Bao Buns with Pork Belly

Bao Buns with Pork Belly

• Pack of bao buns
• Crispy chilli pork belly
• 1/4 cucumber
• 4 radishes, thinly sliced
• 2 spring onions
• Sweet chilli dipping sauce

Cook the pork belly according to packet instructions.  The pork I used was from The Juicy Meat Company, cut into handy bite sized pieces so no need to shred.  Whilst the pork is cooking, slice the cucumber and spring onions into thin strips, as the buns are not large you don’t want big chunky bits of vegetable, keep it fine. 

I found these bao buns in Marks & Spencer, a pack of 6 costs £2 and takes a minute to heat in the microwave.  Whilst at some stage I will make my own, for the price and convenience these are hard to beat.  Once the pork has cooked and you’ve warmed your buns, divide the pork between the buns, top with the radish, cucumber and spring onion, a drizzle of sweet chilli sauce and get stuck in!

I’m all for cooking from scratch but sometimes it’s nice to cheat when you don’t have the time.  The buns are little fluffy clouds of doughy goodness, the pork, which I purchased from Ocado, was packed full of flavour, not overly spicy so if you don’t like heat don’t be put off, go on, make it, trust me, you won’t be disappointed.

Kinda homemade pizza

Kinda homemade pizza

This is a semi cheats dinner.  I found a pack of Northern Dough chilli pizza dough in the back of my  freezer so thought it was about time I used it and boy I’m glad I did.  I have made my own pizza dough before but this is already done for you and saves a bit of time but you still get that home cooked taste.

The Northern Dough Chilli Pizza Dough

• 1 Box Pizza Dough (several flavours to choose from)
• 70g pack of double concentrated tomato puree
• Buffalo mozzarella pearls
• Parmesan shavings
• Artichoke hearts
• Chorizo slices
• Parma ham slices
• Handful of rocket
• Half red onion sliced
• Green pepper sliced
• Handful of chopped black olives
• Flour to dust the work surface and rolling pin
• 1 Pizza stone

Place your pizza stone into a cold oven and heat at 240 degrees.  Whilst this is heating place some flour onto your worktop and spread it out, big enough for the size of pizza you are going to roll out.  The pizza dough comes in two portions so I combine the two which makes for one big pizza to cover my pizza stone.  Make sure the dough has a good coating of flour so it doesn’t stick to the rolling pin and roll it out to the desired size. 

Allow the pizza stone to heat for 15 minutes, remove from the oven and place on top of something heatproof, I just put it on top of my gas ring.  With your rolling pin, place the dough across the top so it is folded in half and then carefully place this over the top of the pizza stone, remember, the stone is very hot so keep your fingers away!  Spread the tomato puree over the top of the pizza and then top with the meat, artichoke hearts, onion, pepper and olives.  

Return to the oven and cook for 10-15 minutes.  Once cooked and the pizza base is nice and crispy top with the rocket and shavings of parmesan and serve.

This seriously does taste as if you made it from scratch!  I have used a ready made pizza base in the past which I have to say was like eating cardboard, this however is ready made dough and is as good as you having made the dough yourself.  We both loved the pizza and will definitely be making again.  The choice of toppings can obviously be varied to suit your tastes, this is just an example of what we had, so knock yourselves out and pile your pizza with your toppings of choice!    

Spicy Chettinad Indian Wraps

Spicy Chettinad Indian wraps

Here’s another in my series of “cheats dinners”, again, this goes to prove that meal kits don’t have to be tasteless and bland, far from it with this street food kit from the lovely Anjum Anand – The Spice Taylor.

The kit pretty much contains most of what you need to make your wraps, 6 soft paratha wraps, curry leaf and tomato stir fry sauce, a spice blend and coconut chutney.  All you need to add to this is your protein of choice, meat, chicken, fish, prawns or paneer and 2 tbs of plain yoghurt.

The meal kit will feed two, my protein of choice was chicken so I therefore used two chicken breasts which I butterflied and cut each half into 3 slices therefore giving 2 nice pieces of chicken per wrap.  Add some vegetable oil to a frying pan, heat and then add your chicken and cook until browned.  Add the stir fry sauce and cook until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce is thick and sizzling.  Whilst the chicken is simmering, stir 2 tbsp of plain yoghurt into the coconut chutney.  I got up to this point but I then put amouthfulofmark twist to the dish, which hopefully you will agree adds a bit more to the recipe.

I knocked up a cucumber raita using the remainder of the yoghurt to which I added a tablespoon of chopped mint, pinch of salt, squeeze of lemon and a few slices of cucumber, cut into small pieces and mixed together.  I then quartered a tomato, deseeded it and cut into small pieces  and thinly sliced up a spring onion.

Back to the packet instructions, after heating through the parathas I spread some of the coconut chutney over each one, topped with chicken, sprinkled over some of spice blend then added a good dollop of cucumber raita, some chopped tomato and spring onion and a little chopped coriander then all we had to do was roll up and eat.

I have to say I am a bit of a fan of Anjum Anand, she makes some really delicious products and this just adds to the list of tasty dishes that you can make using them.  We both really enjoyed this and will be making again for sure, maybe next time some fresh chilli will give it a kick, as you know, we do love that kick!  The street food kits are available from most supermarkets so go on, give them a go, you wont be disappointed.