I loathe food waste, I really do. It really bothers me if we have to throw out food at the end of the week as it just feels like I’m throwing money in the bin. I do find with only 2 of us at home there are almost always leftovers with each meal. Usually I’ll take stuff in for lunch the next day but it’s also nice to try and create another meal out of something that would otherwise end up in sandwiches or in a salad.

Sunday before last we had pulled pork and on Monday I had planned to make cottage pie for tea using some mince I had bought with the shopping. I opened the fridge and spotted the leftover pulled pork sat in a Tupperware tub and honestly, if it was a cartoon you would have seen a lightbulb go off above my head. I thought – “why am I about to open a packet of mince when there is a load of pulled pork sitting here.” I knew we would have picked at it over the week but I wanted to be more creative than that.

I adapted my usual cottage pie recipe and in under an hour we were tucking into a yummy meal that gave us both a nice serving for tea and enough for lunch the next day. I felt so proud of myself that I had done something a little different and the next day in work people were very surprised – they all said they only ever put cooked meat in a sandwich/salad and would never think of creating another hot meal from it. I was so pleased that it was a success that I made it again this week, tweaking the recipe slightly so I was 100% happy with it. Originally my cottage pie recipe comes from Lorraine Pascale’s Home Baking Made Easy book and even though I’ve fiddled with it quite a bit I felt it was only right to credit her for some of the original bits.

Pulled Pork Cottage Pie

2-3 sweet potatoes

100g diced pancetta

1 large onion (diced)

3 tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 carrots (diced)

Handful of mushrooms (sliced)

1 sprig of rosemary, chopped

450g leftover pulled pork

100g frozen peas

3 squidges tomato puree

2tbsp Worcestershire sauce

200ml beef stock

Life has been a bit hectic at Wharfedale CCC and we have unfortunately neglected to do any write-ups for quite a while. Instead of trying to remember each cake and what happened at each event I’ve opted to do a round-up of our last few events. Between Kathryn standing down, me taking over full-time, planning a wedding and starting a new job poor CCC has taken a wee bit of a back seat.

Back in November we were at the Hermit Inn in Burley-in-Wharfedale. We had never been there before and stumbled across it when doing a venue hunt on Google. The service was amazing, the staff were lovely and one of them even made us a cake to enjoy. It’s definitely on the list as a place to return to for a future event and for Sunday lunch!


December saw our Anything Goes event where, for the first time ever, the cake only rule was relaxed. From Brownies to mince pies and everything in between it was brilliant to see our bakers step out of the “cake zone.” Special thanks to the Wheatley Arms in Ben Rydding – a stunning venue that left us all ooo-ing and ahh-ing from the moment we entered.


January we took a break and February saw Kathryn’s last event as co-organiser. The Queen’s Head in Burley-in-Wharfedale was our next venue. The dark wood interior and flickering candles gave a cosy and warm atmosphere to a frosty winter’s night. With our theme of “New Year, New Cake” it was great to see some new faces and wonderful creations. Lots of delicious cakes were consumed that night!


In March we went to one of our fanciest venues to date – The Chevin Country Park Hotel in Otley. The staff were so accommodating, reserving all of the Garden Lounge for us. Looking on to the lake and Spa with the sun shining it really was a truly stunning place. With such fancy surroundings the theme of Luxury Cakes was ideal.

Us CCC ladies love our tea and the hotel brought out their box of tea for us all to choose what we wanted – perfect.
 

All of these venues were amazing. I love that we have so many wonderful places in the Wharfedale area to choose from. I know I’ll be visiting them all again in the future, make sure you do too!

I’ve recently discovered a new favourite dish – pulled pork. I don’t know why I didn’t make it sooner. Chuck it in the oven on low for 5-6 hours and low and behold, you have a tasty dish that took minimal effort but can feed a lot of people.

Initially I tried a few different recipes but none of them taste quite right until I tried this Slimming World recipe. I tweaked it slightly and cooked it in the oven as we don’t have a slow cooker and well… all I can say is – why have I waited so long to make and enjoy this wonderful cut of meat?

I tend to get my pork shoulder from Aldi, it’s about £3 - £4 for 1.5kg and we get a lot of meat from that. It gives us a generous helping at dinner, enough for lunch the next day and my new discovery – turning the remaining into cottage pie (post to be shared later this week).

You can serve the pulled pork with your choice of sides. I prefer to whip up some egg fried rice that I pack full of veggies – peppers, onions, carrots, peas, sweetcorn, courgette, mushrooms and sundried tomatoes. Whatever veg is in the fridge I add it to the rice cos I’ll be honest here – I’m not a big veg fan and often push it around the plate so I find this is a great way to up my intake (yes, I know, this makes me sound like I’m a child).

BBQ Pulled Pork

1.5kg pork shoulder

5 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

3 tsp mustard powder

500g passata

3 tbsp balsamic vinegar

3 cloves of garlic, crushed 

Sprinkling of chilli flakes

Enjoy!