favourite recipes for everyday cooking and baking

There can never be too many recipes for chinese roast pork (or "siu yuk" as commonly known in Cantonese). Over the years, I have attempted various recipes and methods for achieving the perfect crackling - crispy and brittle enough that it doesn't break your teeth when you bite into it. It has always been a hit and miss for me. Either the skin doesn't fully crackle all over (leaving some parts soft and chewy), or the meat's dried out, or the crackling is burnt in some parts. But now, I have successfully made the almost-perfect roast pork, twice in a row. Woo-hoo! I must be doing something right there? There's nothing particularly difficult about making roast pork (except the part where you have to prick a zillion holes in the skin). You just need the right ingredients, the right technique and the right tools. Someone gave us a pork-skin-pricking tool for Christmas two years ago, which you see below. Roast pork fanatics who make their own at home might have thi

Here is another recipe from the "Gary Mehigan Favourites" cookbook. I thought I'd try it out as it was at the "top of his favourites list", although I had to make a few substitutions, particularly with the Barolo  which costs a bomb (even more so as two bottles are needed for this). I used Cabernet Sauvignon instead. The recipe also called for baby turnips which I couldn't find (perhaps not in season?) and so I made do with just the baby carrots. They were delicious, cooked in butter and verjuice.  Quite a lot of preparation goes into cooking this as it also requires beef jus and beef stock. The oxtail turned out pretty well and could have done with another half hour in the oven so that they were meltingly tender all the way through. Tasty nonetheless, very savoury and complements the sweet and sour carrots which I love!