Bacon Jam 


Ingredients

  • 750g bacon
  •  2 large white onions
  • 1 large red onion
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 175 ml maple syrup (or golden)
  • Bunch of rosemary and thyme (tie with string so you can easily remove later)

Method

  1. Thinly slice the onions and garlic and put in a pan over a medium heat and sweat them down. Also add the bunch of herbs.
  2. Whilst sweating off the onions cook the bacon for about 10 to 15 minutes in the oven at 200 degrees C. Then leave them to cool.
  3. Once they have cooled down roughly dice the bacon and add to the pan with the onions and garlic.
  4. Add the maple syrup to the pan and then bring up to a boil almost and move then onto a low heat.
  5. Simmer away for a good few hours the longer the better keep stirring every ten minutes or so though so it doesn’t catch on the bottom of the pan.
  6. The jam will slowly get darker and darker after about 2.5 hours it will be a deep rich plum colour and ready for blending
  7. Blitz well and then place in a chinois or coulander to drain off some of the excess liquid.
  8. Use straight away of chill in an air tight container.

This jam is great with pork dishes or even better slathered over a beef burger with some cheddar or blue cheese… enjoy

Chorizo crumb 

This crumb is brilliant because a little goes a long way the flavour is so powerful you won’t need much to liven up a plate of food.

Ingredients:

  • 100g picante (or any cooking) chorizo
  • 80g plain bread, no crusts
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • 2 limes zested
  • 30g Parmesan cheese
  • 8g Maldon sea salt

Method:

  1. Remove the skin from the cooking chorizo and slice into small chunks. Place these into a saucepan on a low heat and cook very slowly and gently, this releases all the juicy oils from the chorizo. Do this for about 15 minutes.
  2. Now cut your bread into small cubes and add to the pan and stir until the bread soaks up all the oil released from the chorizo. Now pour the contents of the pan out onto a plate or tray covered with a paper towel and leave for ten minutes to remove some of the moisture.
  3. Preheat the over to 130 degrees Celsius rea day to dry out the crumb.
  4. Place your chorizo and bread mix into a blender and pulse until a crumb. Don’t worry if it’s not as fine as you would like it yet as you will blitz it again once dried out.
  5. Line a baking tray with grease proof paper and pour the crumb into this, also zest two lines and finely grated a clove of garlic in with the mixture also add your salt and give everything a mix in the tray. Now place this in the oven for 30 minutes to dry out.
  6. One out of the oven leave to cool. Whilst waiting for this grate 30 g of Parmesan cheese. When cooled tip everything into a blender including the Parmesan cheese and blitz until a nice fine crumb and then store it in an air tight container ready for use.

Hake / Wild Garlic / Tempura Flowers

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Pan Seared Hake / Wild Garlic Puree / Tempura Garlic Flower

Wild Garlic can be found in most forest areas so there is probably some growing less than a few miles from where you are right now.  It can be picked from March till around June time and can be used in so many dishes its a lot of fun to get creative with. Here I’ve simply done a Hake starter, small cubes of hake pan fried for a crispy skin and then roasted with butter and lemon juice, with wild garlic puree and tempura wild garlic flowers. Very simple dish but a very tasty one too.

Tempura flowers

Ingredients: 

  • 80g flour 
  • 100ml soda water 
  • 1tsp salt 
  • 1tsp pepper

Method:

  1. Beat everything together in a bowl until you make a smooth batter.
  2. Cut the flower down leaving about 10 cm of stem so you have something to hold on to when frying. 
  3. Dip the flower head in the batter by holding the stem and then spin the flower head to get rid of excess batter. 
  4. Hold the flowers in hot oil or a fryer at 180 degrees Celsius. Hold by the stem and keep in oil for about a minute and then leave on a tray lined with some paper towel to drain the oil
  5. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt to season

Wild garlic purée:

Ingredients:

  • 80g wild garlic
  • 2tbsp olive oil
  • 1tsp sherry vinegar
  • 5g salt 
  • 2tbs water 

Method:

  1. Blanche the garlic leaves in boiling water very quickly, they only need about 10 seconds then chill then again in ice cold water
  2. Blitz leaves and all other ingredients until smooth 


 

 

 

 

Cider Braised Pork Belly 

I briefly talked about the braised pork belly in my surf and turf article. I’ve cooked some more since then and this time remembered to take some photographs of the process.


So to recap trim the skin off the belly and de bone. Season well with salt and pepper and coat in fennel seeds then roast in the oven for half an hour (200 degrees C)

Fill the tray with Half cider half water and then cover well with cling film. Then foil over the top. Cook at 160 degrees for 2 hours or more you can’t overcook this piece of meat the longer the better.

Once out of the oven leave to cool down but  don’t let it cool down completely.  Whilst still warm wrap the whole belly in cling film and put between 2 flat surfaces e.g two chopping boards of 2 firm metal trays and then press down with a heavy weight and then chill. This isn’t vital but helps with portioning and presentation when serving.

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Home Made Bread (Fennel/Oregano)

Every Other Day at the swan we make a couple of big loaves of bread to keep us going we very rarely have to waste any as it flies of the shelf.

Ingredients: (for a smaller batch than we would usually make)

  • 200ml Evtra Virgin Olive oil
  • 40g Fresh Yeast
  • 50g Caster Sugar
  • 1tbsp Fennel Seeds
  • 1 tbsp Dried Oregano
  • 400ml Warm Water (not hot)
  • 1.1kg Bread FLour (1100g)
  • 1tbsp salt/ half a tbsp of Pepper

Method:

  1. Combine everything except the Bread Flour / Salt / Pepper in a bowl and stir well (until yeast has dissolved)
  2. Once the mixture begins to bubble on top (after about 15 – 20 minutes) you want to beat in the flour, Salt and pepper, do so gradually until it forms a dough which you then want to kneed for a good ten minutes (you will get tired and probably sweat…Maybe crack a window for this part)
  3. If your dough feels to wet and sticky just add a tad more flour .
  4. You now need to prove the bread for a good hour in your chosen baking tray, this could be a bread tin or you could decide to shape it into a loaf yourself, however which way you decide it will need to essentially double in size before its ready to go into the oven.
  5. A good tip to help the proving process is to put a black bin bag around your bread this creates a warm dark space for your bread to prove quicker.
  6. once your bread has doubled inside place it in the oven for 15 minutes at 200 degrees Celcius and then a further 20 -30 minutes (depending on loaf size) at 180 degrees.
  7. tap the bottom of your loaf and listen for a hollow sound, hard to explain via text but if it sounds hollow its ready if it sounds a bit dull its probably still slightly doughy in the center give it 5 more minutes.

 

World of opportunity

Written by Millionaire’s Digest Team Member: Sybil Mahlangu Founder & Owner of: Sybilfem Millionaire’s Digest Team, Contributor, Food & Drink and Writing Writer When many of us hear, “I’m a chef,” we often immediately think, “A chef in a restaurant kitchen,” but, there are many careers that develop out of studying culinary arts. Here are a few […]

via 5 Careers in the Culinary Field (2 min read) — Millionaire’s Digest