Pork en Croute

Christmas has crept up without me noticing this year. It feels like only a moment ago it was October, and now all of a sudden its only a couple of weeks until Christmas Day. This means that I'm now into the busy evenings and weekends of Christmas concerts, Christmas meals, and the last few running events of the year. Because of this, my intention to cook the Daring Cooks December challenge recipes of Char Sui Pork, followed by steamed pork buns using some of the left-overs, fell off the timetable due to time pressure. A great shame as both dishes sounded delicious. I'll have to make an attempt at them when I have a little more spare time.
Instead, I used the pork tenderloin I had bought for those dishes to make two improvised Pork en Croute. I have to say, they were delicious, so I didn't miss the Char Sui too badly! Here's what I did:

Pork en Croute No. 1:

120g pork tenderloin
70g puff pastry (I used shop bought, ready rolled - I'm lazy!)
2 slices serrano ham
Some thin slices of courgette
Finely sliced rosemary and garlic
salt, white and black pepper
Fennel seeds

Unroll your puff pastry and lay the 2 slices of ham on it. Place the pork tenderloin on top of the ham and season. Sprinkle the garlic and rosemary on top before covering with slices of courgette, wrapping the ham over to encase the pork and courgette, then wrapping the puff pastry over and sealing the edges.
Brush with a little melted butter, beaten egg, milk, or olive oil, sprinkle with fennel seeds, and cook as below.

Pork en Croute No. 2:
140g pork tenderloin,
camembert slices
3 slices serrano ham
120g puff pastry
button mushrooms, sliced small
butter, olive oil
Finely sliced rosemary and garlic
salt, white and black pepper
Fennel seeds

Fry the mushrooms, garlic and rosemary in a mixture of butter and olive oil on a low heat. Once cooked remove from the heat and allow to cool a  little.
Unroll the pastry, lay out the ham on the pastry and place the prok tenderloin on top. Season with salt and the peppers, then spoon the mushrooms onto the meat. Top with a few slices of camembert, fold the ham over to encase the meat and cheese, then fold the pastry over and seal the edges.
Brush with a little melted butter, beaten egg, milk, or olive oil, sprinkle with fennel seeds, and cook.

Place on a greased baking tray and bake for 15 minutes at 200C, then 10 minutes at 180-190C.

Serve with gravy, apple sauce, new potatoes, and runner beans for a hearty and warming winter dinner.

10 on 10

10 photos on the 10th December; one an hour through the day for 10 consecutive hours.

Check out the other project participants here:

Jamie Oliver Great Britain

This is the time of year when TV executives seem to think we should all watch back-to-back cookery programmes; Professional Master Chef, Jamie's Great Britain, River Cottage Veg have all been on the box recently.

Well, what can I say? After a spring and summer of watching virtually no TV I've been a complete sucker and have been hunkering down every night to watch other people cook. I suppose its hibernation instinct - its December: give me a darkened room and too much food please!

And after all that watching, it seemed only fair to try and cook something from one of the series. I was taken by the idea of potato scones from Jamie Oliver's Great Britain. He made the scones in Scotland and served them with smoked salmon and scrambled eggs as a brunch dish. Dan and I both liked the look of them - they made our mouths water! - so I decided to make them for dinner on thursday night. I served the potato scones with cabbage, a poached egg and a piece of lightly smoked salmon fillet.

This was a very useful recipe. On Thursday nights I meet a friend for a run, so I get home late and hungry. I was able to make the scones the night before so that all that needed doing when I got in was lightly frying them for 10 minutes while the fish and cabbage cooked. Poach an egg, and hey presto! - a quick and tasty dinner with enough stodge to replenish my tired leg muscles. I went a bit wrong somehow as the scones didn't hold together very well, but the flavours were lovely. Definitely a 'do again' recipe.

Sadly, mine didn't look like this, but they give you the right idea!

Find recipes for this as well as ones from the rest of the Jamie O series here.

Fabric love

Recently I've been browsing fabric a lot, and I've fallen in love.

Look at these amazingly beautiful prints by the Swiss company Jacob Schlaepfer. Of course, the fabrics are bound to be WAY out of my price league, but a girl can dream.

A mobile for Lily

In August a dear friend of mine had a baby girl, and in September she asked me to be a non-God Godmother. I felt honoured to be asked, and hope to be able to have a wonderful relationship with baby Lily as she grows up.

Lily's first Christmas is coming up and I wanted to make something for her rather than buying something - I felt that I wanted to put time and effort into the gift. I decided that a mobile to hang over her cot would be a nice first Christmas gift, so I got out my felt, embroidery thread, glue, and ribbons and started crafting. It took a little while to complete, but I'm pleased with the results:

I figured that unless Lily is precociously advanced it was safe to post this - its unlikely to ruin her surprise!

I took the templates for the felt items from my marvellous craft book Everything Alice.

An update: It seems Lily likes her present!

an origami-esque jacket

I have a guilt box at home. Its my box of started but unfinished sewing projects.

Some items have been in there for literally years, which is shameful.

Now that I finally have my sewing machine out regularly again, and have started on yet more new items, I have resolved to work my way through some of the pile of incomplete items.

The first to be ticked off was the polka dot shift dress I posted about a few weeks ago. This time it was the turn of a kimono-style jacket. The pattern for this was a web download - it had been back-engineered from a McQueen jacket. The instructions weren't super-clear, and some of the markings on the pattern didn't appear to be needed, but it was an intriguing project.

I'm pretty pleased with myself for finishing this and ending up with something that can be worn. I know I've gone wrong in a few places, and I'm not keen on the way that the folding of the fabric makes the jacket quite thick in places, but I do love the origami pleating all over the back.

I might try this pattern again once I'm a more confident seamstress. It would be interesting to approach it again with a more expert eye and see if I can resolve the areas I found confusing this time.

If you fancy having a go you can find the download here.

Baking

Today we had a bake sale at work. Its Children in Need, and although I do tend to feel a bit 'bah humbug' about charity events which feel compulsory, I like my work colleagues so I wanted to be helpful and muck in.

I made a batch of Caraway Shortbread biscuits from Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's River Cottage Every Day book. I really liked them - they were fragrant from the seeds, crips and buttery. Sweet enough to be a treat, but not so much they're sickly. Yummy.

Sadly (for charitable fundraising) it would appear that most people don't want to risk something new, so I had to take some home again at the end of the day.

This wasn't so sad for me and Dan though - biscuits for the weekend. Marvellous!


PS Kris - I haven't forgotten your baked goods, but these wouldn't survive a trip to New York.