Category: 2.14 Pork

Posted on

Gyoza, two fillings, pork and prawn.

Gyoza are a treat. I serve them with three dips: soy sauce, sweet chilli dipping sauce, and chilli relish. Cook them in batches of 6 and eat them straight away before cooking more. They are supposed to be a side/starter, but when I make them they become the whole meal.

I’ve got 2 fillings I use, one pork, one shellfish. For the shellfish you can use prawns, lobster, scallops, and for the pork you can substitute razor clams (spoots), or veal if you fancy.

Pork filling

150g pork fillet chopped

60g water chestnuts chopped

small sprig of chopped chives (or a spring onion)

1 small chilli chopped

4 or 5 shredded baby cabbage leaves

salt and pepper

Prawn filling

150g prawns, chopped

60g water chestnuts chopped

small sprig of chopped chives (or a spring onion)

a small handful of chopped spinach

salt and pepper

Method for prepping the filling

  1. Mix the ingredients in a blender and blitz to a grainy mix – not a paste, but not chunky.
  2. Dry fry for a couple of minutes to cook everything and drive off any excess water.
  3. Put to one side in a bowl

Making up the Gyoza

  1. Lay out your Gyoza skin, on one half place a good sized teaspoon of the filling.
  2. Fold over the skin and then fold over and press the edges. Trim the skin if you need to before you fold and press. You shouldn’t need any liquid or oil – the skin should just stick. But use a little if you feel the need.
  3. You can make them pretty with the way you fold, or not. Just make sure it’s stuck…

Cooking

  1. Steam the Gyoza for 3-4 minutes. If you don’t have a steamer then a colander over a pan of water works fine (but keep a lid on). This cooks the pastry. It is also possible to dunk the Gyoza in just simmering water for 60sec, but you risk losing them if they split.
  2. Transfer to a pan and shallow fry in veg oil, about 1min per side until golden. If you’ve done them beautifully then they will be vaguely triangular in cross section and you get to fry three sides. But if you’re like me it’s a bit hit and miss.
Gyoza – served on a napkin and ready to dip…
Posted on

Roast Ham with Medlar, Marmalade and Maple Syrup

What’s left…

I love a roast ham, always unsmoked for me and weirdly now is a great time to buy them – just before Christmas and just after they tend to be really good value.

You can buy them pre-cooked, and on or off the bone. I tend to keep it simple, off the bone and to cook myself. It means that each one can be different. Yesterday I tried a new recipe and boy did it work!

Prep: 24hours Cook: 90min on the stove then 25min in the oven

Ingredients

1 good sized ham joint ~ 1.5kg

12 bletted medlar

1 lrg dspspn marmalade

1 dstspn maple syrup

olive oil

Prep

ham is salted to preserve it, so the first job it to get rid of some…

I swill the joint in cold water and soak for 24 to 36 hours before cooking, changing the water several times. I do this at room temperature. If you put it in the fridge it takes longer.

Method

  1. With the joint in a large pan and submerged in fresh water, break the ripe medlars into two or three pieces and add them to the pot. Bring to the simmer and cook for 90min to 2 hours. A minimum of 20min per 500g plus 30min.
  2. Pre-heat the oven to 200c (Fan)
  3. Remove the joint (keep the water). Cut away most of the fat and score what is left in a pattern – be creative, or not – up to you.
  4. Rescue the medlars from the water and press through a sieve – leave the skins and seeds behind. Take the pulp and mix it with the syrup, marmarlade and a ladle of the stock water.
  5. Add a good glug (about 40ml) of olive oil to the mix and give it a really good shake/blitz. Thw hot stock should melt the marmalade and the shake should create an emulsion (much like a salad dressing).
  6. With the joint in a roasting tin (fat side down) pour over the sauce. Cook in the oven for 25min basting every 5 min

Basting is really important. It thickens the coating with each basting and stops the outside of the joint from drying out. If you cook it hotter for less time you get the colour but not the thick sticky coating that adds a lot of flavour.

Oh and the water you have left from the cooking – use it for you’re veggies. It’s often too salty for soup or stock, but ideal for cooking potatoes so they take a little of the flavours.

The medlars aren’t essential. But I like the taste and cooking them with the ham gets the flavour through the meat. If you like you can replace these with an apple or just add apple sauce to the sauce – I like the contrasts between the marmalade, fruit and syrup.

More traditional recipes use things like cloves – I do that too sometimes, but I find the taste infusion can be quite uneven. Cooking a few cloves in the water works to even it out, but then I’d not use it for potatoes afterwards.