Baba Ganoush

I am very lucky to work with a wonderful Greek lady, who helps me to understand Greek food.

One thing she told me about was an aubergine dip, and although she didn’t give a name for it, I assume it was Baba Ganoush.

Pulled Pork Goulash

The slow cooker, it is fair to say, has brought about a huge shift in cooking, for those of us who don’t have a lot of time in the evening to create wonderful meals.

I mainly use it for pulled pork to be honest with you, but I saw this next recipe on the telly, and tweaked it until it became a household favourite.

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork

Whilst I have done pulled pork on a few different occasions for family and my lady, unfortunately I can’t get the barbecue out as often as I would like.

But it’s a wonderful meal, and one I would do time and time again.

But now it’s time to get out a new piece of kitchen equipment, the slow cooker, and what a find it is.

I’d say it’ll be used for other recipes too.

Ingredients

Pork Rub

• 2 tbsp Brown Sugar
• 1 tsp Mustard Powder
• 1 tsp Smoked Paprika
• 1 tbsp Black Pepper
• 1 tbsp Oregano
• 1 1/2 tbsp Salt
• 1 tbsp Garlic Granules
• 1 tbsp Onion Powder

The Pork

• 1kg Pork Shoulder

How to make Pulled Pork

You will need a slow cooker for the is recipe.

1. Put the pork on a board and remove the top layer of skin.

2. Make up the pork rub.

3. Cover the entire shoulder with the rub on both sides.

4. Add into the slow cooker, putting cold water half way up the side of the pork.

5. Put the slow cooker on low, and leave overnight, or for a total of 10 hours.

Pull the pork out into a large tray and use two forks to pull it apart.

Enjoy in a brioche with BBQ sauce and loads of cheese.

Sweet Potato Fries

Superbowl 50, eh?

I must admit that American Football isn’t my favourite American sport, but I do have to say that food plays an integral part in the Superbowl half time show, alongside the usual mess ups.

Today, in honour of Superbowl Sunday, I give you my favourite snack of all, Sweet Potato Fries!

Get the pom poms out!

Ingredients

• 4 Sweet Potatoes
• 1tsp Smoked Paprika
• 1tsp Cayenne Pepper
• 1tsp Cinnamon
• 1tsp Nutmeg
• 1tsp Garam Masala
• Olive Oil

Directions

1. Cut up the sweet potatoes into wedges and place in a baking tray.

2. Cover them in oil, until completely covered.

3. Spread the spices over the potatoes, again making sure they are well coated.

4. Put in the oven and cook them for 45mins.

Enjoy with coleslaw or a dip, they are delicious!

Nutritional Information

The sweet potato is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the family Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting, tuberous roots are a root vegetable. The young leaves and shoots are sometimes eaten as greens.

• Sweet potato is one of the high calorie starch foods (provide 90 calories/100 g vis a vis to 70 calories/100 g in potato). The tuber, however, contains no saturated fats or cholesterol, and is rich source of dietary fiber, anti-oxidants, vitamins, and minerals than potatoes.
• Its calorie content mainly comes from starch, a complex carbohydrate. Sweet potato has higher amylose to the amylopectin ratio than that in potato. Amylose raises the blood sugar levels rather slowly on comparison to simple fruit sugars (fructose, glucose etc) and therefore, recommended as a healthy food item even in diabetes.
• The tuber is an excellent source of flavonoid phenolic compounds such as beta-carotene and vitamin-A. 100 g tuber provides 14,187 IU of vitamin A and 8,509 µg of ß-carotene, a value which is the highest for any root-vegetables categories. These compounds are powerful natural antioxidants. Vitamin A is also required for the human body to maintain integrity of mucus membranes and skin. It is a vital nutrient for healthy vision. Consumption of natural vegetables and fruits rich in flavonoids helps protect from lung and oral cavity cancers.
• The total antioxidant strength of raw sweet potato measured in terms of oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) is 902 µmol TE/100 g.
• The tubers are packed with many essential vitamins such as pantothenic acid (vitamin B-5), pyridoxine(vitamin B-6), and thiamin (vitamin B-1), niacin, and riboflavin. These vitamins are essential in the sense that the human body requires them from external sources to replenish. These vitamins function as co-factors for various enzymes during metabolism.
• Sweet potato provides good amount of vital minerals such as iron, calcium, magnesium, manganese, and potassium that are very essential for enzyme, protein, and carbohydrate metabolism.
• Sweet potato top greens are indeed more nutritious than the tuber itself. Weight per weight, 100 g of fresh leaves carry more iron, vitamin C, folates, vitamin K, and potassium but less sodium than its tuber.

Nutritional information courtesy of Nutrition and You.

Fajita from Scratch

You know yourself, buying an Old ElPasso is as simple as pressing an online button and having it delivered in the Tesco truck.

But if your like me, you crave the rub after it’s gone, and I for one, want to continue using it on other foods.

Curried Hummus

Whilst I made a fairly straightforward Hummus in my last recipe, I always began to add more flavourful things to it, to lift it up a level.

So I came up with this recipe after playing about with curry spices, creating my own Tikka Masala paste, used in my curried vegetables recipe.

Pulled Pork

It has taken me three goes now to start my new BBQ, without the use of lighter fluid, as I don’t wish to degrade the taste of the food.

I have tried everything, and finally created a chimney of charcoal, which worked perfectly.

So what to do first? Pulled Pork of course. It was delicious, and it didn’t last long.

Pork Burgers

Since picking these up at the butchers one day, I have been experimenting with recipes ever since.

Then I thought, why not put all of my favourite flavours and vegetables into the mix, and see what comes out.

Watch out, these burgers are super juicy!

Vegetarian Masala

As I have wax lyrical on other blog posts, I have become quite attuned to spicier food than I normally would be.

I do like a good curry, but I usually tend to stick to Masala or Rogan Josh.

Sausage Rolls

Sausage Rolls are a particular favourite, lunch time meal and I could easily go through boxes of them every day.

However, after a while I get bored of the same tastes, and whilst Sage and Onion ones are nice, they don’t rock my world like they used too.