WWDH - Asian Spiced Lemongrass Pork

 For Wednesday with Donna Hay this week, I made Asian Spiced Lemongrass Pork from Everyday Fresh.

This dish involves making a stir fry paste with ginger, garlic, chilli, lemongrass and Kaffir lime (the latter of which I left out because I didn’t have it). This paste is cooked until fragrant in a fry pan, before the pork mince is added and stir fried until golden. Finally, a sauce of rice wine vinegar, brown sugar and fish sauce is added to the mince and cooked until the sugar dissolves.

Donna suggests a number of ways to serve this mince. I went my own way with rice, green beans and carrots as sides.

To see more Donna Hay dishes, visit Kayte and Margaret.

WWDH - Mustard and Fennel Pork

 This week’s Wednesday with Donna Hay recipe is Mustard and Fennel Pork. The recipe is online here.

I took liberties with this recipe. I left out the skewers and chose my own sides, including my own choice of fennel salad that I’d already made.

To check out some more Donna Hay dishes, visit Kayte at Grandma’s Kitchen Table, Margaret at Tea and Scones, and Peggy at Pantry Revisited.    

Pork meatball curry

 

I see you're wearing a white shirt and eating curry.  I too like to live dangerously. 

I am a member of the Quarantine with Jam and Claire Facebook group.  Jam is Jamila, and once every few weeks, she co-hosts a cook-along session on Facebook Live.  One of those sessions is Substitution Cooking, which she co-hosts with Alice Zaslavsky, who blogs as Alice In Frames and first entered Australian loungerooms on Master Chef.  Here they are in yesterday's Substitution Cooking session: 

I haven't ever cooked along before, although I have just watched, but yesterday's recipe took my fancy - a pork meatball curry with a Thai-style curry sauce.  I already had all of the ingredients and I am always scratching my head as to what to make for dinner, so this was the perfect time to jump in and cook along.

The recipe we used was based on Smitten Kitchen's Braised Ginger Meatballs in Coconut Broth.  It's not something I would have been attracted to from the title, especially as the original is described as a soup rather than a curry, but when described as a pork mince curry, I was there.

Here's my meatballs and sauce at the nearly done phase.  The meatballs are baked; quite a bit of fat came out of the meat during the process.  I liked the idea of the meatballs being baked rather than fried, and they stayed quite juicy.  The curry sauce is based on coconut milk and chicken stock flavoured with lime, chilli, turmeric, garlic and ginger.  Despite this not being a dish I would have chosen myself, I am glad that I cooked along with the Substitution Cooking Group and made it - it was delicious, and I'd make it again.  

To make this delicious, fragrant curry, you will need:

900g pork mince (I used half and half pork and pork and veal mince)

2 eggs

3 tablespoons panko breadcrumbs

2 tablespoons finely chopped peeled fresh ginger

4 cloves garlic (I just used minced garlic in a tube)

2 tablespoons fish sauce

400g can coconut milk

2 cups (500ml) chicken stock

1/4 cup thinly sliced peeled fresh ginger

2 fresh red chillies, deseeded and thinly sliced

zest of 1 lime and juice of half a lime

2 teaspoons ground turmeric

1/2 teaspoon white sugar

a few handfuls of baby spinach

salt to taste

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius, and line a baking tray with baking paper.

For the meatballs, in a large bowl, mix together the mince, breadcrumbs, eggs, 2 tablespoons ginger, 2 cloves minced garlic, 1 tablespoon fish sauce and salt to taste.  Use your hands - it's the easiest and best way.  Roll the mince mixture into golf-ball sized balls and place an inch apart on the baking tray.  Bake the meatballs for 15 minutes or until golden.

In the meantime, make the sauce.  In a large high sided fry pan or a Dutch oven, mix together the coconut milk, sugar, 1 tablespoon fish sauce, chilli, 1/4 cup ginger, chicken stock, turmeric, 2 cloves minced garlic, lime juice and zest, and season with salt.  Simmer for 10 minutes.

Remove the meatballs from the oven, and place into the sauce.  Simmer for a further 15 minutes.  Just before serving, add the spinach to the pot and stir through until just wilted.

Serve with rice and extra fresh chopped red chilli, if desired.  

 

Ottolenghi's Spiced Shepherd's Pie with Butterbean Crust

I own a copy of Ottolenghi's Simple, and have baked numerous terrific sweet dishes from that book.  However, I thought it was time to try some of the savoury dishes.  I started with the Spiced Shepherd's Lamb Pie with Butterbean Crust.  If you don't own Simple, Ottolenghi has published the recipe in The Guardian here. 

Traditionally, Shepherd's Pie has a mashed potato crust, so I found the idea of a mashed butterbean crust quite intriguing. Tahini is mixed through the butterbeans to give a lovely nutty flavour.

I also mixed things up by using pork mince instead of lamb mince. 

The mince filling contains green olives and dried apricots, giving the pie an exotic, tagine-like flavour.

I served my Shepherd's Pie with boiled beans and carrots that had a tablespoon of carrots mixed through.  It was a wonderful feast for a cool evening.

Pork, Caramelised Apple and Caraway Sausage Rolls

Today is Father's Day in Australia.  If you want to help your meat-loving Dad celebrate with some food treats, you can't go past the Pork, Caramelised Apple and Fennel Sausage Rolls in the Tivoli Road Baker book. 

These sausage rolls have an absolutely delicious filling, and go down a treat with a dipper of tomato sauce.

Me being me, I substituted the fennel seeds for caraway seeds (because that is what I had), and on top of the sausage rolls, I used a mixture of sesame seeds and poppy seeds that I had from another project (again in substitution for fennel seeds). 

I highly recommend giving these sausage rolls a go if you are a meat lover.  To make them, you will need (as modified by me):

2 tablespoons caraway seeds
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 brown onions, peeled and diced
4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
3 sprigs rosemary, finely chopped
1 teaspoon dried thyme
20g butter
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and diced
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1.2kg pork mince
65g fresh breadcrumbs
1 teaspoon salt
1 lightly beaten egg
5 sheets Pampas frozen puff pastry
sesame seeds for sprinkling on top

Toast the caraway seeds in a small dry frypan until fragrant.  Crush in a mortar and pestle, and set aside.

 In a large frying pan, heat the vegetable oil.  sweat off the garlic and onions until lightly caramelised.  Add the caraway seeds, rosemary and thyme, cook for a minute, then set aside to cool.

Wipe out the large frypan and melt the butter in it.  Cook the apples in the butter for 2 minutes, then add the sugar to the pan.  Cook until the sugar is caramelised, then deglaze the pan with the vinegar, and set the apples aside to cool.  

Combine the mince, apples, breadcrumbs and salt in a large mixing bowl.  Using your hands, mix through the onion and garlic mixture until all ingredients are evenly distributed.

Cut each sheet of puff pastry in half.  Divide the sausage mixture evenly between each half piece of pastry (10 batches in all), and place the mince along a long edge of each piece of pastry, forming into a sausage shape with your hands which is the length of the pastry.  Brush the other long edge of the pastry with the beaten egg, then roll the pastry from the meat side to the beaten egg side, with the sealed edge on the bottom.  Place each roll on a baking tray, then brush the top of the sausage rolls with beaten egg, and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Lightly prick the top of each roll with a fork.  Refrigerate the rolls for half an hour.

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.  Bake the sausage rolls for 40 minutes or until golden on top and cooked through.

Serve warm with tomato sauce on the side.

Pulled Pork with Olives and Pearl Barley

It is still winter here in Melbourne, and we are still getting cold, grey wet days on a consistent basis. This kind of weather calls for hearty food to warm you from the inside out.

One of my favourite recipes that I tried recently for a hearty winter meal is Pulled Pork with Olives and Pearl Barley, from p42 of the July 2019 edition of Coles magazine.  The flavours are wonderful, and the dish is warning and filling.

The pork is cooked in the slow cooker with onion, tomatoes, garlic, carrot, celery, stock and pearl barley to give rich, deep flavour to the pork, and baby spinach and olives are added at the end for additional flavour and bulk.

To make this wonderful dish, you will need:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1.8kg boneless roast pork shoulder
2 brown onions, coarsely chopped
4 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1 carrot, coarsely chopped
3 cups (750ml) chicken stock
400g can diced tomatoes
1 cup (200g) pearl barley
1/4 cup tomato paste
100g pitted green olives, coarsely chopped
50g pitted Kalamata olives, coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
120g packet baby spinach

Heat the oil in a large frying pan, remove the string from the pork, season with salt and pepper, and cook in the pan for 2-3 minutes each side or until browned.  Transfer the browned pork to a slow cooker.

Add the onion, garlic, carrot, celery, stock, diced tomato, pearl barley and tomato paste to the pork in the slow cooker.  Cover the slow cooker and cook the pork on high for 6 hours (or 8 hours on low) until the pork is tender and the mixture thickens.  Transfer the pork to a plate.

Add the olives and vinegar to the mixture in the slow cooker and stir to combine.  Stir in the spinach.

Using two forks, coarsely shred the pork.  Divide the barley mixture evenly between 8 serving bowls.  Top each bowl with shredded pork and a little dill (if desired).

Roast Pork with Cherry Sauce - Red Tractor December

Well, this year is nearly over - where did it go?  I have reached December in my Red Tractor calendar, and the final recipe for this year is Christmas Pork with Cherry Sauce.

The calendar quote says it all:

I was very pleased with the crackle that I got on my roast pork - it is a fabulous colour:

My unusual choice of vegetables with the finished pork arose from the fact that I originally had planned to make stir fry for the week, but ended up making this pork instead. The stir fried vegetables were good, even if they did clash a little with the cherry sauce.

To make your own Christmas Pork with Cherry Sauce, you will need:

2kg boned and rolled pork shoulder (I used pork leg)
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons salt

Preheat your oven to 250 degrees Celsius (fan forced).  Unroll the pork and pat the skin dry with a paper towel.  Score the skin diagonally with a sharp knife (and I mean sharp - I used a box cutter).  Re-roll the pork and tie  with string to secure.  

Brush the oil over the pork and rub with sea salt.

Put the pork on a roasting rack in a roasting pan and roast for 20 minutes or until the skin starts to blister.  Decrease the oven temperature to 170 degrees Celsius, and cook the pork for another 70-90 minutes or until the crackling is golden and crisp.

Rest the pork for up to half an hour before serving.

For the cherry sauce:

Melt 60g chopped butter in a saucepan.  Add 2 chopped shallots and 2 teaspoons chopped thyme.  Stir over the heat for 5 minutes.  Add 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar, and cook for a further minute or until reduced by half.  

Add 300g pitted cherries (fresh or frozen), 1/4 cup cherry jam and 1/4 cup water to the saucepan.  Bring  the sauce to the boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and simmer the sauce until slightly thickened.  Season the sauce with salt and pepper to taste.

Phillippa's Sausage Rolls

Who doesn't love an Aussie sausage roll?  Spicy mince, flaky pastry and tomato sauce (of course!) merge to make one delicious, popular treat.

I recently made the sausage rolls from Phillippa's Home Baking, which use rough puff pastry and a mixture of beef and pork mince.  For those not from Melbourne, Phillippa's is a bakery institution established by Phillippa Grogan, famed for its breads and other baked goods. 

These sausage rolls did not disappoint - they had flaky pastry, and were just on the right side of spicy and juicy:

Have I tempted you to make some sausage rolls for yourself?  If so, you will need:

Rough puff:

225g plain flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
170g cold butter, cubed
125ml chilled water
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Put the flour and salt into a bowl.  Add the butter, water and lemon juice.  Use your hands to mix the ingredients together into a rough dough, then wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for half an hour.

Take the dough from the fridge and roll into a rectangle about 20cm x 30cm, with the edges being as straight as possible.  Fold one short end of the dough into the middle of the rectangle, then fold the doubled over part of the dough over the top of the remaining third of the dough so that you have a folded piece of pastry measuring 20cm x 10cm.  Wrap in plastic film and chill in the fridge for half an hour.

Repeat the rolling and folding process with the pastry three more times.  You now have ready to use rough puff pastry!

Sausage rolls: 

80g fresh breadcrumbs
1 brown onion, chopped
100ml tomato sauce (ketchup)
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
3/4 teaspoon salt 
3/4 teaspoon black pepper
350g beef mince
350g pork mince
2 tablespoons chopped flat leaf parsley
1 tablespoon chopped thyme or sage
1 x rough puff pastry
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk

Process the breadcrumbs in a food processor to make medium sized breadcrumbs, and place into a large bowl.

Put the onion, tomato sauce, mustard, salt and pepper into the food processor and blitz to a puree, then spoon into the bowl with the breadcrumbs.  Add the mince, parsley and herbs to the bowl and mix with your hands until well combined.  Place into a covered bowl and chill.

Preheat your oven to 220 degrees Celsius.  Line two baking trays with baking paper or silicon mats.

Lightly flour your work bench, then roll out the rough puff pastry into a rectangle measuring 48cm x 30cm.  Cut the pastry into three pieces measuring 30cm x 16cm each.

Take the sausage meat mixture and divide into three even pieces.  Roll each piece into a ball, then roll  each ball into a sausage measuring the length of the long end of the pastry.  Place one sausage on the edge of one long end of a pastry strip, brush the opposite long end of the pastry strip with water, then roll the pastry, starting with the sausage edge, to enclose the sausage in the pastry. Press the edges of the pastry join lightly with a fork to seal.

Repeat for each of the other two pastry strips and the remaining sausage mixture.  Cut each long sausage roll into the desired size using a sharp knife (I cut each into quarters for party sized sausage rolls).

In a small bowl, beat the egg and milk together with a fork, then using a pastry brush, brush this egg wash mixture over the top of the sausage rolls.  

Place the sausage rolls on the lined trays and bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes or until cooked through and golden on top. 

Serve the sausage rolls hot with lashings of tomato sauce.

Pulled Pork Rolls with Fennel & Apple Slaw - Red Tractor April

It's time for this month's Red Tractor calendar recipe, which is Pulled Pork Rolls with Fennel & Apple Slaw.

Before we get started, this is April's calendar quote:

I am not sure that this always holds true, but certainly I can thank my Mum for a good solid start in life and ongoing support.

I did not use the calendar recipe for the pork; instead, I used this slow cooker recipe from Taste.com. 

I agree with the comments on the recipe that the spice content could have been upped a bit, but in the end, it was ok and fit for purpose.

Here is my assembled roll (open roll is featured at the top of the post to showcase the slaw):

Once you have your pulled pork, you will need the following to make up the rolls:

1 thinly sliced fennel bulb, retain fronds
2 tablespoons parsley leaves (I skipped it)
1 pink lady apple, skin on, quartered and thinly sliced (or any red apple)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon sugar
juice of half a lemon
2 tablespoons wholegrain mustard
1/4 cup aioli (or 1/4 cup mayo with a squirt of garlic paste mixed in) 
6 crusty bread roll, split
3-4 cups pulled pork

Toss, the fennel, fronds, parsley, apple slices, olive oil, sugar and juice together.  Season with salt and pepper and stand for 5 minutes.

Mix the aioli and mustard together and spread on the bread rolls.

Top each roll with a handful of pulled pork and slaw (and crispy pork skin if you have any - mine was chewy sadly). 

I liked the aioli and mustard spread and would do that again.  I also quite liked the slaw.  However, there seemed to be a lot of pork, so I might cheat if I made these again and use sliced pork from the deli or some alternative.

EwE - Apple and Spinach Stuffed Pork Chops with Mustard Wine Sauce - Mother's Favourite

 

This week's Eating with Ellie theme is Mother's Favourite, chosen by Kayte.  It coincides with Mother's Day this Sunday.

 

My mother likes very plain food, and I strongly suspect that many of Ellie's recipes would not appeal to her.  I therefore took the liberty of choosing what I would like for my favourite instead.

 

The recipe that I selected is Apple and Spinach Stuffed Pork Chops with Mustard Wine Sauce from Comfort Food Fix.  As the title of the dish suggests, pork chops are stuffed with apple, spinach - and sauerkraut!  The hardest part was cutting the pocket in the chops, and on the last one, I managed to cut my finger.

 

This dish was very hearty and good to eat.  I would make it again.

 

To see what the others made for this week's theme, visit the LYL section of the Eating with Ellie website. 

 

 

Sweet and Sour Pork

If you go to your average Chinese takeaway in Australia and order sweet and sour pork, you will be served battered pieces of pork coated in an atomic red sauce.  It's a bit like the British version of chicken tikka masala.  However, in the June 2016 edition of Gourmet Traveller, there is a beautiful Cantonese recipe for sweet and sour pork that is nothing like the Chinese takeaway version.  I couldn't wait to make it.

I was so glad that I did - it was rich, spicy and flavourful, and no atomic red sauce in sight.  I served this gorgeous dish with brown rice to ensure that all of that wonderful sauce was soaked up.

To make this Cantonese sweet and sour pork by Tony Tan, you will need:

250g fresh pineapple
1 small onion
1 firm tomato
1/2 red capsicum
1/2 green capsicum
1 spring onion
2-3 long red chillies, deseeded
2 cloves garlic
oil for deep frying
75g potato flour + 1 tspn extra
65g rice flour
steamed rice to serve

Pork

1 teaspoon five spice powder
2 tspns light soy sauce
2 tspns Shaoxing wine
1 tspn ginger juice (squeezed from 2 tbspns finely grated ginger)
1 beaten egg
500g pork neck

Sweet and sour sauce

185ml chicken stock
125 ml tomato sauce
1 tbspn sugar
1 tbspn rice vinegar
2 tspns light soy sauce
1/2 tspn dark soy sauce
1/2 tspn sesame oil

For the pork:

Mix all of the ingredients other than the pork together in a bowl. 

Cut the  pork into 3cm pieces, toss in the marinade in the bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and marinate for at least 15 minutes.

For the sauce:

Mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl.

For the rest:

Cut the pineapple into bite sized pieces, cut the onion and tomato into wedges, thinly slice the capsicums and chillies, cut the spring onion into batons, finely chop the garlic;  set aside.

Heat the oil in a wok.  Combine the flours in a bowl, add the marinated pork and toss to coat, then deep fry the pork in batches until browned and crisp.  Drain the pork on paper towels.

Wipe the wok clean and add 1 tbspn frying oil.  Once heated, add the garlic, chillies and onion, and stir fry until the onion starts to colour.  Add the capsicum and pineapple and stir fry for 20 seconds.

Add the sweet and sour sauce, bring to the boil, then add the spring onion and tomato, and stir fry until warmed through.

Combine the extra tspn of potato flour with 1 tbspn cold water and stir into the sauce to thicken.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Return the pork to the wok and warm through.  Serve over rice.

EwE - Pork Tenderloin with Fennel and Grapes - Put Some Pork on Your Fork

For Eating with Ellie this week, I chose the theme of "Put Some Pork on Your Fork". For this theme, I am sharing Ellie's Pork Tenderloin with Fennel and Grapes, from Weeknight Wonders.  It seems that I am a creature of habit, as I subsequently discovered that I also chose this dish for EwE on February 19, 2015.  Oh well, good dishes are worth a revisit, don't you think?

Pork and fennel are a match made in heaven, and this dish features both ground fennel to flavour the pork and fennel bulbs on the side.  The grapes add sweetness and further flavour to the dish.

Pork tenderloin is not the cheapest cut of meat out, but it is very good.  I enjoyed this dish with Ellie's Warm Bulgar Salad with Grapes and Feta (coming to this site soon!).

If you like healthy, tasty dishes, check out Ellie Krieger's recipes - I have really been enjoying them.

To see what Ellie pork dishes the others made, visit the LYL section of the EwE website.

Lentil-Braised Pork with Olives

In the January/February 2016 edition of Taste magazine, there were quite a few Cook It Now! recipes that I literally wanted to cook now.  One of them was this chicken curry.  Another recipe that I made was Lentil Braised Pork with Olives.

As you can see, it is a bright and colourful dish.  It is full of lots of good things, and is only 426 calories per serve, with 15g of fat.  It is also tasty.  Win, win.

To make this dish, you will need:

1 1/2 tbspns olive oil
4 pork cutlets (I just used pork medallions)
 1 chopped brown onion
2 thinly sliced garlic cloves
1 tspn fennel seeds
200g halved grape tomatoes
185ml dry white wine
185ml chicken stock
2 tspns Dijon mustard
400g can brown lentils
2 tbspns lemon juice
1/2 cup chopped parsley
85g sliced green olives

Heat the oil in a large frying pan, season the pork with salt and pepper and cook for 3 minutes in the pan or until browned each side.  Put the pork on a plate.

Add the onion and garlic to the pan, cooking until softened.  Add the fennel seeds and cook for 1 minute.  Add the tomatoes and cook for another 1 minute.  Add the wine and simmer for 2 minutes or until the wine is reduced by half.

Stir in the stock and mustard and simmer for 5 minutes.  Stir in the lentils.

Return the pork to the pan and cook, turning the pork halfway, for 6 minutes or until cooked through.  Stir in 1 tbspn lemon juice and season with salt and pepper.

In a bowl, combine the parsley, olives and remaining lemon juice.  Serve the pork topped with the olive mixture.

EwE - Marvellous Meat - Pork Tenderloin with Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage and Dried Cherries - err, Cranberries

For Eating with Ellie this week, the theme, chosen by me, is Marvellous Meat.  The recipe that I chose from Weeknight Wonders was  Pork Tenderloin with Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage and Dried Cherries.  What attracted me to it was that it sounded like a dish you might get in a Hofbrauhaus - something German in origin with sauerkraut.

As you can see, the finished dish is - well, very red.  It doesn't look that appealing despite its rather cool name, but if you like sauerkraut, this is a very nice dish.

I couldn't find dried cherries so I used dried cranberries instead.  I also added whole wheat noodles to the mix instead of serving them as a side, as recommended by Ellie.

I would make this again, but I recommend adding some other veges on the side for some colour and shade, and for flavours other than just the sweet and sour.

To see what the others did for this week;s theme, visit the LYL section of the EwE website. 

EwE - Chinese Vegetable Soup with Pork

For Eating with Ellie this week, Chaya selected Chinese Vegetable Soup with Pork.

This was a very tasty vegetable soup, but puzzingly, the pork was left on the side.  I wanted my pork to be flavoured by the soup, so I added it on top.

This was a really good light meal - I'd make it again.

To see what the other Ellie cooks thought, visit the LYL section of the EwE website.

FFWD - Pork Roast with Mangoes and Lychees

I had a sense of deja vu with this week's French Friday with Dorie dish, as I had made Pork Roast with Mangoes and Lychees back in 2010.  Granted, the photo back then was a little confronting with all that unrendered fat on the roast, but I enjoyed it very much.  That meant that I was happy to front up for round two.

This time, instead of using a pork roast, I used pork tenderloin medallions - faster and easier to cook, and less waste for one person.  I used fresh mango and tinned lychees (fresh ones being out of season).

I am a sucker for meat and fruit together so I loved this dish.  On the day I made it, I couldn't eat it because I had been having a bad day health-wise, and the smell of the garlic and onions in the sauce made me feel nauseous.  However, next day, I was right as rain and enjoyed every last drop of the sauce.

This was once again a winner for me, and a dish that I would happily repeat - but I will have to be careful of the company I serve it to, because I can see from the Dorista forum comments that the fruit-meat combination (or maybe just the lychees!) is confronting for some.

Visit the LYL section of the FFWD website to get the insight of the other Doristas on this dish.

EwE - Pork Bahn Mi Sandwiches

We're Eating with Ellie again this week, and Glennis selected Pork Bahn Mi Sandwiches from Weeknight Wonders. You can also find the recipe for these sandwiches online here.

I am a fan of bahn mi, so I was happy to make this sandwich.  It was very tasty, with a bit of sweet and a bit of sour flavouring the pork.

To see what the other Ellie cooks thought of this recipe, visit the LYL section of the EwE website.

EwE - Pork Tenderloin with Fennel and Grapes

It's Eating with Ellie time, and this week, it's my pick from Weeknight Wonders - Pork Tenderloin with Fennel and Grapes. 

I just know there's a bunch of people who hate fruit and meat together, and another bunch who hate aniseed flavour, who are hating the sound of this dish.  However, I cooked it, and I loved it!

I made this dish for Valentine's Day dinner.  I paired the pork with mashed potato and broccolini with toasted almonds and balsamic vinegar.  It was all so good, and I loved the sauce that was served with the pork.  This dish has a little bit sweet, a little bit aniseed, and a lot of oh so good.

To see what the others thought of this dish, visit the LYL section of the EwE website.

WWDH - Chinese barbecue pork

For Wednesday with Donna Hay this week, I chose Chinese barbecue pork from Modern Classics I.  
 
It was a rather disappointing dish for me in a number of ways. First, I ran out of time and the supermarket where I went to buy the pork only had pork stir fry strips.  Being out of time, I decided to make do, but I am sure that this dish would have been better with the thicker pork strips (2" wide) called for in the recipe.

In the end, I was also not a fan of the strong aniseed flavour from the Chinese five spice powder.  This dish is probably not going to be repeated in my house.

I served my pork with stir fry vegetables and boiled brown rice:

It looks pretty good, but I wasn't a fan.

To see what Kayte, Margaret, Chaya and Sarah thought of this dish, visit their websites.

WWDH - American Style Pork Ribs

Today's Wednesday with Donna Hay recipe is American Style Beef Ribs, chosen by Sarah from Modern Classics Book I.  The recipe is also posted online here.

For some reason, my ribs didn't go dark in colour, but I don't care - they tasted good anyway.  What's not to like about pork ribs in a spicy tomato-ey, caramelly sauce.

To see what Sarah, Kayte, Margaret and Chaya thought, visit their websites.