Blackened Rum-Spiced Pork Belly

This recipe caught my attention when I was watching TV chef Karen Martini whip it up on Better Homes and Gardens. As the dish requires overnight marinading, I made this recipe up on a long weekend and the results were just delicious! While the original recipe teams the pork belly with a Sesame Cucumber Salad, I found that freshly sliced cucumber with jasmine rice was just as good! 

Serves 6 | 20 minutes prep + overnight marinating + 40 minutes cooking

Ingredients

1.5kg pork belly, skin and bone removed

180g palm sugar, grated

150mL light soy sauce

3 Tablespoon Tom Yum paste

120mL dark rum

1 large brown onion, finely sliced

6 gloves garlic, crushed

60mL sesame oil

1 teaspoon ground white pepper

180mL coconut cream

1. To make the marinade, put all ingredients (except the coconut cream) in a large saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer, then cook for 10 minutes until mixture is reduced by half. Remove from heat and stir in coconut cream.

2. Score pork fat in a deep diamond / crosshatch pattern, then cut into 4cm-wide slices. 

3. Transfer cut pork belly to a glass or ceramic dish and pour over marinade. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight to allow flavours to soak in.

4. Pre-heat oven to 200°C. Put the pork belly in a roasting dish, reserving the marinade. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until cooked, basting occasionally. 

5. For the reserved marinade, put in a saucepan and bring the boil over high heat. Reduce the heat and simmer for 4 minutes or until marinade thickens and become a little bit sticky. 

6. When the thickened sauce is ready along with the pork belly, serve with freshly cooked jasmine rice and slices of fresh Lebanese cucumber.

Notes and Variations

I found the palm sugar ingredient in the Asian section of my local Woolworth's grocery shop. With the Tom Yum paste, I sourced small packet servings from the Asian grocer. While you can buy a jar for a few dollars, I found that the sachet sizes meant there was no left overs and no jar left in my pantry for months without use.  

** Original recipe from Better Homes & Garden April 2012 Magazine **

LaLa's Chorizo Pasta Linguine

When you plate this beautiful dish up to serve to your guests, it appears like you've been slaving away in the kitchen! Little do they know that it has so few (and easily accessible) ingredients and it took you next to no time to make; but they don't have to know that ;) This recipe is a fusion of my love of chorizo and Nigella Lawson's Linguine with Lemon, Garlic and Thyme recipe. So with that in mind, you can guarantee this is a fast dish to make without compromising on taste. 

Serves 4-6 | 20 minutes

Ingredients

250g sliced button mushrooms (one punnet)

2 Chorizo sausages, sliced thinly

1 250g packet pasta (thick Spaghetti or Linguini) 

2 teaspoon minced garlic*

1 Tablespoons lemon juice*

2 teaspoon dried Thyme* 

2 teaspoon dried Parsley*

Salt and Pepper to taste*

*These ingredients can vary according to the taste of the guest. Measurements provided in this recipe make for a strongly flavoured dish. 

1. Boil pasta as per packet instructions, then set aside. 

2. Fry the chorizo on both sides using a non-stick pan. When chorizo is browned on each side, keep chorizo aside but do not disregard the oil. 

3. Fry garlic, thyme, parsley and lemon juice using the chorizo oil. Then add mushrooms and continue stirring until cooked to desired state. 

4. Once mushroom is cooked, return chorizo and mix in the pasta ensuring the oils and juice coat the pasta. 

5. Serve up your Chorizo pasta to guests!

Crumbed Lamb Chops

When I look for recipes to try, the ones with the least amount of ingredients appeal to me. This is because when I come home from work, generally after an hour drive battling traffic, I'm craving for something wholesome and homely that is easy to whip up. I came across this recipe when I downloaded the All Recipes iPhone app and while the original recipe uses lamb chops, I used lamb shoulder cuts. I think this would work well on lamb french cutlets too if one had the means, but the recipe is quite simple with few ingredients, that I think the kids could get in on the action and help out. Coupled with mash potato and some root vegetables, this is a delicious meal that's quick to prepare and is versitile enough to be used not only on lamb, but other cuts of meat as well. Upon reading some of the reviews for this recipe, many have added additional ingredients to the crumbed batter, such as pre-mixed lamb herbs or parmesan cheese, refreshing this traditional crumbed lamb chop recipe. 

Serves 6 | 50 minutes
Ingredients
3 eggs
3 Teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
2 cups dried bread crumbs
12 Lamb loin chops (Lamb shoulder cuts appear in this blog)


1. Pre-heat oven to 200°C. In a medium bowl, combine the eggs and Worcestireshire sauce and mix.

2. Prepare a second bowl of bread crumbs.

3. Dip each chop in the egg mixture.

4. After dipping into the egg mixture, coat the chop with bread crumbs.

5. Place chops on a tray lined with baking paper. Bake chops for 20 minutes, then turn the chops over to cook for a further 20 minutes or until cooked as desired.

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

I am writing this blog post in haste as a few people have asked me how to make this delicious dessert. To me, its the cupcake of all cupcakes. If you are going to cook something naughty, you might as well make it good. And by gosh... red velvet cakes are GOOD! This recipe is inspired from Sweet Pea's Kitchen Blog, who in turn was inspired by Martha Stewart's recipe. 

(ps. I don't think too highly of this first picture. I think I might have to re-make them during the day so I can post a nicer looking cupcake. I'm sure my colleagues, who seem to score the left overs, won't be too devastated about it). 

Makes 18 cupcakes | 45 minutes

Ingredients

2 cups plain flour (sifted)

2 Tablespoons cocoa powder

1 teaspoon salt

1½ cups caster sugar

1½ cups vegetable oil

2 large eggs (at room temperature)

2 Tablespoons Queens Box Pillar Red food colouring

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup milk

1½ teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar

(for the icing)

220g Philadelphia cream cheese

3 cups icing sugar (sifted)

2 teaspoons vanilla extra

1. Preheat oven to 180°C and line muffin pan with paper liners. Mix together plain flour, cocoa and salt; set aside.

2. Beat sugar and oil using a mixer (with paddle attachment preferred) until well combined, then proceeding to  add eggs one at a time. 

3. Alternate in adding the flour mixture as well as the milk and food colouring in two to three batches.

4. In a separate bowl, stir together the baking soda and vinegar which will foam up. Add this to the batter and mix in. 

5. Fill the cupcake papers with batter. Ensure the batter is distributed evenly and is three-quarter's full. Place the muffin tray into the oven and cook for 20 minutes, rotating the tray half way through to ensure consistent baking. 

6. Pierce the centre of the cupcake with a toothpick; if cooked, the toothpick should come out clean. Transfer muffin pan to wire racks to cool completely before removing the cupcakes.

7. Combine the icing ingredients and mix together until smooth. Spread or pipe the icing onto the cupcakes.

Simple Banoffee Pie

I went to work one day and told my colleagues about the dilemma I was facing - I had some over-riped bananas and I didn't quite know what to do with them. I know I've posted a few banana-based recipes on my blog but I wanted to try something different. One of my colleagues suggested I try Banoffee Pie.

I did a quick Google search and found Taste Australia's recipe to be quick and simple. I knocked this up one work night to bring to work for my colleagues to try. I was nervous because not only had I not seen or know of this type of pie, I didn't even know what it was meant to taste like! When my husband and I tasted it, it was delicious but we weren't entirely sure whether what we were tasting was right. To my relief, my colleagues loved it and I was pleasantly surprised at how easy this recipe was!

Serves 12 | 20 minutes + chilling time

Ingredients

2x packets of Coles sweet shortcrust base (six to a packet)

1x 395g sweetened condensed milk

70g brown sugar

50g butter

Bananas

Thickened Cream for Dolloping

1. Place the pre-made shortcrust bases onto a baking tray and warm up in the oven for approximately 5 to 10 minutes on low heat. Remove from the oven and let it sit in the fridge until needed.

2. Over low heat, combine the sweet condensed milk, sugar and butter in a saucepan. Cook, stirring continuously until you get a nice, thick consistency. Be sure not to boil the caramel while mixing.

3. Once you get that thick consistency, pour the hot caramel evenly among all the bases. Place the caramel tarts into the fridge, covered with plastic wrap, to chill and set the caramel.

4. Once the caramel has been set, peel and thinly slice bananas to place on the top.



5. Top the pies up with a generous dollop of thickened cream and serve immediately to enjoy.

Teriyaki Salmon with Stir Fried Bak Choy

Happy New Year friends!

The last quarter of 2011 was absolutely crazy juggling full time work during the day, photography work in the afternoon and the family on top of that. So I'm really happy to be able to post something for you all today and really thankful that you are still around supporting this lil foodie blog of mine :) 

So my first food post for 2012 is this Teriyaki Salmon with Stir Fried Bak Choy dish. It all sounds fancy but it is so easy to prepare; a simple dish that can be cooked at a leisurely pace on the weekends. 

Serves 4 | 30 minutes plus marinating time

Ingredients

4 cuts of Salmon, (approximately 100g each)

120mL soy sauce

2 Tablespoons brown sugar

½ teaspoon minced ginger

2 Tablespoons wine vinegar

1 teaspoon minced garlic for teriyaki marinade

2 Tablespoons tomato sauce

2 bunches of Bak Choy, chopped and separated into stalks and leaves

1 Tablespoon oyster sauce

½ cup water

1 teaspoon minced garlic for bak choy

Olive oil spray

1. In a bowl, mix together soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger, wine vinegar, garlic and tomato sauce to make teriyaki marinade.

2. In a shallow tray, place Salmon skin up and pour the marinade over. Cover and refrigerate for one or two hours. 

3. After marinading, heat up a pan on medium-high heat and spray the surface with olive oil. Cook the Salmon skin-side down first. Depending on the thickness of the Salmon, it should take around 10 minutes on each side. 

4. Flip the Salmon over and once turned, add the remaining marinade to the pan. Once cooked, set aside until ready to serve.

5. Heat up a wok on high heat and spray with olive oil and fry garlic. Then add the stalks of the Bak Choy into the wok, cooking until it is slightly soft. 

6. When the stalks are slightly soft, add the Bok Choy leaves, oyster sauce and water. Stir until the leaves are only slightly wilted. This should only take a minute or two.

7. Once the stir fried Bok Choy is finish set aside. Divide the Salmon and Bak Choy amongst 4 plates and serve with steamed rice.

Prawn Pasta

I credit my sister in law for introducing me to this Gordon Ramsay recipe from his book The F Word. When I first tasted it, I was just dying for more! Even though this is a white sauce pasta, it is light and I can guarantee you will find yourself serving up a second plate after polishing the first. This dish is something you would expect to see on the menu of a fancy cafe and pay premium dollars. Now, you can enjoy it in the comfort of your home. Just don't forget the vino ;)

Serves 6 | 30 minutes

Ingredients

500g cooked Prawns

600g cherry Tomatoes

3 spring onions, finely sliced

¹/₈ teaspoon dried chilli flakes

1 level Tablespoon of mince garlic or 1 clove garlic chopped

200g double thickened cream

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper for seasoning

500g dried spaghetti

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon dried parsley, plus extra to serve

1 teaspoon dried dill

1. Using a heavy-based pan, heat up olive oil on medium heat and brown spring onion, garlic and chilli flakes. 

2. Add tomatoes to the pan and stir occasionally until the tomatoes are soft.

3. Cook your dried pasta according to packet instructions.

4. While the pasta is cooking, add prawns, parsley and dill to the sauce. Season with salt and pepper according to your taste.

5. Add in thickened cream and mix the sauce's ingredients. Warm through gently for a couple of minutes on medium heat. 

6. Drain the pasta and toss with the pasta sauce. Serve immediately.