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Sunday, 22 December 2013

Cooking for Christmas has begun.  Today I made Nigella's clementine cake and also a lemon version with a lemony syrup which came out well.  We've just had it for pudding with some Greek yoghurt.  I also put a piece of pork in the oven at 12 noon to slow roast for dinner this evening. The recipe came from a Hugh F-W recipe in the Observer magazine a couple of years ago and it was very good.  The house smelt wonderful all day and this is all that's left from a 2.5 kg piece of meat and there five of us at the table.  
The rub for the pork was full of fragrant flavours.  Here's the link to the article.  http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/sep/04/organic-pork-recipes-fearnley-whittingstall
Re-reading the recipe I realise I forgot to add the chilli flakes but it doesn't matter a jot.  It's perfectly delicious without.  I wasn't sure what to serve it with so I made HFW's Asian slaw dressing (freshly grated garlic and ginger, 1 tblspn runny honey, 2 tblspns each of toasted sesame oil, mild olive oil, soy sauce and wine vinegar) and grated up some carrot, golden beetroot, celeriac, chopped a bit of celery and some red cabbage and threw in a handful of salted peanuts and rocket for good measure.  I also made some potatoes wedges and the whole thing came together very well.  Could have done with some kind gravy or sauce though.  Pork can be dry.

I'm doing another slow roast pork on Boxing Day but that one will be with fennel seeds, chilli (won't forget this time) and lemon juice.  Yum.

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