Perfect Roast Pork Belly

• 
  

  2kg boneless pork belly, skin scored

• 1 onion, cut into chunks

• 1 carrot, cut into chunks

• 1 celery stick, cut into four pieces

• 4 sprigs flatleaf parsley

• 2 sprigs thyme

• 3 star anise

• 1 cinnamon stick, broken in half

• 110g butter

• 2 tbsp honey

• 110ml red wine

• 250ml beef stock

• salt and freshly ground black pepper

  
  

  For the apple sauce

  25g/1oz butter

  1 large Bramley or 2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, roughly chopped

  For the apple sauce, heat the butter and Bramley apples in a lidded saucepan over a gentle heat. Cover and cook for 2-4 minutes, or until the apples have collapsed and are soft and fluffy. Stir the mixture to form a smooth purée.

  
  

  Preparation method

  For the pork belly, place the pork belly, onion, carrot, celery, parsley, thyme, star anise and cinnamon sticks into a large saucepan. Cover with cold water until the pork is just covered.

  
  

  1. Bring the mixture to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for two hours.

  2. Remove the pork belly from the mixture and place between two heavy baking trays. Chill in the fridge for at least two hours.

  3. Preheat the oven to 225C/450F/Gas 8.

  4. Remove the pork from the fridge and cut into four squares.

  5. Heat an ovenproof frying pan until hot, add half of the butter and the pork belly pieces, skin-side down. Fry for 2-3 minutes.

  6. Carefully turn the pork belly pieces over and pour over the honey. Roast the pork belly in the oven for 10-12 minutes, or until the pork skin is crisp.

     
     

     Meanwhile, bring the red wine and beef stock to the boil in a saucepan and cook until the volume of the liquid has reduced by half. Whisk in the remaining butter and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Traditional Lasagne al Forno

Serves 8

450g no-cook dried lasagne sheets (+-24 sheets) or fresh if you prefer

400g Mozzarella, diced or grated

110g Parmesan, freshly grated or shaved

For the Ragu

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 large onion, peeled

200g sliced pancetta (or streaky smoked bacon)

2 fat cloves garlic chopped

350g minced beef

350g minced pork (use all beef if you don't want to use pork)

175g finely chopped chicken livers (trimmed and rinsed under cold water and dried thoroughly with kitchen paper)

1 x 400g tin Italian chopped tomatoes

1 x 230g tin chopped tomatoes

6 tablespoons tomato puree

175ml red wine

1/4 whole nutmeg

15g fresh basil

salt and freshly milled black pepper

First of all begin by making the ragu. Heat a tablespoon of oil in your largest frying pan over a medium heat and gently fry the onion for about 10 minutes. While it is softening, chop the pancetta. Add this to the pan along with the garlic and continue cooking the whole lot for about 5 minutes. Transfer this mixture to the casserole.

Next, add another tablespoon of oil to the pan, turn up the heat to its highest, then add the minced beef and brown it, breaking it up and moving it around in the pan; when browned tip it into the casserole to join the onion mixture, then heat another tablespoon of oil and do exactly the same with the minced pork. Transfer to the casserole too. Finally, heat the remaining tablespoon of oil and cook the pieces of chicken liver, adding these to the casserole as soon as they have browned nicely.

Place the casserole over direct heat, and give everything a really good stir. Then add the contents of both tins of tomatoes, the tomato puree, red wine, a really good seasoning of salt and pepper and about a quarter of a nutmeg, grated. More stirring, then allow this to come up to simmering point. While that happens, strip the leaves from the basil, tear them into small pieces and add to the casserole. As soon as everything is simmering, place the casserole on the centre shelf of the oven and leave it to cook slowly, without a lid, for exactly 4 hours. It's a good idea to have a look after 3 hours to make sure all is well and to have a good stir, but what you should end up with is a thick, reduced, concentrated sauce, with only a trace of liquid left in it. When that happens, remove the casserole from the oven, taste to check the seasoning, then strip the remaining leaves off the basil, tear them into small pieces and stir them it.

For the cream sauce:

175ml double cream

1.5 litres milk

175g butter, plus a little extra for greasing pan

110g plain flour

1/4 nutmeg

salt and freshly milled black pepper

Place the milk, butter, flour and some seasoning in a large thick-based saucepan. Place this over a gently heat and whisk continuously with a balloon whisk until the sauce comes to simmering point and thickens. Then, with the heat as low as possible, continue to cook the sauce for about 10 minutes. After that beat in the cream , taste and season if needed and grate in another quarter of the whole nutmeg.

Assembly:

25.5 x 30 x 7.6 cm roasting tin/ovenproof dish, well buttered

Now spread about a quarter of the ragu over the base of the dish. Cover this with one fifth of the sauce followed by a quarter of the mozzarella, then arrange a single layer of the lasagne. Repeat this process three more times, finishing with a final layer of sauce, then cover the whole lot the the grated parmesan and the lasagne is ready for the over. All this can be done well in advance.

Then when you are ready to bake the lasagne, pop it on to the top shelf of the over, pre-heated to gas mark 4, 350 F (180C) for 45-50 minutes, or until it's bubbling and turning slightly golden on top.

Malva Pudding

Malva Pudding

Pudding
250ml castor sugar
2 large eggs
15ml smooth apricot (or a little more if you want)
185g cake flour (plain flour)
5ml bicarbonate of soda
pinch of salt
30ml/30g butter of margarine
125ml milk

Sauce
250ml cream (single or double)
125ml butter
125ml/125g sugar
Optional - 125ml water, orange juice or sherry

Beat the caster sugar and eggs until fluffy and light.
Beat in the apricot jam.
Sift the flour, bicarb and salt together 3 times. (Important)
Melt the butter or margarine with the milk over low heat.
Fold the flour mixture and the milk mixture alternatively into the egg mixture.
Pour the batter into a greased ovenproof dish.
Bake the pudding at 180C for about 40 minutes, or until knife inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Place all the ingredients for the sauce into a saucepan and stir over moderate heat until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved.
Do not allow the mixture to boil.
Remove the pudding from the over, pierce it in a number of places with a skewer and pour the hot sauce over it immediately.
Serve hot or cold, with cream.
Can be baked the day before needed and warmed in the microwave for approximately 5 minutes.

The FoodBarn

What a wonderful restaurant - The Food Barn, Noordhoek.
Even Oprah has been there!

If you haven't been there yet, you should plan a visit. Have a look at their website:
http://www.thefoodbarn.co.za/

Family Meals

Lunch at "The Grand".

Evening out with all the family at "The Grand".






Dinner at home.



Memories of sharing a lovely tomato tart and a chicory tart made by Paul. In the background a very healthy salad with roasted butternut. Very enjoyable and as always table looking beautiful courtesy of Ingrid.

Risotto Recipe

Risotto with prawns and asparagus - made at Colin and Riva's in Sea Point - April 2010

Enjoy, I have always used this basic recipe, before adding my own twist depending on the additional ingredients available in my fridge or store cupboard.




Risotto
Serves 6 – just halve quantities for 2-3 servings
Approx 1.1 litres stock (chicken, fish or vegetable)
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 shallots or medium onions, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
½ a head of celery, finely chopped
400g risotto rice
2 wine glasses of dry white wine or alternatively just use extra stock
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
70g butter
115g freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Stage 1
Heat the stock. In a separate pan heat the olive oil, add the shallots or onions, garlic and celery, and fry slowly for about 4 minutes. When the vegetables have softened, add the rice and turn up the heat.
Stage 2
The rice will now begin to fry, so keep stirring. After a minute it will look slightly translucent. Add the wine or stock and keep stirring – it will smell fantastic (if you use the wine). Any harsh alcohol flavours will evaporate and leave the rice with a tasty essence.
Stage 3
Once the wine or stock has cooked into the rice, add your first ladles of hot stock and a good pinch of salt. Turn down the heat to a highish simmer so the rice doesn’t cook to quickly on the outside. Keep adding ladlefuls of stock, stirring and almost massaging the creamy starch from the rice, allowing each ladleful to be adsorbed before adding the next. This will take around 15 minutes. Taste the rice – is it cooked? Carry on adding stock until the rice is soft, but with a slight bit. Don’t forget to check the seasoning carefully.
Stage 4
Remove from the heat and add the butter and parmesan. Stir gently. Place lid on the pan and allow to sit for 2-3 minutes. This is the most important part of making the risotto, as this is when it becomes outrageously creamy and oozy like it should be.

Eat as soon as possible while the risotto retains its perfect texture.

Red Veg Stir Fry

Tonight I made something up, which ended up being pretty delicious.
I used half a butternut, a small broccoli, 1 zucchini, a handful of button mushrooms, a small capsicum, a few sliced peppadews and a thumb of sliced ginger, some egg noodles, 175ml coconut milk, a tablespoon of red curry paste, a teaspoon of sugar, a bit of cinnamon,a splash of light soy sauce and salt and pepper.

I guess the choice of ingredients was a bit random as I just used whatever I had around.

So I parboiled the butternut, and lightly steamed the broccoli while stir frying the mushrooms and zucchini (2 min) then adding capsicum and peppadews and ginger (1 min). I then added the butternut and zucchini stir fried for (2 min) then added the red curry, followed by coconut milk, splash of soy and cooked for a few minutes turning the heat down a bit. At this point it was all a bit hot and sour, so I added the cinnamon and the sugar and the noodles.

I mixed it and took it off and served immediately.

It was fantastic, nice deep flavor, the butternut and broccoli were the highlight and a good spicy background flavor. I will definitely do it again.

Quick lamb roast

This afternoon, Mari and I had lunch together and then went to Mumu, a new fine food store in Munkkiniemi (Where we live) which opened this week. They have all kinds of organic veg, meat, cold meats, cheeses and a whole bunch of others stuff. We bought a some lamb and a mint sauce and a delicious smoked salami.

I got home from work late and wanted to do the lamb, but there was no way we could slow roast it, so I rubbed some garlic, salt, pepper and cumin seeds into it and sealed it by frying it very quickly before putting in the oven for about 20 min, with some butternut and potatoes. This with the mint sauce and a litttle side salad, ended up being a pretty decent and quick meal to prepare. I over ate by at least 3 potatoes ... but who is counting.

This morning before work we had a quick breakfast of: Toasted whole wheat roll with, cream cheese, romaine lettuce (don't know if that's a Finnish name), smoked ham, mozzarella cheese, very thinly sliced mature chedder, sliced peppadews and a little grated cucumber over the top. This with a delicious berry smoothie and a cappuccino. All ready in 10 mins and made for a good start to the day. Now time to get the girls to daycare...

Why a Righini food blog?

So, the idea of starting a collective Righini family food blog came to me one evening when I was talking to my father Paul. He is passionate about good food and often our phone calls end up being a recitation of all the delicious food that the Cape Town Righini's have been preparing. He tells me in great depth how to prepare the meal, which ingredients I should use and how it should be served and ultimately how much they all enjoyed it.
I, of course miss half of it and often wish that I had a written it down.
So here it is! A space for Righini's of all shapes and sizes, be they silver haired moles or even the hungry urban variety, to share our recipes and inspire each other to continue in our collective passion for food.