Category: pork

Categories
bacon broccoli egg parmesan tomato

bbt tortilla

What a great year it’s been for tomatoes. The plants in my garden have been raving with fruit, and they’ve been bursting with sweetness. A really bumper crop. Most of them have ended up in pasta sauce and pizza topping but these ones were deserving of a little more.

And so I happened across a recipe for a “BLT tortilla” in the SORTED cookbook but didn’t fancy rocket in mine, so some frozen broccoli jumped in instead. Coupled with refreshing, sweet tomatoes what you get is a portable and tasty lunch that’d be great in a picnic or easily upgraded to main meal status with a decent salad.

BBT tortilla (serves 4 – 6):

6 rashers smoked bacon, diced

About 12 frozen broccoli florets

8 eggs

A couple of handful of cherry tomatoes, halved

A handful of grated parmesan

  1. Get a frying pan over a high heat and preheat the oven to 180°C. Add a dash of oil to the pan and fry the bacon briskly until coloured, and then add the broccoli. Stir fry until the broccoli has started to soften.
  2. Mix the eggs in a bowl with the parmesan, a pinch of salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Pour this and the tomatoes into the pan, and take this opportunity to space the veg around the pan evenly. When that’s done transfer to the oven and bake for 15 – 20 minutes until the wobble has just gone. Leave to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning out and serving.
Categories
bread carrots food pork sandwich

banh mi muffuleta

Give me an excuse to do a posh sandwich, and I’m there. Inspired by a recipe in a recent issue of the Jamie magazine, this recipe crosses the Vietnamese baguette with the New Orleans superbap. Truth be told it’s only a little of both, but gives you an idea where it’s heading.

One of my colleagues came round for lunch and I had to make this for him. He loves Asian inspired flavours so it was right up his street. This also marked the first time I cooked with and tasted pork cheeks. Much more offaly than I was expecting, though the texture was sticky and tender. I liked them, but I’d rather have pork belly. I felt it pushed this sandwich in an odd direction; I’d like to try it again with a more conventional pork cut such as shoulder or leg.

Read my colleague’s Richard blog at Everydayleader. Thanks to Farmison for the pork cheeks.

Banh mi muffuleta (serves about 6 – 8):

1kg pork cheeks

1 onion, sliced

8 cloves garlic

500ml chicken stock

4 tablespoons soy sauce

4 tablespoons fish sauce

1 bag stir fry veg

Spiced rice vinegar (any sweet vinegar would work well)

1 large square loaf (I used a sour dough pave)

  1. Preheat the oven to 220°C. Layer the onions and garlic in a baking dish. Season the pork all over and put this on top of the onions. Put the pork in the oven for 15 minutes to get the meat warmed up. Remove from the oven, turn down to 160°C and add the chicken stock. Cover with foil and roast for 1½ – 2 hours, until tender and juicy.
  2. Remove the pork from the oven to rest and strain off the liquor, reserving for later. Leave the oven on and gently warm the bread for 10 minutes.
  3. Meanwhile heat a large wok as hot as it will go, add a splash of oil and stir fry the veg for 3 – 4 minutes until starting to to go tender. Add the onions, garlic and cooking stock into the pan, adding sweet vinegar to taste. Simmer for 2 more minutes before straining off the juices.
  4. Slice the pork cheeks and season with a pinch each of salt and sugar. Cut the bread horizontally and drizzle with oil. Layer the pork on the bread, then the veg on top. Drizzle over a little of the reserved cooking juices to taste, plonk the other half of the bread on top, press down and serve in thick wedges.
Categories
food marsala pasta peppers pork

pork primavera

Sometimes, dinner gets later and later. It was just one of those evenings of putting children to bed, getting haircuts and other chores. I didn’t get started on this until 8.30pm, but we were eating by 8.45pm. You gotta love dinners like this, but it all starts from the storecupboard. If the basics aren’t there, you’re on to a loser.

This one massively favours substitution: swap pork for any other meat, the peppers for any firm veg, and Comté cheese is not essential. As luck would have it the Comté people got in touch and sent me some samples so I was more than happy to include it here. Heston’s a big fan of Comté, so is Raymond Blanc (he comes from that region) so it’s in good company.

Pork primavera (serves 2):

2 frozen pork loin steaks

150g frozen peppers

2 tablespoons Marsala wine

300ml creme fraiche

70g comte cheese, shaved

  1. Get a large pan of salted water on to boil, and a frying pan over a high heat. Add the pasta to the water and cook according to the packet instructions.
  2. Season the pork on both sides with salt and pepper and fry in the pan until browned on one side. Flip and cook for another minute and then remove to one side. Add the peppers to the pan and fry briskly, then add the Marsala wine. Allow to bubble for a minute.
  3. Slice the pork into thin strips, then add back to the pan with the peppers. When cooked on all sides turn the heat down low and add the creme fraiche. Stir thoroughly to combine and season with salt and pepper as required.
  4. Scoop out a little pasta water to a mug. If your resulting source is a little thick, you can let it down with this water. By this time the pasta should be done, so drain and add to the pork ‘n’ pepper pan. Turn off the heat, add most of the cheese and toss really well to combine. Serve and garnish with the remaining cheese.
Categories
food mushroom peppers pork

bbq pork wraps

I’m a massive convert to FarmFoods. I’ve been packing my freezer once a month with a whole bunch of things, like burger buns, ice cream, frozen mince and other bits and bobs. I’m also a big fan of their dried noodles and wraps. They’re really helping to pad out my weekly shop with backbone ingredients that are always on hand. Reaching for a bag of frozen onions is so useful on a weeknight to shave time off that midweek meal.

I’m well aware this reads like a sponsored post, but I swear it isn’t!

And this recipe is packed with things from my freezer. The BBQ sauce isn’t; but it’s a great standby which you probably have the ingredients knocking about for anyway. It’s super-rich though, you don’t need much of it. With a turn of speed you can knock this out in under 15 minutes, serving with coconut rice.

BBQ Pork Wraps (serves 4):

For the BBQ sauce:

75ml tomato ketchup

75ml soy sauce

75ml balsamic vinegar

75ml honey

For the wraps:

4 frozen pork loin steaks

50g frozen onions

50g frozen mushrooms

50g frozen peppers

4 flour tortillas

  1. For the BBQ sauce, combine the ingredients in a sauce pan over a high heat. Allow to bubble until thick and gloopy and then remove from the heat.
  2. In a frying pan over a high heat fry the mushrooms, onions and peppers. When tender remove to one side and add the pork steaks. When golden on one side flip over. After a couple of minutes cooking remove from the pan and slice into strips. Return the pork, mushrooms, onions and peppers to the pan and continue to stir fry for a couple more minutes until the pork is cooked through. Ladle in a quarter of the BBQ sauce and stir to coat, then spoon into wraps. Serve with rice and more sauce on the side.
Exit mobile version