Belly Pork and Zingy Coleslaw

This is for my lovely friend Sara who has asked me so nicely for a low-carb recipe to hopefully inspire her to start cooking again.  It's messy eating at its best. Deliciously warm mildly spicy slow cooked pork with some cool crunchy cole slaw in a lettuce leaf wrap. If you can't get pork belly for any reason, about 1kg of diced shoulder of pork would do quite well instead.

If you are cooking for people who love their carbs then this is perfectly lovely stuffed into any kind of flatbread and makes a very satisfying and easy meal.

I know G will have a go but I suspect this will never ever appear on the menu at Chez H. 

If you can't get hold of garlic and ginger paste you can make your own by using the fine holes on a grater. You will probably need about 4 fat juicy cloves of garlic and a good thumb's length of ginger. If you don't have one already, I highly recommend a Microplane for this sort of thing. I love mine very dearly and take it with me when I go and cook for the supper club or anywhere else for that matter. Along with my Victorinox potato peeler which is frankly the only peeler worth having.

Serves 4

For the pork

10 large slices rindless belly pork

1 onion, finely sliced

2 heaped tbs garlic and ginger paste

2 green chillies (cut a slit along the length of each chilli)

1 star anise

1 tsp fennel seeds

150ml dry white wine or 75ml water and 75ml Chinese rice vinegar

3 tbs soy sauce

1 tbs fish sauce

For the coleslaw

½ a small white cabbage, cut into quarters and the hard centre removed

2 carrots

4 spring onions

2 handfuls of bean sprouts

1 red chilli, very finely diced (seeds removed if preferred)

1 tbs sesame seeds

2 tsp sesame oil

zest and juice of 2 limes

Whole leaves from a crisp lettuce or Chinese cabbage.

Slow cooker on low setting. Alternatively this can be cooked in a casserole at 140°c

Heat the oil in a large shallow non-stick pan and brown the pork belly slices on each side. Remove from the pan and put aside onto a plate.

Add the sliced onion to the pan and fry briskly until starting to brown at the edges, stir in the garlic and ginger paste, star anise, fennel seeds and chillies and continue frying for another minute.

Pour in the wine, soy and fish sauces and stir to combine and then pour the sauce into the slow cooker.

Add the pork slices and any juices which have collected on the plate and push the slices around to make sure each one has a coating of sauce.

Put the lid on the cooker and leave for 4-6 hours or until the pork falls apart when pressed with the back of a fork.

To make the coleslaw:

Finely slice the cabbage in a food processor (or by hand), zest the lime, grate the carrot and finely slice the onions. Tip everything into a roomy bowl and add the bean sprouts.

Toast the sesame seeds in a small non stick frying pan by stirring over a low heat until they turn a light brown colour. Watch them very carefully because they burn at the drop of a hat. This is not something you can leave to do by itself, you need to stand and watch but it only takes about a minute – so not terribly arduous. Add the toasted seeds to the bowl.

Whisk together the oil and lime juice then pour over the shredded vegetables. Stir thoroughly until everything is lightly coated - it might seem like there's not enough but keep going, I promise you it is, we aren't looking for a mayonnaise-style coleslaw here this is much lighter and fresher and the oil/juice is more of a seasoning than a dressing. If you honestly think it isn't enough then add more lime juice, sesame oil is a bit of a brute and less is definitely more in this case.

To serve: Roughly mash the pork into the sauce with a fork and pile onto crisp lettuce leaves along with some of the coleslaw, wrap into a parcel and eat.

Paper napkins are essential to wipe the juices off your arms. 

Sorry about that. #sorrynotsorry

Pork and Leek Pasta

Huzzah! We're back - new term, new recipes. And a new recipe tester too - hopefully G will be joining us. So it's brother against sister.

No pressure.

As this is the start of term you might want to have a get together with some friends and this one-pot dish will easily feed a crowd of 6 or 8, it's simple to make and really tasty. You could halve everything if that's too much or double it up to feed more - if you do that you will need two large pans. I cooked this amount in a standard 5L cast iron casserole with a lid similar to this. If you don't have any friends then this will put you into a pasta coma for at least six meals (it will freeze fine) but please try harder with the friends thing. I have used pork mince but turkey mince is cheaper and I've stated 500g but sometimes it comes in packs of 400g or 450g. Any will do fine. Frozen spinach is perfectly acceptable and cheaper and you can add any bits of veg hanging about - I added a handful of wizened mushrooms that were in the salad drawer in the fridge and half a courgette.

You could also make this veggie by upping the vegetables to an equivalent amount - but I'd recommend using softer veg like courgettes or broccoli rather than carrots.

Instead of double cream and blue cheese you could use a 200g tub of cream cheese - own brand basic is fine.

You will need:

1 medium leek, washed and sliced
500g pork or turkey mince
1 heaped teaspoon of fennel seeds
1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes
6 nuggets of frozen spinach
1 chicken stock cube
500g pasta shapes
Boiling water
100ml double cream
150g blue cheese, crumbled
chopped fresh parsley



Start by boiling the kettle and then heat a splash of oil in your pan over a medium heat and add the sliced leek and any other veg you might be using to the pan. Stir frequently making sure it doesn't brown. When the leek is soft add the fennel seeds and the crushed chillies then add the mince in two halves, stirring and turning the first lot until all the meat has lost any pinkness before adding the second lot. As soon as all the meat is done crumble over the stock cube and tip in all the pasta shapes. Add enough boiling water to almost cover everything, plop in the spinach nuggets, stir everything together and bring up to the boil.

As soon as the pan comes to the boil, turn the heat to low and cover with a lid and simmer for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes the pasta should be just about cooked. Add the double cream and crumbled cheese (or the cream cheese) and stir thoroughly. Turn off the heat, replace the lid and leave to stand for another 10 minutes.

Serve in bowls sprinkled with chopped parsley.

Leftovers should be bagged up and put in the freezer as soon as everything has cooled to room temperature.