South Yorkshire Food

Roast pork belly

Serves 4

Based on  a Jamie Oliver recipe.

Ingredients

• 1.5kgpork belly
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 red onions, halved
• 2 carrots, peeled and halved length-ways
• 2 sticks of celery, chopped in half
• 1 bulb of garlic, skin on, broken into cloves
• a small bunch of fresh thyme, leaves picked
• 600ml chicken stock

Method

1. Preheat your oven to full whack, it needs to be at least 220°C/425°F/gas 7.
2. Place your pork on a clean work surface, skin-side upwards. Get yourself a small sharp knife and make scores about a centimetre apart through the skin into the fat, but not so deep that you cut into the meat.
3.  Rub salt right into all the scores you’ve just made, pulling the skin apart a little if you have to.
4. Brush any excess salt off the surface of the skin and turn it over. Season the underside of the meat with a little more salt and a little black pepper.
5. Place your pork, skin side-up, in a roasting tray big enough to hold the pork and the vegetables, and place in the hot oven.
6. Roast for about half an hour until the skin of the pork has started to puff up and you can see it turning into crackling.
7. Turn the heat down to 180°C/350°F/gas 4 and roast for another hour.
8. Take out of the oven and baste with the fat in the bottom of the tray.
9. Carefully lift the pork up and transfer to a chopping board.
10. Add all the veg, garlic and thyme to the tray and stir them into the fat.
11. Place the pork on top of everything and pop the tray back in the oven.
12. Roast for another hour. By this time the meat should be meltingly soft and tender.
13. Carefully move the meat to a serving dish, cover with tin foil and leave to rest while you make your gravy.
14. Spoon away any fat in the tray, then add the water or stock and place the tray on the hob.
15. Bring to the boil and simmer for a few minutes, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon toscrape up all those lovely sticky tasty bits on the bottom of the tray.
16. When you’ve got a nice, dark gravy, pour it through a sieve into a bowl or gravy boat, using your spoon to really push all the goodness of the veg through the sieve.
17. Add a little more salt and pepper if it needs it.
18. Serve the pork with the crackling, gravy, some creamy mashed potato, nice fresh greens and a dollop of English mustard.

Keralan Fish Curry

Serves: 2
Old WW points: 11

Ingredients

Method

1. Sprinkle the fish with the turmeric and set aside.
2. Spray a large pan with oil and cook the shallots, and garlic with the spice seeds for 5 minutes or so until golden.
3. Add the coconut milk, tamarind paste, beans and red pepper, and shredded ginger and bring to a simmer. Cook for 3 minutes.
4. Add the fish, and finely chopped chilli to the pan, cover and simmer gently for 3–4 minutes until the fish is cooked.
5. Scatter with sliced salad onions  and serve with brown basmati rice.

Vegetarian Cottage Pie

The lentil, vegetable and mushroom base in this recipe is tasty and filling but low in fat.   

WW Points: 10 Total - Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 200g carrots, finely diced
• 1 stick celery, finely diced
• 2 garlic cloves, finely diced
• 250g chestnut mushrooms, chopped
• 400g can Chopped Tomatoes
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 400g can  Green Lentils, drained and rinsed
• 300g sweet potato (peeled weight), cut into even-size pieces
• 300g potato (peeled weight), cut into even-size pieces
• 1 tbsp reduced-fat creme fraiche
• 100ml water if the mixture is a bit dry
• dash of Henderson’s Relish
• 1/2 tsp of balsamic vinegar
• 2 tsp Marigold vegetable stock powder
• salt and black pepper, to taste

 Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200C
2. Heat the oil in a pan and cook the onion and garlic over a medium heat until soft.
3. Add the carrots and celery, and stir well. Cover and cook over a low heat, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes.
4. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until the juices run.
5. Increase the heat and cook, stirring often, until the juices evaporate.
6. Add the tomatoes, tomato puree, thyme and lentils, Henderson’s, balsamic vinegar, stock powder, and the water if needed. Simmer, stirring occasionally with a spoon, for 15 minutes.
7. Transfer the mixture to a baking dish.
8. Cook the sweet potatoes and potatoes until tender.
9. Drain and mash with the creme fraiche.
10. Put on top of the mushroom and lentil mixture.
11.  Bake for 20-30 minutes.

Wild Rabbit and Prune Casserole

Serves: 3/4

WW Points: 8

Ingredients

• Boned flesh of a wild rabbit
• 2 onion shallots, sliced
• 10 soft Agen prunes, sliced in half
• 1 large stick celery chopped
• 1 large carrot, peeled and chopped in largish chunks
• 10 chestnut mushrooms thickly sliced
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 500ml chicken stock
• 50ml dry white Vermouth
• 2 sprigs of thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp flour
• salt and pepper
• 10 sprays 1cal olive oil

Method

1. Heat a non-stick saute pan and add 5 sprays of oil. Gently saute the shallots and garlic until soft a slightly browned. Add them to a casserole dish.
2. Dust the rabbit in  the flour and a little seasoning and brown them in 5 more sprays of oil. Add them to the casserole.
3. Pour the Vermouth into the saute pan and reduce, picking up all the residue from the pan.
4. Add to the liquid from the saute pan to the casserole, with the carrots, celery, prunes, bay leaf and thyme.
5. Mix well and add the chicken  stock. It should just cover the contents. If not add a little hot water.
6. Cook at 170c for 1.5 hours untill the rabbit is tender.

Oven Baked Herbed Vegetable Crisps

These crunchy homemade crisps are worth waiting for when you fancy something savoury. They’re great served along with soup for a light meal.

WW Points: 1 per cup.

Ingredients

• 10 spray(s) Cooking Spray, Calorie Controlled
• 2 medium Courgette, sliced crosswise into ½ cm slices
• 2 medium Parsnip, peeled and sliced crosswise into ½ cm slices
• 2 medium Sweet Potato, peeled and sliced crosswise into ½ cm slices
• 4 medium Carrots, Old, Raw, peeled and sliced diagonally into ½ cm slices
• 1 teaspoons Salt, or to taste
• 1 teaspoons (as purchased) Oregano, dried

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to Gas Mark ½/130°C/250°F. Coat 2 large baking trays with cooking spray.
2. Arrange vegetables on prepared baking trays. Coat vegetables with cooking spray and season with salt and oregano.
3. Roast for 1 hour and then rotate trays. Roast for 1½ to 2 hours total, or until crisps are crunchy and dry.
4. Notes
5. To keep crispy, store in an airtight container or storage bag for 3 days. To re-crisp already cooked crisps that have gone soft, cook on a baking tray for 10 minutes at Gas Mark ½/130°C/250°F.