How to Eat (her section on kids' food is excellent), and adapted it so it tasted a bit less mousse-y.

This makes lots and lots of meatballs - I'd say enough for 4 grownup portions and at least one toddler.

500g mince (I used pork mince)
a couple of slices of bread, turned into breadcrumbs in the blender (actually, I've no idea if it was only a couple of slices - I found a bag of breadcrumbs in the freezer that I'd made a couple of months ago from the ends of the loaf)
some flat leaf parsley, chopped and chopped until it's very small
one egg, beaten
salt and pepper
an ounce or so of parmesan cheese, grated
a little flour

Stick the breadcrumbs, mince, parsley and egg in a bowl, and squidge them all about till they're mixed nicely. Add the salt, pepper and parmesan cheese. Mix wildly again.

Shape the mixture into little balls (you loved this bit), and roll in a little flour (you need two plates at this point - one with a little bit of flour on it for rolling, and an empty plate to put the finished meatballs on).

Drizzle a little olive oil in a frying pan, and then brown the meatballs in batches, turning them carefully.

We had our meatballs with some rice and a tomato sauce - essentially the pizza sauce I normally make with a tin of tomatoes, a chopped onion and some herbs. Once I'd browned the meatballs, I dropped them into the tomato sauce, which had been simmering for 15 minutes or so. I then left the whole lot to simmer for another half an hour (adding a little extra water along the way now and then, so the meatballs had lots of liquid to cook in), until the meatballs were completely cooked.

They were quite possibly the best meatballs I've managed to make.

Pork tenderloin stuffed with prunes

We spent the afternoon at the Baltic, looking at the Yoshitomo Nara + Graf exhibition. You loved the little dog castle/kennel, and Captain Jack had a whale of a time talking to the dogs.

Consequently, tea was a little bit late.

This makes enough for three large people (Ian joined us for tea), and a small one:

a large piece of pork tenderloin
an onion, finely chopped
a couple of handfuls of prunes, stoned and chopped
salt, pepper

Start with the prune stuffing - fry the onion in a little olive oil, until it turns translucent. Add the prunes, and a little water, and cook for 10-15 minutes. The prunes will absorb the water, so you might have to add a little more from time to time (you could also add some madeira, or a little white wine at this point to give the whole thing a bit of a kick).

Lay the pork on a piece of clingfilm, and stretch another sheet of clingfilm over the top. Bash away at it with a rolling pin, or some other large wooden object (you loved this bit). Once it's flattened, carefully spoon the prune mixture in a line down the middle, then roll up the pork (I secured this with a few cocktail sticks, but I'm sure there's a proper trussing method you could use involving string and all sorts).

Roast in the oven for 30-40 minutes, until the top of the meat goes slightly crispy. We ate ours with some steamed leeks, and boiled new potatoes from our pots in the garden.

Very sticky pork ribs

For once, it's stopped raining, so we had something for tea that was a bit summery round the edges, with lots of salad and yet another pilaf.

I nicked the idea from Nigella Lawson's Forever Summer but tinkered with the recipe - she adds a couple of chillis (which would be lovely, but would have made it far too hot for you), and lots of chopped spring onion, which (a) would have been destroyed in the oven and (b) we didn't have.

This was enough to cover 12 ribs:

2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1.5 tablespoons dark soy sauce
a piece of ginger, peeled and sliced
1 tablespoon runnyish honey
some pieces of star anise
some pieces of cinnamon
a dribble of sesame oil
a tablespoon of sunflower oil

Mix all the ingredients together in a jug, and then pour into a freezer bag. Add the pork ribs, tie up the bag, and slosh it all about, until they're covered with marinade. Leave for a long time in the fridge (all afternoon turned out to be perfect).

Shove in a roasting tin, stick the lid on, and put in the oven at 200 degrees C for about an hour. You'll then need:

1 tablespoon more of runnyish honey
a little sprinkling of Chinese five-spice

Drizzle/sprinkle this concoction over the top of the ribs, and then bung them back in the oven (minus the lid) for another 15 minutes or so. Turn over, swish about in the sticky stuff at the bottom of the tin, and return to the oven for 15 minutes. They should look dark brown, crispy and very very sticky. Mmmmm.

Pork and vegetable stir fry with noodles

Your dad came back late from the Big Chill today, so you had tea on your own in the kitchen - not completely on your own, as I sat next to you at the toddler-sized table, and attempted to drink a cup of tea.

This is one of your favourites - it works just as well for big people, but they don't get quite as excited by the idea of squirting a tiny fish full of soy sauce all over the noodles.

If you're making it for us three, you'd have

pork - I used a couple of lean pork chops today, but you could use pork loin instead
an onion, sliced
a pepper, sliced
some carrot, finely sliced lengthways
some spring onion
a clove of garlic, sliced
fresh ginger, finely chopped
(you could also add some beansprouts, celery, or anything else crunchy)
noodles

Cut the pork into thin strips. I stuck them in pretty much as is today, but you could always marinade them for an hour in a little soy sauce mixed with rice wine, a spoonful of honey and a little fresh ginger grated on top.

I do the noodles first - then they're ready and waiting to go into the pan/wok once everything else is done. It's a right pain faffing on with kettles of boiling water/draining noodles once you're in the middle of making sure the stir fried veg doesn't stick. So get them sorted - add some boiling water, and cook for about 3 minutes. Drain using a colander, and then rinse under the cold tap so they stop cooking, and hopefully don't stick together.

Heat some oil (preferably sunflower rather than olive) in a frying pan/wok until it's very hot. Chuck the pork in, and keep moving around so it doesn't stick too much. Once the pork's turned white, and started to go brown, chuck in the garlic and ginger, and stir fry for 20s or so. Add the veg, and stir fry for a couple of minutes. Try a piece to see if it's still too crunchy, or just cooked enough. Carrots are a good bet for this.

Anyway, at this point hurl the noodles in. Swish about, taking care to not let them stick ti the bottom. They inevitably will, and you will swear once you're washing the pan up, but nevermind.
You could add some soy sauce/rice wine at this point, if you feel so inclined, or leave it plain, so everyone can add their own afterwards.

Serve. Get the chopsticks out. We've taken you to Wagamama enough, so you should be pretty good by now.