Cherry Pie No 2

You could say I am an infrequent baker... I last used REAL pastry to make a cherry pie in January 2012... Last week whilst the 'gluten free' Elizabeth was in the UK I was going to make another but didn't quite get around to it...

But yesterday...

With a freezer full of ready stewed cherries and the ready made pastry in the fridge it was Colin the pastry chef into action!

A slightly different approach to the last one in that we now own a suitable pie tin AND some blind baking balls... The tin was lined with the pastry and blind baked.

As the cherries were a bit watery when thawed out, on the advice from the expert, I added three teaspoons of arrowroot and brought them to the boil in order to thicken them...

These were then cooled and added to the pastry case.

 NOW promise not to laugh... There was insufficient pastry left for a full top so.......

The finished pie

had Elizabeth drooling... It tasted delicious AND its ALL MINE!!!

In the kitchen with Colin... (4)

The fourth in the 'series' is from the BBC and created by Cyrus Todiwala  of 'The Incredible Spice Men' and is called Pulled pork with cinnamon and clove. The original recipe can be seen here

My version uses a smaller roast of rolled pork (otherwise we would be eating it for weeks) 

I made the same amount of marinade which was divided into two, the second being bottled and kept for future use.  My marinade was made from...

• 1 tbsp broken pieces cinnamon bark
• 15 cloves
• 2 large red chillies
• 5cm/2in piece fresh root ginger, roughly chopped
• 4 garlic cloves
• 2 small red onions, coarsely chopped
• 1 long green chilli
• ½ tsp ground turmeric
• Juice of a lime
• 100ml/3½fl oz cider vinegar
• 1½ tsp brown sugar
• 25ml/1fl oz sunflower oil
• 1½ tsp salt

   

With a pestle and mortar, coarsely crush together the cinnamon and cloves. Gently toast this mixture in a dry frying pan over a low heat until a spicy fragrance emanates from the pan. Set aside to cool.

Put the cooled spice mixture in a blender. Add all of the remaining masala ingredients and blend the mixture to a relatively fine paste. Taste and adjust seasoning if you like.

Rub the masala all over the pork, and place the meat in a dish in which it fits snugly. 

The meat was marinaded overnight

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Pour the oil into a roasting tin and heat on the hob over a medium heat. Scrape any excess masala from the marinated pork, place the pork in the roasting tin and brown well on all sides. Transfer to the oven and cook for 30 minutes.

Reduce the oven heat to minimum. (You can now pour a few tablespoons of marinade over the pork for extra flavour.) Cover the pork tightly with aluminium foil, well tucked in so that the pork steams in the tin and the meat literally falls off when cooked. Cook for a further 3–3½ hours if using a rolled joint, although it may take as long as five hours. If you have the time, the meat will pull apart beautifully after 10 hours of cooking on a low temperature. If using smaller pieces or individual chops, adjust your cooking time accordingly.

Ours was cooked at 100C for 4 hours. This was the result...

It was, as they say, melt in the mouth but rather than pull it apart we sliced it like a traditional roast.

The finished article was superb with a great mild masala / spicy taste. 

If you want to cook any piece of pork, this is well worth a try... It is the third time I have done it and it will definitely will not be the last...

In the kitchen with Colin...(3)

The third in the 'series' is from a loose recipe card I have had for many years. It was most probably from a set given free in one of the weekend newspaper supplements.

The dish is Oriental Pork, which is pork (I used pork fillet) marinated in soy sauce and red wine for several hours and then cooked with grated fresh ginger, carrot, leek, and green pepper with frozen peas added at the end.

The pork marinade...

The ingredients.

Cooking the pork, which is then removed from the pan.

Frying off the vegetables.

With the meat and liquids back in the pan..

and the peas added

The finished dish served with basmati rice... yum yum.

Elizabeth loved it that much she has requested a large batch for our Boxing day meal with the family... So it looks like I will be BACK in the kitchen!!!