Garden fun with Cucumber, Pork and Pimms

I am a little behind with my blogging and have gathered a pretty hefty amount of posts. Heres one from a few weeks back when mum and John popped round for tea.

When I'm in the kitchen Daniel is usually in the garden. A wheelbarrow creation was on todays menu.

I have made a discovery. I love cucumber water! A nice big jug of it in the fridge. It is a nice change to juice and much healthier than fizzy or sugary drinks.

All you do is slice up about a quarter of a cucumber and pop it in some water, let it infuse for about an hour in the fridge and your ready to go.

Daniel isn't a fan of cucumber water but he is a fan of Pimms! I did sneak in some cucumber though.

 This isn't a completely pointless post, I do have a recipe in here somewhere. Honest.

Pulled BBQ Pork, in my new slow cooker. It's seriously easy and seriously cheap.

All you need:

Shoulder of pork

1 bottle of bbq sauce

1 can of full fat coke

Wraps or baps 

Sides of your choice

All you need to do:

Pop the pork shoulder into the slow cooker, cover with bbq sauce (whole bottle) and a can of full fat coke. Put the slow cooker on low for around 8 hours.

Once your 8 hours are up you will return home from work to a wonderful bbqy meaty smell. Yum.

The pork will just pull apart, it will be so tender and juicy.

I made some gluten free cornbread as a side as my mum is a gluten free bird. Very inconvenient as usual. Not really mum.

I cut my regular flour tortillas into mini ones using the rim of a drinking glass to create traditional tacos. So much better and much less messy than the crunchy variety.

We topped them with cheese and salad.

Oh and my new obsession, habanero sauce. Super spicy but super yummy.

Make it this week.

Enjoy!

Cajun Corn Pudding & Peach Salsa

Yes, you guessed it, another southern recipe! Cajun Corn Pudding this time. It sounds a bit gross, the word pudding and all, but I promise it really isn't. It's meaty, a little spicy and a little sweet, it real comfort food. Well obviously as it is souther.

This recipe is from Diners, Drive ins and Dives and I came across it on The Food Network and you can find it here 

We had a little BBQ, even though it was pretty cold and windy, for Dan's mum and dad the other week and these are two little side dishes I knocked up. Any excuse for me to test some new recipes.

What your going to need:

Butter for the baking dish

1/4 cup fine breadcrumbs

4 ears of sweet corn (or a can of sweet corn)

2 tbsp olive oil

Sea salt

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

6 slices of bacon, chopped

3/4 cup diced onions

3/4 cup diced bell pepper

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup milk

5 eggs

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/2 cup cornmeal

1/4 cup sugar

2 tbsp freshly ground pepper

1/4 tsp grated nutmeg

What you need to do:

Firstly preheat the oven to 190 C and butter the bottom and sides of a baking dish, sprinkle the breadcrumbs evenly to coat the bottom and sides of the dish. 

Cut the corn off the cob or just empty a can of corn like I did (cheat!) Heat some olive oil in a pan over a medium heat, add the corn, 1 1/2 tsps salt and cayenne and saute for 2-3 mins. Add the bacon and cook until crisp. Now add onions and bell peppers and cook them until they are a little soft, not too soft though. Leave a little crunch. Remove it all from the heat.

In a medium bowl whisk the cream, milk, eggs, parmesan, cornmeal, sugar, pepper and nutmeg until frothy. Add the corn mixture from the pan and stir to combine. Pour into the prepared baking dish and bake for 35-40 mins until firm. Serve it hot from the oven!

It is seriously yummy! My mum was doubtful when I handed her a huge bowl but she loved it and asked for more.

I also made a little peach salsa to go with the BBQ'd mackerel. It was pretty spicy but the peaches added a nice sweetness.

What I used:

1 can of peach slices

2 tomatoes

1/2 a lime

1/4 white onion

1 yellow pepper 

1 green jalapeno

1 tbsp sugar

What you need to do:

Chop everything up into the same sized pieces and pop them into a bowl, I only added a few of the seeds from the jalapeno. If your brave, add them all.

Squeeze over the lime juice and sprinkle over the sugar. Give it a good mix up and pop it in the fridge to cool a bit.

We served it with mackerel from the BBQ but you could add it to tacos or with a salad maybe.

Try out the recipes and let me know what you think in the comments section below. I'd love to hear from you.

Southern Cornbread

Once again I decided to make southern treats again this weekend. I have had this huge bag of cornmeal in my kitchen since we moved in, I tried making polenta mash but Dan wasn't keen (mash is his fav) since then I have been trying to decide on what to make with it.

I decided on cornbread, there is no kneading or proving involved and it always looks so lovely and buttery in pictures, plus its a southern staple. Right up my street.

Right, so you need:

6 tbsp unsalted melted butter

1 cup of cornmeal

3/4 cup of all-purpose flour

1 tbsp sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 1/2 cups of buttermilk

And your method is as follows:

Preheat your oven to 220 C and lightly grease an 8 inch cake tin.

In a large bowl, mix together your dry ingredients (cornmeal, flour, sugar, both baking soda and bicarb and your salt)

In another bowl, mix together the eggs, buttermilk and butter. Pour the wet mixture into the dry and fold together until there are no dry spots. It might be a little lumpy but thats ok. Now pour it into your baking tin.

Bake until the top is golden brown and the middle is dry when tested with a tooth pick or knife. This will take around 20-25 mins. 

Remove it from the oven and let it cool for 10 mins before serving.

I thought I should pose with my food in true blogger fashion but then realised...

Look! my hair matches both my jumper and my bread. Great.

Lexi wanted in on the posing, she's a pro...

It then got too much and the posing had to end...

Back to the cornbread now I think,

There you have it, go ahead and make it. Honestly it's really easy, no kneading or proving or anything. It's very good warm with a little butter.