Pot roast shoulder of pork with fennel, shallots and potatoes

While I wholeheartedly approve of any homecooked family meal, I have always been a little baffled by the idea of a Sunday roast with all the trimmings. Great if your services are not required in the kitchen but consider the poor old family cook, who is still often the woman of the house, slaving as she does over meat and eight veg, while the other family members watch the Eastenders omnibus or Formula 1. Lets be honest its a real palaver and it can seem as though every single pot, pan, dish and plate has been used in the name of this most British of institutions. I think we place so much emphasis on this tradition each week that it leaves us reluctant to cook more often at other times during a busy week. If the cook in each house simplified their approach to Sunday lunch and also to other meals then I believe we can eat better and cheaper more often.

If you read my blog then you will notice that I have created a few easy Sunday 'roasts' that require very little input, save a few choice ingredients and plenty of time. Dishes that are ideal for leaving in the oven or slow cooker while you read the Suday papers or take a long walk to work up an appitite. No-one need know of your little secret as what you present at the table will blow your diner's socks off.

Pot roast shoulder of pork with fennel, shallots and potatoes

This particular cut is cheap but one of the best. It is really difficult to mess it up as it requires long slow cooking. I love these cuts of meat as they are so much more flavoursome than their flashier and more expensive butcher's slab brothers. Fennel, tarragon and cream have a wonderful affinity with pork and this makes for a fantastic plate of food. It is cheap too and comes in at around £2.50 per portion.

Serves 4

2 kg piece of pork shoulder
3 shallots or 1 onion, quatered
1 large or 2 small fennel bulbs, quatered
8 new potatoes, scrubbed and halved
100 ml dry cider (Aspall's organic is lovely)
100 ml double cream
a couple of sprigs of tarragon, finely chopped

1) Preheat your oven to hot. Place a little oil in a casserole or roasting tin and pop in the oven to heat up.




2) Season your pork and sit in the centre of the dish. Arrange the vegetables around, making sure there is a snug fit or they will burn. Pop in the oven for 20 minutes so the pork skin has a chance to crackle and the veg takes on a little colour.





3) Pour in the cider, cover with a lid and turn the oven down low, say about 120 degrees and leave to cook for about 4 hours, just watch the cider doesn't evaporate, it shouldn't as the shoulder of pork will release its juices, creating a lovely sauce.





4) Remove the meat and veg to a plate and keep warm, strain the cooking liquid into a sauce pan, reduce by boiling until you have about a quater of a pint, add the cream, bring to the boil and allow to thicken slightly. Stir in the tarragon and put on to simmer while you carve the pork and serve up.

Perfect scrambled eggs

I am generally used to rising early, what with being a parent and employee, and this natural alarm clock kicks in on weekends also. So once more on an early Saturday morning I am in Swansea Market doing my weekly shop. On the menu this weekend is a slow cooked chilli con carne and also scrambled eggs with smoked salmon. I will put up a recipe for the chilli later in the week but I will briefly turn my attention to breakfast.

I am a great believer in simplicity and elevating humble dishes to great heights through care and attention to detail. Scrambled eggs, in my opinion, is a most abused dish, but one that when done right give you faith that good food is all you need to be happy. I increasingly find little time for showy, elaborate dishes and take great joy from cheap simple food.

Smoked salmon with scrambled eggs

For such an easy dish you have to be on the ball because a very fine line exists between agony and ecstasy. Have the salmon out and on the plate ready, seasoned with a squeeze of lemon and a twist of black pepper. If you are having toast or bread then have it ready, by the way I recommend a lovely non supermarket wholemeal, why spoil such a luxurious start to the day with white sliced.

Making the eggs - whisk 3 per portion with a pinch of salt, twist of pepper and most importantly a glug of double cream. Please do not use milk as the water in it ruins your eggs, and if you are using a microwave you are on the wrong blog. Melt a knob of butter in a saucepan and add the eggs. Stir often on a medium to low heat and do not leave them even for a second. Get someone else to make the tea and butter the toast. They need to be soft and creamy, slightly underdone and when this is so, turn off the heat, stir in another knob of butter and serve. Absolute heaven on a plate.

Pan fried salmon with crushed new potatoes, broad beans and hollandaise sauce

I was up keen and early yesterday morning to get the best of the produce at Swansea market. I returned home with salmon, lovely new potatoes, sausages, bacon, welsh cakes, great brie de maux and other bits and bobs. I am going to start my very own campaign to promote this tresure trove of wonderful suppliers and their great produce. I have no connections with any of the suppliers or any ulterior motive to support the market. All I know is we are very lucky indeed and I had a recent conversation with someone from France who wishes they had a market like ours out where she lived. I am going to write a separate piece about the market but for now this is what we had for lunch today. I promise it is stunning although it is easy to do and you can make it look cheffy!

Pan fried salmon with crushed new potatoes, broad beans and hollandaise sauce

Salmon

If you are going to make this you will find that it is far more economical to buy a whole salmon and have the fishmonger fillet it for you. A whole salmon will yield 8 - 10 portions and mine cost around £10 so you can see that it is cheaper to buy than pre portioned fillets. Just pop what you don't use in the freezer. The key to making this great salmon to eat is to make sure you get the skin nice and crisp. All you do is pat the fillets dry with kitchen towel and season the skin. Get a non stick frying pan on a medium to high heat, add a drizzle of oil and when it is ready place the salmon in skin side down and leave for 3 minutes, make sure it doesn't burn but don't be tempted to move it until that skin is crisp. Then turn over and depending on how thick the fillets are cook for around 4 - 6 minutes. You are aiming for moist juicy fillets with a crisp skin so don't overcook it as dry salmon isn't great.





Crushed new potatoes with broad beans

Nice and easy but full of flavour. All you do is cook some nice late new potatoes in boiling salted water - mine were the charlotte variety - and when they are done lift them out into a bowl and pop some broad beans into the potato water and cook for 3 minutes. While they are cooking gently crush the potatoes then add the broad beans. Season with salt, pepper, a drizzle of nice olive oil and a squeeze of lemon and gently mix through.



Hollandaise sauce

To be honest this can be a little tricky. But once you know how to rescue a curdled or split attempt then you'll be fine. Take a finely chopped shallot and 6 crushed peppercorns and cook in 2 tbsp of white wine vinegar and juice of 1/2 a lemon until reduced to about 2 tspn of liquid. Pop the strained liquid into a food processor and add 2 egg yolks and whizz up. Add 125g of melted butter a little at a time until you have a shiney thick yellow sauce. This has to be warmed through by placing the bowl of hollandaise over simmering water (making sure the bottom of the bowl doesn't touch the water) and heat it through whilst you stir it. If it curdles or splits add a teaspoon of boiling water and stir vigorously until it goes back to being a nice shiney yellow sauce.

Swimming in the sea and homemade fishfingers for tea

A perfect day

Some days are just perfect and I love where I live today. Swansea is a funny old place, a former industrial port city that is situated in one of the most beautiful parts of the country. The Gower peninsular has about 30 miles of beaches and today we went to Pwll du. This beautiful bay has the added bonus of being a little tricky to get to which means its nearly always deserted and we all took to the water for a swim and afterwards we picked sloeberries for me to use tomorrow. Swimming and fresh air alway makes me hungry and I had already planned what we were having to eat today. Fishfingers and chips - homemade of course!


Homemade fishfingers with Tartare sauce

No need to write a recipe for this. All I did was cut a skinned coley fillet into finger sized strips and coat in flour, egg and breadcrumbs and shallow fry for about 5 minutes on each side until golden. I also made some tartare sauce and to do this you roughly chop some gherkins, capers, dill and parsley and mix it through with some mayonnaise. Serve with chips and peas if you like.

Homemade Lemonade

Seren wanted to make some lemonade which is perfect for a sunny Sunday. Again no recipe just a few pointers. Grate the zest and squeeze the juice of 6 lemons into a saucepan and add 150g of caster sugar. Bring to the boil to dissolve the sugar and strain into a jug. When cool add a little to a tall glass, add ice and soda water to serve.