(ZA) Upper crust Squire's breakfast muffins

Today's brunch is something with a bit of class. A Squire's breakfast ensemble inside a toasted muffin with a topping of salty, ripe Stilton. Just right for an old bean with a BGE and a taste for the finer things in life!

"Squire's breakfast" is a small fillet steak wrapped around a black pudding stuffing and a couple of rashers of streaky bacon around the whole thing, secured with butcher's twine. 

We cooked these direct at around 350degF for around 10 minutes until they reached an internal temperature of 140degF so that the fillet steak was medium-rare. The bacon takes no time at all to cook and the black pudding is cooked in production so it only has to be warmed through. This allowed us to cook to the steak without having to worry about raw stuffing.

We toasted standard English muffins on the hot grill for serving...

and served the meat in the muffin with a little Stilton crumbled over the top. Rich black pudding, crispy bacon, strong tasty Stilton and soft-as-butter, silky fillet steak was sublime and delicious but even better once we lowered the tone with a squirt of tomato ketchup!

(ZA) "Who needs Dominoes?" rainy day pizza.

New pizza toppings today! It has been miserably rainy for most of the day but we've never been ones to let a bit of British weather spoil our fun so, during a lull in the downpour, we lit the egg, put in the pizza stone and ramped her up to 400degF ready to pop our pizzas in for a few minutes to cook.

I used my bread machine to make a basic olive oil pizza dough. It only takes 50 minutes and is infinitely better than the packet pizza dough mix or ready-made bases so well worth the effort. I shaped the dough on non-stick oven liners, then left to rise again for 15 minutes before I covered them generously with passata,  grated mozzarella and the toppings of choice. 

The pizza pictured above is our slow-cooked short-rib beef with chopped fresh tomatoes and onions that had been caramelised in a little butter until soft and sweet. A topping off with a sprinkle of more grated mozzarella and on the BGE indirect, with the pizza stone sitting on top of a rib holder to get the food right to the hottest part of the dome. Around 9 minutes and we check to make sure the base is cooked.

The home-made dough made a light, airy pizza base and the base was crisp and delicious.

The pizza below is topped with deli smoked pork sausage, ham, roasted peppers, onions and chestnut mushrooms. 

(ZA) Zingy red onion and orange relish

A few years ago, we went to a food fair  where they served Big Green Egg pulled pork with this amazing fresh onion and orange relish. It's taken quite some time to reverse-engineer the recipe but we finally did it and it goes beautifully with belly pork as well as in a bun with pulled pork.

Take two large red onions and slice finely. Place the onion in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Allow to steep for one minute and then drain. Add the juice of five limes (one cup of lime juice), the juice of two oranges and 1tsp malden salt. At this point you could add a very finely chopped fresh red chilli. Mix thoroughly and place in a lidded container in the fridge overnight. The juice will turn pink and the onion will be slightly pickled but still crunchy. 

(ZA) Everybody loves a belly rub!

We asked our tame Butcher for a pork belly, off the bone and skin removed and then marinated it in a mixture of two rubs overnight. Rub one was a piquant, hot, house rub of garlic powder, onion powder, white & brown sugars, chipotle powder, hot chilli powder, english mustard powder and black pepper. Rub two was a sweeter, fruitier rub of cinnamon, allspice, ginger, cloves, chipotle powder, brown sugar and sea salt.

We smoked the pork over applewood chunks for 5 hours at 210degF, indirect and checked to see if it had started to render out the fat. After 6 hours, the pork was cooked and caramelised with the fat having crisped up on the outside and softened on the inside. If necessary, with a larger piece, it could go another hour before being at this stage.

We then placed the pork in a container that was very slightly bigger than the joint (but only slightly) place greaseproof on top and another dish weighted down with cans from the cupboard to press the pork down while in the chiller. Chill for a few hours. Once chilled slice into portions.

When you are ready to serve, take the pork slices and grill them, direct, at 400degF for 3-4 minutes each side until crisp, caramelised and warmed through. 

We served ours with bacon, maple and blue-cheese slaw (see previous blog entry), stuffed goats cheese portobello mushrooms and a red onion & orange relish (see next blog entry). We also put a few lemon halves on the grill for a few minutes which gives the resulting "squeeze" a delicious caramel sweetness!

(ZA) Slaw doesn't have to be sloppy! (bacon, maple & blue-cheese slaw)

Adie never been a big fan of coleslaw and I don't like the store-bought stuff cos it is usually swimming in dressing so I gave this one ago instead and we've never looked back! It's crunchy and tasty, with a hint of sweet maple and a hit of savoury slat flavour from the bacon and stilton. So simple to make and perfect with any summer cook!

Mix 1 cup of ranch dressing with 1 tbsp granulated sugar and 1 tbsp maple syrup. stir into 1lb of coleslaw vegetables (1lb = approx 1/2 white cabbage shredded, 1 carrot peeled & grated and one onion finely sliced but you can change the ratios to suit your own taste) I use a cheat ingredient of pre-cooked crispy bacon rashers but you can crisp up your own. Add 100g roughly chopped crispy bacon and 200g crumbled blue cheese (I use a good bit of stilton) into the coleslaw mixture and mix well until everything is nicely coated in the dressing. 

This will keep well in the fridge for at least 2 days.