Allan Truman's Pork Belly

A Chop and it’s drop.

I don’t know if you do it like me, I mean eating out now, but I tend to go to certain restaurant's for certain meals. To me it has always (almost) been a winning recipe for a  good meal and an enjoyable night. It does however happen from time to time, that you are either badly disappointed or happily surprised. Why would this be than, you might ask.
People tend to go to the same places, over and over, because they like the taste of their food, or like me, of a certain dish. In a good restaurant the food should always taste the same, whether the Head-Chef is there and cooking it himself or not and this can only happen if the kitchen work on standardised recipes.

(Just a quick explanation about standardised recipes. It is a very detailed recipe compiled by the Head-Chef for his chefs and it must be followed to the letter. It will, for instance, tell you what brand of item to use and the cooking methods will also be explained to the last detail. This explains why your making of Aunt Aggie’s well roasted blackbird taste different from hers, even though you used her recipe. Her roasted black bird don't need to taste the same every time she makes it, but the restaurants does.)

Enough said of standard recipes and back to more important matters. My theory regarding why your meal was so much better than last time lies in what you had to drink with that meal. Maybe you just made the perfect decision regarding the combination between the drink and the meal. Lets play an imaginary game.

Grab hold of an imaginary wine glass, fill it with imaginary wine and imagine bringing it to your mouth and taking a slow sip. Now, slowly let it tickle your taste butts and dance over your tongue........

One moment, will be back soon, need a glass of wine ............... real wine .............

I’m back and feeling a lot better thank you very much.

What happened, did your mouth start salivating (watering). If it did, your mouth was telling you: “I’m ready, bring on the food!”

The alcohol in wine (actually any alcohol and even the gas in gas cold drinks) tickle your taste buts and wake them up to the point where the right combination between food and drink will make your senses go .... wooooow, happy days are here again .........
Just think strawberries and sparkling wine, or dare I say, Champagne. Match made in heaven. Chillies can have a quite similar effect with the added advantage of you body releasing it’s own morphine in the form of endorphins. So they not only make the food taste better, they make you feel amazing.

Next time you are ordering your favourite meal, ask your server what the wine/beer recommendation is for that meal and try it, it might just surprise you. But try your own combinations as well, tastes differ and you might just come across something spectacular. If you do, pat yourself on the back, drink another glass and e-mail me directly at thetoofatchef@gmail.com

Here we go with Chef Allan Truman’s signature Pork Belly. (Allan Truman is the Head Chef at the Cashmere Club in Christchurch, New Zealand)

This is how you prepare the Pork belly:

Lay the Pork belly down on your (red - for raw meat) cutting board

Roll the Pork belly up and you can use skewers to keep it in place

With a sharp knive, cut the Pork belly into rounds (+/- 1.5 cm in thick)

Place the Pork belly in a oven dish in a single layer

Make the sauce/marinade to baked the Pork belly in.

Ingredients:

• 1.2 to 1.8 kg Pork Belly as prepared as above
• 1 tbsp (15 ml) Corriander - fine
• 1 tbsp (15 ml) dried Ginger - fine
• 1/2 tsp (2 ml) Cayenne peper (more if you like it hot like me)
• 1 tsp french Garlick - Finely chopped
• 1/2 cup each: Tomato sauce, BBQ sauce and Orange juice
• 1/4 cup Sweet chilli sauce
• Salt and peper to taste

Method:

• Put salt and peper over the Pork belly
• In a mixing bowl, place the wet ingredients together with the spices and garlick and whisk lightly

•  Spread evenly overe the Pork belly.

• cover the oven try with foil and bake in a 180c for 1 hour and 15 minutes
• take foil of and bake at the same temp for another 15 - 30 minutes or until the Pork belly is sticky and tender

Etxtra sauce for serving:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup each: Tomato sauce, BBQ sauce and orange juice
• 1/4 cup of Sweet chilli sauce
• Corn Flour to thicken the sauce if needed

Method:

• Add ingredients to a pot, together with the roasting juices, bring to a boil.
• Thicken by making a slurry (paste) out of corn flour and water if needed.

And that is that, easy as pie. I would have a nice glass of fruity Rose or a Pale Ale with this, but then again, it is your meal and you should try it with the drink of you choice.

Thanks Allan for sharing this with us.

Enjoy!

Chef Allan's Pork belly served on a bed of buttery mash potatoes.

Cola Ribs

As a radio host in America said; “He’s not as beautiful as Nigela or as naked as Jamie, but he is Albert, the Fat Chef”. Yip, that’s me and I am fat........, but I can cook as well, so here goes:

Cola Ribbs without the F-word

 I know I am preaching to the saved and that I have said it before, but you can spread the word from here.

You might have all seen the guy at the “other” table, the one that makes all the people at that table wish they have faked some kind of illness and stayed at home. He’s the one who finds fault with all his food and then explain to all and sundry how the food should have been done to start with. The one who will be the proud recipient of a few prize bumps to the back of his head caused by the light pan said chef used to cook his meal.

Obviously, if there is a problem with your food, you must complain, but be civil about it, mistakes are made even by us chefs.

You will find that I have it against the person that claims the right to complain just because he thinks it is the way it should be done, because it is done that way on the TV Cooking Competitions and that he exhibit his coolness by being rude. News flash mate, you are not cool, neither is that chef. He does it to entertain you and it seems that he have succeeded, you were entertained.

Do you, for one moment, think somebody can taste the slightly burnt hair of a scurfy ridden pirate the soup or did that judge say that to make you go ...... eeeiiwww ...... I don’t even want to taste that, it must be awful. Remember, they only have the sound and picture and to make you “taste and smell” the food, they have to use words and by golly, some of them do it well.

So next time, before you complain about your medium-rare T-bone not being grey, make sure of your facts before you complain. After cooking a few steaks, 99.9% of chefs know how a medium-rare steak should look and feel, and yes, we do touch your food to check for doneness. Further, most chefs also have this nasty habit of having a few cookbooks in their kitchens, the ones with photos in them of food, and as luck would have it, mostly there are vividly clear photos of steaks at all degrees of doneness. Nasty creatures chefs are, he will send his most outspoken waitress to your table, with that cookbook, to show you the photo of a medium-rare steak and somehow you might just feel like the slightly burnt hair of the scurvy ridden pirate and, obviously, also remember the light pan he is weighing in his hand.

But at the odd chance of you being right, things happen, be the bigger person. If that chef comes to your table, as he should, and apologies by saying: “rifgwuf wfn ewrgeri wf”; accept it as an apology and do keep his pan in the back of your mind (no pun intended).

So remember, if you have a complaint, complain, you are paying for a service and that includes the whole package, but if you want to impress everybody in the restaurant, put ice on the back of your head, it usually helps.

And now .... drum-roll .... lets cook!

Cola Ribs – my way

For the Ribs

·         2 kg spare-ribs – make sure you buy the ones with a lot of meat on them.

·         2,5 L Cola (the red- or the blue, red and white bottle)

·         4-8 cloves of garlic - crushed

·         1 large onion, roughly chopped

·         2 Bay leaves

·         20 cloves

·         1 tsp (5 ml) black peppercorns

·         2 tbsp (30 ml) smoked paprika

·         1 tbsp (15 ml) coriander – fine

·         1 ½ tsp (7 ml) salt

 Basting Sauce

·         1 medium onion, finely chopped

·         2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

·         1 Cup (250 ml) Ketchup/Tomato Sauce – good quality

·         2 tbsp (30 ml) English- or any mustard of your choice

·         ¾ Cup (180 ml) soft brownsugar

·         1 tsp (5 ml) Worcestershire sauce

·         salt en pepper to taste

This is how you do it:

RIBS

 1 Cut the ribs in strips or single portions (I like it this way) and place in a big pot.

2 Place the rest of the ingredients, for the ribs, in the pot, bring to boil. Turn down to simmer and let it simmer for about 90 minutes. You want the meat tender, but not falling of the bone.

3 Remove the ribs, pour the liquid through a sieve and cook the liquid down to about 500 ml. Keep for your sauce.

Basting Sauce

 1 Place all the ingredients in a pot and cook down to the consistency of Maple syrup.

2 Liquidise to a fine consistency and let it cool a little.

FINISHING TOUCHESS

1 Coat the ribs well with the basting sauce (don’t be shy),

2 Cook on your braai, Barbie or BBQ until dark and sticky, but be careful not to burn them

OR

Bake in the oven at 180 °C for 45-60 minutes until they dark and sticky.

REMEMBER

Dark and sticky is the secret.

 Don’t taste them at the BBQ or the moment they come out of the oven, there won’t be enough left for the rest of the people

Tips and hints

·         You can, and I encourage you to, do this with chicken wings as well. Chop the wing in 3 parts, but please throw the pointy bit away. Nothing can save it anyway. Cook the wings for a shorter time than the ribs, about 30 to 45 minutes.

·         Instead of using the cooked down liquid, you can use fresh cola.

·         This is only the basic recipe, don’t fell you have to stick to it religiously. (I like to make mine with about ½ a cup of hot sauce added to the ribs)

Next time I will share our Head Chef, Allan Truman’s recipe for Pork Belly Wheels, a Cashmere Club favourite and I must confess, one of mine as well.

See you then

The fat Chef

Please e-mail any questions or ideas, or just to chat to:

thetoofatchef@gmail.com

Gann loer ook gerus by: http://huisgenoot.com/kategorie/blogs/vet-sjef/

Of e-pos my by: vetsjef@gmail.com

Organic smorganic

Yes........but, is not really the answer the world is looking for when it comes to what’s better, organic or non-organic. With all the ho-ha about the wonders of organic food, you should think that questions like this is irrelevant, but they’re not. 

You would expect to be wowed by the taste of organic produce to the point of writhing poems and songs about but instead, we have to look at smelly Chefs cooking three chickens, one supposedly organic, on TV and having their friends taste it, hoping they would choose the correct one. If it is this difficult for people in the food industry to taste the difference, how difficult will it be for a cash starved mother of 6. If you listen to what Mr Big Shot Chef said, it shouldn't even have been a problem, organic should be so much better that it jumps of the tasting plate, grab you by the scruff of the neck and lead you down culinary roads only reserved for kings. 

Does this conundrum tasting prove that organic is good or that the cheap grocery store bought ones are bloody good as well? Personally, I like good eating and to prove my point, I'm fat. This is the result of a medical condition called over-indulgence and I blame it on the genetic composition inherited from my human ancestors. 

I must fess-up though, I have bought some bad chicken at grocery stores and one totally inedible organic birdie straight from the farmer at a farmers market, but I think the organic one was already an old bird before organic became the buzz word it is today. Even if you used the age old recipe for cooking "old" birds on a big flat rock in a pot of good quality chicken stock for twelve hours (then throw the bird and stock away and eat the rock), the cooked rock would still have been better eating.

I think that the time have come that we see the "organic" marketing ploy for what it is, a marketing ploy misused by many to sell their product at a premium. The cold hard facts about the matter is, farmers do not have the luxury of setting 10 hectares of land aside for 100 chickens to roam free and grow up to be tasty and cheap Sunday roast. If anybody believes this is possible, please share your knowledge with me, I won’t tell, but I want to go into that kind of farming.

On the flip side of the spectrum lies some of the most disgusting farming methods practised by man. It comes in many guises as so called battery-, crate- or cage farming (I have seen it called by some other names as well) and I have seen one of my food hero's, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, moved to tears on just such a chicken farm in the UK. I have seen this method of farming used not only for chickens, but other animals as well. Shame on all of us meat eaters for allowing this form of farming to exist and flourish. Sadly, this is the reality of an ever growing world population that want to eat meat at the lowest price possible. Somewhere, someone is going to provide at whatever means, no matter how disgusting. If we think that governments can afford to close down farms like this, think again. They have a responsibility towards the citizens to keep them fed at a price they can afford.

So what am I actually saying? Somewhere between the BS of the "organic" movement and the cruellest form of farming imaginable, there must be a balance and we meat eaters will have to make the choice. Will we pay more for a well farmed piece of meat that in some cases taste somewhat better, or do we buy what we can afford, no matter what.

You decide for yourselves.

Now, let's go cook something!

Everybody a critic

Something gnawing away at my soul is the amount of Master Chef Food critics we've got lately. Any Chef will tell you about this new found passion Jo Public discovered regarding the cooking and presenting of dishes. There is just absolutely nothing you can show, cook or present them with, or they can tell you where you went wrong. Friends and fellow Chef's all have some ridiculous story they can share and I'm no different. 

A few weeks ago, a mother and daughter combination walked into the restaurant for a lovely lunch. Mum, about 80 and an old and dear customer ordered her normal fish of the day and her 50 - 60 year old daughter and "MF critique extraordinaire" decided to test my culinary skills and ordered a medium-rare ribeye steak.

O woe is me, can I do it? Am I ready for this big task? I've only cooked a few thousand of them in 30+ years of cooking and now this. As many (all) Chef's cook steak by "feel", this was done and when it reached the perfect "feel", it was plated and presented to the dear-heart. The chips was eaten with gusto and then came the dreaded moment of judging. 

Will my skill show or will Mrs. MF Critic return my dish?

Then it happened, the wonder women critic decided the steak was rare and not medium-rare as ordered. It was returned with instructions that I must make sure that next time I cook it until it is pink in the middle and not at all red as this one was.  

I checked and in my apparently non-expert opinion, it was perfect medium-rare. I instructed the waitress to returned the steak, together with my young assistants handbook (he just finished a culinary diploma) showing a photo of a medium-rare steak. How I and the writer of that handbook could have gotten it so wrong, I will never know. When the poor waitress placed the dish, accompanied by the handbook, in front of her, she shouted: "Where is Ramsey when you need him?"

I must confess, I wouldn't have complained if he was there, as he would have told her what she could go do to herself in no uncertain terms.

In my humble opinion, we have cooking programs and competitions to blame for this. Don’t get me wrong though, Master Chef is like a sports event to me. Break out the beer and chips and let the ref (judge) bashing start. But honestly, it also turned the most humble Jo Public into a red eyed, mouth foaming critic that has no scruples when it comes to telling you how to cook any dish you invented. Constructive criticism is what builds good Chefs, but this is something else. This type of criticism has got nothing constructive in it, it is meant to show the people around this MF Critic how ignorant he/she really is.

If somehow I, yes we are all human, forgot to add the wine to your white wine sauce, you are welcome, no encouraged, to inform me thus and I will apologise and fix it. But don’t instruct me to next time use a 2013 Riesling instead of a 2012, because the 2013 is much fuller in body than the 2012 and miss the point that I forgot to add any wine to your sauce altogether.

Note to food critic: After all the reduction a wine goes through to become your wine sauce, I will personally lick your royal back-side if you could tell the difference between a reduced 2013 and a good quality dry box wine.

There, I’ve said it and now I feel a lot better. Let’s go cook!

Asking for help

Somebody once said it is easier to give help than ask for it. Well, I had some time to think about it and had at last, after 3 months and a few days, ask for help. It wasn't easy, but there it is, I have done it.
As if it isn't enough that all people who have read about me now know my weight, height, age, health, knee problems and any other fiscal attributes that was deemed necessary to share,  they now know that I actually need help too.
Something else I found out, is that it is actually not easy to handle all the feelings and emotions when you start receiving the help you asked for. It is the most humbling experience of my life. You can not tell people, because you choke-up to the point where you can't get a word out. You keep saying thank you, but after a while, you start wondering if people really understand just how thankful you really are.
Not all experiences have been positive though and I will never say that everybody must support me or our case, but don't be a bully and attack me personally, it hurts.
Some of the most heartfelt messages were negative, but it shows that there are people passionate enough about New Zealand that they are willing to protect it. Out of this we all can learn, and even if people like them struggle to believe it, I will always carry a Kiwi-bit in my heart. Some of the best times in my life, and I have only spent 10% of it in New Zealand, is things and experiences I had here. I was fortunate enough to see and feel the love towards Christchurch after the earthquakes. From the students, farmers and normal citizens that jumped in and helped the people who lost it all, too all the support and love we have been shown in the last 4 months of our struggle.
New Zealanders, you must be proud of who you are and what you stand for. I have only been here for a very short while (so far I hope), but I will never regret mu choice to come here. This Country is worth fighting for.

This is God's own!

Albert and Marthie Buitenhuis's story as penned by Marthie

We came to New Zealand from South Africa at the end of October 2007 (my husband) and December 2007 (myself).  This was all the result of him being made redundant very suddenly and we knew that his chances of finding new employment there, at his age, were not good at all.  We had been planning to leave the country, but this event just hastened it all.

He initially came to see if we would be able to live here but he fell in love with Christchurch and within 3 weeks had a work visa and was employed.  Since then we have applied for several work visas with very little problems.  He was issued a work visa for 1 year at the end of 2007 because he only submitted a chest x-ray, then at the end of 2008 we submitted full medicals and again was given 1 year visas. The only time there were any queries regarding an application was at the end of 2009.  This was a request that our employer motivate why Albert and not a Kiwi or a resident.  We were issued with 2 year visas once our employer submitted this.  Medical clearance was done on the basis of the medical submitted in 2008.  At the end of 2011 we were given a 9 month visa, clearly intended to cover the expected time it would take to process the residency application as well as another in September 2012 for only 3 months. We were told it was an exception and from what I remember they said we didn't submit all the required information and it was issued so our residency application could be finalized.  The irony is that at the moment he weighs less than he had done when we first arrived in New Zealand and also less than in his first medical.

At end of 2011 we applied for new work visas and at the same time submitted our application for residency.  That is where the trouble started.  At first we were a bit perplexed about the extra requests for medical tests for him.  Early in this period I found information that we may have problems due to an old knee injury of his that was exacerbated by the February 2011 earthquake, but eventually when we received the decision of the first medical assessor we discovered the real issue was his weight.  This was also at the heart of the decision by the second medical assessor as well as the decline of a medical waiver.  The knee was there and mentioned, but the were real issue was his weight.

My husband has always been on the larger side.  He was also a smoker until August of 2010.  Once he stopped smoking his eating habits changed and he gained weight.  He did make some attempts to lose the weight via a crash diets (soup and a daily regimen of specific accompanying foods), this only made matters worse.  By the time we got the result of the first medical assessor he was already under the supervision of a dietician at Burwood Hospital and he was losing weight steadily and in healthy manner.  He also joined Weight-watchers and has to date lost more than 30 kg.

Our last visas (valid for 3 months) expired in January (2013) and we finally scraped the money together for a new application at the very last moment.  There were heaps of requirements regarding his job and contract.  At this time we have had appointed an immigration agent to assist us because everything became overwhelming. The agent advised us to withdraw the residency application because it was about to be declined and then to just concentrate on the visa application.  On 1 May Immigration New Zealand informed us that our work visas had been declined on the grounds of my husband's health.  With that our interim visas expired and we had to stop working immediately.

Since then we have been trying to submitted a Section 61 application. Together with a report from our current GP setting out my husband's current state of health, we thought that it would be enough to get us working again.  Our agent had submitted the first one and after 3 weeks it was returned with the application fee.  Based on the information I gathered on the internet regarding this type of application, it is hard to draw any other conclusion that the particular agent had it on his or her desk and returned it after 3 weeks.  We have an application for review submitted to the minister via our MP (Mr Brownlee's office) and our agent submitted another Section 61 application. This was also returned and they submitted another.

We didn't bother anyone nor did we ask anything from the system.  The knee evaluation and possible knee surgery was not on our request and we initially did not want to take it up.  Our GP at the time felt he qualified and referred him to the Burwood Hospital.  

Because we are not allowed to work we have virtually no income.  I have been selling off some smaller household items to keep us fed and we receive small amounts of money from Albert's sister in Auckland (who just went through a difficult time with their PR application as well).  There have also been one or two amounts from other people and our Church help where they can.  I managed to get bills paid last month but this month is becoming a major headache.  We are totally unable to meet our rental obligations and have already had two mediation meetings and is awaiting a date for the Tenancy Tribunal (Albert: We were asked to vacate the property in the mean time).  To top all this off, we live with the constant sword of deportation over our heads while trying to get a reconsideration of our visa application.

There are aspects of our dealings with INZ over the past 20 months that is very upsetting indeed.  Firstly, we had absolutely no idea that my husband's weight would be such a major issue.  It would have been extremely stupid to apply for residency in full knowledge of that.  In no previous visa application has there been any mention of his weight being an issue.  I feel that the outcome, based on his weight, was a foregone conclusion and the case officer should have brought this to our attention a lot sooner.  We would have withdrawn the application before spending an enormous amount of money on all those extra medical tests.  A lot more could have been done a lot sooner had we been informed properly and we could quite possibly have prevented the current issue completely.  The total cost of the residency application with the extra medical expenses coupled with the cost of three work visa applications within just over a year wiped out any savings we had.  Our last money went towards paying the agent.  In short, immigration costs have left us broke and now we are told to please go away.

The second thing that bothers me is that INZ insists an employer give you a permanent position with a contract.  Regardless of that our employer is now expected to replace this permanent employee every time his visa comes up for renewal.  It not only have an effect on the employer's staff continuity and recruitment costs, it discourages employers from employing immigrants, even in industries where there is a real problem with finding suitable staff.  When our visas were declined we were forced to break our contracts.  There was no warning and it was received with shock and horror by our manager and colleagues.  Suddenly the restaurant lost two staff members in a time where staff is very hard to come by.

The third aspect; it is wrong that a case officer can not only refuse to process an Section 61 application, but that it can be done without giving or recording (if reports are to be believed) any reasons for doing so.  It is not only unfair towards the applicant who suffers severe stress and anxiety; it also opens the door to any kind of abuse.  It means that if a case officer doesn't feel like doing it or there is a feeling that the office is too busy, the application can be refused without having to offer any explanation or suffering any consequences.  To put it bluntly, they are playing god over the lives of people who are vulnerable and in a very difficult situation.  

No-one just packs up and leave their home country without good reason, and if you were basically settled and made your intentions of staying permanently clear, it leaves a bitter taste in the mouth to be told after 5+ years of working and paying tax, that you are not so important that New Zealand needs to treat you like a human being or show any form of humanity or compassion for you or what their decisions or actions mean to the applicant.

I tried to keep this short, but it is very hard to keep it concise and not get emotional over it.  In New Zealand we have jobs and lived fairly comfortably on not major incomes.  We had what we needed and did it with very little debt.  We feel personally safe and don't live in fear of crime or violence.  We are expected to return to the very situation we wanted to escape.  While South Africa is not seen as war zone or in a situation that calls for asylum, I doubt the actual situation there is unknown to the authorities here. No country loses so many citizens as South Africa has done for no good reason.  After being totally settled we are now expected to sell off what we have to return to a country that has swopped one discriminatory policy for another while the world is congratulating itself on dismantling the former policy while turning a blind eye to what is happening to there.

This is our story and most importantly we need help to not get deported on humanitarian grounds while we try and get this sorted.  And we want to be allowed to go back to work.  We committed no crime and did nothing wrong other than my husband being a foodie.  We also feel that this situation is treated very lightly while it should be abundantly clear to the officials involved with our case that the situation is urgent.  My husband has come a long way weight wise and should at least be given some credit.  As this drags on he is still (amazingly) sticking to his eating regimen and losing weight in a safe, healthy and sustainable manner.  It is not as if we are asking for the planet.  We are just asking to be allowed to stay and prove that he is doing all that is required to get his weight to a point that will satisfy them and continue with our lives.

Your support in the endeavour will be appreciated.  I apologize for the length of this letter but once I started typing I found it a bit hard to stop.

Thank you

Marthie Buitenhuis

Christchurch