First published 14th June 2019. 

“Hâte levée”….up early in old Belgian/French for the miners going to work. Eaten cold or as an aperitif.

Ingredients:

• Pork Belly
• Pepper / Salt / Nutmeg / Thyme or Provence Herbs / Cloves / Garlic

How to Make :

• Remove the skin of pork the belly
• Put on tray skin side up
• use a knife to make cuts in meat and insert cloves
• turn meat around
• use the knife again to include small pieces of garlic in the created slots
• sprinkle pepper/nutmeg
• add Herbs or Thyme
• Make a roll with the meat and use butcher twine to keep it closed, can also be cooked simply flat.
• Sprinkle on the outside salt and more pepper if you like
• Put into the oven at 140/160 degrees for 90 minutes.

Take out and let cool down. Better eaten the following day or at least once cooled down and better coming out of the fridge. Serve with pickled shallots or gherkins or mustard.

This was first published 14-Dec-2013!

Updated for confinement morale boost…

Ingredients:

• Dried Pecans (enough to cover a cooking tray)
• 3 Tablespoons or 45 grams of Brown Sugar
• Black Pepper – to your taste but definitely worth being a bit spicy.
• 30g of butter (Salted if possible or add salt to the recipe)

How to Make:

• Put the Pecans on a non-stick tray in the oven at 180 degrees C, for about 10 minutes.
• Melt in a pan the salted butter, sugar and pepper.
• Take the half-cooked pecans and coat them with the melted sugar by mixing them in the saucepan.
• Put the coated Pecans on the non-stick tray (using a SILICONE sheet is best)
• Back in the oven for another 7 to 10 minutes. Watch out as it is easy to burn the sugar too much and it will give a bad taste to the whole batch. 8 minutes is perfect on my 180 fan-assisted oven.
• Once brown and cooked, take out of the oven and let cool on the silicone sheet.
• The sugar will go solid and make nice caramel candies.
• if you mess about with the hot pecans out of the oven you will definitely burn your fingers…

You can make them look even more professional by sprinkling a few sesame seeds on top of the hot sugar as it is cooling down.

You can eat the candies like any other caramels with a nice strong coffee or crush them and use as topping for yoghurt or a cake…

Ingredients:

• 2 Aubergines
• 4 Tablespoons of tahini
• 4 tablespoons of yoghurt
• 1 lemon juice
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1/4 cayenne pepper

How to make : Video Here

• Prick the aubergines and cook over a flame BBQ for 20 minutes. (to give the smoke taste).
• Alternatively, cut in halves and grill in the oven for 20 minutes or until tender.
• Let aubergines cool and then empty the flesh in a blender. add a bit of skin if you like it
• Add lemon juice, salt, cayenne pepper, garlic, yoghurt
• Blend it all! That’s it.
• Better served cold so a good 20 minutes in the fridge makes it better.
• It is almost the same recipe as the Hummous but with aubergines instead of Chickpeas
• Will keep for a week.

So simple to do and delicious with Pitta Bread or just crisps and a glass of wine.

Also a video of me making it here.

Ingredients:

• A can of Chickpeas, rinse them before use.(until foam goes away)
• 2 cloves of garlic.
• 3 Tablespoons of Tahini
• Half cup of Olive Oil [this was in the original recipe but I do not like it with oil]
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of Salt.
• Half a lemon juice or lime juice
• A small yoghurt or the equivalent 3/4 Tablespoons of yoghurt
• 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon of ground cumin

How to make :

• Just blitz it all together! That simple…
• Add lemon juice or water to make it more liquid if that is what you like
• Mix it slowly to start and then accelerate the blender to get the consistency you like.
• will keep in the fridge for a week or so
• Serve with olive oil, cayenne pepper and chopped flat parsley

This is super easy to do and very quick.

It is an easy way to get some bread done quickly for a meal.

With a video here.

Ingredients for 4 large Pittas:

• 250g of Strong white flour.
• 1 teaspoon or 5g of yeast.
• 1 teaspoon of Salt
• Half a tablespoon of Olive oil.
• 150ml of warm water

How to make :

• Mix all the dry ingredients (excluding yeast).
• dilute the yeast into the warm water.
• Add the water and knead in the bowl until a smooth dough
• Cover and rest the dough for 1 hour.
• Start the oven on 230 fan assisted or 250 normal and put a cooking tray to warm up.
• Split the dough into 4 pieces
• Make a small ball with each piece
• Roll thinly on a silicone sheet with a bit of flour to prevent it from sticking.
• Put flour on a baking sheet and lay the pittas.
• Put into oven for 7 minutes! It will puff nicely.

Enjoy with some homemade houmous…or is it humus ?

Hummm…want to try to make some doughnuts at home….first time….wish me luck!

Was Delicious and well worth the work.

Although, I went to the pub and forgot them as they were rising it was ok in the end…

also got lazy and did not do the glaze this time

Everybody likes them at the house and the taste and texture is like the “real ones”

Ingredients:

• 280g of Flour.
• 1/4 Teaspoon of grated Nutmeg.
• 40g sugar.
• 1/2 teaspoon salt.
• 120g warm milk.
• 1 egg
• 7g dry yeast
• 40g melted butter
• For Glaze:
  • 75g Melted butter
  • 250g icing sugar or crystal sugar blitzed in the blender
  • 3 to 5 tablespoons of milk (adjust to preference)

How to Make:

• Mix the dry ingredients
• Dilute the 7g yeast in a bit of water (I find it does not dilute well in milk)
• Add melted butter and warm milk
• Make a dough that will be fairly sticky. (oil your hands if necessary)
• Let rise in a covered lightly oiled bowl. (let rise to twice volume)
• Make a thick dough sheet and cut with the doughnut cutter or 2 cutting ring of the right sizes.
• Place on cling film with a tiny bit of oil so that it does not stick.
• Prepare oil in a pan or deep fat fryer. I use peanuts oil.
• 160 celsius is OK temperature so that the doughnut rise and cook throughout without getting too dark. I turn them once or twice depending on their size.
• Glaze (if you want them glazed) then set aside for a little bit before eating…