Creamy pepper pork

A new and delicious twist on pan fried pork steaks.

Pat the steaks dry then dry-rub them with a mixture of salt, pepper, and paprika. Fry them until browned. De-glaze the pan with a splash of apple cider vinegar, a small amount of chicken stock and a dash of lemon juice. Stir in cream and a squirt of mild mustard (e.g. French or honey mustard). Simmer until the pork is cooked.

Pork Souvlaki

A summery recipe we discovered this year ...

Combine 1/2 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup lemon juice, a couple of cloves of chopped garlic, 1 tsp dried oregano and 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper. Add cubed pieces of pork and leave to marinade in the fridge for a day.

Skewer and season the meat and grill.

Serve with tzatziki sauce, rice, salad, pittas, retsina, and sun. Also tasty at any other time of year :)

Pork in creamy mushroom sauce

This was an off-the-cuff concoction that worked pretty well. Not our normal light summer fare, but then this is hardly a normal summer :)

In a large frying pan, fry pork loin chops until browned both sides. Add a generous handful of sliced mushrooms - we usually go for the chestnut button mushrooms rather than their white cousins, for extra flavor. Once the mushrooms have browned a bit on a high heat, add a healthy slosh of brandy and let it bubble until most of the liquid has evaporated. Stir and turn things over from time to time to make sure they don't stick. Reduce the heat and add a cup or two of thick cream, then bring back to the boil until the sauce is thick and creamy.

Serve with choice of carbs and healthy stuff. We had this with mash and corn on the cob this evening.

Sweet & sour pork

We gave this recipe a try this evening, and it was fabulous.

I'm only posting the link here, and skipping my usual quick reference summary of ingredients and method because there's a lot of bits to it - the marinade for the pork, the coating, the sauce, and other bits to add to the pork - https://thewoksoflife.com/2015/12/sweet-and-sour-pork/

Suffice it to say, there's a fair bit of preparation and cooking involved, but we elected to have a lazy day and take it slowly this evening. Preparation and cooking time overall was over 2 hours rather than the 1 1/4 suggested on the website. In part that was because we had other dishes to make as well (stir fried rice and spring rolls) and we weren't in a hurry. We could have shaved off some time if we'd been more focused and organized. We also did a lot more pork - about twice the recipe - which made for more frying. Having said that, don't underestimate the time it takes to bring a pan of oil up to temperature, and to coat and fry batches of meat.

Not something to do if you're in a hurry, but if you enjoy being in the kitchen the effort was well worth it.

Pork & clams

This is an easy dish but needs a generous amount of time to prepare. It's something we enjoyed on a visit to a Portuguese restaurant many years ago, and did our best to reverse-engineer and recreate at home. Not sure how successful we were in recreating that restaurant dish, but nevertheless it's a tasy favorite for special occasions.

The recipe is over here ...

The simple version is as follows:

Fry a chopped onion until golden. Add some cubed pork and fry until browned. Add a couple of chopped tomatoes and saute until they start to mash down. Turn the heat down low, cover and simmer for at least an hour to make sure the pork is tender.

Meanwhile, boil and simmer some cubed potatoes for a few minutes - be careful not to let them go too soft. Drain and saute in oil and butter until golden.

About half an hour before serving, add a generous squirt of tomato ketchup to the pork to thicken the sauce, and stir in a can or two of drained clams. 

Ten minutes before serving, stir in a dash of cream and the fried potatoes.

Pulled pork

This is a dish we had never encountered until we moved from Britain to Canada, but it is certainly one of our slow cooker favorites. Very easy to prepare, very tasty results.

We follow the recipe here on Chowhound.

Basically, put a layer of sliced onions and garlic in the bottom of the crock pot, and add a cup of stock. Pat the pork dry and rub all over with a mix of spices: a tablespoon each of dark brown sugar, chili powder and salt, and 1/2 teaspoon each of ground cumin and cinnamon. The amount of spice looks scary when you prepare it, but you want the pork to have a good coating and it works out OK. Place into the crock pot and cook long and slow (8 to 10 hours on low).

When cooked, remove the pork and pull apart. Drain off (but keep) the liquid and return the onions and the pork to the pot. Mix in with a good dollop of barbecue sauce to taste, and enough of the saved liquid to make the dish moist. Serve on buns with salad or coleslaw.

This is a good dish for pot lucks. If you're taking it with you to a party and reheating it there, pour some of the stock into a jar or bottle and take it with you so you can adjust the moisture at the last minute.

Barbecued ribs

We like crock pot meals from time to time. Usually easy to prepare and you can come home from work to a cooked meal. This one is not a complete meal in itself but is very easy to prepare.

Marinate a rack of ribs in a mixture of Thai sweet chili sauce, honey, and tomato ketchup (in roughly equal measures). This can be done the night before. Place the ribs and the marinade into a slow cooker and cook on low through the day.

Serve with salad and carbs of choice.

Barbecued pork tenderloin

This is a favorite specialty of ours, especially when the outdoor barbecue weather comes around but honestly it's good any time of year.

Marinade your pork tenderloins in a mixture of maple syrup and mustard. For enough pork for the family we use approx. 1 cup of maple syrup to 1/2 cup of either Dijon or mild yellow mustard (the kind that goes on hot dogs, not the sharper British variety). Add a sliced red onion and a few cloves of sliced garlic to the marinade and leave in the fridge for 24 hours.

Heat a heavy based grill pan, remove the pork from the marinade and sear it all round. Set the pork aside and add the marinade (including onions and garlic) to the pan. Cook for a few minutes then pour the marinade out. Put the pork back in the pan and pour the marinade over the top. Sorry about all the swapping around, but you want the pork underneath all that aromatic goodness.

Cover the pan and put it in the oven to bake on a moderate heat (380F) until the pork is cooked through and the liquid has reduced and caramelized. Should be about an hour to 90 minutes. Remove the pork and cut into slices to serve. If necessary, finish the caramelization off on top of the stove. Spoon the reduced marinade over the top of the pork when you serve it up.

Great with fries and a salad and a crisp white wine.

Pork with apple and ginger

This is a dish we haven't done in a while. It used to be a regular before the kids came along, but not so much in recent years. Definitely something to do more often, because this evening it got scarfed down with relish!

Fry a finely-chopped onion. Add in a good measure of grated or finely-chopped ginger (anything up to 1" cubed, depending on how you like your ginger). Once the onion and ginger are softened, add a clove or two of chopped garlic and some pork loin chops. Turn them over until browned. Add a peeled and chopped apple, and enough apple juice to cover the ingredients. Bring to the boil and simmer until the meat is tender. A few minutes before serving, thicken the sauce with a little cornstarch.

Serve with rice, fries, or mashed potatoes, and veg or salad.

Roast

Nothing quite beats a traditional Sunday roast. You need time for cooking, but it is a very easy meal to prepare.

Meat of choice - beef, lamb, pork, chicken, or on special occasions - turkey. The basic approach is the same. Place the meat in a roasting dish in about 1/2 inch of water. We use water rather than fat because it's healthier, preserves the flavor of the meat, and keeps it moist. Cover and cook in the oven for roughly 2 hours.

Timing depends on size. If cooking a turkey we use the "1/4 hour per pound plus 1/4 hour" rule of thumb as a rough guide, but nothing beats experience and occasional checks on the roast.

Potatoes: Boil and simmer for about 15 minutes. The outsides should be going soft but nowhere near ready to mash. Drain and place in a baking dish and drizzle a small amount of oil over the top. They should need no more than a spoonful per piece. Cook in the oven for about 1 1/2 hours, until the outsides are crisp and golden.

When the meat is ready to carve, lift from the roasting dish. Keep the liquid for gravy. If your dish can go on the hob you can make gravy right there, otherwise decant into a saucepan. Mix a spoonful each of cornstarch and gravy browning (we use Bisto) with cold water to make a thin paste. Pour slowly into the stock whisking to ensure it doesn't go lumpy. Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. If you need more liquid, drain some off from whatever veggies you're cooking alongside.

Vegetables: Whatever you want. For simple meals we boil carrots, beans, peas, corn. They should only cook for a few minutes - nothing ruins a roast more easily than soggy veg!

Stir fry

Quick and easy, with flavor.

Fry up:
   Onions
   Meat of choice - usually chicken or prawns, maybe pork
   Finely-sliced veggies of choice - carrots, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, baby corn, pineapple
If using chicken or pork, make sure it's cooked through. If using prawns, leave them until last as they only take seconds.
Stir in a jar of sauce - sweet & sour, or ginger.

Serve with fried rice or noodles.