Chinesed up leftover Portuguese Pork

There is no way to give this a definitive name... it is simply a delicious, fast recipe to use up the other half of the Portuguese Roast Pork - or any other left over roast meat. 

I sliced up the pork, and popped it in a bowl with some sliced garlic and a couple of slugs of hoisin sauce. Then stirfried some sliced carrots , sliced celery, slivered sweet onions, slivered fresh ginger  and sliced red peppers, added some ready cooked udon noodles and oyster sauce. That topped some boiled rice, and then the pork was heated up in the same wok until it was hot and sizzly. Pour it over the top of the veggies,  add some coriander and then straight down my throat....dinner in the time it took the rice to cook.

Portuguese Style Roast Pork with a Citrus Marinade

Such a long time since I cooked this, but it is so good cold as well as hot, perfect now the days are getting warmer and we will be eating more salads.

The recipe for this comes from a brilliant book of Portuguese Homestyle Cooking by Ana Patuleia Ortins that I have had for a long time, this and some other pork and beef roast recipes are delicious in their use of citrus juice, wine and vinegar as a marinade.

For this, I took the rind of a small pork loin joint, popped it fat side down in a small roasting tray, and rubbed it all over with garlic paste and a little salt - either ready made or just pound a couple of cloves with salt in a mortar and use the resulting paste. Then pour over the juice of an orange and a lemon, about half a wine glass of wine or sherry and a good glug of wine vinegar. Put this in the fridge to marinate for a couple of hours.

When it is ready to cook, top with a chopped tomato (or several cherry tomatoes, whatever you have to hand) and dot all over with butter.

Roast in a hot oven for normal pork cooking time of 25 mins per pound or until juices run pale pink or clear with you test it with a skewer.  Let it rest for a few minutes whilst you deglaze the pan with a little water (I used some of the water from cooking the rice), and then serve cut in thick slices with rice and a salad.

Quesadilla for a quick lunch..

One left over tortilla. A spoonful of leftover peppers and onions from the fajitas. Same amount of guacamole.  Nice sprinkle of Emmental cheese. Bit of home made ricotta. Slurp of yoghurt soured cream..

Quesadilla para el almuerzo :) 

Texicana week! Chicken Fajitas and Chile con Carne

I was so lucky to have some samples of proper Mexican spices, sauces and chili powders sent to me from La Costeña

but I realised I hadn't cooked TexMex for a long long time, let alone proper Mexican dishes -- they are different in lots of ways, most of the things we think of as Mexican (unless from a proper Mexican restaurant) are really TexMex.

So I kicked off the Texicana with chicken fajitas - which would properly be made with steak I believe - and an old favourite chili con carne. (Recipes on the way on A Greedy Piglet. Link should be live in a day or so )

Chicken Fajitas:

Rolled: 

Open so you can see what is in there..... LOTS of stuff! There's chicken, and sweet peppers, and onions, and guacamole, and freshly soured cream, and home made ricotta and tomatillo salsa... oh it is good....

Chili con carne:

Now to a true Texas chilihead, this is doubtless a travesty... it transgresses most (if not all) of the rules for a proper Texican Chili Cook Off... in particular, it has beans and it has minced beef. The tomatoes are controversial too. in fact, there is a HUGE amount of nitpicking about chili.. or chile... or chilli ... this will give you a taste of what I mean.

But come on, if you were a student from about 1970 on, this is going to be so familiar... and it still tastes as delicious now as it did then.

Beef and Paprika Stew with more of Those Dumplings...

Lovely lovely dumplings.. winter food do you say?  Not for a lovely Spring evening like yesterday?

Oh go on... you know you want to......

Sausage Patties and Kale

It's really hard this dinner. Sausage patties.. sausage meat, cut straight from the roll, patted in a bit of flour (hence the name pattie I reckon) and fried until all golden and crispy and sausagey. Nice green kale, slinky smooth mashed potato and some mustard gravy.

Ah... gravy. I don't like packet gravy, but sausage patties don't give me any juices. So here is my patent short cut gravy for sausages.

Rough Methodology:

In the pan that you have cooked the sausages in (pop them in the oven for the moment to keep warm) shake a little flour - with the patties it will use up the last of the flour you have patted them in - into the residual fat, stir it round to make a roux, Add some water from either the potatoes or the greens, a bit of cider or wine if you have some around, and stir until nice and smooth. Add a good slug of Worcester Sauce, a shake of chicken stock powder (Essential Cuisine is the best IMHO) and a heaped teaspoon of grainy mustard. A little bit of gravy browning improves the colour I think.

Pour all over dinner. 

Beef in Cider with Dripping Dumplings

Stew... mmmm... Stew in cider ... double mmmmm... you just make normal stew, in your normal way, but replace half of the liquid with medium cider, preferably the cloudy sort.

I really like feather steak when I can get it, it has a seam of cartilege running down the middle, that cooks into the gravy giving it lots of flavour and body. If you can't get feather, then use any braising or shin of beef, and cook it gently for about 4 hours with some carrots and celery for lots of flavour.

Stew of course needs dumplings. Dumplings normally need suet. But when the shops are shut and you find the suet in the cupboard is very manky indeed, you get to thinking what you can use instead.

Butter would be both too soft and too rich. I could have used lard I guess, but suet is a very hard almost crystalline fat.

Dripping (the shop bought refined kind) is also very hard fat.

Grating fresh suet was the old fashioned way to use it.

Dripping can be grated... I asked on Twitter and Facebook if it would work.. have a go! people said.

I did . It did. It is better than suet!

Way to go me.

Dripping Dumplings for 2 greedy people or 4 ordinary ones.

• 100g plain flour + one good teaspoon baking powder, or Self raising flour + extra quarter tsp baking powder
• 50g refined dripping grated into the flour (or you can use packaged suet if you have some to use up before it goes manky)
• Salt and pepper, herbs to taste - I used a good shake of thyme, and some chopped parsley
• Cold water to mix. 

Mix the dripping, flour, baking powder,  seasoning and herbs  together in a bowl. Add water gradually , mixing lightly with a knife until the mixture comes together into a soft dough. Don't overmix, you are looking for a soft dough that just holds its shape, but incorporates all the flour.

Have the stew ready at a gentle boil (if you are cooking on the hob, or in a casserole dish you can't put directly onto the heat, you can strain the gravy from the stew into a saucepan and make the dumplings in that to ensure that the meat doesn't scorch then pop it all back into the stew afterwards), and drop the dumpling mix in by the spoonful, don't roll into balls, you will compress the mixture and make it heavy.  Cover the pan or the stew casserole, and either bring the heat down to a gentle simmer, or put the casserole back into the oven. Cook for about 20 minutes without taking the lid off (or you will lose the steam) and then check the dumplings by putting a knife into one and pulling it slightly apart so you can see that the middle is properly cooked.

You can serve now, or you can give it another 15 minutes in the oven to get a lightly crusty top on the dumplings. 

Half an Itty Bitty Chicken

I love a little poussin.

Cut it down the back and flatten firmly over the breast so that it looks like a little frog. Roast with a bit of smoked paprika and some oregano, with crispy potatoes cooked alongside, and a poussin will only take around three quarters of an hour tops, and will be crispy yet light and tender.  I then cut it down the centre of the breast to serve two people with one poussin, but if you are hungry, then have one each!

Smoked Haddock with Cheese and Parsley Sauce...

I love smoked haddock. In a quiche, in kedgeree, or just plainly poached, with a delicious pool of cheesy parsley sauce. 

The trick is to keep the poaching water under a boil at all times, it should just steam and shiver.

Lamb Fillet with Hoisin Sauce

This was seriously delicious, sweet, savoury, mouth filling delicious.

A little stir fry and noodle base, like all the other swooshes, topped with griddled lamb fillets, sliced when cooked and glazed with hoisin sauce.  Easy!

Chicken Thai Curry with noodles

This isn't a very authentic Thai curry so please don't tell me off. It is just dinner....

It's quick and its easy. Best to do all the prep first for this as it takes so little time.

For two people:
Two skinned chicken thighs, cut into chunks.
one red pepper cut into chunks
half a pack mange tout
one sweet onion cut into slivers
one thumb of ginger cut into slivers
one or two red chillis finely chopped (optional for those who like it hotter)

In a saucepan put:

One carton of coconut cream plus the empty cartonful of water
One teaspoon of chicken stock powder (I recommend Essential Stock powder)
One (or two if you like it spicier) teaspoon Barts Red Thai Curry paste
Two tablespoons fish sauce
One teaspoon sugar

bring to a simmer and add the chicken, simmer for 10 minutes. Add the vegetables and noodles. Simmer for another couple of minutes. Pour into bowls and top with chopped coriander.

Easy! 

Japanese rice with smoked mackerel

Sushi rice doesn't just have to kept for sushi, it is lovely hot. Quite sticky, and very flavoursome.  This meal was so fast and easy, and I'd forgotten how good it was. It will certainly be a favourite again I think.

Firstly take one mug full of sushi rice and rinse thoroughly until the water runs clear, Put into a saucepan and add one and a half mugs of water. (It doesn't really matter what you use to measure, it is the proportion of water to rice that is important. This gives plenty for two to three people) Don't add any salt. Bring to the boil then cover tightly and reduce the heat to a tiny simmer. Cook for around 20 minutes until the water is all absorbed, then leave to sit for 5 minutes still covered. Apart from checking towards the end, don't open the pan or you will let all the steam out.

Whilst the rice is cooking, shred half a pack of mange tout, cut a sweet onion and a thumb of ginger into slivers, and break some tenderstem broccoli into sprigs.   When the rice has been turned off, put a little water and a spoonful of mirin and of sushi vinegar into a small frying pan and bring this to a boil, add the vegetables and steam for a few minutes.

Skin and flake 2 mackerel fillets per person. 

Put the rice in a bowl, shake some furikake over the top (or finely snipped nori seaweed if you don't have any) and a shake of black sesame seeds. Top with the vegetables and their residual liquid, and then with the cold mackerel.

So good!!

By the way, Japanese people, do you have any idea what is in this furikake that my neighbour brought me back from Japan?

It is very very good with the mackerel.

Crispy Lemon Sole fillets

Oh Lynne! you are supposed to be keeping away from fat.. how can you fry food and not be suffering?  Well do you think these fillets look oily and greasy? NO!

Just make sure your oil is at the right temperature.. if it is hot enough it will seal the flour so that it doesn't absorb any oil, and then the paper kitchen towel you lay them on after frying will wick away the rest. Cold oil means the flour just sucks it all up and you get yucky oily greasy fish. Yuck.

This is just three supermarket lemon sole fillets (for the two of us) , each cut into two pieces, dipped in well seasoned flour,  then into a frying pan with about an inch of hot hot oil - I use organic rape seed oil, it doesn't degrade at high temperatures the way that olive oil does. Test it with a little piece of bread, you want it to go golden and crisp in about 20 seconds, and you should see lots of little bubbles around the bread.

Lower the fillets into the hot oil away from you, so it doesn't splash you, and put them in top side first. Keep an eye on them and when you can see that the coating is good and golden all around the edges, then flip over carefully. Give the other side a couple of minutes and you are done.

I served this with simple boiled new potatoes broccoli and cauliflower florets, and a little dish of Total 0% Greek Yoghurt tartare sauce on the side.  And a wedge of lemon that I had forgotten about when I took the photo!

Easy All In One Chicken

I am starting to get just a little fed up of chicken. But this way of cooking is rather delicious and not at all boring, so maybe I'll manage not to throw it at a wall just yet...

It's so easy. First of all, chop potatoes into fat chunks, a bit smaller than roast potatoes, but not so small they don't have an inside to stay soft whilst the outside goes crispy. I'm not going to give you quantities, it depends on how many of you there are, but I use two medium potatoes per person if I'm hungry.

Parboil your potato chunks for 5 minutes then drain and allow to steam dry.  Put the oven on now to heat up as high as it can get.

Meanwhile, (quantities for 2 people... multiply up or down accordingly) chop one red and one yellow pepper, two courgettes and a large sweet onion, and put in a bowl with a slug of olive oil, salt and pepper and a nice shake of Mediterranean herbs, or oregano and thyme mixed if you don't have the Med herb blend.   Mix this up well.

Now, and only now (and this is a gooooood tip) add a cubed aubergine. Don't add any more oil, just mix it into the rest of the veg and the aubergine will take up the excess from the already anointed veg, but won't suck it all up so they don't get a chance.

Take a wide flat oiled baking tray (or two or three depending on how many of you there are, and how generous you have been with the veg) with a shallow lip, put the med veggies in the middle, the potatoes around the outside. Drizzle the potatoes with olive oil and season them. Scatter whole unpeeled cloves of garlic over the lot.

In the middle, make hollows for your chicken thighs (one fat big one per person, or more if you are hungry!) and nudge them into the vegs - add a lemon cut into 8ths and tuck that in round the chicken. Season the chicken. 

If you find you just don't have enough room, as you have so many veg, then put the potatoes in a separate pan with a little oil and some herbs and bake separately.

Put the tray(s) into the preheated oven, turn down slightly (to about Gas mk 7) and bake for an hour, switching the trays over half way through if you have more than one. Keep an eye on the trays and turn the veg if you think they need it.
 

still on the chicken...

We are eating a lot of chicken... luckily I like chicken, and it seems to suit my innards at the moment. Small portions of skin, and in fact small portions generally, just one thigh makes a portion these days.

This was gorgeous. I boned and scored the flesh side of the chicken thigh, and rubbed both that and the skin with agrodulce smoked paprika.. (if you find this version of Pimenton dela Vera, do get it, it is smokey, slightly bittersweet, not hot but with a spicey undertone.  Totally delicious and it makes the kitchen smell wonderful).  I heated a little oil in a pan until smoking hot and fried the skin side first, then the flesh side. I like my chicken skin very crisp, so I finished it off under the grill, and then, whilst it rested, deglazed the pan with a little dry sherry.

I had some chinese pak and bok choi in the bottom of the fridge, so I chopped that up and steamed it with just a sprinkling of salt. There is an amazingly delicate texture and flavour to these chinese cabbages, they don't need to only be used in Oriental cooking, you can use them anywhere you would use English cabbages.  Some mashed potatoes, the juices of the chicken, and the cabbage. Simple, low(ish) fat - lower if you don't eat the skin of the chicken - and totally delicious.

A Greedy Piglet is moving.

I am going to move A Greedy Piglet over to the Blogger platform I think, as people seem to like the format better. What would you like to see as features on the new style blog?

Come over and have a look, and leave me comments as to what you think. Do the colours work? Are things in the right place to find easily?

 The new blog will be here 

I hope you like it!

A Friday Swoosh...Chicken Teriyaki again...

More Chicken Teriyaki!  I do love teriyaki sauce.. sweet, yet salty, and so tasty.

I kept the skin on the boned out chicken thighs this time, and grilled them rather than sautéing them, but I prefer them skinned I think. Otherwise, almost the same as the last teriyaki day... but I am playing with a new camera, so we have new slinky photos!

Swoosh four - griddled squid

Are you still with me in my swoosh fest? Number four used a small pack of fresh squid rings. Of course, you could use fresh squid. I just didn't feel like preparing it.... nothing wrong with using pre-prepared fish and meat, it gives other people a job :)

Protein: aforesaid squid rings, blanched, and tossed with 1 tsp sesame oil then griddled until only just cooked through (no more than 2 minutes or they will go tough) and put to one side.

Aromatics:  lemongrass, galangal, ginger, kaffir lime leaves. This is my go to for fish and shellfish.

Veggies: slivered spring onions, slivered mangetout, chopped Tenderstem broccoli, bok choi, separated and cut into large pieces, sliced mushrooms

Sauce: Shoyu and oyster sauce in equal quantities.

Noodles; medium wheat noodles - the straight to wok ones.

warning: this was very light, and my husband was still hungry after dinner. So perhaps this is something to have some extra rice with? or just up the amount of veggies.

swoosh three - fish pie mix

so go to Swoosh one.  Follow the instructions except you will:

Replace the noodles with a pack of Udon noodles.
Replace the prawns with a pack of fish pie mix fish pieces ( I was going to make chowder with them, but then decided to swoosh them instead)
Use any veggie you have that isn't too strong flavoured (I am thinking cabbage or swede or turnip type...  )
Pop some black sesame seeds on at the end.

Are you still swooshing with me?

swoosh day two.... teriyaki chicken

Today's swoosh.

Bowl one: A pack of ready to wok Udon noodles (one every two people)

Bowl two: 1 and a half chicken breasts for two people. Cut into chunks. Marinated in two tablespoons teriyaki sauce and a teaspoon of Kecap Manis (Indonesian sweet soy)

Bowl three: veggies: today's are slivered white onion, sliced yellow pepper, sliced mushrooms, slivered mange tout, sliced bok choi. 

Bowl four: sauce for veggies, two tablespoons oyster sauce, one of japanese shoyu

Bowl five: herbs: chopped coriander

Cook the chicken in a little oil in a frying pan until cooked through. Put to one side.

Swoosh as instructed in the last post ...  Plate veggies, top with chicken and eat.  Roughly 10 minutes (getting faster)