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| Slow cooking cidered pork with paster aglio olio |
And so what is dry cider, and does it have any slightest connection with apple cider vinegar? Well, yes and no. Yes, because apple cider vinegar is made from cider, which in turn almost always comes from apples. And no, because dry ciders are not vinegar, simple as that. Dry ciders just meant that the natural sugar has been fermented out, which means it is not sweet, or for some brands, not that sweet. Pardon my ignorance, but to my surprise, dry ciders actually has an alcohol content of between 5%-7%. I'd also found out that dry ciders are usually used as a beverage rather than an ingredient in cooking. These bits of information really aroused my curiosity about this slow cooking dish and how it might taste. Just in case I could not find dry cider in the supermarket I had in mind to visit, I'd also found out that apple cider can be used as a substitute but there is a need to cut back on the sugar in the recipe.
I went to the supermarket which boast of its selection of imported international food products. That means there is a high chance of finding dry ciders there. True enough, I found it. It came in a large glass bottle, 1 litre to be precise. The bottle was green in color, making it look like a bottle of beer. Naturally, I procured one bottle, got back home, poured myself a glass and took a sip. Pondered on the taste. Not very fruity as I thought it might be. No subtle taste of apples, maybe my tongue was not sensitive enough for delicate things. Bubbly, yes. Like sparkling wine, but not sweet. So much for my anticipation; mystery demystified.
On with putting my slow cooking cidered pork together. I bought a large chunk of pork shoulder butt weighing about 750g from my favorite butcher in the wet market. I love to use shoulder butt as mince meat. I find them more juicy then using lean meat, but of course there is the fats to get rid of before using them. For this dish, I had to curve out the fats and sinews (a bit of a tricky knife job) before cutting it into cubes for cooking. One of the best ways to curve out the sinews is to slide the knife as close to the sinew as possible and run it along the sinews. Something I picked up from watching Jamie Oliver cook.
Next is to chop up all the vegetables into bite size chunks, even though the recipe calls for the vegetables to be diced. I didn't want the vegetables to end up losing their shapes. Apart from cutting the vegetables and processing the meat into roughly 1.5 inch chunks, there really is nothing much to prepare to get this dish together. The only thing left to do is to brown the meat and fry up the vegetables before chucking the whole mixture into the slow cooker. The rest of the job, my trusty slow cooker will take over for the next 9 hours.
Slow cooking cidered pork
(Recipe from "The Complete Slow Cooker: Packed with recipes, techniques and tips", Sara Lewis, Hamlyn, 2010)
Ingredients
1 tbsp vegetable sunflower oil (I used corn oil)
750g pork shoulder steaks cubed and any fat discarded
1 leek, thinly sliced; white and green parts kept separated
2 tbsp plain flour (to thicken the liquid)
300ml dry cider (substitute with apple cider, reduce sugar)
300ml chicken stock
200g carrots, diced (I just chunk them into bite size)
1 dessert apple, cored and diced (I used red Fuji apple from China, chunked)
2-3 stems sage
salt and pepper
Method
1. Heat oil in frying pan, add the pork a few pieces at a time until all the pieces are in the pan, then fry over a high heat until lightly browned.
2. Lift the pork out of the pan with a slotted spoon and transfer it to the slow cooker pot.
3. Add the white leek slices to the pan and fry for 2-3 minutes or until softened. Stir in the flour, then gradually mix in the cider and the stock.
4. Add the carrot, apple, sage and some salt and pepper. Bring to the boil, stirring continuously. Stirring continuously is necessary as I find that the flour formed quite a number of lumps when liquid is added. I used a whisk to help in breaking up the lumps.
5. Pour the mixture into the slow cooker pot, cover with the lid and cook at LOW for 9-10 hours. In the last 15 minutes, add salt and pepper to taste, add the green part of the leeks and cook until softened.
I made pasta aglio olio to go with this slow cooking meat dish. I had intended to spend a bit of time catching up on my television programmes, I had opted for a simple carbohydrate dish to accompany this meat dish. The ingredient for this accompaniment is very basic and easy to gather. Olive oil, good quality, if it can be afforded. I just use extra virgin olive oil bought from my neighbourhood supermarket. Garlic, chili (I used chili padi) and pasta. Actually, so much being said about wanting to keep things easy to give myself time to stay attached to the goggle box, I just wanted to try out a recipe in another of my list of cookbooks ^_^ For the pasta shapes, I used a mixture of two types of pasta: fusilli and spaghetti. The Hubby likes spaghetti and the kids love fusilli, they think spaghetti is boring. The pasta tasted okay, the chili gave it a bit of heat which proved a little too spicy for the kids. And after eating the pasta, I think salt has to be added in the process of making the olive oil sauce. It tasted too bland and the amount of salt added to the water to cook the pasta was not enough.
My Pasta Aglio Olio
(adapted from "Pasta with garlic, chilli & pine nuts" in "Pasta: 100 Great Recipes", Jacqueline Bellafontaine, Silverdale Books, 2005)
Ingredients
400g pasta (mixed shapes)
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 red chillies, seeded and chopped
Method
1. Cook the pasta in plenty of lightly salted boiling water according to cooking instructions on the pasta packaging. I like mine al dente, so I normally cook my pasta for about 8 minutes.
2. In the meantime, heat the olive oil and saute the garlic for 2-3 minutes. Before turning off the flame, sprinkle in the chilli and stir around a couple of times. I do it this way to prevent releasing too much heat from the chilli, I just wanted a hint of heat but this is still a little too spicy for the kids.
3. Keep about a small cup of cooking liquid before draining the pasta. Add the pasta into the frying pan of garlic and chilli infused olive oil, toss to coat evenly. If it is a little dry, add 1-2 tbsp of the cooking liquid.
4. Serve immediately.
Notes:
* Next time I make this pasta again, remember to add in some salt to the oil as it tasted pretty bland apart from the garlic and chilli.
On with putting my slow cooking cidered pork together. I bought a large chunk of pork shoulder butt weighing about 750g from my favorite butcher in the wet market. I love to use shoulder butt as mince meat. I find them more juicy then using lean meat, but of course there is the fats to get rid of before using them. For this dish, I had to curve out the fats and sinews (a bit of a tricky knife job) before cutting it into cubes for cooking. One of the best ways to curve out the sinews is to slide the knife as close to the sinew as possible and run it along the sinews. Something I picked up from watching Jamie Oliver cook.
 |
| Curving out the sinew |
Slow cooking cidered pork
(Recipe from "The Complete Slow Cooker: Packed with recipes, techniques and tips", Sara Lewis, Hamlyn, 2010)
Ingredients
1 tbsp vegetable sunflower oil (I used corn oil)
750g pork shoulder steaks cubed and any fat discarded
1 leek, thinly sliced; white and green parts kept separated
2 tbsp plain flour (to thicken the liquid)
300ml dry cider (substitute with apple cider, reduce sugar)
300ml chicken stock
200g carrots, diced (I just chunk them into bite size)
1 dessert apple, cored and diced (I used red Fuji apple from China, chunked)
2-3 stems sage
salt and pepper
Method
1. Heat oil in frying pan, add the pork a few pieces at a time until all the pieces are in the pan, then fry over a high heat until lightly browned.
2. Lift the pork out of the pan with a slotted spoon and transfer it to the slow cooker pot.
3. Add the white leek slices to the pan and fry for 2-3 minutes or until softened. Stir in the flour, then gradually mix in the cider and the stock.
 |
| This is the appearance of Step 3 before adding liquid. After liquid is added, need to stir continuously as lumps will form. |
 |
| This is how Step 4 looks like. I love the colors! |
I made pasta aglio olio to go with this slow cooking meat dish. I had intended to spend a bit of time catching up on my television programmes, I had opted for a simple carbohydrate dish to accompany this meat dish. The ingredient for this accompaniment is very basic and easy to gather. Olive oil, good quality, if it can be afforded. I just use extra virgin olive oil bought from my neighbourhood supermarket. Garlic, chili (I used chili padi) and pasta. Actually, so much being said about wanting to keep things easy to give myself time to stay attached to the goggle box, I just wanted to try out a recipe in another of my list of cookbooks ^_^ For the pasta shapes, I used a mixture of two types of pasta: fusilli and spaghetti. The Hubby likes spaghetti and the kids love fusilli, they think spaghetti is boring. The pasta tasted okay, the chili gave it a bit of heat which proved a little too spicy for the kids. And after eating the pasta, I think salt has to be added in the process of making the olive oil sauce. It tasted too bland and the amount of salt added to the water to cook the pasta was not enough.
My Pasta Aglio Olio
(adapted from "Pasta with garlic, chilli & pine nuts" in "Pasta: 100 Great Recipes", Jacqueline Bellafontaine, Silverdale Books, 2005)
Ingredients
400g pasta (mixed shapes)
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 red chillies, seeded and chopped
Method
1. Cook the pasta in plenty of lightly salted boiling water according to cooking instructions on the pasta packaging. I like mine al dente, so I normally cook my pasta for about 8 minutes.
2. In the meantime, heat the olive oil and saute the garlic for 2-3 minutes. Before turning off the flame, sprinkle in the chilli and stir around a couple of times. I do it this way to prevent releasing too much heat from the chilli, I just wanted a hint of heat but this is still a little too spicy for the kids.
3. Keep about a small cup of cooking liquid before draining the pasta. Add the pasta into the frying pan of garlic and chilli infused olive oil, toss to coat evenly. If it is a little dry, add 1-2 tbsp of the cooking liquid.
4. Serve immediately.
 |
| See the mixture of spaghetti and fusilli? Just to satisfy the Tiny Man, the girl and the Hubby. |
* Next time I make this pasta again, remember to add in some salt to the oil as it tasted pretty bland apart from the garlic and chilli.
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