Jamie Oliver's Perfect Pork Loin with Crackling #FoodieExtravaganza

Ah this was a long wait. I made this for Christmas 2014 and its taken 10 months to write this post. I remembered the cook took a fairly long time too as I started late in the morning after church and a hearty breakfast after our fully vegetarian pre-Christmas lent of 24 days. Also I had a couple of eggnog breaks as well in between ;). Still remember how mum was kinda' scolding me over the phone for having started the cook late. Izzy and Anup were happy campers though as they had a ball of a time and over this meal as well. Well it sure was worth the wait! Thanks Jamie for making our Christmas 2014 a special one. He was practically there for the cook as I had to follow his online video to make this one. So yes this recipe is all him!

Mum has a large part to play in my courage to make dishes so hearty and large as these. Don't get me wrong it is not a difficult dish at all to plate up. Just that I wouldn't have the nerve had I not seen her make such large and wonderful festive meals. Love you Mum! You will always be at my side while I cook/bake.

I decided to post this recipe to honour Foodie Extravaganza{Party}'s October event 'Pork'. This is the first event I have joined of Foodie Extravaganza. The first 'Wednesday' of every month, Foodie Extravaganza {Party} hosts a theme based cook-off where food bloggers come together to celebrate the food event of the month from the American National Food Holidays. October's Foodie Extravaganza Pork Party was hosted by the lovely Lauren Mitchell of the blog 'From Gate to Plate'. 

Jamie is right, this is the most perfect pork recipe and is full of flavour as he promised! I did do a twist on his recipe of 'Oozy Beans and Agretti' side that accompanied this pork. That recipe I will share soon enough (hopefully not 10 months from now ;) )!

I have altered the recipe quantities based on the weight of the pork loin that I got from my butcher. Yes and I did get the fat separated from the meat of the loin at the butcher's place. If you do not have that luxury, then do follow Jamie's video here where he displays quite simply how to do the slice off.

You need:

• 2 kgs pork loin, fat separated
• 2-3 sprigs each of rosemary and thyme, chopped
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Drizzle of EVOO (Extra virgin olive oil)
• Half a bottle of balsamic vinegar (about 250 ml)
• 10-12 cloves of garlic with skin on, smashed

The Make
Serves 12-15 people | Roasting Time: 60-70 minutes | Preparation and Resting Time: 15-20 minutes

Source: Jamie Oliver

1. First score the white side of the fat strip of the loin meat. I did a criss-cross scoring.
2. Rub the skin and meat with the chopped rosemary and thyme leaves along with salt and pepper all around.
3. Use a little EVOO to ensure that the leaves stick to the meat and fat all around.
4. Score the crackling skin with a sharp cooking blade or if you have a sharp pointy kitchen knife you could use the same. Use the tip to form the scores.
5. Put the skin fat side down first on a medium heated non-stick pan and hold for a minute until lightly browned.
6. Using tongs, take out the skin out carefully, and next place the skin side down of the pork meat and lightly brown for a minute . Then turn it over and caramelise the other side as well for about 2 minutes on medium-low heat.
7. Drizzle half a bottle of balsamic vinegar over the caramelising pork meat. Turn it over to coat the meat and then transfer it to a oven-friendly tray and pour all the balsamic vinegar over the top of the pork.
8. Place the garlic cloves into the tray all around.
9. Move the tray to an oven of 180°C . If you have a dual heating oven (top and bottom), you can place the skin on a grill sliding tray on top of the pork tray so all the juices would drip on top of the pork meat keeping it moist all through the cook. If not, you can do what I did and grill the skin separately in another compartment with a spill tray to hold the juices and intermittently using a ladle pour over the cooking pork in the pork tray. This would help create an amazing, simple gravy.
10. Roast over 60-70 minutes, intermittently turning the meat and the skin.
11. Take off the heat Rest the pork in the pork tray with all the juices for 10 minutes. Then take out the pork with a tong or a large fork and place on your serving tray.
12. Pour out the juices from the tray into a jug. You can then see the fat separated atop the jug. You can then take a ladle and scoop up the fat (even if a little gravy comes with it, that's ok) into a storing jar and refrigerate which can be used as a flavoursome stock later on.
13. Sieve out the juices from the jug, making sure to squeeze the garlic cloves to ensure its flavour comes through. This forms your gravy.
14. Serve your pork meat as a whole  or sliced with cracking strips at the side (the earlier scores will help you cut it through) and with some of Jamie's Oozy beans with Agretti  or my take of Jamie's recipe of beans (recipe to follow later). Pour over some of that amazing gravy.

And as Jamie said you are sure to hear of this make for years to come!

Bon Appetit!

Some delicious recipes from our fabulous Foodie Extravaganza members:

• BBQ Pulled Pork with Mac and Cheese Flatbread by From Gate to Plate 
• Chili Verde Pork Posole by Culinary Adventures with Camilla 
• Freezer-friendly Spicy Pork Burrito by Brunch with Joy 
• Healthy Sausage and Rice by Fearlessly Creative Mammas 
• Italian Sausage No Crust Quiche by Cookin' and Craftin' 
• Jamie Olivier's Pork Roast with Crackling by G'Gina's Kitchenette 
• Mojo Shredded Pork with Black Beans and Rice by Our Good Life 
• Parmesan Spinach Stuffed Pork Loin by Cooking with Carlee 
• Pork and Apple Pie by A Day in the Life on the Farm 
• Pork Chops with Spiced Apples by Sew You Think You Can Cook 
• Pork Meatball Mini Subs by The Freshman Cook 
• Pork Schnitzel by Making Miracles 
• Spicy Sticky Pork Ribs by Food Lust People Love 
• Sweet and Sour Pork by Tara's Multicultural Table 
• Thai Basil Meatballs with Peanut-Basil Sauce Two Ways by Caroline's Cooking 



Posting day is always the first Wednesday of the month. If you are a blogger and you're interested in joining in the fun, visit us at our Facebook Foodie Extravaganza page. You can also visit our past party submissions on our Pinterest Foodie Extravaganza board .


Thanks for joining us this month and hope you come back to see what we're celebrating next month! ;)

Coconut-Carrot Rice

Ah such a comforting meal we just shared with Dad who is in town. This recipe came out from two recipes, one from my sis-in-law Bhavna and the other from the Thai Coconut rice that I had shared. I tweaked the latter a bit more with the toasted coconut gratings. It was amazing. Just goes to show that if you put a little bit of love in the cook, it comes out unexpectedly amazing. The rice was nice and fluffy too. I am sure that Mum would have loved it and plus the texture was exactly as she enjoys it -not mushy at all.

You need:

• 1 cup of fresh coconut gratings or 1 cup of coconut cream
• Salt to taste
• 2 cups of basmati rice / long grained rice, cleaned and set aside in bowl with water to soak
• 2 cups of boiling hot water
• 3-4 large carrots, grated
• 1 tbsp of butter (optional)
• 2 drizzles of oil

The Make:
Preparation time: 10 minutes | Cooking Time: 15-20 minutes | Serves 3 adults

1. Grind the coconut to take the first milk and second milk (Refer Coconut Milk recipe here). Set aside the gratings from milk extracted coconut.
2. In a large wok, drizzle some oil and saute the residual coconut gratings until lightly browned. Set aside.
3. In the same wok, add a little oil and fry the carrot gratings on medium-low heat. Sprinkle some salt to taste. Saute for 5-10 minutes.
4. Add a tbsp of butter and then lower heat. Add in the second extraction of the coconut milk and the boiling hot water to the wok.
5. Once the water reaches boil point, add the cleaned rice from the soaking bowl, a fistful at a time.
6. Cover and cook for 10 minutes. Then add the first milk. Cover and cook for another 10 minutes. Check in between to see if the rice is not sticking to the wok. In the last few minutes before turning off the heat, top with the toasted coconut gratings.
7. Fluff the rice with a fork a and transfer to a serving bowl once cooked.

Serve hot with your favourite gravy. For us it was Pepper Chicken Drumstick in a light tomato gravy and Cucumber Raitha.

Bon Appetit! "This is what's for dinner tonight folks!"

Lemon and Herb Roast Chicken

I am baaaack. Didn't expect me so soon did you :)? Well I am here and this time again with another super simple recipe.

Although I specify two herbs, you can add more or different herbs as well. I tried this combination and I have to say I am quite inspired with this experiment.

This chicken borrows more of a Mediterranean flavour. Herbes de Provence, a mixture of several dried herbs such as thyme, oregano, rosemary, marjoram and savoury, is typical of the Provence region of South East France. Oregano is common in the Mediterranean region.

You need:

• 1.2 kgs of whole chicken with skin on, washed and cleaned well
• Salt to taste
• Half a shake of Herbes de Provence
• A good shake of Oregano
• 1 tbsp Pepper powder
• A drizzle of olive oil
• 1/2 a lemon
• 2 drops of clove oil (you just have about 3-4 cloves sitting in some warm oil for about half a day, strain and use) - optional *

* You can also use biriyani oil in case available.

The Make:
Preparation time: 10 minutes | Roast time: 1 hour | Resting time: 10 minutes | Serves 3-4 adults

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Form slits all around the chicken with a sharp knife edge and allow the cleaned chicken to drain in a colander.
2. In a bowl, mix the herbs, pepper, olive oil and salt to taste.
3, Rub into the chicken well, taking care to tuck in some of the spice rub into the slits on the chicken and some in the cavity as well.
4. Squeeze the lemon juice over the spice rub and massage the chicken once more.
5. In a large roasting pan, lay the spice rubbed chicken carefully and pop it into the oven.
6. Roast until golden brown on top and the chicken is cooked well for about an hour.
7. Rest in the oven for about five minutes and then remove from the oven and rest for five more minutes.

Serve hot with a side of your favourite salad and choice of bread.

Bon Appetit! My little one loved this chicken make as well (PS for those of you who do not know - my little one is my biggest critic ever! :) )

The Almost Perfectly Poached Egg!

I have made poached egg for the family a couple of times now. They have so far enjoyed it quite a bit until I stumbled upon this video from BBC Good Food. I actually was in search of another egg recipe and found this.

Then I knew that my poached egg was just no where near perfect and I still believe after trying the tips in this video that I can improve upon the poached egg. I will let you know where I went wrong and you too can try to improve on your poached egg recipe accordingly.

The perfect poached egg when cut into would ooze out with the yolk!

You need:

• 1 large and fresh egg (remember if there is no fresh egg, then don't bother trying this recipe)
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Dash of vinegar
• Water to poach 
• A medium sized saucepan
• Kitchen towel
• A slotted spoon

The Make:
Preparation time: 2 minutes | Cooking time: 3 minutes | Serves : 1

Source: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/technique/how-poach-egg

1. Heat water in the sauce pan and allow to simmer. Make sure you are using a medium sized saucepan.
2. Add the small drizzle of vinegar to the pan of simmering water.
3. Crack the egg carefully in a small cup or bowl, making sure not to cut into the yolk. Some like to crack the egg by tapping on a hard surface whilst others use the stem of a spoon or butter knife to crack at the shell. If you are following the latter approach make sure u crack only the surface, else if you touch the yolk with the metal spoon or knife, you can loosen the yolk into the egg white whilst pouring into the cup.
4. Create a whirlpool in the water using your spoon. This would ensure that the egg white wraps well around the yolk.
5. Tip the egg into the center of the whirlpool or pan of just boiling water. Lower the heat to medium-low and allow the egg to cook for 3 minutes.
6. Once cooked, remove the poached egg with the slotted spoon and leave any feathery edges by cutting it using the edge of the spoon against the pan.
7. Drain the egg on a kitchen towel else you would find eggy poaching water with your egg.
You can also trim the edges of your poached egg once at room temperature to make it into a perfect tear drop shape (the kind you would find at your fine dining restaurants) :)

Season with salt and pepper and serve with toast, flatbread or on top of your salad.

My kid loves poached egg esp. when she sees the yolk spill out of the white when cut into.



Bon Appetit!

Roasted beef chunks with baked potatoes and buttered steamed veggies

Post #Lent the #Beef #recipe creations were the first to come out! I felt like cooking up something English. British do enjoy their beef and potatoes and is so uniquely prepared as well. Perhaps they have left some flavours of their cuisine on our genetic taste buds before leaving India. We thoroughly enjoy beef and potatoes if cooked/baked or roasted well. It just leaves a sublime appealing flavour on the palatte.

To enjoy this recipe, do make sure you get a fresh and clean cut of tender beef from your local butcher otherwise you would find yourself chewing at the pieces all day long.

This can make for a good supper when you want to keep it light and/or free of carbs.

You need:

• 500 gms of beef, cleaned well and cut into 1" cubes
• 2 large potatoes, sliced thinly
• 4 cloves of garlic, crushed
• Drizzle of Worcestershire sauce
• Black Pepper powder -  as required
• Salt to taste
• Rosemary - 2-3 sprigs
• Thyme leaves - 2 sprigs
• 1-2 small tomatoes, diced (optional)
• Oil
• 1 tbsp Duck fat (optional, I had some duck fat from the duck roast that I strained and refrigerated. I will share the duck roast recipe soon.)

The Make:

Preparation Time: 15 minutes | Cooking Time: 1 hr | Serves 2 adults

1. In a pan, drizzle some oil, add the garlic and beef along with a little salt and pepper.

2. Brown the beef cubes on all sides. Add the Worcestershire sauce and toss well.

3. Preheat the oven to 180 °C.

4. In a roasting pan, add the beef, tomatoes (optional) along with remaining salt and pepper and the rosemary leaves.

5. Layer the potato slices on top and add some thyme leaves on top. Add a drizzle of oil on top or the duck fat.

6. Cover the roasting pan with a tin foil and place in the oven. 

7. Roast for 45 minutes to 1 hour until cooked tender.

8.  Serve with a side of Steamed Buttered Veggies.

Serve hot. You could also serve with a choice of your favourite dinner rolls.

Bon Appetit!