Simple food for hungry divers
As promised, here are links to recipes for the dinner that Séamus and his team of sous-chefs cooked up for the brave guinea pigs of UCCSAC who dined together in Baltimore on Hallowe’en night. Feel free to steal and adapt them the next time you have a small army of cold and hungry people!
Everything is very easy to put together; all you need is the time it takes to let the pork cook slowly. Some of the recipes are vegan or vegetarian, and where they aren’t we’ve tried to suggest alternatives.
Pulled pork with coleslaw
The recipe for pulled pork and slaw comes courtesy of Jamie Oliver. The quantities are roughly correct: assume that 5 kg will feed 10 people (with leftovers for lunch the following day). Tom Durcan, in the English Market, sells good pork.
Vegetarians and vegans: on a previous dive weekend, we did marinated and pan-fried tempeh fillets as a substitute, which worked out well. (A little too well, since the vegetarians had to compete with the meat-eaters.) Let us know if you find something that combines well with the side dishes below!
Mayonnaise (for the slaw)
You’ll want to make your own mayonnaise for the coleslaw rather than using store-bought stuff; it’s well worth the effort. If you have your own recipe, then use it, otherwise Jamie will see you right. Don’t stress about the mixture of oils: some good extra-virgin olive oil will do fine. A teaspoon of wasabi powder per egg, added gradually as you whisk, will give the end result a subtle kick.
Vegans are on your own here, but replacing the eggs with silken tofu is said to produce good results. Try it out and report back!
Barbecue sauce
Barbecue cooks guard their sauce recipes jealously, so it’s hard to find a good one online. Most end up so strong that they overwhelm the flavour of the pork. Here’s the one that we used in Baltimore.
Start with white wine and cider vinegar in equal proportions (about 250 ml each), a good whack of light brown granulated sugar, and some Tabasco. Simmer the vinegar while dissolving the sugar and add in Tabasco to taste. Let the mixture reduce without boiling until it’s thickened, and then add the pulled pork to it.
Rice
Rice is easier to cook than you think. Get yourself a sieve, a cheap stovetop steamer like this, and you will make perfect rice forever.
Again, Jamie is pretty close, but a minute isn’t long enough to wash the rice. You’ll want to wash and drain the rice at least three times, at which point the water will be clear. The timings work well for basmati rice. If you’re making brown rice, you’ll want to both boil and steam it for about an extra two minutes for each step.
Anything you put into the boiling water with the rice will impart some flavour to it: a mixture of vegetable stock and a few teaspoons of turmeric work well. It’s an excellent idea to salt the boiling water liberally, although the rice should form a nicely neutral complement to the stronger flavours elsewhere.
Steamed vegetables with a lime butter sauce
The lime butter sauce in Baltimore was roughly 1 part melted butter to 1 part lime juice, with some ground black pepper and a couple of cloves’ worth of minced garlic. (It depends on how much you like garlic… and how many people you’re planning to talk to after dinner.) Let the mixture simmer and reduce for about half an hour and you’re good.
Vegans can replace the butter with olive oil, but you’ll lose the unctuousness of the melted butter. Adding some hazelnut oil might be helpful in bringing back some of the richness.
Pick the kind of vegetables that you like and that don’t require hours of boiling: green beans, carrots, and young broccoli all work well. You can use your new steamer for this, but be aware that it won’t take long: about five minutes is a good guideline.
Green beans can be steamed whole, but you’ll want to jardinière the carrots so that they cook at the same rate. Serve as soon as they’re ready, with the sauce drizzled over them.
Tips on timing
You can make the mayonnaise and the sauces the day before and keep them in the fridge overnight. Allow yourself half an hour between taking the pork out of the oven and serving it, as it’ll be too hot to pull apart when you first remove it. The rice can be left to sit for a good twenty minutes before serving. Only the vegetables require careful timing, as they’ll lose their flavour if left to overcook.
Enjoy!