Pork belly

Pork belly red curry

Posted by Gary

Dear Reader,

Yummy Lummy’s mission is to help singletons cook meals for themselves.

Many of the meals here have enough leftovers, so if you are part of a family or a group house, you could use the recipe for an evening meal.

Tonight I put together some leftover bits and pieces to make a tasty evening meal.

During the week, I’d cooked a few pork belly strips and peppercorns in the pressure cooker. I’d also cooked some rice and had some leftovers.

One of the things I do with capsicum is to buy three of them (red, green, and yellow), slice them at the start of the week, and use the slices as needed.

I am a lazy cook, so I buy whatever looks good at the supermarket rather than make a curry paste from scratch.

Pork belly red curry

Ingredients

  • Cooked pork belly strip
  • Cooked peppercorns
  • Cooked rice
  • Capsicum slices
  • Chopped parsley
  • Sliced red cabbage
  • Red curry paste
  • Coconut cream

Instructions

  1. Lovingly sharpen your cook’s knife (as iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend (Proverbs 27:17 NLT).
  2. Slice the red cabbage
  3. Dice the pork belly strip
  4. Chop the parsley
  5. Heat a skillet and add some cooking oil.
  6. Heat the pork and peppercorns.
  7. Add a tablespoon of red curry paste as the pork softens, and gently stir everything with a wooden spoon until the pork and peppercorns have a curry paste coating.
  8. Add in the rice and mix everything and cook until the rice is hot. Remember that when you reheat rice or any food for that matter, you want to get the food in the cooking vessel hot enough to kill vegetative bacteria. Please don’t make the mistake of calling this a sterilising process. It isn’t. Sterilisation requires the death of spores, and the only reliable way to sterilise food in a domestic kitchen is to use a pressure cooker. At best, all we’re doing with a skillet is pasteurising the food.
  9. Pour in the coconut cream and stir everything. Bring the food to a simmer and keep cooking to reduce the coconut cream.
  10. Thicken the coconut cream to the consistency you want and turn the heat off.
  11. Mix through the capsicum, cabbage, and parsley and serve in a bowl.
  12. Give thanks to the Lord for the wages we earn to buy food and the skills we’ve learnt to prepare and cook food. 

Final thoughts

  1. How has your week been?
  2. Have you ever experienced food poisoning from poorly heated food?
  3. Do you like making meals from scraps of food you’ve cooked during the week?
  • Red cabbage Parsley Capsicum
  • Pressure cooker Pork belly Peppercorns
  • Rice Peppercorns
  • Pork belly red curry
  • Pork belly red curry

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.

Penne pasta “mac and cheese” with pesto

Posted by Gary

Penne pasta “mac and cheese” with pesto

I was inspired to make this meal after watching the YouTube channel “Sous vide everything” which featured pork belly with mac and cheese.

Rather than using macaroni, I went with penne ziti pasta because that’s what I had in my pantry.

Penne pasta and cheesy white sauce after the oven

Ingredients for mac and cheese

  • Penne pasta
  • Water
  • Iodised salt
  • Salted butter
  • Plain flour
  • Milk
  • Swiss cheese
  • Pecorino cheese
  • White pepper
  • Pork belly
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • Garlic
  • Basil
  • Pine nuts

Instructions

  1. Cook the penne pasta according to the instructions on the packaging.
  2. Allow the penne pasta to cool in the refrigerator, so it develops resistant starch.
  3. In a food processor blend the garlic, salt, and olive oil and then slowly add the pine nuts, basil leaves, and pecorino cheese until it forms a smooth sauce.
  4. The pesto may benefit from some red wine vinegar to prevent the basil leaves from discolouring and turning black.
  5. The pesto will keep well in the refrigerator.
  6. Dry a manageable length of your pork belly strip by rubbing it vigorously with both hands with some paper towel. You can then oil your hands and rub your pork. Cook your piece of pork in an oven at 200 °C for 40 minutes, so the rind is crispy.
  7. Cut the cooked pork belly into cubes.
  8. In a saucier pan, melt some butter on a low heat and then whisk in an equal quantity of plain flour and cook for at least 3 minutes.
  9. Add cold milk to the roux and add enough to avoid the white sauce from clumping. You don’t want globby bits in your special white sauce.
  10. Start adding the swiss and pecorino cheeses in small amounts and stir through to create a thickened luscious sauce.
  11. Season the white sauce with white pepper. Your white sauce will taste better with a little spice in it. Spicy sauces are always better in your mouth.
  12. Add in the cold penne pasta, stir through, cook until the sauce penetrates deeply, and fills the hollow tubes of goodness.
  13. Transfer the pasta dropping in your special sauce to a baking sheet and top with a little more cheesy goodness. With a Microplane take your seed of nutmeg and generously grate it over the cheese augmented “mac and cheese”. 
  14. When the pork belly has finished cooking, remove your hot pork strip and insert your “mac and cheese” until the cheese bubbles and turns a lovely golden brown.
  15. After the “mac and cheese” has finished in the oven, remove it and allow it to rest for a few minutes until it stops wobbling when you give it a poke. The growing tumescence of your “mac and cheese” means your cheese has started to set and it will be easier to handle rather than being a floppy mess.
  16. With a large spoon, dissect and withdraw a good portion of “mac and cheese” and transfer to a plate. Add some pork belly and a spoonful of pesto. Garnish with the cherry tomatoes for the contrasting colour.
  • Penne pasta and cheesy white sauce before the oven
  • Penne pasta and cheesy white sauce after the oven
  • Penne pasta and cheesy white sauce (Mac and cheese) with pesto, pork belly, and cherry tomatoes.

Final thoughts on mac and cheese

I’ve ordered some food-grade sodium citrate on-line and will see if it helps make the cheesy white sauce any better.

According to Guga, the sodium citrate makes the cheesy white sauce smoother.

Garlic Udon noodles, coconut cream, pork belly, prawns, and choy sum

Posted by Gary

Tonight I cooked garlic Udon noodles, coconut cream, pork belly, prawns, and choy sum for dinner.

During the week, Lorraine from Not Quite Nigella posted a recipe for quick garlic prawns and spaghetti recipe, and it got me thinking that garlic prawns would be nice on the weekend.

In my refrigerator, I also had some strips of pork belly, which needed eating too, so I combined everything into a meal for Saturday night. 

Garlic Udon noodles, coconut cream, pork belly, prawns, and choy sum

Ingredients

  • Udon noodles
  • Coconut cream
  • Garlic
  • Choy sum
  • Pork belly
  • Fresh prawns

Instructions

  • Dry the skin of the pork belly strips and place into a hot (200 °C) oven for 45 minutes to get the crackling crispy.
  • Cook the Udon noodles in boiling water for about 7 minutes and then with 2 minutes to go, toss in the choy sum.
  • Rinse the noodles and choy sum in cold water and drain.
  • Heat a skillet with the leftover fat from the pork belly and sautée the garlic gently.
  • Add the noodles and choy sum.
  • Pour in some coconut cream and bring it to a boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer.
  • Add in the prawns and cook through.
  • Cut the pork belly into small pieces and add to the skillet.
  • Transfer everything to a bowl and eat with chopsticks.

The meal was delicious. The question is, is this Asian or Italian?

Garlic Udon noodles
Garlic Udon noodles, coconut cream, pork belly, prawns, and choy sum

I have no idea anymore what sort of food I cook. I take what I have bought and put it together into a meal I think will work. More often than not, the meal tastes okay. I don’t know that anyone else would like to eat it, but it keeps me going, and it keeps my imagination ticking over. In my mind, that’s the important thing. 

Over many years of living alone, I’ve worked out what I like and what I don’t like. The trick is keeping the things I want in a list that also aligns with keeping in good health.

Garlic Udon noodles, coconut cream, pork belly, prawns, and choy sum

The trick mentioned above is not a unique problem. I know other people struggle with it. It’s one of the advantages of the Internet and various cooking forums that we can get ideas from people from all over the world.

I’m not sure cooking with coconut cream is necessarily healthful though. It’s certainly delicious. 

I did buy some spaghetti instead of Udon noodles this week so that I can transition from Asian pasta to Italian pasta. 😉

Spaghetti

Iron-clad pork belly and Otis Dining Hall truffle noodles

Posted by Gary

Have you ever heard of iron-clad pork belly? On Thursday night, over on Random Yummy, I posted a recipe demonstrating how I tied two stainless knives either side of a strip of pork belly to keep the meat tender and juicy while the crackling got crispy and crunchy.

Dedicated to my American friends given today is 2020-07-04 and it’s American Independence Day. It’s also the birthday of a Tweep I follow, viz., Kate Kate bought toilet rolls for her birthday.

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Iron-clad pork belly and Otis Dining Hall truffle noodles with truffle and miso butter, pecorino cheese and specialty seasoning.
Iron-clad pork belly and Otis Dining Hall truffle noodles with truffle and miso butter, pecorino cheese and specialty seasoning.
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