Pork with Cider and Apples

Do any of you out there subscribe to Gourmet Traveller or frequent their website? I'm constantly impressed by their recipe collections, and find them a great resource for the budding amateur chef who wants to make something a little bit special.

This latest dish which came from Gourmet Traveller reminds me of those staple pork dishes that would have been on gastropub menus of yesterday. It seems like these days it's all pork belly and crispy pork bits, but this recipe tramples back over old ground to the reliable pork steak. This is a very rich and hearty winter dish that sticks to your ribs and makes you forget you're desperate for summer...

Seared Pork & Ginger Dumplings with Mapo Sauce

So for a while now I've been toying around with making some chilli oil dumplings. I love that peppery warmth that comes from chilli oil that coats your tongue in a delicious heat. But i also wanted to try something a little bit new, not the stock standard chilli oil dumplings. How to take it up a notch? Add Mapo!

I was surprised how well this dish worked; i would make a very impressive plate at a one of those trendy new small plate bars. The freshness inside the dumpling (with the ginger and water chestnuts) does not get tainted by the mapo and there are two distinct flavours happening here.

Bun Thit Nuong - Grilled Pork Neck & Noodle Salad

I think if i went to Vietnam it would be hard to bring me back. The country looks so beautiful, the people are always nice, and the food is one of the most beautiful i've had. And yet, i rarely go to Vietnamese restaurants! In fact, i think i've only been to three or so Vietnamese restaurants in my life. And yet when i cook Vietnamese food, my family obsesses over it.

This dish is very similar to a beef salad i've done in past, with tweaks to the sauce and obviously the meat. I'm definitely in a pork neck craze at the moment; i can't believe i haven't used this cut of meat before! So tender and succulent yet full of pork flavour. It seems to work well for both a quick sear and a long stewing too.

Chicago Style Baby Back Ribs

Ribs, who doesn't love them! Covered in sweet, sticky rib sauce they're even better, but the stuff in the bottle doesn't suffice. Nor do the marinated ones from the butcher! You need that smokey, slightly nostril searing flavour that's finger licking good! To make good ribs, you have to put in the effort to make them right!

Traditionally, good Chicago style baby back ribs are smoked over a very low heat, like 100 degrees or lower. Most of us would have a hard to making sure our BBQ or webber stayed at the level. But fear not! There is another way....

Tsumiki Fusion Soba with Cha Siu Pork

A bit of background lifted from About.com: Tsukimi soba is hot buckwheat noodles with a raw egg topping. Tsukimi means moon viewing in Japanese. Since the egg resembles the full moon, these kinds of noodle dishes with egg toppings are called "tsukimi."

This dish, with it's sweety cha siu pork, bok choy and chicken broth base, it most definitely not your authentic Japanese noodle soup. But hey! This one is even better :)

Pork & Veal Italian Meatballs on Summer Couscous

So i've decided to go off soups this year for lunches! I think i was starting to creep my colleagues out. So this year i'll just be looking for good, nutritious food that carries well throughout the week. And first up: meatballs!
I'm a big fan of the pork and veal mince that is common at supermarkets these days. I love the flavour of pork but it's terribly fatty. The veal evens this out! And finally, hopefully aussies will make true bolognese, with veal and pork rather than beef!

Pork Sang Choy Bao

I remember the first time i had this dish... we were at our local Chinese restaurant, a daggy little place in Ringwood. But i loved it. The food was actually quite good, and it was one place we went quite often with extended family to celebrate birthdays and the like. Normally the presence of three children ensured the ordering of such staple fares as honey chicken and sweet and sour pork. As my tastes matured i became a devotee of the crystal prawns. But when my mother ordered the 'pork in lettuce cup' I, and my siblings, were mortified! "You mean to tell us you wasted one dish on LETTUCE???" raced through our heads.

Thankfully, the dish came out, and we were instantly converted. My favorite part of this dish is the contract in textures, which can come from a variety of sauces. The slight chewiness of the ground meat, the crisp crunch of the water chestnuts, the unctuous stickiness of the hoisin. This version is not the most regal one out there, but it stays relatively true to my first taste of the dish at Ringwood Chinese Restaurant.

One change i made: replacing the fried noodles on which the pork mixture sits, with fresh bean sprouts.

Pork Fillet with Proscuitto, Kipfler Potatoes & Rocket

Spring is well and truly here (ok maybe the weather does not agree) but i'm for one of the first times truly excited about eating wonderful fresh spring food, particularly salads! This one is definitely a 'transitional salad' substantial enough to have in a bit of cold weather. I'm a lover of kipfler potatoes because of their earthy richness, but you could always replace with waxy chat potatoes instead should you wish.

Penne with Italian Pork & Fennel Sausage, Brocolli and Parmesan

My boss at work comes from an Italian family, and is occasionally dropping hints at how to make a good pasta. One such recipe he mentioned was spaghetti with brocolli, a pasta simply tossed with olive oil, parmesan and small brocolli florettes. I stumbled across a more extravegant recipe in the Carmine's cookbook (Carmines is a famous old-school Italian restaurant in New York for those who don't know), which added Italian Pork sausages and a few other ingredients. So i thought i'd give it a go!

I was pleasantly surprised to find such a different tasting pasta dish to add to my repertoire. A good quality Italian sausage is key to this dish, so make sure you go to a reputable butcher or delicassen.

KL Hokkien Mee

So the second Malaysian dish i decided to cook for Fathers' Day was KL Hokkien Mee. My dad loves Hokkien noodles and was accustomed to buying them with the premade, salty sauces which were pretty nice in their own right. But i wanted to cook Hokkien Mee from scratch!! And i can say i had moderate, if not complete success.

The first thing any self respecting Malaysian will tell you when it comes to making good Hokkien Mee: it's all about the lard! None of this vegetable oil business. True hokkien mee is cooked in pork lard with the leftover pork scratchings from the rendering added to the noodles.

My friend 3 Hungry Tummies gave a good recipe for KL Hokkien Mee and whilst i'm sure mine is not as good as his, i'm on my way! The only disappointment i had with the dish was that it was not as rich black as i had hoped. Was this the brand or type of sweet soy that i used? I'll have to try again!

Trung Chien Thit Bam - Pork Omelette with Preserved Radish

The more i delve into the cuisine, the more i love Vietnamese food. I think i've only ever been to a few Vietnamese restaurants in my life, and far to many of those were 'Chinese/Vietnamese' hybrids, or dodgy cafes on Swanston St, Melbourne where the food is as Authentic as your average butter chicken.

From my favorite cookbook-of-the-moment, Secrets Of The Red Lantern, comes this beautiful Vietnamese omelette. I think it's the Cai Po or preserved radish that gives this dish it's special, subtle but delicious flavour. You can buy this ingredient at Asian supermarkets (or sucker your Singaporean friend into buying it for you, thanks Darryl!)

Crisp Pork Belly with Caramel Vinegar

 Last night i had a few friends over for dinner. I decided to go with an Asian-oriented theme, and i knew that one of the essential foods i must cook had to be pork belly. I've been sitting on this recipe for a little while now, which i believe is derived from a Bill Granger one i saw on the website Cuisine.

Nothing is more deliciously savory that crispy, fatty, and luscious pork belly, and the rich saltiness of the meat in this dish is well balanced by the sweet-sourness of the caramel vinegar sauce over the top. For anyone that has indulged in the crisp pork hock @ the fantastic Longrain restaurants, this dish is quite similar in taste.

Thai Pork Red Curry

So first recipe inspired by my trip to Thailand is this red curry. A lot of the food i had in Thailand, i thought we had pretty good representation of here: pad thais, curries, the Thai salads. But the red curries in Thailand were so much better than what you can get here! Unfortunately it's a lot of work to produce the fresh coconut milk that makes them taste so special, so tinned will have to suffice. Don't use paste from a jar- it lacks the depth and subtlety of character that a fresh paste has.

Dan Dan Mian

I do have a love affair for Sichaun food. From the smoky sweet kung pao chicken, to the fiery hot morsels of fried chicken in chong qing lazi ji, Sichuan food is an epitaph in today's age for the overpoweringly strong flavors of garlic, salt and chilli.

My understanding of Dan Dan Mian or Spicy Sichuan Noodles is that the sauce can be almost souplike, where the noodles are swimming around; or, as in this case, the sauce clings to the noodles as like an Italian pasta. Either way, Dan Dan Mian is a mouth watering mix of creamy peanut, pungent garlic and ginger, and salty pork. 

To cater to the tastes of my diners (my mum for one! haha) i toned down the heat a little in this recipe. Feel free to crank up the heat with dried chillis or more peppercorns.

Spicy Black Bean Pork Ribs

Another result of a trip to Victoria St in Richmond was some beautiful short ribs. Considering we'd recently picked up a big back of salted black beans that would otherwise sit in the fridge for the next 10 years, my mind immediately went to black bean ribs!

Salty, bite sizes morsels of pork, rich with black bean flavor. It's really hard not to keep eating these!

Katsudon

One of my sisters was once a notoriously fussy eater. She's definitely come out of her culinary shell in the last few years, but as i was munching down on this dish i thought about how much she would enjoy it. Sometimes Japanese food can be off putting to fussy eaters, but i think i've done a good job of creating the ultimate westernized Katsudon; what is essentially 'nugget, rice and chicken soup!'. But don't let that put you off, this katsudon really hits the spot, particularly as Melbourne mopes into it's dreary cold season.

Donburi, or don for slang is a term that refers to a Japanese 'rice dish' or one bowl meal comprising generally of soup, rice, meat and vegatables. In a previous post i put up a recipe for oyako donburi or chicken rice bowl, and this time i thought i'd try my hand at katsu don, or crumbed porkchop rice bowl which is a little bit more intricate.

Thanks to Shizuoka Gourmet  for providing me with the basics of how to make this dish, but i've changed things around to suit my tastes an an ultimate 'comfort' food. The biggest change is replacing the dashi broth with a chicken and soy broth.

Note that the recipe below indicates ingredients for 3 but in the photos i actually only made a single serving of katsudon. 

Red Cooked Pork Ribs

When i mentioned red cooked pork to many of my Singaporean or Malaysian friends (namely Darryl) they sometimes go into a bit of a frenzy, describing the gelatinous texture of the skin and fat as though it were a heavenly cloud. 

Personally, prior to trying red cooked pork, pork belly and Asian cut pork ribs were a vastly different affair of love for me. My love was of the crisp crackling skin of the deep fried bbq pork ribs, or the crunchy goodness of Perry's caramelized pork. So when i ordered red cooked pork belly at David's in Prahran, i was shocked to see this almost black, shiny, quivering cube of... something... served to me.

After a lot of research i still don't know how they got that pork looking so very black. Nobody online seems to have achieved that level. But in this recipe, though the look may not be the same, the taste is there.

Flamenquin

How come i had never heard of these before??? These are the best racion!! Think about it. Spanish jamon and manchego sheeps cheese wrapped up in pork and then crumbed and fried? Hangover heaven!! Alas i did not have the heart to make these when i was actually hungover (pizza pockets are much easier to er heat, admittedly). Trust me, two is enough per person.

PS Check out the amazing plates my parents got me for my birthday!! (The black one at the end)

Ingredients (makes 8)

• 4 pork loin steaks (probably about 80 grams each)
• 1 slice of jamon cut about 5mm thick and cut into 8 strips
  
• 1 slice of manchego sheeps cheese or other hard sheeps chease, again about 5mm thick and cut into 8 strips
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup panko breadcrumbs (japanese bread crumps available from the deli)
• Flour for coating
• Thyme
• Salt
• Oil for frying. 

Method

Place the each pork steak between 2 pieces of cling wrap and bash the heck out of it with a mallet until you get an even 5mm thickness across. Cut each piece into 2 strips.

Place 1 piece of jamon and 1 piece of cheese onto each pork fillet, sprinkle with thyme.

Roll up each pork piece with the cheese and jamon inside like a cigar.

Lightly whisk the eggs and place the eggs, breadcrumbs and flour is separate bowls.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

Dip each piece into flour, then egg, then roll in breadcrumbs.

Bring oil to heat in a saucepan and test heat with a piece of bread. We want the bread to take 30 seconds to go golden.

When ready, add the flamenquins 2 or 3 at a time and cook until golden brown.

Transfer the flamenquin when cooked to a baking tray, and when all ready, put in the oven for 5 minutes.

Scoff scoff scoff whilst hot. Goes great with an aioli dipping sauce.

Carnitas with Salsa and Salad

 Summer and Mexican food go so well together. The spice and freshness of the cuisine, made properly, is so light and yet satisfying. Don't be fooled into thinking of your local Taco Bill as Mexican fare. That's Tex-Mex and there is a substantial difference. Do away with stodgy! But keep the margarita :)

Carintas is a shredded crispy pork that is often used as a filling for tacos and burritos, similar to the shredded beef we're all accustomed to here in Australia. The thing i love about this version of carnitas is the crispiness achieved on the outside of the chunks of pork, begging to soak up the tangy salsa and creamy sour cream sides.

This salsa is pretty close to the stuff you get in jars, old el paso style. Although i tend to prefer the fresher, zingy salsas, this one paired well with the carnitas and side salad.

Ingredients

Carnitas

• 1kg boned pork shoulder, cut into 15cm chunks
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp chili pepper
• 1 tsp paprika
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• Olive Oil
• Water
• 1 tbs salt

Salsa

• 5 tomatos, seeds removed, and diced
• 1 green capsicum, pith removed, and diced
• 1/2 brown onion, diced
• 1tbs olive oil
• 1tbs tomato paste

Method:

Carnitas

Rub the salt over each of the pork chunks, and refridgerate overnight

Place crock pot over medium heat with 1tbs of vegetable oil

Place pork chunks into the pot and brown well on all sides, moving as little as possible.

Remove pork chunks and set aside.

Add 1 cup of water to crock pot and scrape off the yummy caramelized bits off the bottom of the pot.

Add spices and stir.

Place pork chunks back into the crock pot, and fill pot with water until pork is 2/3 submerged.

Place in an oven at 180 degrees for 3 1/2 hours, turning regularly, or until pork is flaky and liquid is most evaporated.

Remove pork chunks and flake into bite sized pieces.

Place pork back into pot and into the oven, uncovered.

Turn pork regularly until all liquid is evaporated and desired crispiness of the pork is achieved.

Salsa

Bring a saucepan to medium heat with the oil.

Add the onion and saute for 3-4 minutes or until softened.

Add all other ingredients and bring to boil.

Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

Refridgerate until cold.

Serve the carnitas hot, along with the salsa, a side salad, and a dollop of sour cream. Perfect summer fare. Alternatively serve into tortillas (if you don't forget to buy them like i did).