What's cooking?

I have had a great couple of weeks in terms of cooking great meals, but unfortunately the stress of just getting the meal on the table has meant I haven't had time for photography and proper write-ups.

So here's a re-cap of the last few creations I have made. I'll be sure to photograph them next time :)

Slow-roasted pork shoulder

Saturday night's winner was slow-roasted pork, seasoned with coriander seeds, mandarin and olive oil. This started by scoring the skin with a sharp knife, and rubbing in salt + coriander seeds, then pouring olive oil and mandarin juice over the top. I then seasoned the meat with rosemary and thyme, and more mandarin juice.
In the pan, I added more olive oil and the mandarin pulp, then covered the dish with tin foil and roasted on low heat for 5 hours.

Potatoes and kumara get added half-way through. They come out soft and sweet, though not especially crunchy.

Feta-spinach dip

For a party last week, I put on a really nice feta dip served with fresh bread. I made so much of the stuff it lasted a whole week, and meant I could enjoy it on sandwiches etc for lunch.
The basic recipe involved frying some spinach, onion and garlic with oil for a few minutes until the spinach reduced to a fraction of the original size.
Then add to a blender with 200g of feta cheese, and a cup and a half of plain unsweetened yogurt. Blend until smooth, and it's an easy and cheap dip that tastes great.

Slow-cooked chicken stuffed crust pizza with pesto

Last week we had a "pizza and wine night". The premise was that everyone turn up with an uncooked pizza, and we throw them all in the oven and polish them off one by one while enjoying good wine and good company.

Worked great, will do it again.

My pizza was a homemade base with a stuffed crust of sweet chili and cheese. On the pizza was a layer of freshly made chunky pesto, topped with lumps of feta cheese and slow-cooked chicken thighs, in large chunks. Topped with a small amount of cheddar cheese. It was a huge pizza, tasted great but looked even better.
The stuffed crust isn't hard to make if you are doing your own base, and gets a lot of "wows" from your guests. Give it a try.

Lemonade scones

Not my recipe, but a great idea anyway. I'll try to find a link, but basically these scones are made from self raising flour, fresh cream and lemonade, nothing else.
The taste was amazing, and I'm really impressed at what you can do with only 3 ingredients. The kiddies liked them too, and I think we are still cleaning strawberry jam out of the carpet.

Homemade icecream

Another 3 ingredient wonder from Nigella Lawson. I have never done my own ice cream before, but Nigella insisted and I guess I'm a sucker (she is a domestic goddess you know).
Fresh cream, icing sugar and some citrus of choice is all that is needed. I used sweet mandarins and lime juice.
Just like the book said, it was easy, didn't require any ongoing stirring, and the taste blew me away. It even lasted a few days in the freezer without going bad. Here's a pic of my efforts...

Some crock pots

I'm always putting interesting crock-pot meals together but there is no strict "recipe" as such - it's really just a collection of things I happen to have in the fridge at any given time.
So the crock-pot from the other night was especially good as I managed to make gravy beef taste fantastic with the perfect mix of ingredients (whatever they were).
It's not that I have anything against gravy beef, but a couple of months back I came home drunk and hungry and went to cook myself a big yummy steak. I got the wrong meat out of the freezer, and turns out what I thought was aged rump was actually gravy beef. Has to be one of the foulest and toughest steaks I have ever had.
So the successful gravy beef in the crock pot this week has got me back on track for enjoying this cut of meat again.

I think that's all I have been up to. I'll be snapping more pics for the site as soon as I catch my breath.
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