Category Archives: Pork

Pork with celery in egg & lemon sauce

Posted on July 7, 2010 | Leave a comment

It is a solemn thought: Dead, the noblest man’s meat is inferior to pork.
~ Mark Twain

Over the weekend, we went walking along the waterfront… we still needed our coats, but the sun made its welcome presence felt nevertheless!

(There is something marvellous about eating pizza on a wooden bench by the waterfront too)

Last night, dinner was from Tessa Kiros’ “Falling Cloudberries”:
#58 Pork with Celery in Egg & Lemon Sauce – Page 112

This was a dish that smelled wonderful from the beginning – even when it was just sauteed onions and pork chunks in the pan. With the addition of garlic and some frothy sauvignon blanc it took on extra character – by the time my fingers smelled of celery & fennel, it felt so good just to stand and breathe. This dish took some time (almost 2 hours) to cook – a perfect way to get some reading done in between!

Alas, the eggs scrambled a little in the pan – it’s so important to mix the eggs in well before squeezing in the lemon, I learned! We ate the lot with slices of Vienna bread. Jono liked it, I liked the soft pork and the sauce, but not the abundance of cooked celery – as for Matt and John, I am not sure! :-/

PS. Thanks everyone who has commented and/or entered the giveaway draw so far – there are still 11 hours to go before the draw, so join in if you haven’t!

Today’s meatballs and yesterday’s cookies

Posted on April 6, 2010 | 1 comment

It rolled off the table
And onto the floor,
And then my poor meatball
Rolled out of the door.
~ Tom Glazer, The Meatball Song

Oh, meatballs. Whenever I see them, especially atop a plate of spaghetti, I think fleetingly of Disney’s “Lady and the Tramp”. Crazy how videos you watch as a kid stay with you for 17 years (and counting)…

These meatballs from Tessa Kiros’ “Falling Cloudberries” are almost too easy.
#46 Keftedes – Page 156

All you need to do is soak bread in milk, grate an apple, grate an onion, mix it all up with pork mince, eggs, herbs, salt, pepper – and voila! Meatball mix! You roll it into little balls, arrange them nicely on a tray, before frying them in about 1cm of oil (yes, the last step does make me feel less than good, but I won’t be making them often).

They did splatter a little, and I really don’t like cooking with lots of oil, but these are probably close to the best meatballs you can make for yourself at home (they even have healthy apple in them!). There is no good way to take photos of these unfortunately, as you can probably tell in this post! But the end result was mildly sweet, tender meatballs, and I served them with some penne dressed with a garlic, zucchini and tomato sauce.

Modifications: I adjusted the quantities of ingredients to make less meatballs, and used only pork mince (skipped the beef).

Oh and before I sign off. If you are in the mood for some seriously good chocolate chip cookies, don’t miss out on this recipe from Deb at Smitten Kitchen! I did modify the mix slightly, adding some olive oil and using less chocolate (in a bid to be ever so slightly ‘healthier’), and using more brown sugar because I ran out of white sugar midway, but they still turned out beautifully.

Good thing these were birthday cookies (tip: it’s dangerous sitting next to yummy chocolate chip cookies when you are on your own for more than half an hour).

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Posted in All, Cookies, Falling Cloudberries, Pasta, Pork

Tagged chocolate chip, Cookies, Falling Cloudberries, keftedes, meatballs, tessa kiros

Flambéd cheese + pork parcel + pepper soup

Posted on March 25, 2010 | 1 comment

Many’s the long night I’ve dreamed of cheese.
~ Robert Louis Stevenson

I didn’t have time or clean fingers to take many photos whilst cooking tonight! Busy busy busy I was, time went whizzing by. On the menu from Tessa Kiros’ “Falling Cloudberries” were:
#39 Fried Haloumi Cheese – Page 151
#40 Pork Fillet in Pastry with Wild Mushrooms & Cream Sauce – Page 45
#41 Red Pepper Soup with Olives, Lemon Rind & Yoghurt – Page 343

Cheese: I engaged the help of Matt to set it alight, standing poised with my camera ready to take a picture. He slowly added a few drops of deep blue sambuca (used because we did not have ouzo)… and, oh, wow. No matches were needed. A bright orange wave of fire burst forth like a genie who’d been stuck in his lamp for too long. It was amazing watching the flames lick hungrily at the haloumi for a few bright seconds before gently subsiding.

Brilliant.

Modifications: I doubled the recipe and used sambuca instead of ouzo. Verdict: nice, but too rich in my opinion as an appetizer! I only managed 1/3 of my chunk.

Pork fillet in pastry with wild mushrooms & cream sauce: Made the pastry this morning, much to my relief afterall – or we’d have had to dine way after 7.45pm! The pork fillet drank in the brandy nicely, the pastry covering was light and buttery without being too rich, and the sauce was… mmm.

Modifications: I wasn’t sure what qualifies as ‘wild mushrooms’ (no such labels in sight at the supermarket), so I used normal flat mushrooms. I also halved this recipe as two of my other flatmates weren’t home to help eat. The pastry needed a little more water than the recipe suggested.

Red pepper soup with olives, lemon rind & yoghurt: I was surprised by how strongly the taste of tomatoes came through in this (mental note to add less next time)! The olives, lemon rind, rosemary & yoghurt in the soup sit so well with my tastebuds though. It’s like eating a Vivaldi concert, if such a thing is possible!

Modifications: Halved this recipe. Didn’t grill peppers. Didn’t peel peppers and tomatoes. I know, terrible.