The Lone Gent's Pork Belly

Today, inspired by a discussion/bragging session in work and the pork belly in my freezer, I decided to buy some (more) pork belly.  A while back I attempted a recipe by Stefan Gates involving a lot of garlic, bay leaves, star anise and very low temperatures followed by a brief bout of very high temperatures.  This wasn't entirely successful as the fat never really got to a pleasing level of crackling that I guess is the highlight of the meal.  So after mentioning this I was advised by a trusted source that the only correct way to do this was by subjecting the belly to the hot temperature first before lowering the heat until the it is properly cooked.  This was the method I used this evening although the belly I purchased had very little fat on the top making the appearance of proper crackling as unlikely as ever.

To begin with I had to mash up the paste for the top.  I decided not to follow the recipe and just guess at what should be in it as I didn't want to find it and not have everything (bay leaves!).  I used garlic, star anise, ginger, cinnamon, salt, cardamon pods and pepper with red palm oil mixed in.

Next I rubbed the paste on the pork, I will say it looks pretty foul but that's the risk to achieve the Maillard Reaction, and it's mostly garlic that I didn't cut and didn't mash very well.

So these went under the grill for a few minutes and were then taken out so the veg could cook while the oven cooled down to 70.  I drained some of the juices to make the gravy and put it in a frying pan with corn flour, soy sauce, pepper, ginger and cinnamon.  Cooked these for a bit with some of the onions and it looked like this slop:

 After about 45 minutes in the at 70C it was done and I ate it and I enjoyed it (even the veg) with a dose of Dixon and Jawdin on 90210.  Closing opinion of the method would be that with such a thin layer of fat on top the pork couldn't be grilled long enough to get enough crisp in the crackling, I found with a spare bit that another 3 minutes and it was good but then the rest of the pork was very leathery.  Luckily I can try again with the thicker bit in my freezer and see!  Concerning news is that my tummy hurts and is making bad noises but I don't reckon pork worms could have grown to a size in me to make such noises yet so hopefully it is not slow cooked pork related.

I definitely recommend Stefan Gate's book, Gastronaut, for a lot more some would say stupid and excessive recipes, from the simple bum sandwich to pineapple in a lot of sugar and he also recommends music to have with his meals.  My brother hates any mention of it though, so be prepred for much doubt.

Rugger

In all my time in Wales the 6 Nations has finally gone quite well from an England point of view.  While the Grand Slam will require a difficult victory today this year is the first time there hasn't been some shame for me as an Englishman in Wales.  Usually either England do respectably but lose to Wales or they just fail around with mediocrity, so it's nice that such glorious beasts should at least win the championship this year.  Yay!

In other news I'd like BYU to do well in March Madness - NCAA Div I Basketball Tournament.  I've got a few fantasy games reliant on this as my decisions are always based on the 1 team I know about that year.  I played canoe polo for the first time in 4 months and fortunately my throwing arm was a beast in drills and war ups, in a game though it made me hit the goal post a few times and that was it.  Also the gaping empty chasm that was once my fitness required me to do a lot of fouls to try and keep up with people or to stop them getting away in a feeble last few minutes of the game.  Next week though...

NBA Games! and the draft & manly sadness

NBA Games, a poor title in the imagination stakes but accurate in that games were played so good job deciding that...

On Friday was the first NBA league match held in Europe, specifically at the O2 in London.  It was really good and from the sound of it Saturday's game was even better.

Unfortunately these games were both won by the New Jersey Nets, the problem was I went into the game only wanting a loss for them while not especially caring that Toronto would be the winners.  These selfish desires stemmed from the Utah Jazz owning New Jersey's draft pick for this year as a result of sending my favourite player (and the name on a shirt on only recently bought!), Deron Williams, to New Jersey.

 :(

More losses means a higher pick in the 2011 NBA Draft and a better likelihood of a good player to get Utah back on track next year.  During the Friday night game Deron started with some poor shooting but in the end did the good stuff and lead New Jersey comfortably to a win.  I found whenever he scored, made someone look stupid with a dribble or did a pass reminiscent of my own skills that I had to applaud and force a smile while also wilting internally as it truly dawned that these things would no longer be happening for Utah.

In the second game I'm sure he was also the main reason for all the win and fun New Jersey had but I only caught the end as I had to be out buying t-shirts while I was still in London.  All in all this was another blast of the pain of seeing Fernando Torres in a Chelsea shirt the week after he fled Liverpool.  Although Fernando said he wanted to leave Liverpool, Deron was traded in fear of him later demanding to leave Utah and so I was still proud when he got the loudest cheer at the start.

It's a lot of hurt for a steely man such as myself.

Shoulder/Back Back! (Teaser)

To be described in more depth soon, this is a tale of moaning, laziness and general lacking of compassion from my peers.  Basically I've not done much in the way of gym or kayaking since September due to a back injury but following some suggestions from Mered could  have become massaged back to health.

Today I attempted both of the mentioned activities and came away with what appear to be good signs.  Unfortunately my stamina has slipped so greatly that it was hard to really push myself for long to really investigate my recovery.   Stamina though is another post for sometime a week or month away.

Curdling Misery

One thing that's caused my stomach and pride issues recently is when I've used yoghurt instead of cream in cooking and ye olde curdle comes about.  It's never made me actually ill but damaged pride, especially intellectual pride, which can devastate even a feeble kneed chump.

I've read using cornflour with yoghurt stops this reputation sullier. Today I found out when I foolishly forgot cream when prepping for the fool proof moule mariniere plan.  Fortunately, or potentially unfortunately, I had some sick yoghurt in the fridge that I forgot to use in a recipe the other day.  I am typing this as I am cooking so we'll find out soon enough.  Unless the curdle destroys me.

The good news is it worked. A brief list of what constituted my raging success; muscles, white wine, parsley, yoghurt, corn flour, garlic and shallots.  So, thanks Raymond for providing the incentive to better myself, and maybe even given me the accidental chance to get past a crushing fear. 

Saving resources:
Cornflour in yoghurt curries
Raymond Blanc's Shellfish - inspiration, along with cheap Tescos muscles :(

Bad Knee

Since last April my knees, especially my right knee, have been rubbish.  This began when I used to fall over like a chump during ice hockey practise, mostly my fault as I had awful old shin guards.  Then after some sweet advice I had two sessions in the gym where I did the good stuff - jumping squats using about 90kg - I was determined to dunk, only needed to improve my vertical jump about 20inches!  Seemed fool proof.

I realised this was bad when I told someone I had some new pains in my knee and there look of shock when I mentioned what I'd done in the gym to achieve this.

I soon discovered during the night the dull ache behind my knee and the sharp jabbing pain around the lower front of my knee cap kept me awake unless I got up and did some stretches and walked around for about 10 minutes.  Another cool thing was in work where sitting at my desk or standing in the lab resulted in prolonged aching all around the knee cap and a lot of clicking when I walked.

After this had gone on for a month or so I decided to reduce my dunking plans and stop jumping when playing basketball, I also told the doctor.  Eventually I got to go to the physio.

Now I've rambled on about my sob story (with no dunking) I better briefly go over my treatments (I usually did these while brushing my teeth):

• Balancing!  Initially just normally, then with eyes closed.  Meant improve my body's appreciation of where my knee is to aid my posture.  Awesome photo below..

• Squats.  Standard squats without weights, making sure my knees only just went past my toes.  This was meant to strengthen my glutes.

• 1 legged squats.  Another sweet photo below.  These were to help posture to reduce stress on the knee.

(Be sure to note the awesome posture)

• Core strengthening.  I had to sit on a gym ball with one leg raised and stretch a physio band (green then blue when I got good!)   To improve posture again, this did result in much mocking in the gym. 

• Stretching.  I was told I had tight tendons and muscles around my knee.  Sat on the ground, touching my toes.

• Lunges.  Onto the old half ball thing to improve balance and stabiliser muscle strength.

So that's it.  I did these for 2 months and now I can sit or stand or sleep and generally get no pain, except Sunday nights.  I just have to wait until the sun comes back now so I can start slamming again, or at least run around and shoot sweet j's without moaning like a wimp afterwards.

Remember these are just my experiences and aren't recommended for anyone else, a proper physiotherapy assessment is needed if you ever want to dunk like me!

A few links with some information
Knee Pain Symptoms
Dunking tips ;)

Fresh wounds phoned in

Believe it or not one of the founding members of Gin Do' Friday has treated himself to a personal blog.  I think I'll agree this is a good idea.

So I'm going to write about getting my knees back from the brink or stupidity and unknotting my back after 6 months of lame.   Other than that I do tend to moan a lot about little injuries, so I will enjoy typing them up as soon/before they happen.  There will probably be non injury related posts when I am in states of good health - in fact I know there will be as otherwise I would need to resort to deliberate poor gym techniques which would not go down well with Mered.