Pork Scratchings

Pork Scratchings are a delicious treat and a wonderful BBQ snack to share with friends and family. They are easy to make though it has a long cook time, there is very little effort involved.

Ingredients 

Pork Skin

Canola Oil

Cajun spice mix

Salt

Method

Take as much fat off from the underside of the skin as you can then cut the skin into strips about 3cm wide by 8cm long. Boil these trips in plain water for 20 minutes.

Remove the strips from the water and dry thoroughly on paper towl. Lay the strips, skin side up, on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Bake in an oven at 140c for 1 hour until the skins dry out.

Fill a medium saucepan with approx 5cm to 10cm of canola oil and bring to a high heat ready for frying. To test that the temperature is high enough break off a small piece of bread and drop into the oil, if it fries to golden, then the oil is ready. 

Each piece should take between 30 seconds and a minute to fry and no more than 3 peices should be fried at a time. Drop each piece into the oil and wait for it to puff up and change to a beautiful golden amber.

Transfer the strips onto a plate covered with kitchen paper and let the excess oil drain off. Then place in a saving bowl and cover lightly in Cajun spices and a little salt to taste.

Starting a Veggie Patch

Starting a small vegetable patch in your backyard can be incredibly rewarding as well as a cost effective way to supplement you food. There are so many ways to get started sometimes that can be the biggest challenge! To start with you need to decide what kind of space you can allocate to this new garden and from there you can decide on the right kind of "bed".


The most popular at the moment is a raised garden bed which is made out of either wooden sleepers or galvanised steel and often comes in a ready-made flat pack.

This is the flat pack that I chose for my first ever veggie patch and I chose it because it was cheap and I liked that it had two levels which gave me versatility in terms of soil depth which is super important when you are planning on putting your raised bed, as I did, on concrete.

Other options are using pots which are just as useful and effective for veggie gardens and can in many cases give you greater control over soil, fertiliser, sunlight, mulch and other important variables. This kind of flexibility makes pots an ideal solution for some hard to grow plants as well as for people who have a limited space allocation.

In this pot I have planted Rhubarb, Kale, Stevia and Spinach. The pot has given me extra space in my garden and has also allowed me to place these plants in a more favourable position with early morning sun which is different to my larger vegetable patch which has afternoon sun.


FYI! The reason my beds are covered in ugly mesh is because of this guy:

Beware of Dog!

For information on plant and soil selection for your new patch just go to part 2 on the next page =)