Book 27 : Jamie's Great Britain - Jamie Oliver

My brother and I once brought our Dad a t-shirt that read "It's not a bald spot, its a solar panel for a sex machine".... we thought it was hilarious!  We also got him a cup and I'm pretty sure a hat with the same phrase.  I think I was 11 and my brother 13, obviously we didn't realise how inappropriate it was.  I'm not sure how Dad felt about it?  Must be kinda weird getting a t-shirt from your kids proclaiming you to be a sex machine!  Possibly as awkward as when I realised just what went in the truck of Dad's elephant G-string!  Thankfully by that stage my brother and I had stopped wearing it on our heads!  I had a few (read a lot) of those sort of moments as a kid and a adult (not involving G-strings!), but moments when I've had a moment of clarity that pretty much went "Oh shit, I...".  For years I thought my spike was extremely cool, until I really looked at the photos and realised that a spike is at the front of your hair, not the top of your head.  Just incase you can't picture it... I had a mullet! Rocking out underage at 21 arms, not realising I've not only tucked my skirt into my jocks, but I've also made a tail from some toilet paper (still very grateful to my mates at letting me dance around for at least 1 hour!).  Another skirt one involved me exiting Hot Gossip with a very cute mate, slipping on a access panel and falling on my arse, only to have my skirt fall off when I stood up,  I was wearing Bridget Jones undies ( not that that would have been any better had I been rocking a elephant G-string).  Honestly my list is endless!  My semi-see through fluoro green bike shorts (I wore them everywhere!!), my glasses falling off my head whilst roller blading and running over the top of them (Mum stuck them up with sticky tape!),  Hyper-colour overalls (they change colour with heat, betcha never noticed how warm your crouch gets in summer!).  They probably all contribute to me not being a clothes fan!  Its probably kinda lucky that I'm not overly sensitive, cos otherwise you would never get to read about the time I walked around a local shopping centre with my 3 week old daughter, only to realise she had vomited milk all down my back, hours ago.... :)  Luckily I'm keeping an eye on my kids, hair cuts are strictly managed and bike shorts of any description are off limits!  I do have to thank my Mum though, because for years I used to harass her to let me get my hair permed and then later I wanted an undercut.... She must of learnt her lesson with the mullet, err I mean spike! :)

 

Recipe -  Jerk-Dressed Bristol Pork

Serves 12 with leftovers
5kg shoulder of Pork, skin on
Sea Salt and ground black pepper
A generous pinch each of dried rosemary and thyme
1 whole nutmeg, for grating
olive oil
2 x 500ml bottles of quality cider

For the Jerk Salsa
1-2 fresh chillies (to taste)
2 bunches of spring onions, trimmed
1 level tsp ground cinnamon
1 level tsp ground cloves
2 level tsp ground allspice
3 limes
a thumb sized piece of ginger, peeled
a few fresh bay leaves
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
1-2 tblsp honey
extra virgin olive oil
a large bunch of fresh coriander

Preheat the oven to full whack (about 240c).  Carefully score the skin and fat on the shoulder into zigzags about 1cm deep, using a very sharp knife or a clean Stanley knife.  Sprinkle and rub in a good pinch of salt, pepper, dried rosemary, thyme and a few good gratings of nutmeg.  Add a lug of olive oil, then rub those flavours all over the meat and into the scores.  Place the pork, skin side up, in your largest roasting pan.  Pour one of the bottles of cider into the bottom of the tray, put into the hot oven for 30 minutes so the crackling gets going, then turn the heat down to 130c.

After the pork has been in for an hour, add the rest of the cider and cook for a further 6 to 7 hours, or until the meat pulls apart easily.  Halfway through the cooking time cover with a double layer of tin foil.

Once the pork is perfectly cooked, move it to a large serving board or platter.  Carefully pour any fat from the roasting tray into a jar for some lucky roast potatoes some day, but leave the wonderful flavourful cooking juices in the pan.  Then add the chilli's to a blender with the spring onions, spices, the juice from the limes, ginger, bay leaves, garlic, a squeeze of honey and 2 lugs of extra virgin olive oil.  Pulse together until you get a salsa consistency, then mix the salsa into the juices in the roasting tray, have a taste and balance out the salt and acid if needed.  It should have a attitude and loads of personality.  Pour that salsa on to a platter, then pull the crispy crackling off the shoulder, get rid of any flobbery fat underneath, and use two forks to roughly pull the meat apart.  Pile the meat on top of the salsa and toss together quickly.  Tear over the coriander leaves and snap those wonderful zigzags of crackling on top of the meat and serve next to apple sauce.

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Its no secret I have a bit of a chef crush on Jamie Oliver and all of his books are great (except for 15 Minute Meals, 15 minutes my arse!),!  This book as usual is lovely, my sister Kristy and I brought it at the same time and I'm fairly sure she is in love with it as I am.  Granted the above recipe is the first thing I've made from the book but I can tell about these things (God I'm full of shit!).  So if you like British recipes and want a lovely book full of them, get this!  It looks great, the recipes are easy to follow and you get the excuse of a new Jamie Oliver book :).

I've been wanting to try out this recipe for a while, ever since I watched Jamie cooking it on the tv series of the same name.  I do need to let you know that I'm not a slow cooker!  I just don't understand getting everything organised and putting tea on at the start of the day so its ready when you get home.  I did have a slow cooker, but it now happily resides at my mother in laws after only being used twice in 3 years.  So when this recipe called for slow cooking I may have groaned slightly with a small eye roll thrown in.  I also got massively over excited (so not like me at all!) and decided to have this for Lunch instead of dinner, I  wouldn't recommend that!  I put my shoulder on at 1.00 am and I cooked in until 12.30 the next day.... and seriously it was AWESOME!!!  I tested a bit of meat at 10.30am and it literally slid out of the roast!  The salsa itself is delicious and the whole thing in rolls is brilliant!  Be warned though this recipe makes a shit load of food, so don't make it if its just you and the kids for tea (unless you have 15 kids and they all really like pork!).  We had 9 for lunch on Mother's day and Matty still had cold meat for a week!  Jamie Oliver aside, this is a great recipe, totally recommended! :)


The Mum's and Dad's on Mother's Day

On a side note, the crackling won't be crunchy (I'm assuming yours won't be cos mine wasn't)!  So when you remove it from the shoulder, stick it under a hot grill for a few minutes and then brag about how you are the worlds best slow cooker of pork shoulder and the crackle queen (or maybe that's just me who does that?) :)

Thanks
Kate
xx

I was trying to find a photo of my mullet and I but haven't located one yet, but I'll let you know when I do :)

This is Dad :) (Sorry for telling everyone you had an elephant G-string Dad!  but at least I didn't mention the other ones!) :)