pulled pork

Full on!

Published on July 3, 2018July 3, 2018 by HannaLeave a comment

Last week went by so quickly, but was filled with fun things! Apart from maybe the baking I did on Monday night. A warm flat due to the lovely British summer gets HOT with the oven on for hours. But the cake turned out great, luckily! And I had ice lollies to cool me down.

Apart from that I’ve just been enjoying the sunshine (I seldom get too warm) and made the most of it. Wednesday evening was spent in the setting sun in a beer garden sipping rosé with one eye on the Brazil game and then pizza afterwards.

For the England-Belgium game on the Thursday we had rosé in another pub and delicious burgers. Afterwards we enjoyed the beer garden till closing as it was such a lovely evening.

Friday I went down to Surrey for the weekend where some friends were having a party and I was cooking. It was a great party on Saturday with games in and out of the pool, lots of prosecco, nibbles and a proper dinner in the evening.

I stayed over that night too and enjoyed the pool a bit more on the Sunday before heading back to London and going to the cinema to see Ocean’s Eight.

Such a great week all around – loving the weather and hoping it’s here to stay!

Dinner with the girls: pulled pork with pitta and aioli

Published on April 14, 2012April 12, 2012 by Hanna1 Comment

Last Sunday was a girlie day back home spent with my best friends Emma and Malin. Our male friend Linus also joined us for the first part which was lunch/brunch so he got to pretend to be a girl for the day.

Actually we are not the girliest of girls so the conversation involved golf, football and handball among other things so I don’t think Linus suffered too much.

After our lunch and a brisk walk in the cold, Linus left and us girls went back to Emma and chilled out.

Emma wanted pulled pork for supper so I prepared that before we went outside and it smelt really nice by the time we got back to her flat. We then cooked together to prepare the rest. I instructed Malin to make aioli and Emma did the salad and grated root veg for the slaw. We also made a big batch of guacamole to have with nachos. It was the first time I served pulled pork with pitta and aioli but I highly recommend it as it was a great combo.

After all that food we had to sit back on the sofa, continue chatting and keeping one eye on the Masters. It was a lovely day and I do hope we get the chance to have one again soon. It is not always easy for us to meet up as we live in different places (countries even) and work different hours. But when we do meet up we always have a great time!

Guacemole, serves 6

5 small avocados

3 tbsp creme fraiche

juice from 1 lime

1/2-1 tsp Worchestershire sauce

tabasco, to taste

salt, white pepper

Mush up the avocados with a fork, add creme fraiche and lime juice. Season to taste witth Worchestershire sauce and tabasco, finish off with salt and pepper.

Aioli, serves 3

1 egg yolk

ca 150 ml mild rapeseed oil (or other neautral oil)

1,5 garlic clove, pressed

1-2 tsp lemon juice

salt, white pepper

Place the yolk in a mixing bowl and add the oil drop by drop while whisking away. After a while you can add the oil abit faster but take care. Once the oil is incorporated, add the garlic and lemon, season to taste with salt and pepper.

A perfect day

Published on January 16, 2012 by HannaLeave a comment

This weekend my best friend and her fiancee came to visit and it was such a great one. We had a really busy day Saturday but in a relaxed way and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

Here is the recipe for a perfect (for us) day in London:

8-10am: Wake up, have a shower and enjoy a good breakfast before braving the cold.

10.30am: Take the tube to Hampstead and walk towards the Heath. Walk towards Highgate and enjoy the sunshine. Stop on the top of Parliament Hill to admire the view and take some photos.

12ish: Walk to Highgate Cemetery and visit either the East (newer) Cemetary or the older West one.

12.45pm: Walk up the massive hill to Highgate village and stop at the first nice pub you see. Order lunch and drinks and just relax for a while.

2pm: Walk down hill (yay!) to Archway tube station and take the tube to Charing Cross. Buy some plasters and put them on your sore heels and walk towards St James’s Park. Walk around the park and up towards Buckingham Palace on your Way to Green Park and Piccadilly. Walk to the large Waterstones and the top floor bar, the 5th View. Order some cocktails (a minimum of two) and enjoy the afternoon with your lovely friends.

6.30pm: Settle the bill and pop into Fortnum’s to buy a nice bottle of wine. Go home and change into stretchy trousers.

7.30pm: Have a glass of champagne and snack on some lovely nibbles while preparing dinner.

8pm: Dig into pulled pork from the Crockpot and whatever you like to serve with it.

9pm: Move over to the sofa and stretch out and enjoy another glass of wine.

10pm: Realise that you have room for dessert after all and make a quick sundae with vanilla icecream, chocolate sauce and chocolate chip cookies. Agree that homemade icecream beats anything!

Pulled pork in the slowcooker, and what to serve with it

Published on October 26, 2011October 26, 2011 by Hanna1 Comment

I have made pulled pork a few times now and I am, to say the least, addicted to it. And it works best to do it in the slowcooker. Just load it in the morning, turn it on low and you will have the most tender meat by the time you get home from work. When home in the evening, I removed the meat from the sauce and reduced the sauce, pulled the meat apart with forks and mixed it with the sauce. That took five minutes so I could concentrate on the trimmings instead. We had Nick over for dinner when I cooked this last so I might have gone a bit crazy with the trimmings. But this is what I like to serve it with every time:

homemade salsa
guacemole
grated cheese, like Monterey Jack
greens; little gem, cucumber, tomatoes, red bell peppers
slaw
nice bread
wheat tortilla triangles fried in butter – yum yum!
nachos
sour cream

We were so full afterwards we didn’t even contemplated the dessert I had lined up. So DO try this if you haven’t already. It is so so good! för guds skull det. Så grymt gott!

Another version of pulled pork

Published on July 17, 2011 by Hanna2 Comments

If you have not yet gotten around to cooking (and eating) pulled pork, I urge you to get on it straight away. It is so incredibly easy to make, and it basically cooks itself and most of all, it tastes amazing. Amazing. Is that not enough to convince you?!

OK, add a squirt of lime, a sprinkle of cheese, maybe a dollop of tangy creme fraiche and serve it all on a tortilla wedge fried in butter with a side of slaw. It is utter heaven. Heaven.

I have cooked pulled pork once before, and it was really nice, but this time I played around a bit more and it turned out even better. I had to alter the recipe though, because I didn’t get the chipotle I had ordered with my food shop. Instead I used Reggae reggae sauce, added more spices and a splash of cognac to it, smeared the chunk of meat with it, added onions and garlic, and let it cook itself for a good few hours, before tearing the meat apart with forks, it is that tender, and reducing the sauce to a more syrup-like sauce and mix it in with the meat. Then I just stuffed my face and was even a little sad that I started to get full and couldn’t eat anymore. That’s how good this is.

Pulled pork – a second version, serves 4

1,1 kg boneless pork loin joint

1 onion, sliced

2 garlic cloves, sliced

100 ml Reggae reggae sauce or other BBQ sauce

1 tbsp cumin

1 tbsp ground coriander

salt

black pepper

a splash of cognac/whisky

Place the meat in a casserole dish. Mix all ingredients apart from onions and garlic and smear it onto the meat. Place onions and garlic on top of the meat. Turn on the slowcooker on low heat for 3 hours, and then turn it up to high heat for 1-1,5 hours or in a 125C oven for 4 hours. Just make sure the casserole dish isn’t dry, if so, add some water. Let the meat rest for a while in tin foil, then pull apart with two forks. Pour the liquid from the casserole dish into a sauce pan and reduce on high heat until syrupy. Mix it with the pulled apart meat. Serve and enjoy!

Bodean’s

Published on July 1, 2011 by HannaLeave a comment

A few Friday’s ago we celebrated our friend David’s birthday in one of his favourite restaurants – Bodean’s. Think proper American grub. They are known for their chicken wings and pulled pork.

We went to the Soho branch, and when I walked inside, escaping the pouring rain, I though the place looked a bit like a diner where you just have a quick bite to eat, not like a restaurant diner. But we were sat on the lower ground floor which was decorated with leather sofas, wooden tables and booths. Much cosier than on the ground floor!

To celebrate the birthday boy we started off with shots for everyone and cocktails or beer to follow.

For some reason we felt greedy and ordered both starter and mains, which we normally do, but this was not the general place. This was an American diner, which meant huuuuge portions.

Chris started off with half a dozen hot chicken wings. And boy were they hot! Funny thing was that next to him David sat with the even hotter diavolo wings with a side of diavolo sauce!

I had the pulled pork quesadilla as a starter and it was massive. Very nice though, and not far off my at-home-version of pulled pork.

Although I didn’t finish it all, I was still incredibly full, so full I only managed a few bites from my lovely burger, sob.

I totally killed it with chilli cheese fries as well, that was a dish in itself, but very good!

I highly recommend Bodean’s, especially while hangover. Just stay well clear of the mac ‘n cheese, it tasted like it came out of a packet. The rest was very good, but sent you in food coma straight away. 🙂

Sorry about the blurry photos but it was dark and I used my iPhone.

Published on May 6, 2011 by Hanna7 Comments

One of my foodie idols in Sweden has this great website called Taffel with articles, blogs and recipes, and that is where I found this recipe for pulled pork.

I had wanted to try this for a long time and had high expectations, but this was better than I ever could have imagined! We had it instead of tacos with soft tortillas, nachos, lettuce, avocado, grated cheese, homemade salsa and creme fraiche and we enjoyed every bite. Two days later we had the left-overs and it was even better that time.

Try this, so easy and sooo incredibly good!

Lisa’s Pulled pork, 4-6 portions translated from Swedish

1 kg pork tenderloin, rind removed

BBQ sauce:

1 large onion

4 cloves garlic

100 ml ketchup

1/2 – 1 tbsp chipotle paste

50 ml water

1 tbsp brown sugar

1/2 – 1 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tbsp + 1/2 tsp grund cumin

1 tbsp whisky

Place the meat in a casserole dish. Peel onion and garlic and cut into thick slices. Mix all the other ingredients and spread onto the meat. Place onion and garlic on top. Put the lid on and place the casserole dish in the oven and put the temperature to 125C. Leave it for 4 hours. After an hour, push the onions to the bottom of the casserole.

Just check so the juices hasn’t evaporated so it will burn, if so add some water. Take out the casserole dish from the oven when the meat is so tender that it falls to pieces when you touch it. Leave to cool slightly. Pull the meat apart using forks and mix with the sauce. Add more spices if you prefer.