Attempt #55: Pancetta hash with eggs & apple salad

One of the best thing that I love about Jamie's salad recipes is that you can replace or add new ingredients to them and they still taste wonderful! 

The result:

I replaced pancetta with bacon and watercress with spinach and I added zucchini into the recipe. But with the core or foundation of the salad being bacon, poached eggs and apples...whatever ingredients throw in or replaced will just further enhance the magical combination of this dish. 

Method

Heat a wide frying pan and add a splash of oil. Fry the pancetta, ham and potatoes together for 10–12 minutes, tossing occasionally until the potatoes are cooked, golden and crisp. Divide between 2 plates.

Meanwhile, bring a wide saucepan of water to the boil and add a splash of white wine vinegar. Poach 2 eggs gently in the water for a couple of minutes, until softly set. Remove and place one on each plate of ham and potatoes.

Toss the watercress and sliced apple together and dress with a pinch of salt and pepper, a squeeze of lemon juice and a splash of olive oil. Top the poached eggs with a little pile of salad and serve.

Serves 2

Ingredients

• olive oil
• 6 slices higher-welfare pancetta, cut into wide strips
• 2 slices good-quality ham, torn into pieces
• 500 g potatoes, cubed
• 1 splash white wine vinegar
• 2 very fresh free-range eggs
• 1 large handful watercress
• 1 red apple, very finely sliced
• 1 squeeze lemon juice

Attempt #53: Pork chops with prosciutto, apple & Stilton

Yummy, yummy yummy. And just put that calories scale away just this once.

The Result:

Definitely mouth watering….well, anyone who loves cheese will love this recipe. However, securing the prosciutto with a rosemary sprig was a little tricky. I couldn’t really get that done right hence in terms of presentation of the dish, it was a F. But taste wise, it was still an A+ to me! :) 

Method

Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/gas 6. Lay out 3 slices of the prosciutto so they overlap. Repeat with the rest of the prosciutto so you have 4 piles.

Put a frying pan over a high heat. Season the chops well with salt and pepper, then sear in the hot pan on both sides. Place a seared chop on top of each pile of prosciutto. Divide the sliced apple and Stilton between the prosciutto piles, on top of the pork.

Wrap the prosciutto around each of the pork, apple and Stilton parcels to hold it all in place. Secure each with a rosemary sprig. Place the prosciutto parcels on a baking tray and bake in the oven for 15 minutes, or until the pork is cooked through. Serve with mashed potato and cooking juices from the parcels.

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 12 slices quality prosciutto
• 4 higher-welfare pork chops, French trimmed and all fat removed
• 1 small red apple, cored and sliced
• 75 g Stilton cheese, crumbled
• 4 small rosemary sprigs, to skewer

Attempt #50: Best-ever fruit crumble…is in savouring it with family and friends

This attempt was more of an attempt to taste a JO recipe baked by a friend and her hubs. It was their 1^st attempt at a JO dessert and while they felt that the crumble topping didn’t seem to be caramelizing as perfect as it should be, it was perfectly delicious to the rest of us. There are many variations of apple crumble but the best-est will be home made with love and served with friends.

A principal fruit of friendship, is the ease and discharge of the fulness and swellings of the heart, which passions of all kinds do cause and induce. We know diseases of stoppings, and suffocations, are the most dangerous in the body; and it is not much otherwise in the mind; you may take sarza to open the liver, steel to open the spleen, flowers of sulphur for the lungs, castoreum for the brain; but no receipt openeth the heart, but a true friend; to whom you may impart griefs, joys, fears, hopes, suspicions, counsels, and whatsoever lieth upon the heart to oppress it, in a kind of civil shrift or confession

-          - Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

Serves 6

Ingredients

·         For the crumble

• 225 g plain flour
• 90 g caster sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 teaspoon powdered ginger
• 115 g unsalted butter

·         For the filling

• 100 g sugar
• 100 ml water
• 4 nice ripe pears, peeled, cored and cut into chunks
• 5 pieces stem ginger in syrup, finely chopped
• juice and zest of plus extra for serving 1

Method

Preheat your oven to 200ºC/400ºF/gas 6.

Sift the flour into a bowl and add the sugar, salt and ginger.

Cut the cold butter into chunks and rub it into the flour mix with your hands until you get a mixture that looks a bit like fine breadcrumbs. This is the crumble topping.

To make the filling, boil the water and sugar together, then carefully drop in the pear chunks and simmer gently for a couple of minutes.

Add the chopped ginger and the lime zest and juice to the pan and stir. Spoon the mixture into one large ovenproof dish or four small ones.

Sprinkle the crumble topping over the top of the fruit, piling it high in the middle of the dish and leaving space at the edge for the caramel to bubble up.

Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes until the pears are cooked and bubbling and the crumble is golden on top. Serve with custard or a dollop of crème fraîche with lime zest grated over, if you like.

Tip: This crumble will work well with apples instead, if you prefer.

Attempt #36: Stewed fruit

Strangely my 2 kids do not like apples much. Give them bananas, cherries, pears, mangoes or watermelon and they will chomp them down - but they simply don’t fancy apples. Hence, when I came across this recipe from Jamie’s website on stewing fruits, it gave me an alternative method to prepare apples to see if the kids will like them.

The result:

 

I burnt my pot while stewing the apples!

Little did I know, sugar laden water burns easily over a stove hence don’t let that pot out of your sight should you wish to try this recipe out. Good thing was that my daughter likes the apples being cooked this way (probably from the castor sugar) but it still wasn’t a hit with my son.

 

Cooking tips from Jamie’s website when cooking this recipe:

The really important thing to remember when you are stewing fruit is that it's best to decide for yourself how much sugar to add. For example, if your fruit is really ripe and sweet, you'll need less than. Just have a taste as you go along and add more if you think you need to.

Ingredients

500 g seasonal fruit, such as rhubarb, plums, apricots, strawberries or pears
2.5 cm piece fresh ginger, optional, for if using rhubarb

caster sugar, to taste

Method

Chop up all the fruit, discarding any stones.

Place the fruit in a pan. If using rhubarb, peel the ginger and finely grate it into the pan. Add the sugar – I usually add 3 heaped teaspoons to rhubarb and 2 heaped teaspoons to any other fruit, but just taste as you go along and add more if you think it needs it (please be careful when tasting as it gets really hot). Add 2 tablespoons of water and cook on a medium heat with the lid on.

Once the fruit has softened, remove the lid and let the liquid reduce – you want to end up with a fairly thick consistency.

Serve over cereal, yoghurt, pancakes, granola, muesli or even with roast pork!