Wacky Pork Chops

 

 If you want to know what makes these pork chops wacky (and delicious) just head on over to this post by The Midnight Baker.  Hint – it's in the gravy.

Pork Larb

 

This version of a Pork Larb is reasonably quick and simple to make but it does involve some pre work in terms of chopping etc.  If you are wondering why I haven't included quantities of the spices/seasonings, it's not just because I don't measure them out, it is because everyone's palate is a little different.  What I am looking for in this dish is a balance between sour, sweet, salty and heat (chili).  Just add a little of each at a time until it feels right when you taste it.

 

Here are the ingredients:

Pork mince (ground pork)

Vegetable oil plus a few drops of sesame oil

Red onion (chopped)

Garlic (finely chopped or grated)

Fresh ginger (you can use frozen straight from the freezer and grate it)

Fresh red chili pepper (hot) or dried red chillies that have been soaked in hot water

Lemon juice

Kecap Manis (a sweet soy sauce)

Fish sauce (essential to get the proper flavour as well as saltiness)

Brown sugar or palm sugar

Homemade pork broth

Chopped basil

Brazil nuts (chopped and added as a garnish) along with some sesame seeds

Lemon wedges to serve

A cup of lettuce to serve the larb in - I mean a whole lettuce leaf from the outside of a head of lettuce that curls round to form a neat little container for the larb. 

 

To cook it just fry the pork mince in the oil until a bit brown.  Then add your onion and seasonings.  Continue to fry until cooked (no more than 10 minutes)

 

Add your broth and remaining ingredients, heat through and serve with your nut garnish and lemon wedge in a lettuce cup.  You could serve rice on the side but I often don't.

Baked Ham Balls

 

Thanks to Kris of Big Rigs n' Li'l Cookies I gave her Baked Ham Balls a go. Her recipe was straight forward and easy to follow – not that I did that entirely.  I was happy with the results although next time I'll make each meatball about half the size.

 

Ingredients:

 

150g ham slices, diced

500g beef mince (add pork mince if you have it)

Breadcrumbs (no graham crackers)

2 eggs

1 cup cream

Salt & pepper (my addition)

 

For the sauce –

1 can tomato soup

1 ¼ cup brown sugar

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1/3 cup rice vinegar

 

Method:

 

Heat your oven to 250C (or 350F)

 

Combine the first set of ingredients, adding only some of the cream at first to make sure your mixture isn't too sloppy to form into balls.  I made each ball approximately 1/3 cup in size – I recommend making them smaller.

 

Mix the sauce ingredients together and pour over the meatballs.  There is a lot more sauce than I'd normally use but it was good.  Baste the top of each meatball with sauce every 20 minutes or so.

 

I served this with pasta the first night, and the leftovers with rice on the second.

Need Some Inspiration? Try Pork!

Food on Friday: November Edition was a nice collection. Thank you to everyone who participated.

The pic at the top was brought over by  Christoph of James & Everett – another fabulous dish Roasted Sausages and Grapes

 

And here's Judith of the Midnight Baker's Jack Daniels Glazed Pork Chops – cocktail and dinner in one!

For other Pork dishes head over to this Pinboard.

Food on Friday: November 2020

 

It's the second Friday of the month so here is Food on Friday. 

 

As you can see, there are 2 new themes –  Pork and/or Asian Food.  I hope you'll find some great stuff in your archives to share.

 

Feel free to add a number of things under each category and come back later in the month to add more if you would like to.   

 

To add your dishes, just put the name of the dish together with your blog name/name into the first Mr Linky box you will find below.  Then paste the url for your post about it into the second box. Mr Linky now makes you tick a compliance box which I always forget first time!

 

I'll be pinning your creations to the relevant Pinboards – Pork and Asian Food.   

 

Have fun!

Pork Ribs

 
 

I was flipping through From Scratch by Michael Ruhlman when I stumbled on his foolproof way to cook pork spare ribs.  Serependity being in operation, I had some to cook that very night.  I can report that the outcome was delumptious (Roald Dahl reference).  The only downside was the 5 hours in the oven which is a long time and also attracted hordes of flies which had to be dealt to. (excuse the grammar)

 

How to do it his way:

 

Salt and pepper the ribs – aggressively.

Sprinkle them with a little water.

Wrap tightly in foil.

Roast in a low oven (c 135C 275F) for 5 hours

 

Then slather the ribs with your choice of sauce and flash fry in a very hot pan for 2-3 minutes to produce crispiness and char.

 

I made my own sauce which was also delumptious.

 

Warm a mixture of cranberry jelly, spicy mango chutney, spicy plum chutney, chilli paste, tomato paste and cherry brandy.

Pork & Celery Burgers

These Pork & Celery Burgers were my own creation.  I have found celery salt so I decided to use it as the main flavour.

Ingredients:

Store bought hamburger buns

Pork mince (ground pork) 500g

1 tblsp celery salt plus some more for sprinkling

Pepper

1 egg

¼ cup breadcrumbs

Small amount of crispy fried shallots (from Asian section)

Method:

I lightly mixed the pork, egg, breadcrumbs etc together using my hands (in disposable gloves).  I then formed 4 good sized patties – I froze 2 for later.

I heated the oven to moderate/low.  I fried off the patties in a hot pan in oil – just a minute or so on each side.  Then into the oven with them loosely covered in foil.

They were ready in about 30 minutes.  I toasted the buns in the oven as well – a bit of a mistake because they got quite crispy.

Serve with pickles, red onion, brie and sliced tomato. And a squirt of mustard.

Simple but satisfying.

Pork Ribs a la Ruhlman

I was flipping through From Scratch by Michael Ruhlman when I stumbled on his foolproof way to cook pork spare ribs.  Serependity being in operation, I had some to cook that very night.  I can report that the outcome was delumptious (Roald Dahl reference).  The only downside was the 5 hours in the oven which is a long time and also attracted hordes of flies which had to be dealt to. (excuse the grammar)

How to do it his way:

Salt and pepper the ribs – aggressively.

Sprinkle them with a little water.

Wrap tightly in foil.

Roast in a low oven (c 135C 275F) for 5 hours

Then slather the ribs with your choice of sauce and flash fry in a very hot pan for 2-3 minutes to produce crispiness and char.

I made my own sauce which was also delumptious.

Warm a mixture of cranberry jelly, spicy mango chutney, spicy plum chutney, chilli paste, tomato paste and cherry brandy.

Pork and Sage - Again!

My better half brought home some nice pork chops and I was pondering how to cook them when I remembered that we have sage in the garden.

So anyway I decided to do a pork and sage recipe.

Ingredients:

Pork chops

A fistful of sage leaves

Olive oil

Lemon juice (about 2 tablespoons – also from my garden)

Butter

First you put your pork into a ceramic or glass dish (not metal).  Make a marinade using 1/3 of your sage finely chopped, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper.  Whisk it together and pour it over your pork and leave to marinade for at least an hour.

When your hour or so is up, take the pork out of the marinade – but don't throw the marinade out – you'll need it later.

Fry the pork till tender.  Put the pork onto a plate and cover it with foil.  Then in the pan you were using (without cleaning it at all) put the marinade and the sage leaves and fry until the sage is crisp.  I added a bit of butter while it was frying.  The sage started to crinkle a bit but I wasn't brave enough to let it burn, so it wasn't really crisp.

The sage went well with the pork.  A delicate combo rather than a punch in the face.