This is the second of two sponsored summer recipes that I developed with Parma Ham. Don’t miss the first one: Bream Ceviche with Parma Ham and Nectarines.

We have already spoken in depth about the meaty joy that is Parma Ham. Brief recap! Parma Ham is one of those products where you are gifted instant flavour, the work all being done by the producer before it hits your plate. It is preservative free, being just Pork + Air + Salt + Time and lessons learned from history and generations of prior producers. Parma Ham plays well with others and gifts instant depth of flavour to many things. It makes a lovely crisp jacket when you wrap other things in it, whether that is a bundle of green beans or asparagus, a lovely piece of fish or in this case pork belly.

Parma Ham is a perfect partner for pork belly

My pork belly obsession is well documented. It is a perfect roast, yes, especially when you roast it slow. It is brilliantly flexible beyond this though. I have taken to cooking smaller amounts of pork belly quicker with excellent results. This Parma Ham wrapped pork belly is a perfect example and it is so good. The ham keeps all the pork belly juices inside as it cooks, and gives it an extra deeply savoury layer.

On the side, as much as I love the humble spud and a slick plate of mash, I go for beans here. Beans also make great mash and they are especially nice for summer or Autumn. I like to use a plump butter bean (or better yet, Greek gigantes beans). Not only do they make a delicious mash, they make an instant one too. Protein rich with a hint of garlic and savouriness of rosemary. Those roasting juices from the pork belly wrapped with Parma Ham are sublime and elevate everything.

You can of course use a favourite chilli oil or one that you have at home. I provide a recipe for a simple one here flavoured with garlic and chilli. Play around, make a peppercorn oil, add herbs as it cools down (not at the beginning or they will burn). Homemade oils bring brilliant flavour. If you don’t want chilli make a simple herb oil by blending a flavourful herb (like oregano or basil) with some oil, allowing it to infuse and then pass it through a coffee filter or similar and you are good to go.

This is the first of two sponsored summer recipes that I developed with Parma Ham.

A ham sangwich (correct spelling!) was the frequent snack of many an Irish childhood. Especially at my Grandmothers when we would visit on St Stephen’s Day (aka Boxing Day). I knew that I would have to eat that ham in order to access some biscuits. As with most things, it was beautiful in its simplicity. Thick sliced bread, butter, home cooked ham, done.

My rural Irish childhood involved only Irish ham (which is of course very good). It was often home-cooked, thickly sliced, and sometimes pulled directly from the ham by my tiny enthusiastic hands. When I moved from rural Ireland to Cork city, I discovered a wonderful Italian deli (Iago’s), where I would become a regular. It was there that I discovered the joys of Parma Ham. I went through a phase of wrapping everything in it, and I still do sometimes today. I especially love it as a satisfying meaty snack for moments requiring instant gratification. 

Parma Ham, from the Belly of Italy 

Parma, the home of Parma Ham (and Parmiggiano Reggiano), is a small city in Emilia Romagna in Northern Italy. Emilia Romagna has a sublime food culture. Described as the belly of Italy (which gives some clue as to just how well you will eat there), Emilia Romagna is one of my most visited places (along with Rome). It is the home of many things, including my favourite Tagliatelle with Ragu and that gorgeous and very underrated wine, Lambrusco. Parma itself is a joy of a place to walk around with its winding streets lined by tall brightly painted old buildings.

Tofu! Now some of you are going to read that and think, WHAT?! TOFU?! Yes, tofu. Why? It is horribly underrated and completely delicious. Once you get the real thing. Tofu is thought of as a vegetarian or vegan ingredient, and yes it is, but in Asia it is as common to see it in a dish with meat, as not. See my recipe for Kimchi Jjigae (Korean Kimchi, Pork & Tofu Stew) for a very tasty example of this.

Tofu is also a fast food. The fastest, it is already good to go. It soaks up flavours and loves contrasting textures. I love it in a crispy fritter for brunch as much as I do in a stew. I love proper silken tofu, fresh from fridges of Asian food shops (especially Japanese). Silken is a joy, the very good stuff has the texture of custard. All of it is sublime when fried, and I have fried tofu every which way. A firm – nay, wobbly – favourite is Agedashi Tofu. 

Agedashi Tofu – Fried Tofu with Dashi!

A Japanese delight of a dish, age-dashi means fry-dashi and that is what this is, fried tofu with a seasoned dashi broth. Seasoned with soy and mirin (you can use sake too). It is naturally gluten free, usually using potato starch or corn starch. I love to use potato starch for this, it confers a stretchy crispness which is perfect with the wobbly tofu underneath. I sometimes mix the potato starch with rice flour, and of course you can just use rice flour too which will give a lovely crisp coating.

Well I am excited and nervous in equal amounts. My second book BACON is going to print in September to be delivered in plenty of time for Christmas. For you early birds there is an early bird offer that runs only until Monday (Order HERE now!), 

If you want a copy, you need to act now. This will be a limited edition release and there is only going to be one small print run this year limited to 1000 books. I will be stuffing the envelopes myself – and of course, signing every copy! – and with 800 already sold that pretty much sorts my November! My priority is to deliver the book to my wonderful original backers, and also to print additional copies for readers who may have missed that opportunity or joined the fold since then.

With the exception of a handful of recipes that were in my Sunday Bacon Club and Bacon Masterclasses, these are all spanking NEW! None of the recipes exist elsewhere and if you love bacon you must have it. If you love to eat generally. Bacon is the focus but not always dominant. Sometimes it is!

• Brunch
• Peckish
• Hungry / Feeding Friends
• Sweets (Trust me!)
• Bacon Pantry and Cures
  Continue reading

Hake is a beauty of a fish that is so underappreciated. We love it in Ireland, the Spanish love it too. In a way, I am glad that it isn’t hugely popular here as it makes it quite affordable. That big piece of hake in the photo came in at under £5 in an excellent but expensive London fishmonger. It flakes gently and has a beautiful light flavour. It works very well with big things like chorizo but it also plays well with gentler things like these summery beans.

Part 2 following on from A New Brunswick Culinary Road Trip: Starting at Saint John [Part 1]

That brisk sea breeze off the Bay of Fundy is enough to clear all cobwebs and signs of jet lag. I was up early the next day and on my way. Headed to Saint Andrews by the Sea with a pit stop by the beach, and for some fried clams. It can be hard to get me out of my bed in the morning especially with jet lag, but not when there is an early lunch of fried clams on the immediate horizon.

Saint John to New River Beach 

About a half hour drive out of Saint John lies New River Beach. A gorgeous stretch of coastline, all sandy beach and bright blue ocean and sky. A paddle in the ocean before a feed of fried clams (and other gorgeous fried things) is a joyful thing. The clams were at Ossie’s Lunch. A small diner at the side of the road with lots of picnic tables where you can tuck in outside.

Fried Clams at Ossie’s Lunch

Entering its 61st season, Ossie’s Lunch was opened in 1957 by Osborne and Roseanna Waite and is still going strong under new owner Shawn Saulnier. Roseanna still works there on occasion, as does her daughter Angela. You probably don’t know – I didn’t – that New Brunswickers LOVE fried clams and places like Ossie’s Lunch are packed on public holidays and in season. 

This is the second post in a two-part piece about my travels to Vorarlberg in Austria. Read the first part: Mountain Hiking, Herbal Walks and Local Food in Lech, Austria

For the second part of my Vorarlberg stay, we moved to Bregenzerwald. The drive to Bregenzerwald from Lech is a magical weave through valleys and mountains. Sweeping winding roads, and lots of promise. So stunning we had to stop to take some photos and stop and pause to take it all in. 

We were on our way to Löwen mountain distillery with lunch first there in the Gasthaus Löwen’s Inn & Café. A beautiful restaurant in an old house with one of those beautiful large tiled heaters (a Kachelofen). Windows draped by small curtains looked at the mountains outside. We took a table in the corner and perused the traditional menu. I love the menus in places like this. Plump käsespätzle (handmade noodle shreds in a voluptuous and generous cheese sauce) and schnitzel were what drew most of us in. The cool mountain air creates an enthusiastic appetite and with a distillery trip straight after, there is a need for it. 

I am fond of winter but I love to see it go. By the time it leaves it has become an unwelcome guest. It is a relief to see the buds open at Springtime and the trees begin to flourish, as they are this week. Walks home from the supermarket are peppered with mini assaults of blossom fragrance. The footpaths are dusted with their petals. The days are longer, the sky brighter, there is the promise of summer to come. Food becomes more interesting as we are almost out of the Hungry Gap (that period when little grows). 

Mountains come into their own in Spring and Summer. No more so than those favoured for their winter culture like the Alps. Last summer I visited Vorarlberg in the Austrian Alps. Our drive from Zürich ascended in the dark, in the morning I was greeted with crisp air, the sights of lush meadows and tall peaks, and bubbling brooks. 

The town of Lech is a pretty one. Famed for royal visitors (Princess Diana would ski here), it is also one of the worlds premier ski destinations. But Lech is also a joy in summer. The crowds are gone, and in the place of the snow all is lush. The days are hot and long, but there is crisp clear air accompanying. 

I know everything should start with an onion, or so the saying goes. Most of my cooking does. But not always. Sometimes just garlic will do and occasionally not at all. When I made this dish I started with minced beef not sure of what I would add next. The final result was a tasty speedy supper that required little work or preparation. I call that a winner! 

I am a regular visitor to Canada. I love the vast expanse of it. The people, the calm, the lakes and forests, the cities with the quickly expanding and inspiring culinary scene. Excellent cocktails, terrific Canadian wines, a booming craft booze scene and lovely restaurants and bars to sample them. Canada is an excellent place for a road trip, especially a culinary one.

A Culinary Road Trip of New Brunswick Starting in Saint John

New Brunswick was the scene of my most recent Culinary Road Trip, packed with snow crab and lobster, lush produce from the farmlands and foraged seaweeds and sea greens from the seashore. It is one of four of Canada’s Atlantic provinces on the east coast. 83% of New Brunswick is under forest, and the cities are small by international standards. It is a perfect relaxed spot for a break and to unwind. I flew into Saint John via Halifax, Nova Scotia. A short flight in a small plane with excellent views of the landscape below brought me to Canada’s oldest incorporated city. I started my culinary road trip here. 

New Brunswick is the only officially bilingual province in Canada with English and French being commonly spoken. The indigenous population has been established there since 7000BC (at the time of European contact these included the Mi’kmaq, the Maliseet, and the Passamaquoddy). Populations arrived from Europe from the 1600s included French, British and Irish. The city of Miramichi claims to be the Irish capital of Canada and was one of the points of arrival for many of Ireland’s coffin ships during the famine. It is home to a large Irish Festival now every year. New Brunswick was almost called New Ireland at one point until it was vetoed by King George III. Which, of course it was. 

Where to Eat and Drink in Saint John and What to Do

I cooked this at a supper club for 30 people recently. The fourth course of five – all containing black pudding – and as much as I love this dish, I fully did not expect every plate to come back clean. But they did! And so I think we can all agree that it is a winner. They told me so too. 

You see the thing is when so many of your days revolve around cooking and you are generally the only person eating it, it becomes easy to question every bite and wonder if it is enough. Should it be more, bigger, brighter? Everyone who works alone has this problem in one way or another. It would be perfect to have someone to bounce things off, a recipe tester, a friend. A room full of 30 people eating your food with enthusiasm? Perfection.

Many were surprised that I would add black pudding to ragu. It works so well. Already I have a recipe for black pudding ragu that is pure black pudding, no other meat. It is a popular recipe on here, called (tongue in cheek) Corkese. I use Irish black pudding and would suggest that you seek it out for this too. It has a different texture to British black pudding, made with oats and spices, it crumbles and almost bursts when you roast it. 

Using Traditional Tagliatelle with Ragu from Emilia Romagna as a Base 

The more that I cook, the more I desire simplicity. Fresh bright flavours delivered without fuss and with speed. Food that is healthy and bright. 

There was a time when I would devote much of my evening to delivering the meal that I would eat, often too late. Increasingly my cooking becomes simpler, fitted into tighter timeframes. I desire food that is fast and that delivers on flavour and that will sustain me too. Food that is healthy and balanced and that changes day to day. This way I always enjoy it, and my nutritional intake is varied too.

I generally cook for one but I usually cook enough for two meals each time. Borrowing time from the night before for the next day. Leftovers are terrific and the second iteration will usually have a twist so that it is different. This didn’t. I loved it so much the first time I kept it the same. 

Coconut and Coriander Prawns with Pumpkin – a speedy delicious and nutritious meal

Today is Pancake Tuesday / Shrove Tuesday / Mardi Gras. What a happy eating day! Mardi Gras means Fat Tuesday, the day to clear your cupboards before 40 days of Lenten fast. Every day can be pancake day but Pancake Tuesday is the one. I have gathered my favourite pancake recipes for you. Get stuck in.

A Brunch Classic: American Style Pancakes with Bacon & Maple Syrup

Let’s start with the classic fluffy pancake stack done American style. Always with bacon and maple syrup for me.

A Brunch Classic: American Style Pancakes with Bacon & Maple Syrup

Dal Pancakes with Curry Leaves, Coconut Milk and Chilli Oil

These dal pancakes were originally made with leftover dal but you should absolutely cook up a batch to make them. They are a cracker and enlivened with the gorgeous aromas from the crisped curry leaves and the punch of bright chilli oil.

Dal Pancakes with Curry Leaves, Coconut Milk and Chilli Oil

Socca (Chickpea Pancake) with Tomato & Aubergine

This post was sponsored by Ninja Kitchen.

We live in the age of the multi cooker. Many modern kitchens have one small appliance that does many jobs, and it isn’t your stove. The latest to launch in the UK comes from Ninja Kitchen, the Ninja Foodi. It announces itself as the pressure cooker that crisps.

When people ask me what piece of kit I have in my kitchen that I love and would recommend, there are a few contenders. Firstly, every home cook just needs to start with a good knife, a wooden spoon, a chopping board and a heavy pan. Beyond this, I rely heavily on my mixer, food processor and my pressure cooker.

A pressure cooker was not something that I thought that I would ever want. As with many people I have terrifying memories of pressure cookers that seemed to hiss and dance and threaten to explode. The veg cooked inside – always veg – were limp and lifeless. The flavour all gone with the hiss and the steam scream, leaving pale carrot batons and burst potatoes.

Redefining the Pressure Cooker

It was 17C in London today. In FEBRUARY. That is completely bonkers. Still, it is February, so soup weather. I lightened this one a bit, basing it in a light garlicky broth with beans (chickpeas, but use whatever bean you like), streaky bacon, crumbled sausage, cavolo nero, a pinch of chilli and a twist on gremolata on top.

Let’s talk about gremolata! I love it and it is perfect for brightening things, especially anything meaty, like a rich slow cooked ragu. It is simply lemon zest, flat leaf parsley and raw garlic. Chopped and chopped and chopped together, until really fine. I said this was a twist, and so it was. I used preserved lemon and added some chilli also. It really lifted the bowl.

I know this looks dark and messy, but truly, aren’t many of the best things? I love crispy beef and I love black bean sauce. I am working on a gluten-free version of crispy beef which makes no compromises. It is almost there! For now, my speedy black bean sauce is good to go, so I will share it with you now. 

I use Chinese salted fermented black beans which are a cupboard essential for me. You can get these in any Chinese food store, usually in small plastic bags or a yellow cardboard tub. Fermented foods are a way of borrowing time from before and adding fast flavour. How lovely is that? I soaked the beans briefly and then simply blitzed all of the ingredients together, then cooked it for 10 minutes. Done!

Once you start making taramasalata, you can’t go back. It is so delicious, so fast and easy to make and much more economical to make at home. It takes minutes and provides so much pleasure.

Most taramasalatas are lightened with bread, but on my current gluten-free diet I have been playing around and adding lots of different things to my tarama. Don’t be horrified, these are just as delicious and sufficiently different to be very interesting. I still love the original of course, and fondly remembered trips to Greece are my inspiration. If only I had the sea lapping nearby as an accompaniment!

Tarama means salted and cured cod roe, that being the egg sack of the fish. It is luscious and rich and is used to great effect in many food cultures, notably Japanese cuisine. In Japan cod and pollock roe are cured with chilli and called mentaiko. The colour is bright red and it is the perfect partner to many things. I love mentaiko in Japanese fusion dishes like Mentaiko Mac and Cheese. My friend Luiz Hara has a bright new cookbook The Japanese Larder, that will educate you all about that and I have shared a lovely mentaiko recipe from his first book before also: Mentaiko Spaghetti with Clams and Parmesan.

Using smoked cod roe to make taramasalata 

This post was published in happy partnership with EatEnjoy, who sponsored this post.  This is the third post in a series of three. My first recipe was these – and oh my you have to try them – Hot Cheesy Lobster Pots, the second post was a light and bright but no less cheerful Beetroot Hummus with Feta, Pomegranate and Dill. This post explores using EatEnjoy Dairy in a restaurant situation at Greene’s in Cork, Ireland.

Eating out in Ireland can be a little difficult when you can’t have dairy. It is entirely possible and people are of course very accommodating. On an island of farmers and in a food culture devoted to all things butter milk and cream, it has felt in recent years like I have been missing a lot.

On an island of rich green fields and all that rain we have terrific dairy products across the board. Wonderful artisanal farmhouse cheeses, terrific milk and cream, buttermilk is for sale everywhere that sells milk and by the litre. Our soda bread is milk based, many things are. We are obsessed with butter, we even put it on our biscuits. 

Cork was once home to an enormous Butter Market

Cork has a rich dairy history. It was once home to the most important butter market in the UK and Ireland. Launched in 1730, at its peak in the 1880s it was handling 500,000 casks of butter per year valued at £1.5million. People travelled from all over the world to Cork to trade butter. It is for this reason that there are recipes like Spiced Beef in Cork as the spices were traded for butter. It closed later as European butter markets competed, and in the area where it once thrived there is now Cork Butter Museum. A curious small place packed with butter paraphernalia and history including an ancient barrel of bog butter. Butter was our primary source of fat and therefore stored energy for the lean months of winter. We are still obsessed. 

Cork is a small city by international standards but it is Ireland’s second city, it is also in Ireland’s largest county. The gastronomy scene is exciting and it has been developing at speed and with confidence. Cork as with much of Ireland has coastline and rich pasture and it is packed with passionate producers and chefs making the most of the gorgeous tapestry available to them. 

Greene’s in Cork – Shining a light on Irish produce and creativity

Jump straight to the Braised Haricot Beans with Chorizo and Cavolo Nero recipe.

It is never too soon for another bean recipe. This recipe has braised, chorizo and cavolo nero in the title too, so let’s get stuck in!

Chorizo and kale are the best of friends and I cook them a lot together. Cavolo Nero is just a glamorous kale complete with Italian accent. I make a chorizo and kale carbonara too which you should definitely check out as you are here. Added to braised beans, this makes for a super gorgeous comforting dish that eats so well on its own. You can also add some protein, I recommend a nice piece of roast chicken or pork, or a chunky white fish like turbot.

Jump straight to the Warm Winter White Bean Salad with Black Pudding, Sage and Radicchio recipe. 

Bean salad conjures images of sad tins and limp mixed beans presented to vegetarians after a last minute panic before a dinner party. Yes, I was a vegetarian once! A long time ago. Beans that have lived too long in saccharine sweet syrupy and salty water. Beans that once had flavour but that is now mainly erased. Beans too soft to be interesting.

Yes. Beans? They can be so much better.

This doesn’t come from a point of view of judgement or snobbery. I abhor both. The thing with beans is once you try them cooked from dried or take the time to cook them yourself, you spot immediately that there is a world of difference. It is also an incredibly frugal way to cook. A 500g packet of dried beans can cost as little as £1 and it will feed you for a week. Of course you won’t want to eat beans for a whole week, they would quickly lose their lustre. They freeze so well though, and I freeze them in 250g portions, the approximate equivalent of a tin. 

But they take so long! Nah. Soak them overnight even if strictly speaking you don’t need to, or are told you don’t. It takes no effort and it saves on cooking time and improves on texture. Most small beans will cook in half an hour. Larger, in 45 minutes. Easy. 

Which beans? Any and all. The ever present chickpea, adopted by so many cultures. As happy in an Italian soup bowl and a Spanish stew as in a Middle Eastern hummus. Butter beans! Small plump luscious ones from Greece and once twice the size from Spain called Judion de la Granja. Spain in particular has an enormous love for beans and sells them from enormous sacks in markets. Yes, Italy does too, but in Italy the selection is more focussed. I find new beans in Spain all the time.