Cheese + Bacon = Delicious

Goats Cheese and Bacon Croquettes

These cheesy morsels are delicious at any time but go especially well with drinks particularly if you make them canape sized. It’s also a way of turning leftover mashed potato into something wonderful. 

I have used gluten free breadcrumbs and flour but just replace as you wish.

Make a large batch of these in advance of a party and warm them in the oven just before serving.

Ingredients

Makes about 30 croquettes
3 large baking potatoes, peeled, cooked and mashed.
2 rashers of smoked bacon, finely chopped
6 fresh sage leaves
Salt and pepper
4 slices gluten free bread
Oil for frying, about 2cm in depth
1 goats cheese log, about 125g
2 eggs
Knob of butter

Method

• Peel and chop potatoes and boil in salted water until cooked through. Drain and mash with a little butter and leave to cool.
• In a separate pan, fry off the finely chopped bacon with 2 chopped fresh sage leaves. The bacon pieces should be golden and slightly crispy.
• Add bacon to the mashed potato, season with salt and pepper to taste and leave to cool completely before adding crumbled goat’s cheese. Mix lightly
• Blitz the bread with the remaining sage leaves until breadcrumbs, dry out in a hot oven until lightly browned, in a hot oven this will only take 2 or 3 minutes. Leave to cool.
• Assemble all the ingredients, you will need a plate for the breadcrumbs, a bowl with a beaten egg and a plate with some plain seasoned flour.
• Check seasoning and shape mash mixture into small cylindrical shapes about 2cm long. Roll each in flour, then egg and finally breadcrumbs until all are coated.
• When all the croquettes are ready heat the oil (if you are using a deep fryer to 160 degrees) in a deep frying pan use a medium heat. Fry in batches of no more than 5 until golden brown. These will take about 5 minutes to cook.
• Drain on kitchen paper and serve warm, I like to dip in a little chilli jam to spice things up.

Serve with wine and friends. Let the festivities begin, more party recipes to follow soon

Pulled Pork Tacos

This is a great recipe for parties as it’s easy to double up the quantities and is particularly good to just lay out the toppings on the table and let people help themselves. We like it spicy but feel free to reduce the amount of chillies if you like.


Ingredients

1kg pork loin cut into 1 inch cubes
4 whole cloves
6 whole peppercorns
1 bay leaf
2 chipotle chillies
I red onion sliced thinly into half circles
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp ground cloves
Salt and pepper
8 taco shells
Sour cream
Salad leaves
Grated cheese, preferably strong grated cheddar

Method

Put cubed pork into large saucepan, with peppercorns, cloves and a bay leaf. Cover with water, bring to the boil and simmer for 40 minutes. Drain and leave to cool slightly.

Meanwhile soak chipotle chillies in hot water until softened. Retain liquid and chop chillies, removing the seeds and stalk (you can leave the seeds in but chipotles are quite fiery).

Using 2 forks shred the meat, set aside.

Fry onion and garlic in 1 tbsp vegetable oil until softened. Add cinnamon, ground cloves and shredded pork and mix thoroughly to coat in spices and warm through. If the mix seems a little dry, add chilli water to moisten. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Cook taco shells according to instructions.
Fill taco shells with salad, meat, sour cream, cheese and extra fresh chilli if you like and enjoy.