Pork Belly Porchetta
All Original Recipes by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 2 hours
Serves: 12-15 people
- 3.7kg/8lb pork belly, boneless with rind on, slashed on the rind
- 1/3 cup rosemary
- 3 tablespoons salt flakes plus extra
- 2 tablespoons fennel seeds
- 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
- Extra slab of rind
- 3-5 tablespoons salt
- 3-5 tablespoons oil
Step 1 - Heat the rosemary, salt, fennel seeds and peppercorn in a frying pan for 2 minutes or until fragrant. Place in a spice grinder or mortar and pestle and grind.
Step 2 - Slash the meat and rub the herby salt mixture all over the meat side. Roll up and secure with kitchen string. Place in the fridge uncovered on a rack overnight.
Step 3 - Preheat oven to 240C/464F and take the pork belly and rind out of the fridge 1 hour before you want to start cooking it. Rub extra salt and oil generously all over the skin getting into the score lines on the pork and rind. I do this over the sink so that the drippings on the pan don't end up too salty with the salt that falls off. Place on a tray in the hot oven to blister for 30 minutes. The crackling rind should be finished. Then continue cook the porchetta at 180C/350F for 1 hour 45 minutes. Allow to rest for 30 minutes and then slice it.
Please note: cooking temperatures for pork belly are 30 minutes to score at 240C/464F and then at 180C/350F 35 minutes for each kilo/2 lbs of pork belly.
Bacon, Apple & Pecan Stuffing
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes
Serves: 8-10
- 2 large onions, peeled and finely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
- 200g/7ozs. bacon, chopped
- 1 apple (around 100g/3.5oz), cored and diced (small dices)
- 50ml/1.7flozs. brandy
- 400ml/14flozs. cream
- 275g/9.7ozs brioche, diced
- 1/2 cup/75g/2.7ozs. toasted pecans, chopped
Step 1 - Preheat oven to 180C/350F and grease and line a medium sized loaf tin. First cook the bacon for 3-4 minutes and then add the onions and garlic and cook until soft and the bacon starts to brown. Add apple and brandy cook for 5 minutes or until starting to soften. Add the cream, brioche and pecans and mix to combine and heat through.
Step 2 - Spoon into the dish or tin and cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Remove foil and raise temperature to 200C/400F and bake uncovered for 10 minutes.
Crab & Leek Cannelloni
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour
Serves: 10
- 1 leek
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons oil
-
250g/8.8ozs cannelloni shells
-
500g/1lb crab meat
-
250g/8.8ozs. ricotta
For bechamel sauce
- 100g/3.5ozs. butter
- 100g/3.5ozs. flour
- 4 cups/1 litre/33flozs. milk, hot
- 1 teaspoon mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 150g/5ozs grated mozzarella
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
Step 1 - First make the bechamel sauce. Melt the butter in a medium sized saucepan on medium heat and add the flour and stir with a spatula cook for 1 minute. Switch to a large whisk and add the milk gradually whisking to keep it smooth. Add the mustard and salt. You can also make bechamel sauce in the Thermomix which is how I like to do it. Just place the butter, flour, milk, mustard and salt in the Thermomix and set to 10 minutes/90C/speed#4.
Step 2 - Preheat oven to 200C/400F and oil a lasagne dish. Spread a third of the bechamel sauce on the base of the dish. I dip the cannelloni shells in water just to hydrate them a little first. Cut the top bright green dry part off the leek and split the leek down the centre and cut into half moons. Make sure to rinse the leeks well as dirt can get trapped inside them. Sauté the leeks in the butter and oil until soft. Mix with the crab meat and ricotta and place in a piping bag. Cut a large hole to fit the cannelloni size and pipe into the shells and place on top of the bechamel layer.
Step 3 -Pour the remaining bechamel sauce over the cannelloni and sprinkle with parmesan cheese and cover with foil. Bake for 20 minutes and then remove the foil and increase the heat to 200C/400F and bake for 15 minutes until golden.
Valentina's Christmas Feta Stuffed Peppers
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 35 minutes
Serves: 8
-
8 long red and green peppers (around 100g/3.5ozs. each)
-
600g/21ozs. feta
-
100g/3.5ozs ricotta cheese
-
1 clove garlic, peeled and finely grated
-
1 teaspoon oregano
-
8 cherry tomatoes
Step 1 - Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Cut the tops of the peppers but keep these. Scoop out the seeds with a long handled teaspoon from the peppers and lid. Blend the feta, ricotta, garlic and oregano and place in a piping bag and pipe this mixture into the peppers. Place a cherry tomato in the top to prevent the cheese mixture from spilling out and place the "lid" or top of the pepper back on.
Step 2 - Drizzle with some oil and place in a baking dish and bake for 35-40 minutes.
Finnish Beetroot Christmas Trifle Salad
Preparation time: 30 minutes plus cooling time for vegetables
Cooking time: 20 minutes concurrently
Serves: 10
- 800g/1.7lbs. potatoes, peeled and boiled in salted water, cold
- 500g/1.1lbs beetroot, roasted (I bought it already roasted for convenience as I was making all the food), cold
- 8 eggs, boiled and peeled
- 1 cup pickles, chopped
- 200ml/7ozs. sour cream
- 100ml/3.5flozs. pickle juice
- Oak Lettuce
Step 1 - Chop the potatoes into chunks and mix with 1/2 cup of mayonnaise in a bowl. Chop beetroot up and place in another bowl. Mix the pickles, sour cream and pickle juice together to form a dressing and dress the beetroot in this. Then chop up the eggs and mix with 1/3 cup of mayonnaise and 1 teaspoon of mustard in a third bowl.
Step 2 - Start with a layer of oak lettuce leaves in the bottom of your trifle bowl. Then add the potato salad, then another layer of lettuce leaves. Then add the beetroot salad and then the egg salad on top. Keep covered and chilled until serving.