Today, it has been raining all day non-stop.  It is a cool 28 C (or 82 F) so I am still continuing along the theme of hotpots.  If you haven’t read the last post, Gnome had asked me to cook a Lancashire Hotpot for him.  Those people who are not familiar with this dish, it is a meal made with lamb (sometimes beef), onions and carrots with a layer of sliced potatoes on top.  This traditional stew is cooked slowly in the oven at a low heat to make the meat and vegetables tender and succulent.

Well, anyway, the running joke is that I keep on intending to cook a Lancashire Hotpot but instead of using the traditional ingredients, I substitute alternatives so that the resulting dish isn’t really Lancashire.

So, the Pork and Cassava Hotpot was another attempt at being Lancashire…honestly!!  This time, there are carrots included and I had to use pork because I could not find beef or lamb!  Also, I can’t bring myself to buy potatoes when I have a huge plethora of exotic roots on the farm.  The cassava does make a lovely hotpot; it is warming and comforting and is great for these cooler spells in Belize.

I have to admit though, that I am a bit of a rebel cook at heart and I love to tweek and change recipes.  Only once in my life, I actually made a serious whole-hearted attempt to follow a recipe to the letter.  This was for Duck a l’orange and it took three days to prepare…it was excellent!  It was solely tempted to change it to Duck a le pampelmousse but made a deliberate effort to follow instructions!

Have a good day everyone…may we all revel in being rebel cooks!