13 February - mackerel salad and pork hotpot

Lunch today was a bit of an experimental winter salad; smoked mackerel with new potatoes, leeks and sweetcorn. It wasn't one of my best, but not bad.

To use up the leftover pork chop, I came up with a pork and cider hotpot, partly inspired by a WFI recipe, using the slow cooker. I softened some onions in a pan, then browned the pork,chopped into chunks. I put the onion and pork in the slow cooker with 250ml dry cider, some chestnut mushrooms and a bit of yellow pepper, plus some thyme and a bay leaf. Then I popped it in the oven for a couple of hours (at 180C). It was the first time I'd used the slow cooker without using one of the recipes that came with it and I was a bit nervous when I lifted the lid. It initially looked like it'd dried out quite a bit and I quickly added another slurp of cider, but later realised, it probably just needed a stir. With a spoonful of mustard stirred in at the end, it came out quite well and was really tasty with some mash to soak up the juices and some kale on the side.