1796 Foods

813. Cobb Salad

After all the Christmassy excess, I thought I’d start off the new year with a healthy(ish) post. Healthy(ish) because it’s a salad, but it has bacon and cheese, as all good salads probably should. I’d actually never even eaten a cobb salad before I made this one, which is crazy, because it’s amazing. All the different bits and pieces - the lettuce, tomato, egg, bacon, chicken, avocado, and blue cheese (I used 814. Danish Blue) - just work together so nicely. Plus it’s easy, and a great way to use up odd leftovers. This is definitely something that will enter my regular dish repertoire. 

814 down, 982 to go

812. Coke Float

The first time I ever had a float was in Walt Disney World. It was a root beer float made with soft serve chocolate ice cream, and it was totally freaking delicious. Every time I’ve had a float since I’ve had the same combination - root beer and chocolate ice cream. Best soda plus best ice cream. Yum yum yum yum yum.

For this though, I figured I had to go with the classic pairing of coke and vanilla ice cream. Worst. Decision. Ever. It was so bad. It was horribly sweet, and the parts where the ice cream melted and made vanilla cokey froth just made me feel kind of sick. From now on it shall be root beer and chocolate ice cream all the way.

812 down, 984 to go

798. Pulled Pork Sandwich

Normally, when I post foods on here, they are things that I’ve eaten a couple of weeks earlier, so I’ve had time to edit the photos and write the posts, and so that if I don’t eat any foods for the list for a while I always have something in reserve to post. This however I just ate yesterday, and it was so good that I couldn’t wait any longer to post it.

I just recently bought a crock pot after wanting one for ages, and I knew that one of the first things I would make with it would be pulled pork. I first had pulled pork in Florida and I’ve loved it ever since, and it’s one of the main reasons I’ve been dying to get the crock pot. I was not disappointed in my first-time efforts at all. The pork was moist and tender and delicious and meaty and just about every other good word you can give to food.

I bought a piece of pork shoulder that was a little under 3lb, and it made a ton of pork:

Yep, a ton. I’ll end up making three meals out of it. We had pulled pork sandwiches last night, pulled pork burrito for lunch today, and we’ll be having pulled pork with orzo and zucchini tomorrow. SO MUCH PORK. But that’s ok, you can never have enough pork. Here are the recipes for the basic pulled pork, and the sandwiches:

Pulled Pork Recipe (Serves 6)

• 3lb joint pork shoulder
• 1 large onion
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 2 tsps brown sugar
• 2 tsps barbecue seasoning
• 2 tsps cumin
• 2 tsps cayenne pepper

Thinly slice the onion and place in the bottom of the crock pot. Pour the chicken stock over the top.

If the pork has the rind on it, cut it off (I froze mine for making crackling another time). Dry the pork with paper towels, and then rub all the sugar and spices into it. Place the pork on top of the onions, cover with the lid and cook on high for 5-6 hours.

When the pork is done, remove it from the crockpot and shred it with two forks. Save the onions and stock for use in the sandwich recipe below.

Pulled Pork Sandwiches with Coleslaw (Serves 2)

• 1/3 quantity pulled pork 
• Onions and stock from pulled pork recipe
• 1/2 cup good barbecue sauce (I used this one which is really vinegary with a spicy kick)
• 2 large soft white rolls

For the coleslaw:

• 2 carrots
• 1/4 red cabbage
• 2 tbsps mayonnaise
• 2 tbsps raspberry vinegar
• 2 tbsps Greek yogurt
• 1 tbsp yellow mustard
• 1/2 tsp caraway seeds

First, make the coleslaw. Peel the carrots and chop them into julienne. Finely shred the red cabbage and mix with the carrots in a large bowl. Add all the other ingredients and mix thoroughly. If the coleslaw is too dry, add a little more mayonnaise and vinegar.

Put all the stock and onions from the crock pot into a saucepan, and cook over a high heat until they are reduced by at least half. Add the pork and the barbecue sauce and continue to cook for another 5-10 minutes until the sauce is thick and sticking to the pork.

Place a big scoop of coleslaw onto the roll, then pile the pork on top. Then eat! (I’d recommend with a pile of kitchen paper, they get messy!).

798 down, 998 to go

773. Hoppin John

I was excited to try hoppin’ john to say the least. I love rice, I love ham, I love black-eyed peas. It just sounded awesome, and it didn’t disappoint. I used the Pioneer Woman’s recipe, with a couple of the variations she suggested - mixing the rice in, and using diced ham rather than ham hocks. And of course I covered the whole thing in a ton of Frank’s RedHot (my hot sauce of choice).

773 down, 1023 to go

746. Rib-eye Steak

One of my best friends recently came to visit for the weekend. It was awesome as I rarely get to see her nowadays and we got to do lots of fun stuff like shop and visit the outdoor museum. One evening we went out to Miller and Carter steakhouse which I’d been wanting to try for ages. It’s a American-stye steakhouse chain, although I’d never heard of it before, and it was incredible. I had the rib-eye steak which came with garlic butter, baked potato lettuce with blue cheese dressing and their signature onion loaf, which is a bit like a condensed mass of onion rings. It was all utterly delicious. The steak was so wonderfully juicy and tender. I’d never had a rib-eye steak before and I am going to start having it all the time.

747. Field Mushroom

The night before we went out, I cooked us a meal at home, and promptly forgot to take a picture of it. I blame being too excited that my friend was there. That’s a good excuse right? Anyway, I shall describe it for you. I made pasta with a chicken, mushroom, cream and white wine sauce. I used the big field mushrooms and they added a really earthy, properly mushroomy taste. It was pretty nice.

747 down, 1049 to go

732. Fruit Cobbler

I love to make crumble. It’s one of my favourite desserts and even if I say so myself I think my crumble rocks. I’m not sure I’ve ever had a better crumble than one I’ve made myself. That may be immodest, but I rarely brag about myself and I think on this occasion it’s ok! Despite that though, I’d never made a cobbler before so I thought it was about time to give it a go. I made it the same as I would make a crumble - putting raw fruit in the dish, sprinkling over just a little bit of sugar, and then adding the topping. The end result was nice, but it just wasn’t crumble. The cakey/sconey topping tasted nice, but it wasn’t crunchy and chewy and so it just ended up a little bit disappointing.

732 down, 1064 to go

705. Pickled Gherkin

Just a few weeks ago I had a dill pickle, which was much better than I was expecting. That meant that when I was going to try the very similar pickled gherkin I figured maybe that would be ok too. Oh no. This was just as I thought the dill pickle would be. It was bitter and sour and just not tasty at all. My hotdog was infinitely more enjoyable once the pickle was gone!

705 down, 1091 to go

687. Waldorf Salad

Having spent the past few months unemployed (which is about to come to an end :) ), I’ve been trying to at least use my time productively by making myself slightly more interesting lunches than just the standard soup or sandwich. The other day I decided to make myself a Waldorf salad, and topped it off with some grilled chicken. I’ve seen Waldorf salads with a few different bits and pieces added to them, but I kept mine to the basics - apples, celery, walnuts and a light mayonnaise dressing.

687 down, 1109 to go

676. Celery Heart

I actually really really love celery. Most people tend to either hate it, or just think it’s a little bland, but I always make sure I have celery in my fridge as it’s awesome. Raw it’s crunchy and tastes delicious and is perfect with peanut butter, or hummus, or just about anything else you can dip it into. Then when you cook it, it soaks up all the flavour of whatever you put it in. Celery rules.

676 down, 1120 to go

671. Dill Pickle

I’m sure I’ve made it pretty clear on this blog before that I don’t like pickles. So dill pickle was never going to be my favourite thing to try. It turned out to be surprisingly ok though. It was sweeter than I expected and the dill added a slight herb flavour which took away from the picklyness.

671 down, 1125 to go