Pulled pork with carrot salad

A slow cooked shoulder of pork with a honey-chipotle marinade (BBC Good Food) - 75g ketchup, 2tbsp each of honey and chipotle paste, and 1tbsp red wine vinegar. Marinate a 1.2-1.5kg pork shoulder for 2 hours to 2 days, then cook at 140°C (fan) for 4 hours - place the pork and any leftover marinade in a pan with 100ml water and cover with a well-fitting foil tent. At the end of 4 hours, remove the foil and crank up to 180°C for 30 mins to brown the outside.

Worked fine but would have liked a stronger flavour (marinated for 24h) - next time, add more chipotle. When removing the foil I saved the juices and then poured these on the pork after it was shredded.

We had this with steamed new potatoes and a carrot salad with a lemon dressing:

olive oil to taste
juice 1/2 lemon
zest 1 lemon
1/4 to 1/2 tsp harissa
1/2 tsp each coriander, cumin, sumac
salt
maple syrup or honey if the lemon is a bit too much

Salad: 3 large grated carrots, 1 preserved lemon chopped small, 4 shredded mint leaves, half a bag of mixed leaves inc. rocket.

The dressing went down really well so next time I would use the whole lemon and multiply up accordingly!

Avocado and quinoa salad

From Prima, of all places, this is a filling and interesting recipe, perfect for lunch.

Avocado, quinoa, bean and goat's cheese salad

It takes a pack of Merchant Gourmet red and white pre-cooked quinoa, and adds two avocados, fresh beans, and cheese, dressed with oil and lemon juice plus fresh parsley.

I swapped in edamame beans for the listed broad beans, because life's too short to pod broad beans and I can get shelled edamames in the freezer section...  I also used a log-style goat's cheese but next time might use the crumbly feta-style one (I'm not sure what "semi-soft" means here). I omitted the red onion as I hate raw onion in salads, but next time I might try them pickled.

The pre-packed quinoa was OK but a bit bouncy - I prefer the softer texture when it's freshly cooked, but I literally just took the grains out of the packet so perhaps they are better when heated. But essentially this was a very easy and satisfying recipe.

Courgette rice salad

Based on an old Weight Watchers recipe, this is useful for getting through a glut of courgettes. The proportions don't matter too much (i.e. I didn't weigh anything this time!) and nor does the other veg.

2 med-large courgettes*
200g rice (I used a basmati-wild rice mix)
2 large red or yellow peppers **
med bunch parsley
med bunch coriander

juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp dark soy sauce, or 2 tbsp light soy sauce (light is probably better)
1-2 tsp tabasco, to taste

handful each of sunflower and pumpkin seeds

* if they have grown into marrows then you might want to peel them as the skin can get tough/bitter. Also remove the central part if it's gone spongy, and any seeds.
** mange tout, sugar snaps or green beans also work well


Cook the rice, drain, rinse, and leave to cool.
Grate the courgettes (a food processor is your friend...) and finely dice the peppers. Finely chop the herbs.
Combine the dressing ingredients.
Mix everything together.
Toast the seeds in a dry frying pan, and scatter over the top of the salad.

Barbecue with friends

My contribution to mains: a roasted vegetable salad.

I started with this and made a few changes. OK, a lot of changes! Final recipe was:

2 medium-large butternut squashes, peeled, deseeded, cubed (1-1.5cm)
1 red onion, roughly chopped
3 long sweet red peppers, deseeded and roughly chopped
2 handfuls rocket
8 rashers streaky bacon
1 pack stilton

5 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1-2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce

Coat the chopped squash in oil and roast slowly (about 1hr at 150-170C) until soft, sweet but not too charred.
Roast the pepper and onion alongside for the last 20-30 mins.

Tip into a bowl with the combined dressing ingredients and leave to absorb while the veg cools.

Grill the bacon until crispy, and cut into strips.
Chop/crumble the stilton.

Add the stilton and bacon and rocket to the dressed vegetables, and toss gently. If you are serving this to vegetarians, just put the bacon (and cheese, if non-vegetarian) in separate bowls for people to add.