Pork and bean casserole

As it is a Bank Holiday, we went out for the afternoon, so for once I thought ahead and put a casserole in the slow cooker!

1/2 cup dried cannellini beans - I only had 1/4 cup, so made it up with flageolets, which I had more of.

4 rashers belly pork

4 rashers back bacon 

1 large onion

1 clove garlic

2 large carrots

3 potatoes

1/4 cabbage

1 tin chopped tomatoes

A little water

Seasoning, to taste - I used rosemary, sage, pepper, season-all and a little Worcestershire Sauce.

Soak the beans either overnight in cold water or for 2 hours in boiling water (at least, water that was boiling when you put the beans into it.  Cook in a pressure cooker for 10-12 minutes.

Meanwhile cut the pork and bacon into cubes, dice the onion, carrots and potatoes, crush the garlic and shred the cabbage.  Put the onion and garlic into a large pan in which you have put a little cooking oil, and cook until transparent.  Then add the meat and allow to cook for a bit, stirring frequently.  Once it has browned, add the rest of the vegetables and stir.  Allow to cook for a few minutes, then add the tinned tomatoes and a little water (not much).  Season, and then transfer to a slow cooker.

I put this back into the Instant Pot as it was out, and cooked it for 6 hours on medium, but it wasn't quite cooked (I don't think the Instant Pot is so good as a dedicated slow cooker; it is extremely wonderful as a pressure cooker and pressure steamer, but not so good as a slow cooker), so put it on to cook at high pressure for 6 minutes.  

 

Healthy ice cream, aka frozen smoothie

I found this recipe when I first went on-line, over 25 years ago now.  I hadn't made it for ages, but we had some slightly over-ripe strawberries that weren't going to survive in the fridge and needed frozen, so.....

1 banana, sliced and frozen (open-freeze on a plate so the chunks don't stick together)

1/2 punnet ripe strawberries, frozen (or you could use pre-frozen strawberries)

1 standard tub, or 2 tbs thick Greek yoghurt

2 tsp honey (optional)

I found I'd too much yoghurt to fruit, so added some frozen raspberries.

Exact quantities are not important, nor, indeed, is the kind of fruit other than bananas!  I've also used fruit juice instead of yoghurt and honey (useful if you want it vegan) - you can always omit the honey if you prefer, too, but it does add a bit of sweetness that is necessary in a frozen dessert.  You could also use a fruit  yoghurt instead.... experiment!

Put everything in a food processor - a blender isn't sturdy enough - and work until it comes out as really smooth and delicious ice-cream.

If there is more than you want to eat in one sitting, put it in a freezer-proof container and put in the freezer.  It will freeze rather hard, but you can take it out of the freezer a little before you want to eat it.

Sandwich fillings: Hummus and fishpaste

These are two separate things, you understand!  I always thought I didn't really like home-made hummus, but discovered recently that you should take the skins off the cooked chickpeas, and believe me, it is well worth spending five minutes or so doing that.

So, hummus:

1 tin chickpeas (one of the rare occasions I'll use a tin!)

1 large tbs tahini

1 tsp garlic paste (or crush a couple of cloves of garlic, up to you)

2 tbs lemon juice

Scant tbs olive oil

Seasoning as liked.

Drain the chickpeas and rinse well.  Now put into a bowl and cover with cold water.  Using your hands, rub at them until the skins come off, which float to the surface and you can discard.  You don't have to get absolutely every skin, of course, but it's worth repeating a couple of times until you are fairly confident you have the vast majority of them.

Now put the peas, and everything else, into a food processor and work until smooth, and then go on working for awhile until it is really smooth and creamy.  Adjust seasoning as necessary.

Fishpaste

I tin salmon - pink or red, your choice

1/2 tub cream cheese

Scant tbs lemon juice, wine vinegar, or, if you have some pickled vegetables (I see I haven't yet posted my recipe for those, but am still experimenting.  If you want a recipe, google "Bread and butter pickles"), the juice from the jar.

Seasoning as liked

Maybe a small sloosh of tomato paste, for colour?  Up to you.  I didn't.

Drain the salmon and, if you can be bothered, remove most of the skin and bone.  Put it, and all the other ingredients, into a food processor and work until smooth-ish.