Home cooking

Pork belly and fried noodles

Posted by Gary

Dear Reader,

Earlier in the week, I made this dish and posted the photo in the Facebook group, “Cooking meals for one“. One of the members, viz., Merryn, suggested I write a post on Yummy Lummy. 

I am happy to do this; it makes me giggle though that I’ll not be able to share the post on Facebook because the good people of Facebook have banned Yummy Lummy for breaching its community standards.

I’ve tried to appeal this decision but to no avail. I don’t know what component of the Facebook community standards I breached. Maybe the good people of Facebook don’t like my take on fusion cuisine. Perhaps they didn’t like the videos I used to make and post. 

Anyway, there is nothing to be gained by crying over spilled milk. Not to worry, it is what it is, and the way I see it, it’s the good people of Facebook who are missing out!

I used a pressure cooker to cook the pork belly. You could also use a slow cooker.

Saturday lockdown dinner. Pressure cooker cooked pork belly and potato with stir-fried noodles and capsicum.

Ingredients

  • Pork belly strips cut into rough cubes
  • Star anise (1 star)
  • Black whole peppercorns (1 tablespoon)
  • Onion shallot (1)
  • Vegetable stock (1 cup)
  • Sweet sherry (1 cup)
  • Barbecue sauce (1 vigorous squirt)
  • Chinese five-spice (1 tablespoon)
  • Bay leaves (2 or 3 leaves)
  • Potato (1 cut in half)
  • Capsicum (I used yellow, green, and red capsicum for colour)
  • 2-minute noodles
  • Neutral oil (I used rice bran oil)

Instructions

  1. Sharpen your cook’s knife and ponder as always Proverbs 27:17 (As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.)
  2. With long, firm strokes drawing the blade of your knife towards you (yes, this sounds counterintuitive, but it’s the most efficient way to cut pork belly strips), slice through the meat.
  3. Place the meat into the pressure cooker vessel.
  4. Peel the onion shallot, cut it along a sagittal plane, and cut each half again along a sagittal plane. Separate the layers and put them into the pressure cooker vessel.
  5. Add the star anise, peppercorns, sherry, stock, barbecue sauce, Chinese five-spice, bay leaves, and potato to the meat and onion.
  6. Inspect the lid of your pressure cooker to make sure the gasket is in place. If you don’t clean as you cook, look for foreign debris and remove it. The point of this step is to avoid a pressure leak. The other reason is to prevent a potentially fatal outcome if the escape valve is blocked and the pressure cooker becomes a bomb. Check out what happened at the Boston Marathon a few years ago when a pressure cooker bomb exploded. The carnage was extensive. Don’t be put off by this advice. Pressure cookers are safe if you maintain them correctly.
  7. Put the lid on and seal it closed.
  8. Turn on the heat, achieve cooking pressure, and cook for between 40 and 45 minutes.
  9. Allow the pressure to equilibrium to atmospheric pressure.
  10. Remove the lid.
  11. Pick out the pork belly and potato with tongues. You could use your fingers, but I reckon you’ll burn the skin, and the pain will be most unpleasant.
  12. Strain the liquor to remove the solid material. Yes, liquor is the correct word. If you doubt me, look up a good English language dictionary.
  13. Pour the liquor into a small saucepan and bring it to a boil.
  14. Add the instant noodles to the boiling liquor and cook for 2 minutes.
  15. Strain off the liquor and allow the noodles to drain for a few minutes.
  16. Heat a wok or a skillet and add some neutral oil. Heat the oil until it’s near its smoking point, and then add in the noodles and the slices of capsicum.
  17. Stir fry the noodles and capsicum until the noodles start to take on some colour.
  18. The noodles should have changed from limp to firm, and the capsicum should have changed from firm to a little soft but not limp. You don’t want limp capsicum, and you certainly do not desire capsicum, which has lost its vibrancy.
  19. Move the fried noodles and capsicum to a shallow bowl, and with cooking forceps (or fingers), take the capsicum and bring it to the top of the noodles to show it off better.
  20. Add some of the pieces of cooked belly pork to finish the presentation.
  21. Thank God for wages to buy food, and thank Him for the skills to prepare and cook food.

Final thoughts

  • Have you experienced problems with a pressure cooker?
  • Are you afraid of using a pressure cooker?
  • Do you like pork belly?
  • What do you think of this dish?
  • How do you feel about Facebook banning Yummy Lummy?

What’s with the bible verses and the mention of prayers?

I realise I’ve lost a few subscribers because I’ve outed myself (this seems to be the terminology used these days to reveal personal change or orientation or identity). At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, a friend shepherded me back to faith after nearly two decades of life in the wilderness. 

Yummy Lummy is still a food blog, but you’ll read about the real me.

If the bible verses, mention of prayer, or the books I’ve been reading cause you to unsubscribe, I don’t mind. 

  • Pork belly strips
  • Pork belly strips cubed
  • Pressure cooker cooked pork belly and potato
  • Pressure cooker cooked pork belly and potato
  • Saturday lockdown dinner. Pressure cooker cooked pork belly and potato with stir-fried noodles and capsicum.
  • Saturday lockdown dinner. Pressure cooker cooked pork belly and potato with stir-fried noodles and capsicum.
  • Saturday lockdown dinner. Pressure cooker cooked pork belly and potato with stir-fried noodles and capsicum.

Tinned corned beef with lentils and vegetables

Posted by Gary

Dear Reader,

Canberra has entered its second week of lockdown, and I have mixed feelings about lockdown life.

On the one hand, lockdown life has not been too difficult because I’ve kept my routines. On the other hand, I do miss seeing work friends in real life. I have missed attending our church bible study as well as attending church itself. 

My routines include my morning walk, morning devotion time, making coffee, cooking breakfast, lunch, dinner, and evening devotion time.

Last Sunday, I attended my first Sunday morning church service by Zoom. It was good. While online church service isn’t the same as being with others, it is COVID-19 safe. It was a bit weird singing, praying, and listening to a sermon online.

Saturday lockdown dinner. Corned beef, lentils, slow cooker vegetables, with Brussels sprouts, and roast pumpkin.

Ingredients

  • Corned beef
  • Lentils
  • Shallot
  • Red onion
  • White onion
  • Yellow capsicum
  • Red capsicum
  • Mushrooms
  • Red wine
  • Cooking sherry
  • Worcestershire sauce
  • Olive oil

Instructions

  1. Slice the shallot, onions, and capsicum and put them into a slow cooker with the mushrooms.
  2. Add a few good slugs of olive oil, Worcestershire sauce, red wine, and cooking sherry.
  3. Cook slowly for six hours.
  4. Remove the vegetables from the slow cooker and put them into a skillet, and add a can of washed lentils.
  5. Cook and combine everything thoroughly.
  6. Remove about two-thirds of the vegetables and lentils and put them into a container for use later in the week.
  7. Add a small tin of corned beef to the skillet and cook with the vegetables and lentils.
  8. Cook until the corned meat starts to caramelise.
  9. Serve with vegetables of your choosing.
  10. Give thanks to the Lord for the job to be able to buy food, the skills to prepare and cook food, ask that He nourish my body and mind, and make me a better disciple.

Final thoughts

  • Have you experienced lockdown?
  • How did you find the experience?
  • Do you have any tips?
  • Capsicums, onions, and mushrooms.
  • Saturday lockdown dinner. Corned beef, lentils, slow cooker vegetables, with Brussels sprouts, and roast pumpkin.

Pressure Cooker Brisket

Posted by Gary

Dear Reader,

I’ve never cooked brisket in a pressure cooker before. I’ve only ever done it in a slow cooker. 

If I can cook something in the slow cooker, why can’t I do something in the pressure cooker?

At first, I thought I might be my usual lazy self and dump the entire lump of meat into the autoclave and just let it rip. Then, I thought, since I’m in lockdown, why not be a little more creative.

So using a Japanese meat cleaver, because that’s how I roll, I cut the brisket into large bite-sized (if you’re greyhound) chunks and roll the beef in flour and then ‘brown’ the floured meat off.

To keep it authentically unhealthy, I used beef dripping in the skillet to brown the floured brisket.

During the next week, I will eat the leftover chunks of brisket for lockdown dinners.

Pressure cooker brisket with potato, pumpkin, and cauliflower.

Ingredients

  • Beef brisket (1 kilogram)
  • Flour
  • Beef dripping
  • Red wine (1 cup)
  • Beef stock (1 cup)
  • Potato (1)
  • Brown onion (1)
  • Barbecue sauce (½ cup)
  • Worcestershire sauce (¼ cup)
  • Pumpkin
  • Cauliflower

Instructions

  1. Sharpen the meat cleaver and think about Proverbs 27:17 (Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another). A sharp knife is a beautiful thing.
  2. Slice the brisket and dice the meat into large chunks.
  3. Put some flour into a bowl and coat the pieces of beef one at a time.
  4. Place the floured meat into a tray.
  5. Heat a skillet and add some beef dripping until it’s hot.
  6. Add the floured chunks of meat and brown the surfaces. Be careful not to overcrowd the skillet. You want the surface of the meat to fry and not steam.
  7. In the pressure cooker, add the beef, brown onion, spud, and all the flavouring ingredients from the list apart from the pumpkin and cauliflower. 
  8. Seal the pressure cooker and cook for 45 minutes.
  9. Rub some oil over the pumpkin and cauliflower and put them into a hot oven until you can penetrate each of them with a sharp paring knife and not feel any resistance.
  10. After the pressure cooker finishes, allow the pressure to equalise and open the lid.
  11. Remove the meat and place all of it into a container apart from a few chunks for dinner.
  12. Serve the brisket with cauliflower, pumpkin, and spud.
  13. Give thanks to the Lord and enjoy the meal while listening to a sermon podcast from a good preacher.

Final thoughts

The brisket tasted pretty good. It had a good mouthfeel and flavour. Cooking the meat in a pressure cooker was pretty easy. I think setting and forgetting in a slow cooker would be just as good.

What’s happened this week?

The biggest news is that Canberra went into COVID-19 lockdown. We have cases linked with the outbreak in Sydney, which has now spread across many regions in New South Wales.

The saddest news was reading about the death of my favourite teacher at school. If you have Facebook, you can read what I wrote here. I am pretty sad about the death of Mr Stephenson; he was a fantastic teacher. Good teachers are what we need for our young people.

If you want to connect with me on Facebook, feel free to send me a friend request. 

The best things this week included dinner with friends from church and reconnecting with an old friend. 

Stay safe, friends.

  • Beef brisket
  • Brisket sliced with a meat cleaver
  • Brisket sliced and cubed with a meat cleaver
  • Floured cubes of brisket
  • Beef dripping
  • Beef brisket frying in beef dripping
  • Beef brisket frying in beef dripping
  • Browned beef brisket
  • Roast Pumpkin
  • Pressure cooker brisket with potato, pumpkin, and cauliflower.
  • Pressure cooker brisket with potato, pumpkin, and cauliflower.

Beef short rib fingers and lentils with roast Tabasco flavoured pumpkin and cauliflower, smothered with gravy

Posted by Gary

Good evening dear readers.

It was a busy day with work, so I sat at my table while the slow cooker did its thing.

Coles Beef short rib fingers

Ingredients

  • Beef short rib fingers
  • Lentils
  • Beef stock
  • Red wine
  • Barbecue sauce
  • Worcestershire sauce
  • Cauliflower
  • Pumpkin
  • Tabasco sauce
  • Instant gravy

Instructions

  1. In the slow cooker, add the lentils, red wine, beef stock, a good squirt of the Worcestershire sauce, and a few good squirts of the barbecue sauce.
  2. Cook for 8 hours.
  3. Place the pumpkin and cauliflower onto a baking sheet and rub olive oil over each.
  4. Squirt Tabasco sauce over the pumpkin and cauliflower.
  5. Cook the cauliflower and pumpkin in a hot oven for 45 minutes until a sharp paring knife penetrates both vegetables with no resistance.
  6. Plate up the beef on a dinner plate, add a few spoonfuls of the lentils, and then add the pumpkin and cauliflower on the plate.
  7. Serve with instant gravy.

Final thoughts

  • How are you going?
  • What do you think I’ll do with the leftover beef and lentils?
  • Coles Beef short rib fingers
  • Pumpkin and cauliflower ready for roasting
  • Beef short rib fingers out of the slow cooker
  • Beef short rib fingers and lentils with roast Tabasco flavoured pumpkin and cauliflower. Smothered with gravy.
  • Beef short rib fingers and lentils with roast Tabasco flavoured pumpkin and cauliflower. Smothered with gravy.
  • Beef short rib fingers and lentils with roast Tabasco flavoured pumpkin and cauliflower. Smothered with gravy.
  • Beef short rib fingers and lentils with roast Tabasco flavoured pumpkin and cauliflower. Smothered with gravy.
  • Beef short rib fingers and lentils with roast Tabasco flavoured pumpkin and cauliflower. Smothered with gravy.
  • Beef short rib fingers and lentils with roast Tabasco flavoured pumpkin and cauliflower. Smothered with gravy.

Slow cooker rump roast

Posted by Gary

Dear Reader,

Slow cooker Rump Roast with vegetables and gravy. Served with lentils, baby green peas, potato, and mushrooms.

It’s a cold, cloudy day in Canberra, with a maximum forecast temperature of eight degrees Celsius today. That’s 46 °F for any reader in the USA, Liberia, and Burma.

It felt like a good day to have the slow cooker on as well as the heating.

While grocery shopping this morning, I saw a nice lump of rump which looked like it would be perfect for this week’s meal planning.

I hope wherever you are, that you are warm and comfortable.

Have a good weekend.

Gaz

Ingredients

  • Rump roast
  • Barbecue sauce
  • White onion
  • Beef stock
  • Lentils
  • Potato
  • Instant gravy
  • Baby green peas

Instructions

Slow cooker

  1. Empty a tin of lentils into the cooking vessel.
  2. Lay the rump roast on the lentils.
  3. Cut a potato in half and place it into the cooking vessel.
  4. Cut the onion in half and put it into the cooking vessel.
  5. Squirt a good glug of barbecue sauce into the cooking vessel.
  6. Add a cup of beef stock to the cooking vessel.
  7. Cook for eight hours.

Baby green peas

  • Cook the frozen peas with microwave radiation.

Instant gravy

  • Prepare as per the instructions for use on the packaging.

Plating up

  1. Divide the rump into pieces for meal planning for the week. My plans include a pasta dish, some cold slices and salad for lunches, and perhaps a noodle soup.
  2. Divide the lentils and keep some aside for dinner putting the rest into a container.
  3. Slice a small piece of beef and put it onto a warmed dinner plate.
  4. Serve a spoon of lentils and the potato onto the dinner plate.
  5. Put the baby green peas onto the dinner plate.
  6. Pour the gravy over the meat and vegetables.
  7. Give thanks to the Lord for wages earned to buy food, cook food, and eat food to nourish my body and my enjoyment.

This week’s highlights in life

  • Work has been good. I remain blessed to work with amazing people. 
  • It’s reassuring to see people in Canberra more aware of their health and safety and cognisant that the δ (delta) variant must be respected. This week, I read a paper that revealed that the viral load associated with the δ variant is about 1000 times greater than with the original virus recovered from the beginning of the pandemic. Without wanting to be morbidly crass, I’m in awe of the biology of SARS-COV-2 and the ability of this virus and the infection it causes (COVID-19) to change and adapt. I’m sure if I wasn’t in a sequestered, safe bubble, like Canberra, I’d be feeling more anxious and worried. ^
  • It’s been worrying seeing what has been happening in NSW, Victoria, and Queensland.
  • I started reading John Owen’s Overcoming Sin and Temptation. This book is a collection of three of Owen’s seminal works on the “Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers”, “Of Temptation: The Nature and Power of It”, and “The Nature, Power, Deceit, and Prevalency of Indwelling Sin”. It’s a challenging read in a couple of ways. Owen writes in an archaic style, and the subject matter penetrates deeply. 
  • I’m also reading Tim Keller’s Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God. The two works are complementary, in my opinion.
  • I received a bunch of fresh free-range eggs from a friend this week. Fresh eggs are the best!

Final thoughts

  • Have you enjoyed fresh free-range eggs? How do you like to cook them?
  • How have you been coping this week with the pandemic?
  • Are you in an area where the δ variant is circulating in your community?
  • What’s the weather like where you are at the moment? Let me know in the comments how you’re enjoying the weather (or not).

^The Bible App I use today presented me with Proverbs‬ 12:25‬. (‭ESV)‬‬

“Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.”

  • Rump roast
  • Slow cooker Rump Roast with vegetables and gravy. Served with lentils, baby green peas, potato, and mushrooms.
  • Slow cooker Rump Roast with vegetables and gravy. Served with lentils, baby green peas, potato, and mushrooms.
  • Dobinsons Peanut paste Brownie
  • Dobinsons Peanut paste Brownie
  • Kettle Sea Salt Chips