Five spice pork chops

The age old question of - what to cook? It struck me that perhaps its time for another 5 spice recipe, haven't done something 5-spice related for a long time. Inspiration came to me - if you can stud a christmas honey baked ham with cloves, you can certainly stud a pork chop with cloves. I added the brown sugar to replace honey, which tends to burn in the oven. Instead of doing the usual bake or grill, I decided to do a covered casserole so that it will retain its moistness, rather than having it all evaporate in the oven heat. The result was that generated a lot of juice which was retained which makes a nice sauce together with the marinade.

Ingredients

2 pork chops

1 tsp 5 spice powder

1 tsp brown sugar

1/2 tsp mixed spice

Cloves

1 tbsp light soya sauce

1 tbsp shao shing wine

Method

1) Marinate the pork chops for 15 mins. Stud the pork chop with the cloves. Pat dry and place into the casserole and cover.

2) Preheat the oven and bake at 200 deg C for 12 to 15 mins until cooked.

3) To make the sauce, pour out the juices and mix with the marinade. Thicken the sauce either the corn flour mixture of by reduction.

Pear and white fungus soup

Wanted to make this for a long time but never had the chance. Surfed and found a few recipes, and these were the easiest which I adapted. Benefits of Honey link and Soup Queen link. I was too lazy to double boil, and so I just used my special AMC pot's heat retaining properties, but this recipe is for normal pots. The result went down well, even with a year old toddler.

Ingredients (feeds 10 - yes there are a lot of people to feed in my extended family!)

5 pears, Chinese Ya pear or fragrant pears are both ok

10 - 15 red dates

2 bundles of white fungus

1 packet (about 150g) winter melon strips

Approx 2 - 3l of water

Method

1) Soak the white fungus in hot water for 20 minutes. Once softened, remove the hard yellow core and cut up into bite-sized pieces.

2) Pare and core the pears and slice them 1/8 inch thick. I soak them briefly in some salt water to prevent them from turning brown.

3) Pour dates and pears into a pot, and add enough water to cover all the ingredients.

4) Bring to a boil and boil at medium heat for 20 minutes. Turn down the heat to a simmer for 10 minutes. Add the winter melon strips and white fungus and simmer for another 20 minutes. If you prefer less crunchy fungus, you can add it earlier, around the time u turn it down to a simmer.

5) Serve either warm or ice cold.

Casserole chicken

This is my mom's recipe, which we ate our way through our childhood. After she passed, I spent quite a bit of time experimenting and trying to recall from my childhood the possible things she might have put into the pot. And then I remembered that my mom is like a Jamie Oliver - bare basics. And so that's what I did - bare basics.

So here it is, but altered to my own taste buds, but the basic taste is the same.

Ingredients

4 drumsticks (Mom used to use 1 whole chicken for the family)

1 tbsp light soya sauce

2 tbsp chinese wine

1/2 tsp sugar (I used brown since this is going into the oven so there will be a nicer caramelized taste but you can use ordinary white sugar)

Salt and pepper to taste

2 cups water

1 medium carrot and 2 small potatoes (optional - my mom always added them but I don't)

1/2 thumb sized ginger, sliced thinly

2 star anise

Method

1) Marinate the chicken with the soya sauce and chinese wine. Just 10 minutes should suffice.

2) Put everything into a casserole and pour the water in. It should just cover the chicken, but if you need you can top up with more water.

3) Bake at 180 dec C for 1/2 hour and serve with freshly steamed rice.

The first taste transported me back to my childhood!

Best Roast Potatoes

Taken from Jamie's Family Christmas ep 3 on Channel 4

Serves 6

Ingredients

• 1.5kg Maris Piper potatoes, peeled
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Olive oil
• 1 bulb of garlic, broken into cloves
• Red wine vinegar

Flavour combo 1:

• A good couple of lugs of olive oil
• A bunch of fresh rosemary, leaves picked

Flavour combo 2:

• 50g butter, cut into little cubes
• A bunch of fresh sage, roughly torn
• 1 clementine

Flavour combo 3:

• 2 tablespoons goose fat
• A bunch of fresh thyme, leaves picked
• A couple of fresh bay leaves

Method: How to make perfect roast potatoes

1. Preheat your oven to 190ºC/375ºF/gas 5. Peel your potatoes with a knife or speed peeler and cut any larger ones so they’re all an even-size - twice the size of a squash ball is about right. Wash your potatoes in cold water to get rid of any extra starch then tip into a large pot, cover with cold water and season well. Bring to the boil and cook for about 6 to 7 minutes, so that they’re parboiled, then drain in a colander and leave to steam dry for 3 minutes. Give the colander a bit of a shake to help chuff up the potatoes – this will help to make them super crisp later on.

2. At this point, you need to decide which flavour combo to go with. Tip your potatoes into a tray or pan in one layer, and add your fat – olive oil, butter or goose fat – then season really well with salt and pepper. At this stage, I’m not going to add any more flavour. Toss your potatoes in the fat, or use a spoon or fish slice to mix it all up. You could get the potatoes up to this stage the day before, simply cover them with cling film or tin foil and pop in the bottom of your fridge or in a cool place until you need them. Put your potatoes in the hot oven to cook for 30 minutes until lightly golden and three quarters cooked.

3. Now’s the time for my new trick. Gently squash each potato with a potato masher to increase the surface area – the more of your potato that’s in contact with the pan, the crispier it will be. Whichever fat you’re using, you now want to prepare the rest of the flavourings. Add a good lug of olive oil to a small bowl and add the herbs, garlic and a splash of red wine vinegar, then scrunch and mix it up a bit. If you’re using butter, peel in a good few strips of clementine zest with a speed peeler – you won’t eat these but they’ll add amazing flavour. Add the flavour to your potatoes and give the pan a good shake, then pop back in the hot oven for 40 to 45 minutes until perfect for your liking. You’re looking for gnarly, crispy, bubbly and delicious.

4. Transfer to a plate lined with kitchen paper to drain off some of the excess fat, then tuck in! I’d be happy with any of these flavour combos, but this year I’ll be going for butter, but maybe with the rosemary and garlic. So you really can mix it up however you like.

Breakfast Pear Pancakes

From Jamie's Family Christmas, ep 2 from Channel 4

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 cup of self-raising flour
• 1 cup of milk
• 1 large egg, preferably free-range or organic
• A pinch of sea salt
• 1 pear
• A few knobs of butter
• Natural yoghurt, to serve
• Runny honey, to serve

Method: How to make Poppy and Daisy’s pancakes

1. Put the flour, milk, egg and salt in a mixing bowl and whisk until smooth. Once combined, grate in the pear, core and all, then stir it through with a spoon.

2. Put a large pan on a medium heat and add a knob of butter. Once that melts, add the batter, a spoonful at a time. You’ll need to cook the pancakes in batches, cooking them for a few minutes until golden on the bottom then flipping them over and cooking for a few minutes more until they’re done.

3. When they’re golden and fluffy, serve them right away with a dollop of natural yoghurt and some runny honey drizzled all over the top.

TIP: If you sweeten the batter, thicken it with just a little more flour then pour them into a Yorkshire pudding or muffin tin they also make the most delicious muffins.