Belly Pork Hot Pot

Mmm just thinking about writing this up is making my mouth water. I only had this a couple of days ago and I want it again...now. Seriously, if I had to name my top ten all time favourite dishes this would definitely make it. Its the way the fat on the pork simply melts in your mouth.

Enough! Back to the recipe.

Ingredients
Pork Belly (cut into 1 inch chunks/cubes)
2 green chillies (chopped)
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tsp white or brown sugar
olive oil
1 tsp finely chopped ginger
1 star aniseed
1 bay leaf
2 carrots cut into chunks
2 leeks sliced
recently boiled water (about 1 pint and a half)

Step 1
On a hot hob, in a flameproof casserole dish, heat a splash of olive oil until hot. Add the ginger, stir, quickly followed by the chilli and fry for a further 20 seconds. Then add the belly pork. Fry until the pork starts to brown (2 minutes or so).

Step 2
When the pork has browned add the sugar, light and dark soy sauce and stir contents so that the pork is covered. Then add water from the recently boiled kettle. The water should cover the pork by roughly an inch (2.5cm). Add the star aniseed and the bay leaf. Bring back to the boil, turn the hob down, then place the lid leaving a gap on the casserole dish and simmer for 1 hour.

Step 3
Add the carrots to the pot and simmer for 20 minutes. Then add the leeks and simmer for a further 10 minutes.

Serve with rice. Deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelishous!!!

TOP TIP: the star aniseed is very important in this recipe as its adds a very distinctive flavour. You can usually pick them up from a Chinese supermarket. Well worth buying and they'll last you for ages.

Simple Sausage Casserole

A straight forward recipe to make a delicious sausage casserole using ingredients most of us have in the cupboard/fridge.

Ingredients
2 cloves of garlic (chopped)
1 green chilli (chopped)
6 pork sausages (ensure that the percentage of meat is at least 70%)
1 red pepper (sliced)
7 cherry tomatoes
a handful of mushrooms (sliced)
a heaped spoonful of wholegrain mustard
a splash of worcestershire sauce
an oxo cube
recently boiled water (about 2-3 cups)
1-2 tbsp olive oil

Step 1
In a cast iron casserole dish heat the olive oil on the stove. When the oil is hot fry the garlic and chilli until the garlic starts to change colour. Then add the sausages and fry until lightly browned.

Step 2
Add the pepper, cherry tomatoes and mushrooms to the casserole dish and continue to fry until softened. Turn the oven on at 180°C to heat up.

Step 3
Boil the kettle. Whilst the kettle is heating up stir in the mustard and sprinkle the oxo cube over the sausages. When the water has boiled pour over the sausages until it is about 1 to 1.5 inches deep. Splash the worcestershire sauce over everything and stir.

Step 4
Put the lid on the casserole dish and place the dish in the oven and cokk for 1 hour.

Serve with vegetables of your choice.

Spicy Stuffed Aubergines with Yakitori Pork Chops

Ingredients
2 pork chops
4 tbsp Yakitori sauce (Japanese)
1 aubergine (eggplant) - see Step 2 for preparations
1 courgette (diced)
a handful of (100g) mushrooms (chopped)
1 yellow pepper (diced)
1 green chilli (chopped)
1 clove of garlic (chopped)
Half a tin of chopped tomoatoes (200g)
1 tbsp chilli bean paste (optional)
olive oil
salt & pepper


Step 1
Marinate the pork chops in the Yakitori sauce. If you can't find Yakitori sauce the simply mix some dark soy with brown sugar and use that instead. Leave in the fridge to marinate for a while.


Step 2
Heat the oven to 180°C. Slice the aubergine in half longways. Scoop out the flesh to leave the skin. Set the flesh aside for step 3. Rub olive oil, salt and pepper into the skin of the aubergine. Place them on a baking tray and pop them in the oven for 15-20 minutes until soft.

Step 3
Dice the aubergine, mushrooms, courgette and pepper. In a large frying pan fry the garlic and chilli until the garlic starts to turn brown. Then add the vegetables, chopped tomatoes and chilli bean paste (optional) and continue to cook for 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Step 4
Remove the aubergine skins from the over and spoon the vegetables into the skins. Place the stuffed skins back in the oven.

Step 5
Fry the marinated pork chops for 3-4 minutes each side. When they are done serve with the stuffed aubergines.

In Japan Yakitori sauce is traditionally used with poultry, in particular chicken. We stumbled upon the fact that it tastes great with pork simply because we didn't know that you're supposed to use it with chicken. Try it, you might like it.

Marinated Pork Satay

Right then here we go with the first recipe. This was one of the dishes that inspired this blog. Its a recipe for two. I hope you enjoy.

Ingredients:
2 pork steaks (sliced into strips)
100g of green beans (halved in length)
1 green pepper (sliced)
7 cherry tomatoes (halved)
1 clove of garlic (chopped)
2 pinches of Muer (Wood ear)
1 tbsp satay sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp knorr chicken powder
1 tbsp olive oil

For the marinade:
1 tsp corn flour
1 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil

1) Mix the marinade ingredients together and pour over the pork strips. They will need to marinate for at least 10 minutes. To prepare the muer place in a bowl of recently boiled water for 10 minutes.

2) When the pork has been marinated for long enough, heat half the olive oil in a pan and fry the pork strips for 5 minutes. Once cooked through remove pork from pan and set aside.

3) Using the same pan heat the rest of the oil, when hot add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Then add the tomatoes, beans and pepper. Fry for 3-5 mins until the vegetables lose some of their firmness.

4) Drain the muer and add to the pan with the pork. Add the satay sauce, soy sauce and the chicken powder and stir thoroughly. If the dish looks a bit dry add some water but not too much.

5) Serve immediately with rice.