*** The Official OcUK Recipe Book ***

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The Official OcUK Recipe Book serves as a databank for those wanting to try out the recipes created or tweaked by other OcUKers. No recipes should be copied from other websites (eg BBC/GoodFood etc); they should all be at least somewhat tweaked from the original to add your own style and imagination!

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Commenting & Reviewing Recipes
This is a forum, so feel free to chat and review other recipes, good or bad. There is only one rule; please only quote the title of the recipe, so that the thread doesn't become unnecessarily long and spammy.

Carolina Pulled Pork by DcD

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Description:
Shredded Carolina pulled pork done low 'n' slow in any average slow cooker. Perfect for winter when it's a bit too cold to be firing up an outdoor grill!



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Ingredients:

• Medium/Large Pork Shoulder
  
  DRY RUB:
• 2 tablespoons salt
• tablespoons sugar
• 1 handful brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons ground cumin
• 3 tablespoons chili powder
• 2 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoon cayenne pepper
• 8 tablespoons paprika
  
  Mop sauce:
• 2 tablespoons salt
• Half a cup of tomato ketchup
• A generous helping of Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 cup Apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 handful brown sugar
• Mild chilli flakes
• A small amount of hickory liquid smoke, if you can get it.

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Extra equipment you may need:
Slow cooker.



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Method:
Blend all the dry rub ingredients together in a bowl. Remove some excess fat and skin from pork shoulder with a sharp blade. Rub the mixture generously all over the pork, seal in cling film or preferably an air tight large food bag in the fridge; the longer the better (overnight?).

Preheat slow cooker to low setting. Mix together mop sauce in a new bowl. Place pork shoulder in slow cooker, chopping into smaller pieces if required. Gently pour over the mop sauce, being careful not to wash off the dry rub, which after a few hours should have started to cause the pork to sweat and will now be stuck to the meat.

Cook on low for ~8 hours, again, the longer the better, until the pork breaks apart with a fork and can no longer hold its own weight when picked up by the end (it should split apart into fibres).

Drain off the liquid from the slow cooker into a bowl, don't throw it away. Shred apart the pork into fibre strands. Then, re-add about half the liquid to make it moister again. Serve in buns with barbecue sauce, coleslaw and fries!


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Comments:
Easy to reheat in the microwave, though shouldn't be stored for more than a fews days in the fridge.



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Search tags (seperated by space):
America American slow cook low slow pork Carolina pulled pork BBQ

Vegan Cornbread by MrMoonX

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Description:
Classic American Cornbread made vegan style and just as yummy



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Ingredients:

• List of ingredients
  1 cup Course Cornmeal (AKA Polenta)
  2 Cup's Plain Flour
  2 Cup's unsweetened Soya Milk
  2 Teaspoon Lemon Juice
  1/4 Cup Sugar (Golden Granulated)
  1/2 Teaspoon Salt
  1/3 Cup Canola (rapeseed) or Light Olive Oil
  2 Teaspoon Baking Powder

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Extra equipment you may need:
Mixing Bowl, Silicone Spatula, Round/Square Cake oven dish



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Method:
Detailed preparation guide.

1. Pre-Heat Oven to 180.
2. Combine soya milk and lemon juice in a jug and set aside to curdle.
3. add sugar, salt, baking powder to bowl.
4. sieve in cornmeal and flour.
5. Add Oil and Milk Mixture and stir until combined (small lumps are OK).
6. Pour into well greased (with nondairy spread) oven dish.
7. bake for 28-30 minutes until knife comes out clean.

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Comments:
Additional information regarding dish. E.g. Tips, tricks & observations.

looks more yellow depending on cornmeal used I used Island Sun Course Cornmeal from Tesco, looks more classic yellow than picture suggests



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Search tags (seperated by space):
eg American, Vegan, low calories, quick preparation,

It would probably be a better idea to have a separate discussion thread to accompany this - no point in having unnecessary comments cluttering up what could turn a fantastic idea into something genuinely useful.

However, I can see problems with the idea. In my opinion, a good recipe should contain clear, concise instructions and unambiguous language. But using the pulled pork recipe as an yardstick, we've got relatively 'chatty' instructions and a lack of definition where I think it's needed.

First off, you've put a slow cooker down as 'extra equipment you may need' and then completely neglected to tell us how else we might cook this dish if we don't own one, assuming we even can.

And the first ingredient listed is a 'medium/large pork shoulder' but with no clear idea for the reader of how much something like that ought to weigh and whether it should have the bone in and the skin on or not.

In the list of ingredients for the dry rub we're seemingly missing an amount for the sugar, or there's an unnecessary pluralisation, plus we have no idea what size or weight a tablespoon actually is and whether it refers to US, UK or even Australian sizing. And I personally loathe the use of the term handful despite being sure of your best intentions in choosing to use it here.

With the mop sauce we've got the same ambiguity about the sizes of the cups, plus we go from the relative exactitude of tablespoons and 'cups to an ambiguous 'generous helping' in the space of three ingredients. And we also have no idea how many chilli flakes to add nor how much liquid smoke we should be using, should we be able to lay hands on some. And given it's a pretty potent ingredient at the best of times, I think clarity is essential here.

On with the recipe, the first paragraph reads well initially but lacks useful detail when delving a little deeper. How should we blend the ingredients together? What is some excess fat and skin? Why am I using a sharp blade instead of a knife? And why don't you tell me whether overnight is better - at the moment it seems like you're not sure yourself.

The second paragraph reads a lot more smoothly than the first, but still seems a little ambiguous about some of the detail. Do I have to make sure the pieces of shoulder are of equal size if I chop them up? Does it matter? Why do I pour the mop sauce over the pork instead of putting most of it in the cooker and then just gently pouring over the last bit?

Into the third, I'd like to know exactly how long it should be cooked for and the longest amount of time it can be cooked for, so I avoid leaving it on all day and ruining it. I'd also like to know the best technique for breaking the pork apart with a fork and have some clarification on the 'picked up by the end' technique as I don't know if you mean the whole joint or just a piece of it.

And with the last paragraph, would it not be better if we removed the pork from the slow cooker first and then dealt with the remaining liquid, rather than doing it the other way around? And could we not reduce the liquid down before adding the pork back into it, instead of only using half of it and (presumably) wasting the other?

Now, admittedly I'm being extremely over-critical here but you've asked for comments and I'm writing from the perspective of a potential user. I don't necessarily want to read War and Peace when I'm cooking, but I do want to know specifics and have clear instructions on what I should be doing.

My suggestion would be to have anyone able to submit a recipe but some sort of 'approval' process for them to get into the cookbook proper. Perhaps at least two people need to test the recipe out before it passes the grade, with additional 'super reviewers' able to pass it in one shot - they being people with the time to properly test recipes and give thorough feedback, perhaps with additional photographs, etc.

Anyway, let me repeat again that I think this is a fantastic idea and one with huge potential, if done properly. And my opinion of what constitues properly could well be a lot different to everyone else's...

Macarons

Macarons by RandomShenans

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Description:
Firstly, addressing the title. The common mistake that the soft meringue like shelled confectionery is a macaroon, not a macaron. It is not. It is also not a coconut based cake. MACARON! Now, on we go...

These things can be a pain in the ****. I have tried, and failed, to make these, more than once. My Mrs has failed at making these. So they're not so easy, but it's more about finding what works with your equipment, oven, even the eggs you have. Almost like the nemesis in the kitchen, you want to beat. Well m'lady did exactly that.



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Ingredients:

• There are two main methods you can use to create them.
  
  1. The Italian Meringue method
  
  Egg white 100 g (3 eggs - aged)
  Pure icing sugar 125 g
  Almond meal 125 g
  Caster sugar 125 g
  Water 34 g
  
  Where you beat your eggs to stiff peaks, make a hot sugar syrup (to about 118c) and while still processing the egg whites, gently add the sugar syrup to the whites. Then, you add the sieved almond meal to the mixture, folding it in to try to limit the lost air in the mix. (If you wish to colour your mix, I would add this to the almond meal, not the egg & sugar mix as it tends to take air out.) Fold it all in until mixed well, but don't go around mixing it hard. You want a shiny consistency, not grainy, or lumpy.
  
  2. The French Meringue way method.
  
  225g powdered sugar
  125g almonds, blanched
  25g sugar
  food colouring (about 5 drops)
  3 egg whites (preferably aged *which is leaving on the side for 3 days*)
  
  Well, we live in France, and the last time I tried them, I did it the Italian way, it wasn't working properly, this time, French.
  Beat your egg whites to stiff peaks, don't overwork them either. Then, add 25g of caster sugar while beating. Blend up your icing sugar and your almond meal with your colouring of choice. Now, slowly add this in to the egg whites, a bit at a time, folding it all in until the mixture is fully incorporated. Again, glossy, smooth, no lumps.

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Extra equipment you may need:
Piping bag, or a plastic food bag with the corner clipped, grease-proof/baking paper or a macaron sheet (silicon).



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Method:
Well, we live in France, and the last time I tried them, I did it the Italian way, it wasn't working properly, this time, French.
Beat your egg whites to stiff peaks, don't overwork them either. Then, add 25g of caster sugar while beating. Blend up your icing sugar and your almond meal with your colouring of choice. Now, slowly add this in to the egg whites, a bit at a time, folding it all in until the mixture is fully incorporated. Again, glossy, smooth, no lumps.

With both methods, preheat the oven to 157c. Or 160, as mine and yours probably go up in 20s anyway. Pipe the discs on to baking paper, remembering that they will spread and settle slightly, so don't go too big to start.

Importantly, you need to then leave the macarons to set on the side, for at least 30minutes. This will form a sort of film on the outside of the shell, which helps in the cooking. They will raise from this and keep shape.
We found the best results came when we put them directly on the oven shelf that was hot (we have shelves with trays on them which are flat) as this seemed to seal the bottom of the macaron shell.

Cook for 12-15minutes. We found 13 minutes to be the on the money. The shell should be firm to touch (lightly) and a consistent colour. You do not want to brown or discolour them.

Remove from the oven, put on the side to cool. Don't try and remove them right away. If you're having any trouble with the removing. Wet your worktop and then put the baking sheet directly on the wet surface, this often helps.

Options for filling are many, you can do a chocolate ganache, other flavours etc. We went for a raspberry coulis and chocolate ganache.

You can then have some great fun playing with flavour combinations, flavour the shell, and the centre etc.



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Comments:
Everyone has different ovens, so keep an eye on your macaron shells when in the oven.
It is a must to leave the shells at least 30mins after piping before you oven them, this builds up an outer skin on the shell.
Make sure you use fresh eggs, that are at room temperature, not from the fridge.




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Search tags (seperated by space):
Desserts, confectionery, macaroon, macaron, meringue, eggs, almonds