Showing posts with label sour cream. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sour cream. Show all posts

Tuesday, 4 September 2012

No. 42 - Columbia - Pulled Pork - Columbi-yeah!

Apologies for the terrible photo quality. Someone buy me a camera or even better, give me a job so I can buy me a camera.

It could have been Columbi-off, but it wasn't. It was Columbi-on.



Columbia became another welcome excuse to have a few stray heads who didn't quite make it to Electric Picnic over for a few beers, to pig out on pulled pork and shake our asses like we come from Columbia.  Not that I ever need an excuse for any these things, but it definitely beat hankering after the Picnic. So we had our own, Electric Pignic if you will.

This Columbian pulled pork recipe literally forces you have to have an Electric Pignic. You can't make it for one or two people and if three's a crowd, twelve's got to be a party. And where there's an enormous slab of pork, there are inevitably leftovers, even when feeding a herd of strapping young lads.  I was still (happily might I add) pigging out on it four days later. At the risk of seriously overdoing it, one could even go as far as to say the pulled pork was Columbelievable. And the lips don't lie.




Columbian Pulled Pork

Serves 12

3 kg shoulder of pork, (cut into big chunks to make it more manageable)
2 cups of tomato ketchup (1 whole bottle)
1 cup of brown sugar
1 head of garlic, chopped
knob of ginger, chopped
tbsp chili flakes
2 vegetable stock cubes
1 tbsp mustard
salt and pepper

Throw all of the ingredients into a large pot and mix around. Add just enough water to cover the meat, cover with tinfoil and a lid and bring to a simmer on the hob. Transfer to a 110ยบ celsius oven and leave there for anywhere between 8 and 15 hours. The longer the better. I left mine in over night.



Then carefully remove the meat to a bowl and shred it with two forks. It should literally fall apart. Reduce the sauce left in the large pot by about half . Return the shredded pork to the pot and toss in the juice.



Serve with floury baps, Columbian red beans (recipe below), coleslaw,  sour cream, cheese and hot sauce. Columbi-hell-yeah!



Mhhmmmmmhmmmmmmmmmmmm isn't the word.

Colombian Red Beans 

6 rashers of bacon, chopped
1 small red onion, chopped
a couple of tomatoes, chopped
3 tins of red kidney beans, including liquid.
2 vegetable stock cubes
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp cumin
handful of chopped coriander

In a pan fry the bacon until crispy. Add the onion, tomatoes and cumin and cook until the onions are soft. Add the kidney beans, stock cube and sugar. Bring to temperature and simmer for ten minutes. Finish with a handful of chopped coriander. 


















Saturday, 6 August 2011

No. 19 - Belarus-tic Beef Stew!


Belarus taught me that no matter how beautiful the kitchen, there is still no joy in peeling a potato (or figuring out how to use someone else’s oven). What was joyous, however was using Ide’s KitchenAid. For those of you who don’t know, KitchenAid is to mixers what Dyson is to vaccum cleaners. I have literally have never enjoyed anything so much, lowering the mixer and raising the mixer, lowering the mixer and raising the mixer. I had a total Nigella moment. Baking will never be the same again.


The KitchenAid may be the sole reason that Belarus was the first Culinisation country to incorporate a desert. That and the fact that I had plenty of time and space to swan around this borrowed kitchen, unlike at home where I can hardly find space to put a fork. Two course meals at home are therefore far and in-between. One can only dream of a glorious kitchen and a KitchenAid of my very own, don’t even get me started on a dishwasher. Truth is, I’m as close to getting a KitchenAid as I am flying to the moon.



Belarusian Beef Stew in a Pot.

Your bog standard stew really, beef topped with potatoes topped with mushrooms topped with sour cream. Ok, not technically bog standard, but the Belarusian answer to an Irish stew. Simple, yet effective and even better the next day. It also has the novelty factor because you get to eat it straight out of the pot.

Serves 2

400g decent quality beef, cut into chunks
3 garlic cloves, chopped
4 potatoes, peeled and diced
1 onion, chopped
a punnet of mushrooms, sliced
a small tub of sour cream or a few tablespoons
oil for frying
water to cover

Fry the beef with the garlic in a little oil until browned. In a separate pan fry the onion and mushrooms until soft. Now all you have to do is assemble everything.


Find a suitable sized pot with a lid and line the base with the beef making sure you have all the bits and juices. Season. Then layer on the diced potatoes and just about cover them with water.Season. Then layer on the mushroom and onions. Season. Finally top with sour cream, pop on the lid and bake in a 170 degree oven for 2 hours. Let rest for 30 minutes before serving. Eat straight out of the pot or serve on plates.




Belarusian Apple Pie

Like I already mentioned this was the most fun I’ve ever had baking although that has little to do with the recipe. This pie is really simple and has very few ingredients. It’s the kind if desert you can throw together without needing a trip to the shop. In name it’s a pie, but really its sponge-topped apples. The best bit is that the topping goes crispy and chewy like a meringue. I don’t know if that’s because I got a little to overexciting with the KitchenAid and over mixed/whisked everything but it really made this desert.

Serves 6

4 cooking apples
3 eggs
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of flour
butter for greasing the baking dish.



Peel, core and slice the apples. Whisk together the eggs and sugar until fluffy. Whisk in the flour a little at a time. Line a greased baking dish with the apples and then pour on the cake mixture. Bake in a preheated oven, at 170 degrees for 50 minutes or until the top is crunchy. Serve with ice cream or custard.