Pork Hock and Haricot Stew

The borscht I made a few weeks ago needed a bit of pork hock in it. I wasn't going to bother, but it was surprisingly cheap for such a massive hunk of meat. After putting a little of it in the soup, the rest went in the freezer for another time.

Every so often I have to have a freezer purge to get eat up some of the stuff in there, as well as saving some cash. So this week I defrosted the pork hock, and set about finding a recipe to use it in. I came across this Pork Hock and Butterbean Stew on Dinner Diary, and decided to give it a go.

I replaced the butterbeans for haricots, as I had some in the cupboard, and the whole point of freezer left over day is to not spend money! I also used white wine instead of sherry. The rest of the dish was very easy to make, and although it took a few hours, most of that was spent watching "Eggheads" while the stew bubbled away. The hardest part was getting the meat off the bone as it was too hot to get a proper grip on it.

The stew was delicious, and the paprika did give it a Spanish feel. A bit of chorizo in there would have been excellent, but it was still tasty. I served it with some brown rice and some crusty bread for mopping up the juices.

Pork Hock and Haricot Stew

There was enough of this for some of it to go back in the freezer as a left over portion, and if I hadn't used some in the borscht it would have made two portions to freeze. I was really impressed with the pork hock, which was incredibly tender by the end of the cooking. There were some sinews and fatty bits left, but I managed to get most of these out when shredding the meat. Definitely a store cupboard triumph!

PS - I did the guest round up at Nora The Kitchen 'Splorer this week, check it out!

Home Made Tapas

It's been a busy week for me. My parents came up to visit, as did most of my flatmates' families. It's graduation week! I got to wear a cape! I was also a bit disappointed that I only got a white hood, some of the other degrees got red with fur trims. I am now officially a graduate. Scary.

Before the madness started, we had tapas for dinner. I spent 5 or 6 hours in the kitchen making 11 dishes, it was probably the most extreme savoury cooking I've ever done. As there was only 4 of us, most of the dishes were quite small. It was still tough, and I struggled to get everything out at once. I have a new appreciation of the amount of work an underground restaurant must involve!

Tortilla, chorizo, gambas al pil pil, patatas bravas

The photos are pretty rough because I was so hungry and tired by this stage that spending time taking well lit pictures just wasn't going to happen.

• Green Salad
• Potato and Onion Tortilla
• Grilled Chorizo
• Gambas al pil pil
• Patatas Bravas
• Sardine Escabeche
• Olives
• Pan con tomate
• Meatballs in tomato sauce
• Chicken and Chorizo Stew
• Garlic Mushrooms
  

Very rustic looking pan con tomate

I tried to make things ahead and reheat them nearer to dinner, as well as including a couple of cold items such as the tortilla, salad and olives that just needed to be plated up.

The meatballs and the tortilla were my favourite dishes. The tortilla was made by cooking potatoes and onions in a sea of olive oil, then draining off the oil and replacing it with beaten eggs. It took ages to cook as I don't think our frying pan conducts heat very well. (This might be because it was cheap, but probably more due to the bashed in bottom not sitting flat on the hob). I ended up grilling the top to try and get the egg to set enough to turn it over in the pan. We didn't manage to eat it all on the night, so had another slice for breakfast the next morning. Yum!

Meatballs

The meatballs were made with a mixture of pork and beef, with a red wine and tomato sauce. I browned them in the pan before baking them in the oven with the sauce. They were deliciously meaty, although the sauce wasn't quite right.

Tapas was quite stressful, and I'm not sure whether I'd be bothered to make it all again! As always, there was way too much food so I'm still eating left over chorizo and salad. It was a fun evening and I drank more sherry than I should have done! We've still got loads of onions, eggs and potatoes, so another tortilla might be on the cards, especially if I can eat it for breakfast!