Trwyn Tal retreat

Recharge, refocus, relax

Recharge, refocus, relax in the Welsh mountains

Simple Lamb Hotpot

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This is a great dinner to make if you’re cooking for people that don’t like herbs, onions and spices. This version really is just meat, potatoes and a few vegetables in gravy. It is also nice simple cooking for you … there’s only 6 main ingredients, and it mostly cooks itself. Can’t ask fairer than that!

Cooking lamb hotpot
Lamb hotpot, nearly ready for the potatoes

Lamb Hotpot (Serves 3-4)

700g diced stewing lamb
4 carrots
4 sticks celery
1 kg potatoes – preferably something like Desiree potatoes
3 oxo cubes
4 tsp cornflour
A drizzle of olive oil or other vegetable oil

First turn your oven on to 140C

Put a drizzle of oil into a casserole dish and heat briefly. Add the diced lamb and stir till the lamb pieces are brown all over.

If you’re good at multi-tasking, prepare the vegetables whilst the lamb is browning (otherwise prep the veg first!)

Peel and chop the carrots into 1cm chunks. Wash the celery and chop into 1-2cm chunks. Wash the potatoes and slice into half centimetre slices. I leave the skins on – lovely texture and taste and helps them hold their shape whilst cooking. Choosing a waxy potato like a Desiree is a good move as they don’t crumble up. But if you’re not fussed on presentation, any potato will do ok 😀

Once the meat is browned, add the celery and carrots and continue stirring occasionally on low heat.

Crumble the oxo cubes over the top, and add 700ml of boiling water. Stir till the granules have dissolved.

In a mug, mix 4 teaspoons of cornflour with a little water till you get a smooth paste, add a little splash more water so it is easy to pour. The mug should still be only about a quarter full.

Pour the cornflour into the hotpot, stirring. Bring the hotpot back up to the boil and you should see the gravy all nice and thick.

Once it’s simmering, arrange the slices of potatoes all over the top, drizzle them with a little more oil and sprinkle over about a teaspoon of salt.

Put the lid on your casserole dish and put it in the oven at 140C for about 2 hours. Take the lid off and cook for a further half hour or so to get a bit of browning on the potatoes.

Serve with a nice green veg like kale, broccoli, spring greens, spinach or chard.

Simple Slow Roast Belly Pork

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Delicious, easy, a discovery waiting to be made…. Have you got this lovely roast in your repertoire? The first time I cooked belly pork, I tried a recipe that suggested a high temperature and roast for an hour. Nope, wrong, tough as boots, it seemed to actually require some proper cheffing! No thank you. Follow the advise of my wise friend who knew the magic, easy way: Use a low temperature and hours of slow cooking. The pork falls of the bones, is full of effortless flavour, and to date I have had at least one vegetarian asking for seconds (sorry).

Ingredients for Slow Roast Belly Pork

 

Simple Slow Roast Belly Pork (serves 3-4)

1kg Belly Pork, on the bone (ask the butcher to score the skin)
3 carrots, peel and chopped in half lengthways
3 sticks celery, washed and chopped in half
2 red onions, peeled and halved
Sprig of fresh sage
1 bay leaf
Sprinkling of fresh rosemary
Salt
Balsamic vinegar
Red wine (optional)

 

First step is to rub the pork belly with salt and pop into a hot oven, uncovered for about 20 minutes. If you’re using an Aga, put it skin side down in your roasting pot, on the floor of the roasting oven. Otherwise, put it skin side up with the oven temperature at 200C.

Veggies into the pot ...

... Pork sits on top

After 20 minutes, turn the oven down to 140C. Lift up the pork, pop your prepared vegetables and herbs in the pot, sit the pork back on top of the veg, add a splash of water, and seal up the pot with foil and/or a good fitting lid: You want to keep all the moisture and flavours in.

Cook in the oven at 140C for 4 hours (Aga simmering oven), or an even lower temperature (110C) for longer.

Half an hour before serving, remove the skin from the pork. It will probably lift off, but if not just slice it off gently. Put the skin on a baking tray, and put it back in the oven at maximum (200C or more). I’ve never sussed reliably perfect crackling, but this seems to produce something pretty good every time 🙂 Just keep an eye on it and take it out of the oven before it carbonises.

Whilst your crackling crisps up, put the pork onto a warmed serving dish, together with the carrot, celery and onion. Keep it warm to rest.

In the roasting pan make a nice little gravy – remove the big herb sprigs, add a little balsamic vinegar, splash of red wine. Boil it down so it thickens a bit; or add a bit of cornflour, or that gravy powder that makes you go Aaaah, mixed with water.

Don’t even think about tidy carving, this is a flakey, spoon and fork sort of roast. Serve with roast potatoes, braised red cabbage with apple, green veg, and whatever wine you didn’t consume whilst making the gravy.
 

Cooks whilst you're out walking too

More to… Mountain Retreats
Space to breathe, time to think and lovely home cooked food

Where to start… this has been so what I needed: The views, the ambiance, the ‘away-from-it-all-ness,’ the wonderful food that so calmly and magically appeared, the log fire…. You have created a perfect space for people just to be – thank you so, so much. It’s been a joy to relax with other people ‘just being’ and have your quiet, wise support. The perfect recharge, refocus, relax…

 

Twice Cooked Belly Pork with Black Beans and Herb Salsa

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This is a meal full of flavour, easy to cook for numbers and a bit different too… There is a little bit of preparation to do, but the actual cooking is pretty effortless, just a slow roast for the pork and a slow simmer for the beans – perfect! Inspired by a wonderful recipe in “Supper with Rosie” by Rosie Lovell, this combination of hearty foods has the warmth for winter evenings and zingyness for summer feasts. That’ll be a year round favourite then!

Twice Cooked Belly Pork with Black Beans & Herbs

Twice Cooked Belly Pork with Black Beans and Herby Salsa (serves 4-6)

Pork and Pork Spices
1.5kg Belly Pork, with skin scored
2 star anise
1 tsp black pepper corns
1 tsp juniper berries
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp fennel seeds
2 bay leaves

Marinade
1 orange
2 tsp honey
1 tsp ground cloves

Black Beans
500g black beans
4 red peppers
1-2 red chilli
1 large red onion
3 cloves garlic
3 strips lime peel
1 teaspoon cocoa powder

Herby Salsa
5 spring onions
Small handful fresh coriander
1 tablespoon lemon thyme, leaves stripped from the stalk

Night Before
Put the black beans into a big bowl and fill with cold water – leave to soak until needed next day.

Cooking
You need to start this recipe about 4 hours before you want to eat it … but the actual preparation is not so very much. Honest.

Pork – first cooking
Put the belly pork into a large saucepan or casserole, add all the pork spices and cover with boiling water. Bring back to the boil, and simmer gently for about 20 minutes.

Flavoursome

Black Beans Prep and Pork Marinade
Whilst the pork is simmering, quarter the red peppers and remove the seeds. Cut the chilli in half – remove seeds if you’re a chilli woose like me, or leave seeds in and add extra chillis if you’re a fan of heat. Place all pieces skin side up on a baking tray, cover liberally with olive oil and sprinkle over a little salt.

Put into the oven at 200C and roast for about 30 minutes, until the skin is blackening.

Whilst they’re roasting, finely chop the onion, crush the peeled garlic and saute both gently in sunflower or olive oil until translucent.

Once the roasted peppers and chilli are ready, put them in a plastic bag, seal it and leave it to steam whilst you do the next bit. Save the oil in the baking tray, that’ll be added back in later.

Make the marinade for the pork – grate the zest of an orange into a small bowl, add a tablespoon of the juice of the orange, large teaspoon of honey, a teaspoon of ground cloves and a large teaspoon of salt.

Back to the belly pork – second cooking

Take the pork out of the water and put it skin side up into a large casserole dish. Rub the marinade over the pork (use spoons or rub in by hand if you have heat-resistant fingers) Add a strained ladle full of the pork cooking water, cover well and put in the oven. Turn the temperature down to 140C, and leave the pork to slow roast for up to 4 hours.

Black Beans
Peel the skin off the peppers, chop roughly, and chop the chilli roughly.

Strain the rest of the pork cooking water into a jug. Cover the black beans with pork cooking water. Add the chopped red peppers and chilli, and slices of lime zest. Do NOT add salt at this stage – that’ll come later.

Bring it up to the boil and boil rapidly for 10 minutes before turning the heat down to a low simmer and cook for 2-3 hours. Keep an eye on the water level and top up with more pork water whenever it gets low.

Lastly
For the last 20 minutes or so, take the pork out to rest, and lift off the skin. Return the skin to the oven to crisp up a bit.

Mash the beans briefly so the crushed up beans add a nice richness to the sauce. Taste and adjust seasoning – it’s likely to need a little more salt at this stage.

Make the little herby salsa by mixing together finely chopped spring onions, lemon thyme leaves and coriander

To serve: Flake the pork from the bones – it should fall off very happily 😮 Add the bits of crackling. Ladle black beans into bowls, pork on top, sprinkling of herb salsa, and serve with some baked potatoes or potato skins. Yum.