A Little Reflection …So far

The whole idea of this Blog was to embark on a food adventure, a local adventure that involves discovery, meeting people, adaptation and fun. Its amazing how just creating a few principals, rules and ambitions can help you create new types of adventures. Adventures that have created a shift in my daily perception.  The rules that I set for Whealfood was that I could only use 100% Cornish produce when cooking and as a result this has opened my eyes  to what is actually growing around me and what I can eat , (Nothing is safe ..:)  ! For example I was walking through Truro Centre yesterday and noticed that the plants growing along the path that I walk along everyday were rosemary and thyme,  I wouldn’t have seen them or smelt  them if I haven’t had the new appreciation and respect for these local ingredients, i didn’t pick them and I wont but it just felt nice to have them there .  I have taken a lot of the seasonal produce that we have around us for granted through being numbed by the supply of the Supermarkets. I’m actually finding that now i’m eating more seasonal food that I am actually eating less as its more about the appreciation of natural flavour and ingredients than it is in indulging in large quantities of food.  Thinking about it it may also be the reduced amount of salt and preservatives that I am eating that also do not create cravings.

The Challenge

So my food is continuing to be sourced more and more local by the day. My friend in Newquay gave me an amazing hamper full of goodies from her allotment, including rhubarb, leeks, borage, thyme and rosemary. She posted  on Instagram that is was coming my way and immediately my mind started racing. I will be cooking with the borage in another blog but for now I wanted to focus on the rhubarb. I also wanted to do something different that I hadn’t seen before. The Chinese in me immediately computed ..Rhubarb is Sour so ill cook Sweet and Sour with Rhubarb instead of the pineapple. After a bit more thought and pondering I realised that it would work and it does.

I actually was fortunate enough to go to Hong Kong last year to visit my family that I haven’t seen in 30 years. I discovered that they don’t really eat much sweet and sour in Hong Kong and that it was more of a  whilo  thing. Whilo I discovered is what they called westerners which is chinese for ghost ..lol. Anyway I love sweet and sour pork and i’m sure you do so lets get cracking.

The pork

The key to good Hong Kong style sweet and sour pork is the batter , to get the best, crispiest batter then its best to fry it twice.

Ingredients

• Local Pork – cubed – Pork tenderloin
• Cornish Bake house Flour
• Eggs
• Thyme
• Salt

 

So I decided to use the local thyme in the batter mix as thyme goes really well with pork and the heat of the deep fry will release the flavours. Flake the leaves from the thyme into the flour and add some salt. Put the pork cubes into the egg and make sure they are smothered then rub into the flour.

 

Deep fry

Heat the oil in a pan, wait until hot and add the pork in batches, don’t overfill the pan, deep fry until brown and starting to go golden. Take out drain and put on a wire rack with kitchen towel underneath to drain off so any fat that drips off.  Once they are all cooked, fry them again to get an extra crispy batter.

The Rhubarb

So instead of pineapple we are using rhubarb, rhubarb is a lot more sour than pineapple so we will add some honey to them at the end and caramelise them to add some more sweetness and texture.

Ingredients

• Rhubarb
• Butter
• Local Honey

Peel the rhubarb and cube gently fry with butter in a pan until it starts going soft. Once its soft but firm add a couple of tablespoons of honey and mix it in, then remove from the heat. Remove the glazed rhubarb from the pan. Heat a frying pan to a high heat or griddle. Add some oil and add the rhubarb, fry quickly until caramelised.

The Sauce

So the sauce was another challenge in this dish as we don’t have soy sauce, tomatoes , oyster sauce, sugar or the juice of the pineapple.

Ingredients

• Half a cup of Helford Creek Apple Cider Vinegar
• 3 table spoons of Local Honey
• 2 teaspoons Cornish Strawberry Vinegar
• Salt
• Butter

Mix all of the above apart from the butter in a pan and let it boil for a few minutes. Warm the sauce again when you are ready to serve but then add the butter into it to give it a nice gloss.

The Vegetables

Another inspiration for this dish was finding some locally grown Bok Choi at the Cornish food box which looked amazing.

Ingredients

• Leeks
• Bok Choi
• Onion
• Butter
• Carrots

If you don’t have a mandolin and you like to cook then I recommend you get one.  It just makes chopping vegetables so easy. It also finely slices them which means they need less cooking and  as a result seem to release more flavour.  So either slice or mandolin the above vegetables. Rough chop the Bok Choi. Put all the sliced vegetables into a wok with some butter and fry until soft.

 

Compiling it all together

So plating it together. Reheat the sauce and add the butter, add the deep fried pork  and rhubarb to the sauce and turn off the heat. Plate up the stir fried vegetables and add the pork and rhubarb on on top.Drizzle the sauce over the top as required. I have served it with local cauliflower rice which is the recipe that I will be adding next to the blog which goes really well  with it .

This recipe works really well, the thyme in the batter gives the pork another nice element and the sweet and sour sauce adds the acidity and sweetness to cut through the pork and batter. The sweetness of the honey and strawberry vinegar instead of using sugar or pineapple juice is not only more healthier but goes well with this dish and the pork. The local cider vinegar is also un – pasteurised and has the mother which is very good for you.  The quick stir fried vegetables then add a nice sweetness, crunch and freshness to the dish

I hope you enjoyed the recipe and the food adventure, let me know if you have any recipes that you would like to see my adaptation of  or need any help with anything.

Wheal food x

 

 

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