This all started on Saturday (it’s now Thursday).
Sue cooked a 1.5K joint of pork from Moro Easy – the meat marinated overnight in orange juice and cumin and then braised slowly in the oven for about 3 hours. Very delicious.
On Sunday, with some of the remains, I cooked Arroz com Porco (or at least a bastardised version that has been in the repertoire for years).
Monday, still left-over pork in the fridge, but cooked a Jamie Oliver recipe for chicken wings agrodulce style for something different.
This involved making a sort of sweet and sour sauce with raisins, balsamic, tomatoes and honey, some of which was left over.
Tuesday we took the train to Chester for lunch at Sticky Walnut where I am forced to retire to my favourite pub in the world, the Old Harkers Arms, while Sue does a bit of shopping. Nothing more therapeutic that sitting in a near empty Harkers with the sun shining outside when the greatest disturbance is the occasional throb of a passing narrow boat and the odd quack of a randy mallard on the far side of the tow-path.
Into my idling mind popped a thought. The other day I bought a Kindle version of 1000 Mexican Recipes at a very good price, and I hadn’t even looked at it. Pulled out my tablet and spent an hour sipping Black Dragon and checking out the contents. 1000 recipes is a lot. But the one that caught my eye was Mexican Pizza not for its likely authenticity but because left-field ideas grab me.
Hastened away to the Faulkner’s Arms to meet Sue. Large glass of Picpoul. Excellent lunch starting with a very fine Negroni (I now have to track down Valdespino vermouth) followed by a bottle of Monastrell. Food wasn’t bad either.
Walked back round by the canal route to the Harkers. Large Bulleit. Train back to Bangor where, because of the vagueries of the bus timetable, was forced to take shelter in Blue Sky with a bottle of Pant Du cider.
Back home, my starter hadn’t been refreshed for 48 hours but I was determined to have that Mexican Pizza next day, so dough was made. I just used my 80% hydration dough substituting a sixth of the bread flour with cornmeal, which obviously made it Mexican.
Next day, the hardest part was finding the recipe again amongst the 999 others. Minced the remaining pork, fried it with onion and garlic. Added half a tin of tomatoes, the remains of Jamie Olivers chicken wing agrodulce sauce, cumin and oregano. Cooled, then spread over the bases. Topped with grated cheese, spring onions and, on mine, jalapenos. Baked about 15 minutes, 300C top and bottom. Topped again with avocado and improvised sour cream (creme fraiche thinned with a little milk + squeeze of lime juice).
Its Mexican roots might be a bit dodgy but it was the finest, most authentic mongrel pizza ever. And, as you will know, us Brummies are 100% mongrel.
Now then, how the hell can I use up the very last of of that pork today …
The PArtisan Baker 