I got a bacon hock from my local farm shop for £1.12, so this is a very cheap meal.
Preparation and cooking time: Around 3 hours (but worth it)
Ingredients
One bacon hock
6 satsumas
1 lemon
Handful bay leaves
Handful cardamom pods
Handful rosemary
Black pepper
2 tbsp honey
Knob of butter
2 apples
Vegetables of choice
How I did it
Put bacon hock in a big pan with handsful of bay leaves, crushed cardamom pods and rosemary. Season with black pepper. I don’t add salt, as the hock is generally salty enough already.
Add sliced lemon and peeled satsumas (crush segments a little so juices flow freely).
Cover with water. Bring to boil, then simmer for 1 hr 30 mins.
Make yourself a pot of tea, or pour yourself a glass of wine, and relax for an hour.
Prepare vegetables of your choice.
When hock is ready, remove from the pan and pat the skin dry with a paper towel. Leave to rest for 15 mins.
Pre-heat oven to 200°C.
Remove fruit from pan and sieve to collect the juice. Mix honey and butter into a smooth paste and add the juice slowly, stirring all the time, to make a glaze.
Move hock to a casserole dish or roasting tray. Glaze the skin. Core and quarter the apples and place around the meat.
Pop on the top shelf of the pre-heated oven for 20 mins. Baste again with glaze, turn heat down to 180°C and cook for another 1/2 hour.
Serve with the roasted apple and vegetables of your choice.
Voila!
Served with mushroom stuffed with leek and Wensleydale
Yesterday’s leftover coffee and walnut cake creation is, as the title suggests, awesome. (My Dad used to hate people using ‘awesome’ in this manner, but hey ho – do not fear the truffles!)
These were very easy to make.
Ingredients
3 slices of leftover coffee and walnut cake
170g Toblerone (I won mine from a 25p tombola in Morrison’s car park, but you can source one from anywhere)
Sprinkly things or toppings*
How to make it
Bash up the cake into crumbs of passion
Melt the Toblerone in a bain-marie (I used a bowl in pan of hot water)
Mix well
Roll into balls
Sprinkle with sprinkly things
Pop in the fridge to set
Done!
Add a splash of rum, whisky, JD, liqueur to the mix for total decadence.
On Boxing Day, me and my beloved volunteered at our favourite café, The Art House. It’s not only our fave because that’s where we met, but also because it allows us to be very silly and provides us with a platform for our creativity, be it performing poetry or busking.
The Art House is a not-for-profit CIC run by volunteers, serving deliciously scrumptious vegetarian food and is renowned for its awesome cake.
One of the perks of being a volunteer is the leftovers. We came home with a mahoosive coffee and walnut cake, past its best, but with only one slice gone from it (as well as a few other random slices).
Now, we like cake. We like cake a lot. But even I was overwhelmed by so much cake and, so, I had to think of creative ways to upcycle.
Here we have yesterday’s quest for nomliness – a tiramisu-style, um, well, tiramisu.
And here’s how to make it.
Ingredients
4 slices leftover coffee and walnut cake
2 tbsp Biscoff crunchy spread (just because)
250g of mascarpone
1/2 pint thick, low-fat custard
2 tbsp double cream
Chopped walnuts (taken from top of cake)
Dark chocolate coated coffee beans
What to do
1. Bash up the cake into many crumbs of loveliness
2. Stir in the Biscoff crunchy spread
3. Mix mascarpone with custard and double cream
4. Layer cake and creamy mix
5. Top with chopped walnuts and coffee beans
Done!
Watch out for another leftover cake recipe tomorrow 🙂
Jane Sandford 