shizzling - (mis)adventures in food

Pulled Pork slow cooked in a Bullet Smoker recipe

Serves: a lot

Preparation: 20 minutes. Cooking time: approx 1 day

(click pic to enlarge)

Pulled pork is delicious - an American classic that isn't well known in the UK. Once you taste it you'll want more.. ..and soon. 

Slow cooking in a smoker is not an exact art - the time for the pork to be ready can vary by hours. This is why I recommend cooking and shredding the day before you're planning to eat and then reheating it in a slow cooker for a few hours before serving. 

BBQ Smoked Chickens made in a Bullet Smoker

A few months ago we had a big family celebration and I cooked up a feast of BBQ food including pulled pork, sauces, salads and these BBQ smoked chickens. 

Drying Poblano chilies to make Anchos

In Mexico, a dried Poblano is known as a chile Ancho. Anchos are used in many recipes, usually being toasted in a dry pan and then soaked in boiling water to rehydrate them. 

I dried my Poblanos in a dehydrator - a useful piece of kit for preserving ingredients. 

Charring and freezing Poblano peppers for use over the winter.

Poblano chillies are used widely in Mexican cookery but they're difficult to track down in UK shops, even when they are in season. They are mildly hot and add a distinctive flavour to recipes.

When you can find them it's a good idea to buy in bulk and preserve them for use throughout the year. This article tells you how.

Adana kebab recipe

Serves: 2 - makes 4 Adana kebabs

Preparation time: 10 minutes. Cooking time: 30 minutes.

These Adana kebabs are spicy lamb skewers that are one of my favourite Turkish dishes. The recipe I used is based on one in the book Secrets Of The Turkish Kitchen by Angie Mitchell. 

Indoor Oven Pulled Pork with Cranberry BBQ sauce recipe

Serves: 4 to 6

Preparation time 20 minutes, cooking time 3 hours plus. 

This is a cheat's pulled pork recipe that can be cooked in the oven rather than outdoors in a smoker. It's different from the real thing but still delicious. For this recipe I used Stubb's Bar-B-Q rub - I'll post some home made BBQ rub recipes at a later date.   

The cranberry BBQ sauce was a happy accident created out of necessity - I had hardly any sauce ingredients and the Xmas cranberry sauce jar was lurking at the back of a cupboard. 

This is just some of the pork - the rest was reserved to make a chile.  

Pork carnitas with chile verde recipe

Serves 4 

Preparation: 15 minutes.  Cooking: 30 mins initial then slow cooker for 4 hours min. 

A bumper crop this year means that I got to use fresh tomatillos in this recipe where I would normally have to use canned. I think it made a difference - there was a more noticeable tartness to the taste that reminded me more of the chile verde I have eaten in California. 

These Mexican pork carnitas are twice cooked - first they are fried off in pork fat until they crisp up and caramelise, then they are given a long cook at low heat in a slow cooker (crock pot).

Drying chillies in a dehydrator - part 2

Yesterday I posted an article showing how to prepare chillies for dehydration. It was the first time I had tried to dry chillies in a food dehydrator and I'm glad to say it was a success. 

There was a mix of chillies: habanero, serenade, jalapeno and a long 'mystery chilli'. The varying sizes of fruit resulted in different drying times. 

Antakya style Doner Durum at Abdo Doner

The Doner Durum they serve in Antakya is so delicious that I had to make a post about it. I don't have a proper recipe yet, but I did manage to find a great YouTube video of the Doner being made and also a website that talks about the technique.. 

 

And here's a nice article, with a mouthwatering photo, reviewing the Doner Durum served at Abdo Doner in Antakya.

Mint, lime, chilli and salt - Antakya style condiments

I recently attended a wedding in Antakya, the ancient city of Antioch, at the Southern tip of Turkey. 

The food in Antakya is pretty spicy compared to other regions of Turkey, with generous use of chilli.

When you eat at one of the many excellent Doner restaurants, or market stalls, a plate of mint, lime and green chillis is plonked on the table to nibble on.  

The trick is to sprinkle lime juice and a little salt on the mint leaves before eating. The taste is really refreshing until you take a chomp on one of the chillies, which are pretty fiery, and start to sweat!

My mouth has started to water while I've been writing this..

Edit: I asked my friend, Hande, what is the Turkish name for this plate. She answered as follows:

I'm not sure if there is a specific name for that in Antakya. I call them simply as "yesillik", which means "the green stuff" :) 

The stuff served differs per city. For example in Adana (which is a close city of Antakya), they serve parsley together with sumach (a sour spice). 

Photo reproduced with kind permission of Hande Citakoglu.