Hugh's Overnight Home Cured Bacon Chops

By Chris

Main Ingredients:

• 4x Pork chops
• Carrots, butternut squash and potatoes
• Leeks and cabbage
• Salt, pepper, sugar, juniper berries and bay leaves

This is the first recipe in a while that I got properly excited about and it turned out to be one of the best yet. As an avid fan of bacon, the name of this recipe jumped out at me as a challenge that had to be accepted and, overnight curing aside, this was quite straightforward.

Four normal pork chops were cured in a mixture that was 2/3 salt and 1/3 sugar. Shredded bay leaves, crushed juniper berries and ground black pepper was added for a bit of variety, but little of that was noticeable at the end. After roughly 24 hours in the fridge, the salt had drawn much of moisture out of the chops and it was washed off.

The chops were then grilled for six minutes on each side and served with three-root mash and some lovely buttery greens, as suggested. I was initially worried that the chops would be too dry without gravy, and bought a jar of wholegrain mustard to accompany the chops. We didn't even open it, and I'm a massive fan of mustard.

This has to go down as one of the tastiest and most satisfying meals I've done so far, with the tangy, salty pork being perfectly complimented by the sweet mash, which was topped with nutmeg (a seemingly left-field suggestion, which really paid off). 

At £2.36 a head, this was very reasonable, and I'd say you can leave out the juniper berries if you don't already have them and you won't miss much. 

If you've got the time to do it, I definitely recommend giving this a try - Like bacon? You'll love this!

Best for... Bacon lovers who are willing to try something a little different.

Taken from... Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall - River Cottage Every Day

Helen says... Really tasty, not too fussy and worth all the effort

Hugh's Stewed Venison with Juniper and Bay

By Helen

Despite appearances this is not a photography blog

Main Ingredients:

• Venison
• Lardons
• Juniper berries and bay leaves
• Red wine
• Onions and carrots

All three of this week's eaters had run the Bupa 10k earlier the same day so were looking for a hearty meal to reward their efforts and repair sore muscles. 

Hugh's venison stew looked just the thing - warm, comforting and a little bit luxurious.

The slowcooker was loaded up with fried lardons, the browned venison, softened onions, carrots and herbs, then covered with stock and red wine and cooked for just over 2 hours. The quantities seemed a bit off (not for the first time) - a huge amount of meat and just 12 juniper berries for example. I can't help thinking that Hugh F-W doesn't actually measure things in his own kitchen and the numbers in the book aren't particularly accurate - next time I'll trust my gut and chuck some more in.

The finished result smelled pretty good and went well with creamy mash and cabbage. But just like an earlier recipe I couldn't help thinking that this was less than the sum of its parts: it would have been almost as good - and a lot cheaper than £3.54 a head - with beef instead of venison, and the juniper and bay didn't make much of an impression. 

I'm sure there are ways to buy venison more cheaply (especially if you live somewhere other than East London) but another hit of flavour seemed to be needed to make this more memorable. 

Best for... Welcoming hungry athletes home

Taken from... Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall - River Cottage Every Day

Chris says... So, is this stag or bambi's mum? To be honest, if you swapped it for cow, I'd be none the wiser...

Jamie's Pork Chops & Crispy Crackling

By Chris
Main ingredients:

• Pork Chops (4x 200g)
• King Edward Potatoes
• Savoy Cabbage
• Wholegrain Mustard
• Honey, Sage and Garlic

This recipe doesn't sound like much on paper, but really worked out to be more than the sum of its parts. If nothing else, I learnt how to make my own pork scratchings, which is an invaluable life skill if ever I learnt one!

Jamie's recipe suggests cutting the rind off the pork (harder than it sounds), then frying on a high heat to crisp up. This made pretty decent scratchings, but filled my flat with smoke, which was mildly embarrassing since the guests had already arrived. Once they were done and the chops were seared, it all went in the oven with the honey, garlic and sage, which made for some very juicy, tasty chops.

I served this with boiled savoy cabbage, which was flavoured with mint sauce, and microwaved King Edward potatoes with parsley and mustard. None of this is exactly rocket science, but somehow it took 45 minutes - another fail by 30 minute meals standard. The dish didn't look spectacular, although the subtle flavours combined brilliantly to make a very satisfying meal, which at £1.75 per head was very affordable.

Best for... Entertaining friends on a budget (even if they don't normally like cabbage)

Taken from... Jamie Oliver - 30 Minute Meals

Helen says... A couple of extra ingredients made an initially rather uninspiring prospect much more impressive - I'll definitely be adding mint sauce to cabbage again.

Hugh's Slow-Roast Shoulder of Lamb with Merguez Spices

By Helen
Main ingredients:

• Shoulder of lamb
• Spice mix: cumin, coriander, paprika, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, black pepper, fennel, garlic, rosemary and oil
• Butternut squash
• Savoy cabbage

After last week's 30-minute marvel, I decided to take advantage of the Bank Holiday and cook something from the other end of the timescale.

Although the sight of a dinner-plate sized chunk of lamb was a little intimidating, I wrestled the thing home and made a start. After slashing the skin and rubbing in the mixed spice goop, the lamb was roasted for half an hour and then slow-cooked under foil at a much lower temperature.

As always with H F-W's recipes, the timings and weights are pretty flexible - he recommended a staggering six hours of slowcooking but our shoulder was falling off the bone after four and a half. In fact I didn't need to carve it at all, just pull out the three clean bones and slice up the remainder.

The mix of spices was warming and aromatic but surprisingly subtle after the long roast - I wimped out of spooning any of the juices back over it as they seemed to be mostly fat but I'm sure they were delicious too. We served this with buttery Savoy cabbage and butternut squash roasted with chilli, more rosemary and garlic (from the same book). To be honest this could have been more exciting - maybe by chucking in more chilli - but I'm a fan of squash anyway and it made a lovely colourful accompaniment.

As we already owned pretty much all the spices, the raw ingredients came out relatively cheap. The lamb fed four of us with plenty left over for sandwiches, meaning a per-head cost of only £2.35, although this doesn't include the cost of running the oven for most of the day.

Best for... A winter's evening after a long day out in the cold - giving you plenty of opportunity to walk back in and and appreciate the glorious smell.
Taken from... Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall - River Cottage Every Day
Chris says... I am ill. So ill. The lamb smelt amazing when it was cooking, but I lost my appetite and only ate half of it. Fortunately, I'll get to eat it all week, so here's hoping I recover before we run out of lamb...