Indonesian Style Roast Pork

As much as I love a Sunday roast, sometimes I like to do something a little less traditional with my Sunday dinner. I bought a pork loin for my Sunday dinner and thought I would try something a little different with it than roast potatoes & apple sauce (not that there is any thing wrong with roast potatoes and apple sauce). I love Asian flavours, so I decided to try to recreate the flavours of the food we had whilst in Indonesia...( I'm always cooking Thai, so I thought Indonesian might be some fun).

 I loved my time in Indonesia, especially the food. Here's my slow baked Indonesian Pork Loin, that requires very little effort at all, once the marinade is made. You could then serve this with potatoes, but I decided on a Pea and Raisin Pilaf Rice. I think when I make this again, I will cover the meat in foil (To prevent the marinade from turning too dark and burning), until the final 30 minutes, and also perhaps serve it with a satay noodle side.

Ingredients

• 1.5kg of basted Pork Loin
• 4 tbsp of soy sauce
• 1 tbsp of smooth peanut butter
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 thumb size piece of ginger
• 1 tsp of cayenne pepper
• 1 tbsp of Chinese 5 spice
• 2 tbsp of water
• 1 onion

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees.
2. Combine all the ingredients (except for the pork of course) in a blender and blitz to a sauce consistency.
3. Pour the sauce over the pork and allow to marinade for a few hours at least, ideally over night.
4. Cover the pork with tin foil and bake in the oven for 3 hours, remove the foil for the final 30 minutes and turn up the oven to 200 degrees.
5. Allow to rest for 30 minutes before serving.

Homemade Italian Inspired Sausage Rolls

The humble sausage roll gets a makeover here, using a few store bought ingredients and  can be prepared in a few minutes work. I was never a huge lover of sausage rolls. The thought of sausage rolls used to conjure up images of soggy, stodgy shop bought tasteless rolls I was given to eat as a child. Usually bought from the deli counter of a gas station. They had all the tastiness of cardboard. So with that said I've not eaten sausage rolls in years. In my mind they simply were not worth the calories. 

Then recently I was asked to make homemade sausage rolls for a tea party, and I got to thinking that homemade sausage rolls would actually be completely open to additions of all types of flavours. You are in charge and you get to decide what goes into the sausage roll. This is where I decided a bit of shop bought organic garlic pesto, sundried tomatoes and pine nuts would transform a potentially bland sausage roll into something really special. I also decided to add a dimension of texture by sprinkling them with some sesame seeds before baking. I must say, since I made these I am completely converted, my waistline will not be happy with me.

Ingredients

• 1 ready rolled puff pastry sheet
• 1 lb of good quality pork sausages
• 2 slices of wholemeal bread
• 3 tbsp of pine nuts
• 1 small red onion
• 2 tsp of dried oregano
• 3 tbsp of semi sundried tomatoes
• 2 tbsp of good quality pesto
• 3 tsp of sesame seeds
• 1 egg
• Salt and pepper

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees
2. In a mini food blender, blitz the bread, pine nuts and sun dried tomatoes and the onion.
3. Make a slit in each sausage and squeeze the sausage meat out of their skins
4. Mix the sausage meat with the blended bread mixture and the dried herbs. Season well.
5. Roll out the pastry sheets and cut across the middle horizontally so you have two rectangle shapes.
6. In the centre of each rectangle divide out the pesto and spread it the whole way across length ways
7. Divide the sausage mixture in two and roll it into a 'sausage' shape to fit the length of each pastry rectangle. Place the sausage over the pesto in the centre.
8. Beat the egg and brush all edges with the egg wash
9. Fold one side of the pastry over the sausage mixture to meet the other edges on the opposite side.
10. Press the  pastry edges firmly together and make indentations the whole way length ways with a fork.
11. Brush the entire roll with egg wash
12. Using a very sharp knife  half each sausage roll down the centre, then half those halves and so on. The number of sausage rolls you make depends on the size you want them. You can have 8 large ones from each roll or 16 mini sausage rolls.
13. Place the sausage rolls on a lined baking tray. Season the tops with freshly ground black pepper and the sesame seeds.
14. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, depending on the size of sausage rolls you have made.
15. Remove when golden and cool on a wire rack.

You'll never buy a sausage roll in a shop again.

Slow Roasted Vietnamese Pork

A 'No Knife Required Roast'...

If you are not a big pork fan, this recipe should change your mind. I'm using a rolled joint of pork that Nugent Butchers in Cork prepared for me. They scored the fat and tied this pork up for me. I simply just created the marinade and banged it in the oven and forgot about it for 6 hours, which let me to get on with the rest of my day.

Serves 4-6 (depends on their greediness)

Ingredients

• 2 kg pork shoulder, rolled and scored
• 4 tbsp of fish sauce
• 2 lemon grass, bruised
• 2 tbsp of granulated sugar
• 2 red chilis, deseeded and finely sliced
•  thumb size ginger piece, peeled
• 3 cloves of garlic, peeled
• 1 tbsp of black peppercorns
• 1 star anise
• 1 tbsp coarse sea salt
• 500g thin egg noodles
• Spring onions
• 3 large mushrooms, sliced
• 2 carrots, sliced finely
• 4 chopped spring onions
• Soy sauce
• Freshly chopped mint, coriander, and basil

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees
2. Prepare the marinade: in a mini blender blitz the garlic, ginger, chili, peppercorns, sugar, and star anise 
3. Rub the marinade over the meat and get some inside the scored fat.
4. Rub sea salt into the meat.
5. Put the meat in a roasting tray and add the lemongrass in also.
6. Pour over the fish sauce and roast in the oven for 20 minutes
7. After 20 minutes, take the meat out of the oven and cool the oven down to 140 degrees.
8. Put double foil over the roasting tray and put the meat back in the oven for 5 hours.
9. After the 5 hours, turn the heat up to 200 again and take the foil off. This allows the crackling to cook perfectly.
10. Take out of the oven after being cooked for 20 minutes at 200 degrees. Allow to rest for 20 minutes at least.
11. Just before serving, cook the egg noodles and stir fry the mushrooms, carrots and other remaining chili.
12. Drain the cooked egg noodles, add to the stir fry and pour in some soy sauce and chopped herbs.
13. Divide the noodle stir fry in serving bowls.
14. To carve the meat, cut off the crackling with a knife and simply use a fork to separate the pork.  It's meltingly tender and a trip back for seconds cannot be avoided.
15. Top the noodles with the pulled pork, and top with some chopped herbs and spring onions, and some crackling.

Paprika Pork & Chorizo Stew

Pork is something I don't eat very often, due to its high salt and fat content, but it is the weekend afterall, and my motto is everything in moderation, so I'm treating myself and my husband to a Spanish style pork stew flavoured with paprika and spicy chorizo sausage. I'm making enough for four as this meal with freeze well, as well as keeping nice and handy in a lunchbox for a working lunch.



Spanish cuisine is my ultimate indulgence. I like nothing more than cured meats, spanish olives,cheese , break and smoky paprika. The Spanish use olive oil in nearly every dish, and lemons and flat leaf parsley are all very Spanish ways of flavouring dishes. This Spanish style stew is my salute to all those ingredients.


Serves 4

Ingredients

• Pork Shoulder, cubed
• 1 chorizo, cubed
• 2 cloves of garlic, sliced
• 1 red onion, sliced
• 1 yellow pepper, sliced
• 1 red pepper, sliced
• 7-8 mushrooms, sliced
• 2 bay leaves
• 4 sprigs of thyme
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1 tsp of sugar
• salt and pepper
• 1 tbsp of smoked paprika
• 2 tbsp of white wine vinegar
• 1 glass of spanish white wine
• 2 tbsp of spanish olive oil
• Juice of a lemon

To Serve

• White long grain rice 
• Crusty bread
• Flat leaf parsley

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
2. In a lidded oven proof casserole dish, add half the oil and set the heat to medium-high on your hob.
3. Add the cubed pork and smoked paprika (in batches if necessary), and brown the meat completely.
4. Set aside on a plate.
5. Add the rest of the oil, the chorizo, onion and garlic. Fry for a few minutes.
6. Add the wine and scrap the sediment from the pan.
7. Add the vegetables, thyme and bay leave and stir to combine all the flavours.
8. Reintroduce the meat and add the tin of tomatoes. Fill the empty tin with water and add this liquid too.
9. Add the sugar and wine vinegar and bring the whole mixture to the boil.
10. Cover and place the casserole in the oven for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
11. When ready to serve, scatter with chopped flat leaf parsely and squeeze lemon juice over.

Serve with rice and crusty bread to mop up all the smoky garlicy juices.

CHEF FACTOR 2011

DON'T FORGET TO VOTE GUYS

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6 Hour Slow Roast Shoulder of Pork

I wanted to make something impressive, but stress free when the in-laws to be came to dinner, and have Jamie Oliver to thank for a very successful dinner party. I decided to cook a shoulder of pork, really slow, so I set about on the internet looking for the best slow roast recipe and I came across Jamie Olivers, which involved leaving the crackling on till the end, making my life very easy. I added herbs for extra flavour. Though finding a shoulder of pork proved more difficult than thought. I ordered the shoulder from Nugents Butchers on Glasheen Road, and never expected when I went to pick it up on the day it would be so big. The lovely guys at Nugents cut up the pork for me to a size that would feed 10 adults and boned and tied it. They gave me the option of mincing some of the meat, dicing it, making sausages etc. I decided to get 2 smaller joints cut and scored and tied and vacuum packed and to portions of diced pork vacuum packed. Talk about value for your euro!!! They scored the meat as well, which is guaranteed to give the best crackling. I'm serving this pork with a sweet apricot stuffing and roast carrots, onions and potatoes.

Serves 10

Ingredients

• 3.5 kg pork shoulder, scored and boned.
• 3 tbsp of sea salt
• 1 tbsp of finely chopped rosemary
• 2 tbsp of thyme leaves
• Salt and Pepper

Vegetables

• 8 carrots, chopped chunky
• 16 potatoes, peeled and quartered, and par boiled.
• 2 cooking onions, quartered with skins on.
• 4 garlic cloves left in their skins

Apricot and Pinenut Stuffing

• 8 dried apricots
• 4 tbsp of pinenuts
• 100g of fresh breadcrumbs
• 4 tbsp of thyme leaves
• 1 cooking onion, diced
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 220 degrees
2. To prepare your meat, turn it upside down and season with salt and pepper.
3. Turn it over skin side up and generously rub in the sea salt, getting it right into the slashes.
4. Place in the oven for 30 minutes
5. After 30 minutes, remove the meat, turn the oven down to 170 degrees and cover the meat with a double layer of tin foil.
6. Cook for 4 and half hours.
7. Meanwhile to make the stuffing, simply sweat the diced onion and garlic on a low heat for 10 minutes.
8. Allow to cool completely. Add remaining stuffing ingredients to a food processor and blitz.
9. Combine the onions and garlic with the blitzed ingredients
10. Add to a loaf tin and cover with tin foil, and place in the oven for the last 30 minutes of cooking the meat.
11. Remove from the oven again after the 4.5 hours, take the pork out of the roasting tin and pour out the fat into a jug
12. Place chunky chopped carrots in the roasting tray and quartered cooking onions.
13. Place the pork back on top of the carrots and cook for further 20 minutes, uncovered.
14. Place quartered par cooked potatoes and garlic in their skins around the meat, and pour th ecooking fat over the meat and the potatoes and return to the oven for a final 40 minutes.
15. Remove the meat from the oven, cover with foil and allow to rest for 30 minutes.
16. Cover the vegetables with foil and keep warm in the oven.
17. Serve with some apricot and pinenut stuffing.
18. For easy serving cut the crackling off the meat and break up. Its difficult to slice the meat as its so tender and just breaks away, best to chop it up and serve it at the centre of the table for your guests to help themselves.

Chorizo and Potato Frittata

This frittata is the perfect solution to a lazy Sunday, where you've slept in past breakfast time and its a little too early for lunch. Its a really easy recipe that's extremely filling. The red oil released from the chorizo, give the eggs a beautiful colour, not to mention a fantastic smoky and spicy flavour. For best results use organic eggs, the difference between the quality of cheap factory eggs and organic eggs is huge.

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 4 medium organic/free range eggs
• Half a spicy chorizo sausage, sliced
• 5-6 baby potatoes
• 1 tbsp of chopped flat leaf parsley
• Salt/pepper
• A dash of milk

Method

1. Boil the potatoes in salted water for 10 minutes from boiling point.
2. Remove the potatoes from the water and allow them to sit for a few mintues for the steam to release so that they dry out a little.
3. Slice the potatoes into thin slices and set aside.
4. Slice the chorizo into even rounds and fry in a pan on a medium heat. No need for oil, as there is enough oil in the chorizo that's released when fried.
5. Add the sliced pototoes to the pan and allow to fry with the chorizo for 2-3 minutes.
6. Break the eggs into a jug/bowl and whisk, adding salt and pepper and a dash of milk.
7. Preheat the grill to medium.
8. Whilst still whisking, pour the egg mixture into the frying pan. This will give the eggs a nice fluffy consistency.
9. Leave the eggs to cook for 2-3 minutes in the pan, scatter over the parsley.
10. Place the frying pan under a grill to finish cooking the top of the eggs, and add some more parsley if you like.
11. This is best served with a mug of coffee and some crusty bread, or a fresh green salad.

       

Chorizo and Potato Frittata

This frittata is the perfect solution to a lazy Sunday, where you've slept in past breakfast time and its a little too early for lunch. Its a really easy recipe that's extremely filling. The red oil released from the chorizo, give the eggs a beautiful colour, not to mention a fantastic smoky and spicy flavour. For best results use organic eggs, the difference between the quality of cheap factory eggs and organic eggs is huge.

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 4 medium organic/free range eggs
• Half a spicy chorizo sausage, sliced
• 5-6 baby potatoes
• 4-5 mushrooms, sliced
• 50g of frozen peas
• 1 tbsp of chopped flat leaf parsley
• Salt/pepper
• A dash of milk

Method

1. Boil the potatoes in salted water for 10 minutes from boiling point.
2. Remove the potatoes from the water and allow them to sit for a few mintues for the steam to release so that they dry out a little.
3. Slice the potatoes into thin slices and set aside.
4. Slice the chorizo into even rounds and fry in a pan on a medium heat. No need for oil, as there is enough oil in the chorizo that's released when fried.
5. Add the sliced pototoes to the pan and allow to fry with the chorizo for 2-3 minutes.
6. Break the eggs into a jug/bowl and whisk, adding salt and pepper and a dash of milk.
7. Preheat the grill to medium.
8. Whilst still whisking, pour the egg mixture into the frying pan. This will give the eggs a nice fluffy consistency.
9. Leave the eggs to cook for 2-3 minutes in the pan, scatter over the parsley.
10. Place the frying pan under a grill to finish cooking the top of the eggs, and add some more parsley if you like.
11. This is best served with a mug of coffee and some crusty bread, or a fresh green salad.

       

Grilled Greek Pork Chops

The Greek marinade used in this recipe is delicious, and it also really tenderizes the meat. Leave to marinate for an hour, if you can, to get the flavours all mingled together. I bash the chops firstly in a food bag to make them thin and they also absorb the flavours really well this way. So when you've had a bad day, this recipe is a great way of taking out your frustrations. The marinade is also great with chicken and lamb.

Serves 1 hungry man

Ingredients

• 2 pork chops

marinade

• zest and juice of a lemon
• salt and pepper
• fresh oregano (1 tbsp of dried)
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 1 chopper garlic clove
• Olive oil

Method

1. Put the chops in a food bag, seal, and bash a little with your preferred blunt object, I like a saucepan
2. Add the marinade ingredients to the bag and leave for 1 hour
3. Heat the grill to medium
4. Grill the chops 5 minutes a side.

Some serving suggestions I would have is pitta bread, and greek salad with feta and olives, or baked potato

This works well on the BBQ also.