We had Summer last week and this is what we cooked... - Thai Style Marinated Pork with Chilli Dressing

 

 

Ah Summer. That one day of the year in England when the sun comes out, and the results are profound. Flesh that has been hidden for the 364 days previously is revealed and consequently burned, Argos sells out of inflatable swimming pools, and any shops that sell either bread, burgers, beer and charcoal have their shelves decimated of these items as soon as the doors open and if you leave it too late on in the day to decide you are getting the barbecue out, then you will be left with some squashed sliced white and the odd vegetarian sausage to try and get the best out of. Which I suppose is okay if you are a vegetarian...

 

I have to say though that I am a bit of a miserable bitch and the thoughts of getting the barbeqce out does not fill me with brimming joy. It is mainly to do with the feeling of having to create stuff to go with it, like salad, or else scrabbling through the cupboard for the burger relish that you remember using the previous summer and there is no way you are going out and getting another one (if you are me, that is...) And then there are the accompaniments to the burger, and slicing the bread, and keeping the flies off the food, and keeping the kids away from the barbecue and because of my disorganised nature I always seem to be traipsing back to the kitchen for something. And another thing, whilst I am not averse to a tasty burger, I am sick of having them off barbecues. It is like that is all there ever seems to be...

 

So I got out some pork fillet. I buy so many pork fillets for great prices because I don't think anybody who shops where I shop actually knows what to do with them. I decided to adapt Bill Granger's recipe for Thai Marinated Pork and Chilli Dressing from his book Easy Food, where he marinated pork chops for this, and it worked a treat. Cooking the pork fillet over the coals created meat that was succulent and tasty and it was just so nice to taste something different. This is different, and next year when Summer comes again, you should try it.

 

Thai Style Marinated Pork with Chilli Dressing, adapted from 'Easy Food' by Bill Granger

 

My adaptations in red

 

Serves Lola, Finn, Mum and Dad.

 

Ingredients:

 

4 brown shallots, sliced (I used a medium sized onion)

1 tbsp grated ginger

2 garlic cloves, crushed

Handful coriander, including stems, coarsely chopped

2 tsp soy sauce

1 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp caster sugar

4 pork cutlets (I used 420g pork fillet)

Olive oil

 

For the sauce

 

2 tbsp. rice wine vinegar
1 1/2 tbsp. caster sugar
1 tbsp. fish sauce
1 long red chilli, finely chopped
1 tbsp. thinly sliced spring onion
1/4 cucumber, seeds  removed, finely chopped

 

Method:

 

Tastes better than it looks!!!

 

Place shallots, ginger, garlic, coriander, soy sauce, fish sauce, sugar, sea salt and pepper in a food processor and whiz to a paste.

 

Still tastes better than it looks...

 

Transfer to a shallow, non-metallic dish and add the pork.

 

Mix well, then cover and leave to marinate in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. (I left mine for an hour and a half)

 

Preheat a barbecue or chargrill pan to medium-high heat and brush lightly with oil.

 

 

 

Grill the pork for about 4 -5 minutes on four 'sides' (you might have to squash it a bit to do this) or until cooked to your liking.

 

For the chilli dressing, place vinegar, sugar and fish sauce in a bowl and stir until sugar has dissolved.

 

 

 

Stir in chilli, spring onion and cucumber.

 

 

 

Serve pork with cucumber, chilli dressing. In a completely authentic Thai way, I got some tortilla wraps and just put the meat and the dressing on that. Messy but really tasty!

Happy and healthy in a random way! One Pot Chinese Chicken

 

 

There are several ways in which this recipe makes me happy. Firstly, it's quick and to be honest the way things are going with what I seem to have to achieve from the point of falling in through the door of an evening and flopping into bed, something that can be cooked and dished up in double fast time makes me very happy. Secondly, 'one pot' - a phrase I am also happy to hear, although it's a little disingenuous here as if you want anything else with this lovely chicken then you are likely to need at least another pot, but the phrase 'one pot' suggests something with a low level of faff which is bound to make this occasionally lazy chef very happy indeed. Thirdly, and most importantly considering the premise of this month's Random Recipe Challenge, hosted by Belleau Kitchen, this meal is fresh, light and healthy but certainly not lacking in taste. Happy. Happy. Happy.

 

 

 

Recipes that make you healthy and happy was this month's random recipe challenge. My randomness happened by way of collecting together the cookery books that suggested healthiness, vitality, the horrible 'd' word and books that are meant to feed kids healthily and happily. I'll be honest, that amounted to about eight books altogether and the resulting random choice could have turned into some kind of salad nightmare but luckily a blind shuffle and a bit of 'dip dip do' resulted in the winner being 'Fat Girl Slim', a book by Ruth Watson, a book full of interesting recipes and the 'Sod It' chapter at the back where you can eradicate all your good work by making and then eating an amazing chocolate mousse recipe. Sometimes a 'sod it' moment is a good thing.

 

 

 

But the winner of the random recipe in this book was 'One Pot Chinese Chicken' which luckily I had the ingredients for, save the additional steamed vegetables which are an addition of mine. My only adaptation was that I only had 400g of chicken thighs and I kept the sauce quantity the same as for the 600g as stipulated in the original recipe, for around here we like our meals just a bit saucy. I also marinated the chicken for a little longer than suggested as I got busy making packed lunches and so on and therefore I got distracted. But it was okay.

 

Oh. one more thing to be happy about. Lola and Finn loved this, and that makes this recipe a keeper!

 

One Pot Chinese Chicken, adapted from 'Fat Girl Slim' by Ruth Watson

 

Serves Lola, Finn, Mum and Dad.

 

Ingredients:

 

600g boneless, skinless chicken thighs (I used 400g - see above)

1 level tbsp cornflour

1 tbsp toasted sesame oil

2 tbsp soy sauce, divided

1 tbsp groundnut or vegetable oil

3 garlic cloves, crushed and finely chopped

1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce

1 tbsp hoisin sauce

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tsp caster sugar

a handful of fresh basil (I decided on coriander instead)

 

Method:

 

 

 

Cut the chicken into bitesize chunks and place in a non reactive bowl. Toss with the cornflour, the sesame oil and one tablespoon of the soy sauce. Leave to marinate for 30 minutes.

 

 

 

Heat up a wok or large frying pan over a medium high flame and add the groundnut or vegetable oil. When the oil is hot, put in the chicken and stir fry for about 3 - 4 minutes, or until just cooked. Scoop out the chicken and discard most of the oil left before placing the pan back on the heat and returning the chicken to the pan.

 

At this point, add the rest of the ingredients, including the one remaining tablespoon of soy sauce, but don't add the basil (coriander) until the last minute.

 

Cook for a further five minutes or so, stirring the chicken around in the thickening sauce. Once ready, sprinkle with coriander.

 

The original recipe gives a 'more' and 'less' option, for those who are strictly dieting and those who are not. You can serve this with steamed rice to bulk the meal out, as I did, or you can just serve with steamed vegetables, which I nearly did, but I kept the rice too, for life would be dull without carbs!

 

 

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

Still indulging my fondness for the Orient, express style! - Glazed Pork Fillet with steamed rice and stir fry vegetables

 

 

I'm loving the fact that I have rediscovered my wok and tapped into those half bottles of Asian ingredients that I bought on a whim, used once or twice and then being the culinary butterfly that I am, decided that I wanted to cook Italian (or insert Mediterranean country here) or something after a few stir fry sessions. Anyway, the fact is I am back rocking the wok for a short time at least and it's great, not least because it is quick, healthy and Lola and Finn seem to be enjoying it.

 

Anyway, whilst the wok isn't compulsory equipment here, a tablespoon or two of some of those aforementioned bottles of Asian ingredients certainly was and the result was a speedy dish of burnished, sticky citrussy pork which the children really enjoyed. Even Finn. Though he did leave the vegetables, because they are vegetables, and therefore evil.

 

The recipe I used is a Trish Deseine recipe, which I found on the RTE website. From the cookbooks I have that she has written, I never even thought of consulting them for something oriental, but then if I had been more thoughtful at the time, I might have thought of 'Indochine' and the fact that there's eastern influence in French cuisine too. I have much to learn.

 

Anyway, the only alterations I made to this was that I upped the sauce content because we like sauce here and I would rather have too much than too little. And I used palm sugar instead of Demerara, mainly because the Demerara is right at the back of the cupboard which is the one I have to boot shut, such is the amount of cramming of random ingredients therein. If I wasn't so feckless I'd sort it out. Anyway, enough of my inadequacy, here's the recipe:

 

Glazed Pork Fillet, adapted from 'Glazed Pork Fillet' by Trish Deseine, from the RTE website

 

My adaptions in red

 

Serves Lola, Finn, Mum and Dad

 

Ingredients:

 

1 pork fillet (Mine was about 400g)

Juice of four large oranges with a little zest (I used six, with the zest from one of the oranges) You may need extra juice.

a little garlic (I used one large clove, finely diced)

a little bit of ginger (I used about half a thumb's worth)

Thai fish sauce (I used 2 tsp)

soy sauce (I used 2 tsp)

Demerara sugar (I used a little palm sugar)

 

Method:

 

 

Mix all the sauce ingredients together in a bowl and then pour into a pan that will be big enough to hold your pork fillet. Bring the sauce to the boil.

 

 

 

Wheen the sauce has been boiling for three to four minutes, drop the fillet carefully in and seal it on one side.

 

Once it’s evenly coloured, turn it over gently to do the same on the other side. Then just look after it and keep basting it in the sauce for 15 or 20 minutes, until the meat is cooked through. (I also turned mine around reasonably often and the cooking time was just over 20 minutes).

 

 

 

The sauce will reduce during the cooking of the pork until it has almost caramelised and the fillet will be covered with a lovely sticky glaze.

 

If it is in danger of drying out, make sure you have extra freshly squeezed orange juice standing by (which I did use just to loosen the sauce a little).

 

Pre sauce addition, I should say.

 

 

Slice and serve with rice and something crunchy like green beans or snap peas. (I served with rice, mange tout and baby corn).

 

No Ordinary Stir Fry - Pork Yaki Soba

 

 

Following on from last week's revelation that stir fries are both quick and good (I already knew this; I had just forgotten) I heartily recommend this recipe and so does Finn (albeit without the green bits). Lola also loved this dish too and for that reason it will certainly be a keeper.

 

We do eat a lot of mince in this house. I was watching 'Food and Drink' last week (I am beyond happy that this is back on the TV, not least because it's introduced Michel Roux Jr who, despite my disappointment in learning his football allegiance, I think is brilliant) and it was declared that we are eating more mince than ever. Well, yes, if this house is anything to go by. I do buy bigger joints of meat and chicken but the kids love mince and whilst it is cheaper to buy mince, I try to buy the best I can, particularly in the light of the doubt of what animal might have been minced for consumption. But, let's be honest, there is only so much bolognese, lasagne, meatballs, etc. that even my children want to eat, and so to cook something as fresh tasting and different as this, using the ingredients that Lola and Finn like is a fabulous prospect.

 

I happened upon this recipe on a bit of a google 'mooch' where I put in the words 'pork mince' and 'stir fry' to see if anything actually happened. Everything came together at the Independent website where Bill Granger in his column had published a recipe groovily called 'Pork Yaki Soba'. Firstly, I don't think I have ever cooked anything more exotically named and secondly apart from the carrots cut into matchsticks faff, this is a pretty simple recipe to make. Half an hour tops, and you have a meal on the table.

 

Lastly, I know little about noodles. I couldn't find ramen noodles in the supermarket but I found buckwheat soba noodles, and seeing as there was 'soba' in the title, I thought they would suffice. And they were heavily reduced, as was a lot of the Chinese/Japanese section of the 'world foods' aisle. Some things around here just don't sell. It maybe totally unauthentic and 'Unjapanese' (Is that even a word?) but some egg noodles would be really delish with this.

 

Anyway, here we are. Be amazed!

 

Pork Yaki Soba, adapted from Bill Granger's recipe in the Independent newspaper

 

Serves Lola, Finn, Mum and Dad

 

Ingredients:

 

400g dried ramen noodles (I used buckwheat soba noodles, see above)4 tbsp soy sauce
4 tbsp mirin
4 tsp sesame oil
Pinch of sugar
Pinch of white pepper (I just used ground black pepper)4 tbsp light-flavoured oil, such as sunflower
2 cm piece ginger, shredded
2 large carrots, cut into matchsticks
500g minced pork
Stir fry veg (I used sugar snap peas)

Chopped coriander to garnish

 

To serve

 

Chilli sauce

 

Method:

 

Cook the noodles according to the packet instructions, drain, then rinse under cold water and set aside.

 

 

Mix the soy, mirin, sesame oil, sugar and pepper in a small bowl with a splash of water.

 

 

Heat the oil in a wok over a high heat, add the ginger and stir-fry for 10 seconds.

 

 

 

 Add the carrot and pork and stir-fry until the pork is browned.

 

 

 

Add the remaining vegetables and cook until just starting to soften, followed by the noodles and sauce. (I just served the pork on top of the noodles rather than mixing it all up).

 

Cook until the noodles are heated through and the sauce has thickened slightly.

 

 

 

 Serve immediately with chilli sauce to taste.

 

 

Giving a meal from the distant past a 'Little Thumbs Up': Chicken Pineapple

 

 

I can't really say that I led a particularly adventurous culinary childhood as my dad was, shall we say, conservative in the food he liked to eat. He still is, though now, in his mid sixties, he is getting a little more adventurous and in recent years has tried both garlic bread AND pizza and thought they were okay. So, I was brought up on good, solid, traditional British food and that was fine. British food is really nice. I defy anyone not to be gratified by eating fish and chips and sticky toffee pudding. Yum, frankly.

However, the meeting of my first boyfriend at 17 meant that a different set of tastes opened up to me, in the shape of actually buying Chinese food from the chippy! Who knew?! Anytime we went to the chippy it was for chips and all those numbers and exotic sounding dishes on the board behind the counter were for other people. In the spirit of impressing me, maybe, and me impressing him by acting like I knew anything about it, my boyfriend bought chicken pineapple and fried rice to take home to eat and we shared it in his parents' front room, watching 'Lethal Weapon'. Yes, I know what you're thinking. Romantic.

Anyway, that boyfriend has long gone but my love for chicken pineapple still remains. So much so that when I was musing about cooking chicken pineapple for the family and in so doing, this blog post, Phill reminded me that this was the dish I ordered from the chippy the evening of our first date. And to be honest it was the first thing I thought about when I read that Zoe at Bake for Happy Kids and Doreen at My Little favourite DIY were starting the Little Thumbs Up blog hop and that the first ingredient was pineapple. Any excuse to recreate the dish for my children.

 

 

 

The recipe I am using is one that I found on Food.com which I have altered a little to suit my tastes and store cupboard. And as well as being healthy, it is lightening quick to make and I have to wonder to myself why I don't stir fry more often, especially on work nights where I crash through the door at 5pm with a mind and body lacking interest and two kids who are ravenous. Get the wok out, Stella!

 

Anyway, here we are - the recipe, with my adaptions in red:

 

Chicken Pineapple, adapted from the recipe on Food.com

 

Serves Lola, Finn, Mum and Dad generously!

 

Ingredients:

 

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon cider vinegar (I use rice wine vinegar) 

1 tablespoon ketchup

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic

1 teaspoon cornflour

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into 2 inch strips

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

A handful each of baby corn and mange tout (or whatever stir fry veg you like)

1 (8 ounce) can pineapple chunks, drained, reserve 1/4 cup juice (If you are in a world of metric, or British, I use a 227g tin of pineapple chunks)

Method:

 

 

 

Mix first 7 ingredients with reserved 1/4 cup pineapple juice in small bowl to create a sauce that you will add towards the end of cooking.

 

 

 

In large frying pan or wok, stir-fry chicken in hot oil 5 minutes. (I like mine to colour quite a lot to create a bit of chicken-y crust but each to their own)

 

 

 

Add your vegetables and then stir-fry 4 more minutes.

 

 

 

Stir in the pineapple and sauce and heat through. I also have a bit of a taste of the sauce to see if it requires any more seasoning.

 

 

 

Serve over rice with a sprinkling of coriander, if you like.

 

 

Ok, healthy eating starts here. Teriyaki Turkey meatballs

 

 

There have been many false dawns and this might be another. What I should probably say is that this is the start of my filling the fridge full of fresher, healthier stuff as I whittle my way through the gallon of cream and dozens of eggs and so on that was in the fridge post the Christmas binge. I had this idea that I would be making some nice desserts etc. to go with the meat laden feasts of Christmas time, but the fact is, I couldn't see past the cheese board (I can never see past the cheese board. I put this down to my mum eating a pound of cheese A DAY when she was carrying me. I am, in fact, made of cheese. I am a slave to Stilton, corrupted by Camembert, distracted by...

er... Dairylea...)

 

So, anyway, before I got waylaid by my love of cheese, I was talking about trying to be more healthy and wholesome after the Christmas splurge and this recipe is a nice place to start. I know it says turkey but don't let that put you off. Enough time has passed since you used up the last of that leftover turkey and this tastes soooo good! The original recipe (which is from BBC GoodFood magazine - a rich vein of inspiration at the moment) calls for the blitzing of chicken breast but I had turkey mince in the freezer, in my mind a far superior (and cheaper) alternative.

 

And here's a thing. The recipe recommends you serve these delicious meatballs on a bed of spring greens and basmati rice. And I did, despite the very likely Lola and Finn revolt over the inclusion of green stuff. Anyway, after discovering that spring greens and rice on the same fork actually taste quite nice, I encouraged Lola and Finn to try it this way. They did, and they agreed. See, I knew it was possible!

 

Teriyaki Turkey Meatballs, adapted from Teriyaki Chicken Meatballs in BBC GoodFood magazine, January 2013 edition

 

My adaptations in red

 

Serves Lola, Finn, Mum and Dad

 

Ingredients:

 

2 shallots

1 carrot, cut into chunks (I used two)

handful of coriander

500g boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs, cut into chunks (I used 500g turkey mince)

zest and juice 1 lemon

a little oil

200g basmati rice

200g spring greens, chopped

100ml mirin

3 tbsp soy sauce

3 tbsp caster sugar

 

Method:

 

Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6.

 

 

 

Pulse the shallots, coriander and carrot in a food processor until finely chopped. Add the turkey, lemon zest and some seasoning, and pulse again until mixed.

 

 

 

Using oiled hands, shape into small meatballs. Put on a baking tray lined with baking parchment (I just oiled mine!) and bake for 10 mins until browned and cooked through.

 

Meanwhile, boil the rice following pack instructions, adding the spring greens for the final 4 mins. Drain well.

 

 

 

Add the mirin, soy, lemon juice and sugar to a saucepan. Bring to the boil, then simmer until saucy.

 

 

 

Remove from the heat, add the meatballs to the pan and roll them around in the sauce.

 

Slightly blurred - getting used to a new camera!

 

 

Divide the rice and greens between plates or bowls and spoon the meatballs over.