Roasted Pork tenderloin on Saffron Rice with Oven Potatoes and Broccoli

Ingredients for the recipe: (for 2 People)

• 1 organic pork loin about 300grs
• 250grs rice
• 1/2 onion
• 2 long potatoes (washed and cut into wedges)
  
• 2 pieces of broccoli (cut into small pieces)
  
• 1 soup spoon of turmeric
• 1 tablespoon of tomato concentrate
• 1 tablespoon of butter
  
• 1 Tea Spoon of chilli powder
  
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 piece of ginger (size of a clove of garlic)
• 1 sprig of parsley
  
• olive oil, salt and pepper to taste

Very simple good wholesome food, as most of my dishes. Make small incisions in the pork loin as you see in the picture. Then in a small bowl crush the garlic, ginger, a little salt, pepper cream until it makes a consistent, rub it well in the back especially in the incisions, and let the rest for about 30 to 60 minutes.

Then put a skillet pan on the stove and in a little oil, once hot put it and let the loin fry sealing it and making crispy and golden all around, cooking is done pretty fast so it will still be raw inside, then place the skillet in the oven (or transfer the pork to an oven-proof dish and bake it for about 15 minutes 200celcius. 10 minutes before putting the pork loin in the oven, put the potatoes in a baking tray seasoning them with a little olive oil and some salt, these then bake for 25 minutes ending at the same time as the loin. While the pork cooks make the rice placing this in a pan with only a little salt and water, boil it until it is almost cooked (only short about two minutes).

Meanwhile in another pan put the chopped onion, the remaining chopped garlic, the chilli, a tablespoon of turmeric, salt and black pepper to taste, and about four tablespoons of olive oil and fry until the onions have caramelized a little, about 5 minutes stirring occasionally. Once cooked, add a little water and a tablespoon of tomato concentrate and one of butter, stir it and cook a further 3 minutes.

Now add the drained cooked rice to this sauce cook for a further 1 minute, mix in the chopped parsley cover with a lid and let it rest 3 minutes. Of course while the rice is doing, on another little pan cook the broccoli. Then just arrange the plate, this dish if if you notice is the header on my blog. Bon appetit!

Portuguese Battered Cod & Roasted Potatoes with Cauliflower

Receita em Português AQUI

Now this is a very simple dish and therefore the recipe is mainly on the cod and it's batter, but I will also descriptively tell you how to make the accompaniment.

Recipe ingredients: (enough for 4)

• 1 egg (stirred in a bow)
  
• 4 soup spoons of flour (in another bowl)
  
• 1 garlic clove (minced)
• 1 lemon (in juice)
  
• 400grs fresh cod fillets (skinless and cut into smaller portions)
  
• salt and pepper (to taste)

The roasted potatoes I done these without any precooking, basically just get some medium to small potatoes (enough for the people you cooking them for, around 2-3 per person), peal them and the larger ones cut in half. Place a roasting tray in the oven with some olive oil to cover the bottom, then once hot place the potatoes in and back into the oven for about 45 minutes at 200c (temperature) and that should be the potatoes done.

The cauliflower and broccoli (yes I did broccoli, but is not on the picture as plate was already full) I steamed these, by putting a pan on the stove with about 1 inch deep of water with a little salt, I washed and cut both of these veg to more manageable pieces and place them in the pan with a lid on and once started boiling I reduced the flame to just above minimum to continue the boiling and placed a lid on the pan to recycle the water and steam, I cooked these for 15 minutes, obviously keep a check as you may want them better cooked or less cooked. but that is the veg done.

The fish, this one you dry very well with either paper towels or kitchen towel, squeezing the fish to really draw the excess water (as they always have lots of water) this is important as next we marinade the fish and we want these marinade to be absorbed. On a little container (maybe a ramekin) mix the lemon juice and the garlic, leave it for about 3-5 minutes to infuse flavours and then put it all over the fish marinading the fish in this leaving it for 30 minutes, don't forget to also add a little salt and pepper to the marinade. Once this is done, you place a frying pan on the stove with about 1/2 inch of vegetable oil, and piece by piece (of cod) you pass it through the flour, both sides shake off the excess than into the egg making sure is well involved, than into the piping hot oil, repeat the process until the frying pan is full, but make sure at the same time you need to turn the fish over as soon as it is sealed, letting it cook on both sides until is golden brown, I had to do the fish into two go's as it didn't all fit in the first batch in the frying pan. Once the fish is cooked place it on a plate with a couple of paper towels to absorb the excess oil. And you done, it is delicious and the fish just flakes off when you eat it.

I use the above accompaniment in the winter and in the summer (also a more traditional Portuguese way) I do it with tomato rice and a mix salad of tomato, onion and lettuce (with a little vinaigrette, making this meal lighter and more refreshing. Have fun..

Merry Xmas - Xmas Dinner

I would like to share my xmas dinner pictures, and maybe release some recipes for the stuff I cooked, however there aren't really any recipes as such, as this food is very simple.

As you can see above the dish comprises of nut loaf, roasted potatoes, sweet roasted potatoes, apple sauce, Yorkshire puddings, Brussels sprouts, boiled carrots, roasted parsnips, roasted chicken and thick gravy.

The table was arranged as you can see below, very Christmas like and also with crackers. You always need crackers at the Christmas table, the kids love it ...well I love it too.



The Brussels and carrots are only boiled, the parsnips, roasting potatoes and sweet potatoes, are just placed in a tray with a little olive oil and goes to roast in the oven for about 40-60mins.

The chicken I crushed some garlic (3 cloves) salt (1 tea spoon) chili (2 finely sliced) a little olive oil a pinch of black pepper and paprika (1 tea spoon), crush all of this together until you get a paste. Rub this paste all over the outside of the chicken and also on the inside, also get a lemon and press it against the balcony with the palm of your hand while rolling it at the same time, this releases the juice inside the lemon, when the lemon feels bruised (soft) prickle all the lemon with a sharp fork, so that juice can be released, insert lemon inside the chicken.
This works as the lemon gets hot the liquid inside gets hot and it expands having no where to go but out of the wholes you made with the fork which as the chicken cooks gradually adds lemon on the inside...clever hum!!!! I learned this one with my mum, when I was a young one lol.



Yorkshire puddings, again very easy to do, just make a batter as if you were doing pancakes (just do not add sugar) add a pinch of salt and black pepper instead. If you don't know the ingredients they are:

1 glass of plain flour about 1 & 1/2 glasses of milk one egg, the pinch of salt and pepper, beat it all together, put a muffin tray with some a spoon of olive oil in each cup space, heat this until very hot (200c) then pour the pancake liquid inside each cup about 2 thirds full, it will bubble as you do this, place it right back in the oven and watch them grow, let them go golden brown ...easy peasy.... merry Xmas.

Turkey Wraps

Feeling a little tired I decided to use the Waldorf salad I prepared yesterday (see previous posting) so I had to decide what to do to go with the salad.

I could do many things, but being tired I decided to go for something simple, therefore no real food recipe to be had here just an report. I had in the fridge some Turkey steaks and I had bought some streaky bacon for breakfast, so I cut the steaks into strips and seasoned them with salt, pepper, lemon juice and a little olive oil, wrapped the streaky bacon as you can see in the picture. The reason for this is that turkey has very little flavour and bacon has quite a lot of flavour and they compliment each other really well. I let them marinade for about 30 minutes.

On a frying pan I put some oil and slithers of garlic and when hot placed the turkey wraps and turning often until golden brown , prior to cooking I did sprinkle a little smokey paprika on top for extra flavour. While they were cooking i placed some crinkle oven chips in the oven and a couple of fish cakes for the people in my house that don't eat meat. On the plate I laid some salad leafs placed the Waldorf salad on top added a few cucumber slices, then when cooked....

I added the turkey wraps and the chips, I them after added some barbecue sauce and a little wine vinegar to the salad, while my wife taking the turkey wraps had the fish cake and the same salad and chips arrangement, simple yet was very tasty indeed...if you make this simple dish you are guaranteed to enjoy it.

Stuffed Peppers and Vegie Roast

Recipe Ingredients:

• 1/2 Kg basmati rice
• 200 grs fish (I used Cod de-boned and skinless / other fish can be used)
  
• 200 grs Prawns
• 1 courgette
• 1 large onion
• 1 sweet bell pepper (red)
• 4 Large peppers (any colour)
  
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 large carrot
• 1 soup spoon of tomato concentrate (paste)
• 2 soup spoons of fish sauce
• 1 pinch of cayenne pepper (powder)
  

Boil the rice in some water a pinch of salt for about 10 minutes (until the rice is cooked but not overcooked) while that is doing dice all the vegetables finely and stir-fry them in come olive oil when cooked add the tomato paste and half a glass of water let it simmer for about 3 minutes then add the fish sauce the pinch of cayenne and the fish, simmer until the fish is cooked, break the fish into flakes and lastly add the prawns (I used frozen prawns peeled and cooked) heating until the prawns are fully defrosted and hot. Once you achieved that stuff the four peppers (you may have some left over rice you can serve it with the dinner) that you previously cut the tops and cleared the seeds, wrap them in foil fully with the lids and bake in the oven for 25 minutes.
Prior to that if you like as an accompaniment you can cut about 10 large Charlotte onions 2 large sweet potatoes 4 large parsnips and one large fennel into chunks put them in a roasting tray drizzling them with olive oil and some fragrant honey also add salt and pepper to taste these will take about 40 minutes to cook gas mark 200, so manage your time and make them both come together. It makes a rather nice Café/restaurant serving portion ( one pepper, a spoons of rice mixture and the roast Veg, as it can be reheated in the Microwave).

Short and Smoking Cod

This is my latest invention, and I guarantee it was delicious:

Recipe Ingredients:

• 400grs of smoked cod
• 1 onion
• 1 garlic
• 1 large head of broccoli
  
• 1 hand full of cheese
• 1 Glass full of grated cheese
  
• 2 glasses of milk
• salt and pepper to taste

Poach the fish in the milk until cooked then strain fish remove any skin and bones an flake it into a bowl (do not throw the milk away), dice the onion and the garlic finely and stir-fry it until caramelized, add it to the fish, boil the broccoli until cooked then dice it and add it to the fish, finally in a glass mix some flour (about two spoons full) and water until runny cream consistency, take me milk to the heat when starting to boil pour the flour mixture into the milk slowly and always stirring until quite thick like very thick gravy, then add the cheese which will make it thicker still, add this to fish too. (Alternatively you can use instead of milk one cup of mash potato mixed in with the cheese and into the fish mixture)
For the pastry mix 1 cup of flour with about 50grs of butter.mix with your hand until it resembles crumbs then add a little water and kneed it until it forms a soft dough,cut it in half and roll one half to cover bottom of pirex dish and the other half for the lid, brush the top with milk and an egg yolk and bake in in the oven for about 25 minutes.
For the accompaniment I sliced four potatoes 4 carrots and 2 sweet potatoes drizled them with olive oil paprika, salt and pepper. and baked that too in the oven for the same 25 minutes. "Bon apetit"