More Delia dealings: Pork braised in Sherry with Tomatoes

 

 

I don't normally blog a recipe from the same source twice but, you know, I make the rules here and I'll break them, plus this is too good a meal not to blog about right now, quite frankly, for it is a thing of beauty - a vibrant, Spanish inspired one pot meal which hints at the idea of Summer evenings sat outside on the terrace with a glass full of Rioja, but is substantial enough for a drizzly, chilly early March evening, couped up inside, watching the opaque light fade to black, with a glass full of Rioja...

 

 

 

March is Delia month at Cook Like A Star, hosted by Zoe at Bake for Happy Kids, Baby Sumo from Eat your heart out and Mich from Piece of Cake. which reminds me, I can't believe I haven't posted this earlier...

 

Let's be havin' you indeed. Too much cooking sherry.

 

 

 

and it is also Tomatoes time at Little Thumbs up organised by Doreen at my little favourite DIY and Zoe, at Bake for Happy Kids, and I am submitting this recipe here too, as the recipe covers both bases. Helpful.

 

This is a very easy dish to make, a genuine one pot wonder which once assembled, looks after itself for a couple of hours or so whilst the robust flavours meld. I served this with some garlic bread. Delia suggests potatoes. Delia knows.

 

A word, or several, about olives. I love them, Phill loves them, Lola and Finn hate them. I put them in as instructed in the recipe below and then carefully served Lola and Finn a helping without olives, however, they did taint the sauce a little. The kids persevered, bless them, (the dunking of garlic bread helped enormously!) but if olives aren't your thing, leave them out.

 

Anyway, recipe time:

 

Pork Braised in Sherry with Tomatoes and Chorizo, adapted from Delia's website

 

My adaptations in red

 

Serves Lola, Finn, Mum and Dad (I mostly halved the quantities listed in the original recipe).

 

Ingredients:

 

1lb piece trimmed shoulder of pork

4 oz chorizo sausage (I used raw chorizo)

1 tablespoons olive oil

2 medium onions, thickly sliced

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 rounded tablespoon plain flour

A half tin of chopped tomatoes

5 floz dry sherry (I used fino)

1 1/2tbsp tablespoons sherry vinegar (I used white wine vinegar)

A few sprigs of fresh thyme

2 bay leaves

1 red peppers, de-seeded and cut into thick chunks (I used a Romano (pointy) pepper)

a handful mixed green and black olives, pitted (Just used black ones)

salt and freshly milled black pepper Method:

Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 1, 275F, 140C. Start off by chopping the trimmed pork into largish cubes if you need to (mine was ready cubed) then remove the skin from the chorizo and slice it into thinnish rounds. Next heat one tablespoon of the oil in the casserole over a high heat and when it’s really hot add a few of the cubes of meat to brown well on all sides. Remove them to a plate then continue to brown the rest of the meat in small batches, adding a little more oil if required. Once the meat has been browned, add the chorizo to the pan and cook until it begins to render its red oil, then add the onions and cook for about five minutes until the onions have taken on a golden hue and are starting to brown.   Next, return the meat to the casserole and stir in the flour to soak up the juices, then add the chorizo followed by the tomatoes, sherry and sherry vinegar. Season with salt and pepper, sprinkle in the thyme and bay leaves then give everything a good stir. Lastly bring the casserole up to a gentle simmer, put the lid on and transfer it to the centre of the oven to cook for 1½ hours.   When the time is up, add the sliced peppers and the olives (left whole), give it all one good stir, cover again then leave it to carry on cooking for another ½ hour or until the peppers are tender. Serve with a sprinkling of parsley and some garlic bread, or potatoes, or rice maybe... As mentioned above, I am submitting this recipe to the 'Cook Like a Star' March blog hop. Please visit the other sites below for some of my friends' amazing Delia recipes. In addition, I am submitting this blog post to 'Little Thumbs Up' the featured ingredient this month being tomatoes.

 

 

Because I really want to go France: Normandy Pork

It has been too long actually. For someone who has visited France quite regularly it has been three years since I last took a little 'vacances' to a place that I really quite like. Anyway, come the end of the month, we will be wending our way south for a hop across the channel and a few days in Northern France, and whilst arrangements are not quite firmed up just yet, if we end up in Normandy then that will be just fine. Then I will have to brush the cobwebs off my A level French and see if I can get by without resorting to gesticulation and the horror of uttering "Parlez-vous anglais?" Hopefully, all will be well.

So, in premature celebration of our trip, I figured that something a little French might be in order. You will notice that much of my cooking of late has been Spanish or Italian in origin, and the country with the biggest gastronomic gravitas has been neglected somewhat. Here I aim to put it right.

I figure this dish is so called because of its apple content, and Normandy being the place of which I have memories of drinking the local cider and the glorious Calvados. I know that the region is famous for its use of butter and cream, the lush meadows and the happy cows producing the most beautiful dairy fare. Their use in this dish is what makes it so unctuous. In fact, 'unctuous' is the adjective I would use to describe Normandy, if I was being forced to.

Finn, the fussy one, loved this. Lola too, but Lola is easier to please. Getting Finn to eat a new dish without complaint doesn't happen often but in this case it did. I think he just 'got' the appley creaminess of the sauce and he ate the whole lot. He is my harshest critic, and to please him is a bonus!

The recipe is adapted slightly from the one in the brilliant 'Avoca Cafe Cookbook'. An Irish gem of a book...

Normandy Pork, adapted from 'Avoca Cafe Cookbook' by Hugo Arnold and Georgie Glynn Smith

Feeds Mum, Dad, Lola and Finn

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lb diced pork (leg or shoulder)

1 tbsp of plain flour, seasoned generously with salt and pepper

2 tbsp butter

a splosh of vegetable oil

2 onions, peeled and diced

2 small to medium cooking apples, peeled and chopped

1/4 pint apple juice

1/2 pint strong chicken stock

1/4 pint of double cream

chopped parsley, to garnish

Method:

Toss the pork in the flour.

Melt the butter and the oil together in a large frying pan or casserole and add the pork in batches and saute until golden brown. Transfer to a plate. When all the pieces are browned, return the meat to the pan.

Add the onions and the apples to the pan and cook on a gentle heat for about 10 minutes or so until the onion is translucent but not coloured and the apple pieces have started to lose a little of their firmness.

Pour in the apple juice, scraping up any residue from the bottom of the pan. Add the stock, and then season up with salt and pepper.

Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat, allowing the meat to cook gently for about an hour or until the meat is tender. If you want to reduce the sauce more at this stage then turn the heat up and boil the sauce to reduce a little.

Stir in the cream before serving and taste the sauce. Adjust the seasoning as required. Stir some parsley into the sauce if you like.

I served this with new potatoes and peas. Il était un excellent repas. J'espère que vous l'essayer!

Slow roasted and glorious - Chorizo, Pork and Butterbean Stew

Yes, here I am again with my Spanishness and my adoration for all things chorizo. Well all things 'pig' really if you count the pork and the pancetta. I should be eating this in Autumn, but, the fact is this is typical fare just recently, which tells you all you need to know about the temperature outside, and whilst this isn't stodge, it is tasty and will warm your bones up. And it fills you up, not unsurprisingly, with all that meat!

The recipe is from an ancient back copy of 'Olive' purchased many moons ago and stuck in my recipe book. I went for diced pork over belly; not that there is anything wrong with belly - in fact, it is divine, but I wanted something less fatty. I subbed parsley for coriander and I went for butter beans over cannelloni. Just for a change. Plus I have this idea that butterbeans look more Spanish, when I think of Judion Gigantes with tomato and chorizo. Yum.

Phill loved this particularly, as his love affair with the chorizo is as deep as mine, and Lola and Finn loved this too. They thought it was big baked beans and sausage, which I kinda liked the idea of. You could make this more hot with your choice of paprika, but I went for smoked, as I find it less likely to switch the kids off totally.

And you need good bread with this. This is not the time for supermarket sliced bread.

Pork and Chorizo Stew with Butterbeans, adapted from 'Olive' magazine

Serves Lola, Finn, Mum and Dad, plus another

Ingredients:

750g pork belly or diced pork

olive oil

130g pancetta or lardons

1 large onion, diced

2 large garlic cloves, finely chopped

200g chorizo, cut into small chunks

1 tsp smoked paprika

400g tinned tomatoes

150ml white wine

100 - 150ml water

400g tin butterbeans, drained and rinsed

Chopped parsley

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method:

 

Fry off the pork, allowing the fat to render if you are using pork belly. When nicely browned, remove to a plate.

 

Fry off the onions and when translucent, add the garlic. Cook until fragrant and then add the pancetta.

 

When the pancetta has started to crispen a little, add the paprika and the chorizo. Stir to combine.

Return the pork to the pan and add the tinned tomatoes, the beans and the wine. Stir.

Add just enough water to cover the meat, then bring up to the boil. Season well.

 

Place in the oven, covered, for between 1 1/2 - 2 hours. The stew is ready when the pork is soft and yielding and the sauce has thickened perceptibly. Taste again to see if more seasoning is required.

To serve, scatter with parsley and add some crusty bread on the side.

Easy and flavoursome. Pork, Oriental Style, with Honey and Soy Sauce

I do love a recipe that requires the minimum of faff with stuff I invariably have in the cupboard and that takes very little time to cook because, whisper it, I sometimes really and truly cannot be bothered. Do you ever get like that? Maybe it is if I am tired, or 'cooked' out, or would just prefer to be somewhere else than the kitchen. A restaurant, if I am lucky. Or in the bath. A bubbly bath. With candles. This recipe relies on you remembering to marinade the pork for a couple of hours, and stand around for the 10 minutes or so it takes to cook the pork and assemble the rest of the dish.

I think Michel Roux Jr is fab. I adore watching him on the television. I adore his passion for food and his attention to detail and his sheer culinary skill. And, whilst outward impressions may be misleading, he just seems like a really nice bloke, and so I was very pleased to receive his cookery book as a present. I have cooked a few of the recipes which were all stunning. When I saw this recipe, relatively lacking in faff, I decided that maybe this was the way to create something Michelin starred in no time. Well, I don't know about the Michelin star, but this is tasty and more importantly in terms of this blog, Lola and Finn liked the sweetness of the pork and the noodles, and in their book 'noodles' means 'pasta' and is therefore the best food ever.

I had to alter the cut of pork I used. Michel Roux Jr recommends neck end pork chops because of their fat content, and when I cook this again, I will look for a fattier chop. However, as this was one of these dishes that I chose to cook on a whim, I subbed the pork escalopes I had in the freezer. Whilst the fat content was missing, the marinade still gave the pork a lovely flavour.  I served this with steamed vegetables and noodles and apart from the vegetables on Lola and Finn's part, the meal was enjoyed by all. By using the three escalopes, I think I had probably reduced the amount of meat from the original recipe, but I kept the marinade quantity the same, because I wanted to have a little extra to put on the escalopes as I was cooking them in the hope that it would create a little sauciness for the vegetables and noodles. I pan fried these by the way, rather than grilling them.

Pork with Honey and Soy Sauce adapted slightly from 'Grilled Neck End Pork Chops, Oriental Style', taken from 'Cooking with the Master Chef' by Michel Roux Jr.

Serves mum, dad, Lola and Finn

Ingredients:

3 pork escalopes (the original suggests six neck end pork chops, rind off)

3 garlic cloves, chopped

2 tbsp fish sauce

2 tbsp oyster sauce

3 tbsp light soy sauce

1 tbsp honey

juice of 1 orange

coarsely ground black pepper

a little chopped coriander, for garnish

Method:

Marinade the chops by putting them in a non reactive dish and adding the garlic, the 'sauces' the honey, the soy and the orange. Mix well and rub the marinade over the meat. Leave for at least a couple of hours in the fridge, covered in cling film.

Preheat the grill, if you are grilling, or the barbecue, or the griddle or the frying pan. Place the meat on the hot surface and cook until ready. Mine took about five minutes or so either side.

Serve with whatever you like. I steamed some sliced vegetables and noodles to accompany the pork.

Sunday lunch courtesy of Delia - Loin of pork with a creme fraiche and mustard sauce

Ah Sunday lunch. An glorious institution and a time of the week where the basting of meat and the fluffing of parboiled potatoes for 'roasties' is the done thing. A roast dinner isn't necessarily an arduous task but I was looking for something a little quicker this weekend for I fancied an early dinner so I could sit myself in front of the TV and watch the football, so this oft done recipe chez Lola and Finn fitted the bill exactly. I prepped the meat before and put it in the oven around the time the roast potatoes were half done, whipped up the sauce and by the time everything was ready the house was filled with wondrous garlic gorgeousness. Yum.

I didn't realise this recipe was a Delia, for I had cut the recipe out of a magazine years ago and had it stuck in a file. It was only by a bit of curious googling that I found its source. I have to say I am not surprised, because it is completely delish. An initial faff, yes, but easy to prep ahead of time to be covered and put in the fridge until you need it. It's also a use for that mustard I brought back from France that I haven't got round to using up yet. I really must avoid impulse buying.

The changes I made here were subtle. I subbed shallots in the sauce as I like their more delicate flavour. I also liven it up a touch at the end with a squeeze of lemon but you need to taste the finished sauce yourself to decide whether it needs it. I also upped the quantity of parsley and garlic slightly in the breadcrumb mix because I find it makes the coating a little more dense and moist, and therefore sticks to the pork loin better.

Lastly, pork loin needs a bit of tender living care because it can dry out, it being such a lean cut. It does need to be ever so slightly pink in my opinion and well rested so it does not resemble the texture of an old boot, though the sauce helps enormously should that happen. Plenty of sauce and no one will ever know!

Roast Pork Loin with Creme Fraiche and Mustard sauce, adapted from Delia Smith (recipe from Delia Online)

Serves 2, plus Lola and Finn

Ingredients:

1 pork tenderloin

1 egg

1 dessertspoon wholegrain mustard

1 dessertspoon Dijon mustard

2 cloves garlic, peeled

A handful of flat leaf parsley

2 heaped tablespoons natural breadcrumbs (from a packet) though I blitzed a stale slice of bread

salt and freshly milled black pepper

For the sauce:

1 heaped teaspoon wholegrain mustard

1 heaped teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon crème fraîche

½ oz (10 g) butter

3 shallots, finely chopped

150ml dry white wine salt and pepper to taste a squeeze of lemon (optional)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 190c/375f if you are cooking this straight after preparation. Trim any excess fat and sinew from the pork tenderloins. Find a dish that will fit the loin in comfortably, though I cut my loin in half when I found that a difficulty. In a small bowl, beat the ingredients needed to coat the loin, that is the egg together with the mustards.   Next, chop the garlic and parsley (in a mini-chopper or processor, if you have one), add the breadcrumbs and a seasoning of salt and pepper, then whizz for a couple of seconds. At this point you could use the method whereby you have separate dishes to coat the loins as in, a dish of the egg mixture, then a dish of the breadcrumbs. I find that a bit of a faff so I just brushed the egg mixture on with a silicon brush and then pressed the breadcrumbs on after that in the dish that the loin will be cooked in. Each to their own. At this point you can cover the loin in their dish or tray and put in the fridge until required, remembering to bring the meat back up to room temperature before you place it in the oven. After you have coated the loin and put them on a greased tray or dish, roast the fillets in the pre-heated oven for about 30 minutes for meat that is slightly pink. You may wish to cook it for longer. Meanwhile, make the sauce. Heat the butter in a small saucepan and cook the shallots in it on a medium heat for about 10 minutes until softened. Add the white wine, turn up the heat and boil for 10 minutes to reduce slightly, before adding the crème fraîche and mustards, then simmer gently for a further 10 minutes. You should taste at this point to test for seasoning. I often add a bit more creme fraiche to make it more creamy for Lola and Finn. When the pork is cooked, let it rest in a warm place for about 10 minutes before carving into slices and serving with the sauce. We had roasties, carrots and broccoli, and it was a perfectly suitable alternative to roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. Well, nearly.