Pork and Pak Choi Noodles

I am so excited to get the blog up and running again... I have had a crazy month and have missed cooking properly so much! I cook stir-fry a lot, as it is so quick and easy, but is usually made using whatever I have left in the fridge and not that healthy. For a change I thought I would use lots of veg and pack it full of Chinese flavour... I have used pork steaks as it is a leaner cut and is relatively cheap. It is also terribly easy to slice thinly for extra quick cooking- I think that really is the key to Chinese cooking, preparing everything and slicing thin for a super quick and easy meal. If you fancy something different, sliced rump steak would work really nicely with the oyster sauce.

 Ingredients

Pork Steaks (One each!) | The above veg made a big meal, but I just managed to polish it off, so adjust accordingly. Include bean sprouts, sliced pak choi, sliced red pepper, sliced mushroom and the "holy trinity" of Chinese cooking (as Gok Wan says!): sliced garlic, spring onion and ginger. | Oyster sauce | Soy sauce | 1 tbsp sesame oil | 1 tbsp sunflower oil | Medium egg noodles |

1. Prepare your vegetables. | 2. Slice your pork thinly and drizzle in soy sauce. | 3. Heat the sesame and sunflower oil in a pan and when hot fry the ginger and mushroom till slightly coloured. |

4. Add the rest of your vegetables, stirring regularly so nothing sticks to the bottom. | 5. Prepare your noodles by boiling in a pan to packet instructions. |

6. In a separate pan start frying your pork on a high heat. It will go a lovely golden brown and cook quickly. 

7. Add your drained noodles to the vegetables with a good dollop of oyster sauce. You want enough to give a lovely silky consistency, but not so much that it is all you can taste, you will be able to judge for yourself. 

 8. Serve your vegetable noodles onto hot plates and add pork pieces on top! If you like a little heat, I would add fresh chopped chilli when cooking the ginger and mushrooms.

Sticky Sweet Chilli Chicken Wings

The thought of food excites me on the hour, but these... my god, you have to make them!! I knocked this recipe together because I didn't really have much food in, and had some sweet chilli sauce in the fridge. Chicken wings are also cheaper than chips, so this recipe makes for pure comfort food heaven without the usual guilt of spending money on a takeaway or not knowing where it has come from- I know mine has come from a happy farm in North Suffolk :) 

Ingredients 

4 chicken wings per person (it was one of those days so I went for 6) | good shake of soy sauce | 1 clove of garlic finely, chopped | very generous shake/squeeze of sweet chilli sauce 

Preheat the oven to 180C | Pour over the garlic and soy sauce and massage into the chicken. | Wash hands, pour over enough sweet chilli sauce to cover the chicken and again massage in. | Always add more sauce if you think the chicken needs it.

Place the chicken on a foil lined baking tray and place in the oven for 30 minutes. Turn after 15 minutes, adding a drop of sauce to the other side. This leaves plenty of time to prepare an accompaniment such as noodles or rice. I just boiled some rice and added some fried onion and mushroom, adding soy sauce and rice wine for flavour. If you're feeling guilty you could always make a little noodle salad, but where's the fun in that?

Remove from the oven and eat immediately. Apart from a fork for the rice, chicken that tastes this good should only ever be eaten with fingers, so get stuck in! These wings are very sticky so back-up kitchen roll is probably a good idea.

I am writing this as I wait for my girlfriends to get ready for a night out and am seriously contemplating preparing these for when I get in later! Hope you enjoy them as much as I do...

L x

Ben's Beef Lasagne

Lasagne is one of my favourite meals but when it comes to cooking it, I have to admit I am pretty awful. My brother, however, is a dab hand so I thought I would take a few lessons from the man himself before we went back to uni. This meal is such perfect comfort food come summer or winter, and is a dish that is still delicious heated up the next day if you have any leftover... A perfect meal for my blog in my opinion!

Ingredients 

600g beef mince (for your own sake please buy fresh from a good butchers, anything else will leave your lasagne full of water and/or fat) | 1 pack of fresh lasagne sheets | 2 jars of tomato and basil pasta sauce | good handful of frozen sweetcorn (optional) | 1 garlic clove finely chopped | one pot of cheese sauce | cheddar to grate on top (try Andrew's Black Bomber or Mature Farmhouse Cheddar | 

Preheat the oven to 190C | Brown off the mince and chopped garlic in a large shallow frying pan on a high heat. 

If using add the sweetcorn and continue to cook at high heat, until any excess liquid is cooked off and mince is brown not grey. | Add your chosen tomato sauce, heat through and mix thoroughly.

Add a layer of mince to a large ovenproof dish. Cover with a thin layer of cheese sauce.  

Add enough sheets of lasagne to cover the mince and cheese sauce.

Repeat these last few steps... A layer of mince, layer of cheese sauce, pasta sheets... until you have used up all ingredients. On top of the final sheets of lasagne add the last bit of cheese sauce and grate cheddar over the top to cover.

Bake in the oven for 30- 35 minutes until golden brown on top. Serve with bread and oils and a salad.

Chicken Breast & Wing White Wine Casserole

For my fourth week of eating local produce I have chosen another relatively simple dish that is easy to adapt to the leftover vegetables you may have in the fridge. Chicken breast and wing portions are also much cheaper per kilo than a filleted chicken breast so aside from the bottle of wine, this meal makes a relatively inexpensive dish for the whole family. At Andrew's, we sell two kinds of chicken that are bred and reared in Suffolk: firstly an economical barn reared variety which is fed on a natural antibiotic-free diet and left to roam in a big lofty barn, and secondly the famous Sutton Hoo free range chicken which is slow grown, again on a natural diet, for a full delicious flavour. For this recipe I have used the barn reared variety as it is much cheaper and still rather tasty. 

Ingredients
1 Chicken Breast and Wing Portion Per Person | 1 Bottle of White Wine (I feel any will do but don't go too cheap!) | 1 Onion peeled and roughly chopped into segments | A selection of local vegetables (I have chosen local Trimley mushrooms and Suffolk carrots, I know lemons are by no means local but i wanted to use up what was in the fridge!) | A handful of sage - this is a great herb to have in the garden, I use it in a lot of cooking so is much cheaper than buying sage from a shop each time |

Preheat the oven to 180C | Add all the ingredients to a casserole dish, pouring over the bottle of wine last: this should just cover all your ingredients but if you don't think there is enough liquid just add a little water or chicken stock. | Bring to the boil on the hob to get the heat through your dish before placing in the oven, with the lid on, for an hour and a half | After this time move the chicken and veg to a heated serving dish and place the casserole back on the hob to reduce down the liquid to make a gravy, perhaps adding a stock cube to thicken if you would like | Serve with rice, crusty bread, or potatoes depending on what you fancy!

Mum's Sirloin Steak With Sautéed Potatoes

Whenever there's a special occasion in our house a request is always put in by someone for mum's steak and sautéed potatoes. It is simple, easy to make, delicious, value for money... the list goes on. And as you can buy both exceptionally good steak, and potatoes, from Suffolk I thought I would make it my third meal of eating local produce for September.

I've watched my Dad spend years tracking down the perfect beef supplier for him- from Aberdeen Angus in Scotland to Smithfield meat market in London- and although it has all been good it has been hard to find the perfect combination of beef that is well looked after, of a great eating quality, and from a herd big enough to be able to supply that consistently throughout the year. It turned out that the best beef was on our doorstep all along: our supplier Charlie sources the very best beef from Suffolk farmers that believe well looked after animals make the best beef. Once at Andrew's the beef is matured in carcass for at least 21 days before steaks and joints are cut and prepared daily making it even more delicious!

Ingredients
sirloin steak each (rump steak would be a very good cheaper alternative) | suffolk maris piper potatoes peeled and diced (a big handful per person) | sunflower oil (enough to shallow fry the potatoes in a wok) | green salad to serve

1. From cold water bring potatoes to the boil and simmer for five minutes, strain and set aside | 2. Heat a generous amount of sunflower oil in a wok, enough to just cover all your potatoes | 3. Add potatoes and cook for about 20 minutes until golden, turning now and again to stop them burning on the bottom |

4. Prepare your salad and set aside | 5. Prepare your steaks- anything from a light seasoning and drizzle of olive oil to rubbing in herbs and chilli powder, it's up to you! |

6. Heat a frying pan on a high heat and cook your steaks- I like my steak quite rare but for medium rare I would suggest 2-3 minutes each side for an average sized steak! | 6. With a slotted spoon remove the cooked potatoes to a serving bowl lined with kitchen roll to soak up the fat, then remove the kitchen roll before serving.

Dingley Dell Pork Sausages Braised in Aspall's Cyder

For the second week of cooking local produce I have chosen Andrew's pork sausages which are made onsite by Andrew's butchers, entirely of Dingley Dell Pork. Andrew's have bought Dingley Dell pork for many years and love that these Suffolk farmers are passionate about the same things we are: taste, provenance and welfare. I asked my brother Ben what makes Andrew's sausages so good and he said that not only does it take great pork but also an expert eye. Ben and the boys that currently make the sausages have been trained by Jock: an amazing butcher, now retired, who was my Dad's first employee when he set up shop nearly 20 years ago. He has taught them the art of mixing a perfect balance of fat and lean meat that makes the sausages full of flavour, perfect for taste, texture and easy cooking.

For this recipe I have used the Gluten Free sausage that's very similar to the Original Pork, however, there are also a range of herby sausages that would be perfect for this recipe such as the Toulouse, Pork and Leek, and Lincolnshire. I braised the sausages in the famous Suffolk Aspall's Cyder, with Suffolk red onions sliced, garlic, bay leaf, and thyme.

Method:
Heat the oven to 180C. Brown the sausages in a cassoulet dish with a drop of oil.

Set the sausages aside and soften the onion, browning without burning.

Put the sausages back in, along with the whole bottle of cyder, herbs and garlic. Wait for the cyder to simmer, place the lid on the cassoulet dish, and place in the oven for 30 minutes.

After this time remove the lid and let cook for a further 10 minutes in the oven. Remove from the oven and place on the hob. Remove the sausages and turn the heat up to let the sauce bubble away. At this point I made up some Chicken Bisto Best Gravy (I know it is cheating but it is gluten free and a great substitute for flour) and added to the liquid to thicken it. You may also want to add a teaspoon of sugar to cut through the sharpness of the cyder. Replace the sausages and serve on the table from the cassoulet dish, with mash potatoes and runner beans (both from Suffolk!) I also found a delicious Rosé wine in Waitrose that has been produced in Suffolk. I wasn't sure what it would be like but it had delicious apple tones to it that went perfectly with the dish!

I hope you enjoy this Suffolk meal as much as we did...
L x

Nedging Lamb with Suffolk Vegetables

This month Transition Ipswich have launched the 30-Mile-Food-Challenge, an initiative to get Suffolk consumers eating the best produce the county has to offer. I'm really proud of the work Dad has put in to now be selling so much meat bred in Suffolk, so I thought I would offer up four recipes over the coming weeks using as much local produce as possible.

One of the difficulties of selling local meat has always been that out of a small herd, as is often the case, naturally only a small percentage will be of the high specification that produces quality meat. However, we have been really lucky to meet some great suppliers this last year who help us source meat from a selection of high-welfare Suffolk farms. Such is the case with all of our lamb; in the spring and summer months we are able to offer the flavourful and tender Nedging Lamb, whilst looking to other local farms as the lamb gets older into the autumn. 

 I popped into the shop this afternoon to get a leg of lamb, garlic and rosemary from the garden in hand, for Dad to prepare this delicious roast for me. First he deboned and rolled the leg, making it easier to carve later. He then placed the sprigs of rosemary underneath the string like so: 

He then made some mini pockets in the meat with the tip of his knife and placed in chunks of peeled garlic.

We already debone and roll lamb leg joints for customers but we were discussing this afternoon whether we could sell them prepared with herbs and garlic. What do you think, is it something you would buy? Once home I roasted in the oven for approx 1 hour 40 minutes at 190C in a fan oven. I used a whole leg of lamb which would normally serve 6-8 people, but we have kept what we didn't eat for lunches during the rest of the week. 

 I served the lamb with a medley of Suffolk vegetables; in particular Suffolk Maris Piper potatoes  from Waitrose, which make the best roasties, and delicious fresh Runner Beans from Hollowtrees Farmshop, Semer. 

If you have any questions about how to recreate this meal at home please leave a comment below! 

L x