Pork Sausage, Pea & Pepper Casserole

This Pork Sausage, Pea & Pepper Casserole is great served over mashed potato

This is really easy midweek supper which you can throw together using ingredients from your freezer and store cupboard. Sausage casseroles are usually a hit with the whole family – you can also try my Tangy Sausage Casserole over here or my vegetable packed Lazy Sausage Casserole over here.

I always have a few packets of pork sausages in the freezer as they are a handy standby. If you don’t feel like making a casserole with the sausages, I’ve published several recipes using pork sausages in different ways on the blog over the years - have a look at my Homemade Pork Sausage Rolls made with an old family pastry recipe over here and see my recipe for Pork Sausages Wrapped in Bacon (did anyone say ‘cholesterol’ ?!) & served in an Onion Gravy over here.


Pork Sausage, Pea & Pepper Casserole

1 pkt Pork Sausages (about 8)
1 pkts Tomato Soup (single serve instant ‘Cup of Soup’ type)
1 tin Peas (+- 400gm)
1 tin Tomatoes, peeled & chopped (+- 400gm)
1 Red Pepper, sliced
1 Onion, sliced
Salt & Pepper – to taste

Lightly brown the sausages in a little oil in a pan. Remove & place in a casserole dish. Make the tomato soup up according to package instructions, pour over the sausages. Scatter the peas, tomatoes, red pepper & onion over. Season to taste. Stir to mix. Place – uncovered – in the oven at 190'C/375'F/Gas Mark 5 and cook for 30 to 40 minutes, stirring a couple of times. Serve over mashed potato.

Slow Cooked Pork & Carrot Casserole with Baked Potato Rosti

This slow cooked Pork & Carrot Casserole is perfect for lazy Winter days .... served with individually baked Potato Rosti, it makes a warm and filling meal

Here is a lovely warming Winter recipe for pork casserole served with individually baked potato rosti.

Some time ago, one of my regular blog readers, Pam, recommended a great newsletter to me which is sent out monthly by ‘Glenacres SuperSpar’ supermarket (South Africa) and the rosti recipe comes from one of these newsletters. It is unusual in that the rosti are baked – in muffin tins ! (As a result they are so simple to make).

I make the pork casserole on the stovetop, but I’m sure that you could adjust the recipe & cooking times for making it in a slow cooker or crockpot, too.

You can adjust the recipe to taste – adding more or less of each vegetable, altering the herbs used and even adding chunks of potato if you wish. Each time I make it, I adjust it slightly and it always tastes different – so have fun experimenting!

It fills the house with a wonderful aroma as it cooks – and is perfect for cooking on a lazy Sunday at home -:


Slow Cooked Pork & Carrot Casserole (for Potato Rosti recipe, see below)

1 kg Pork meat suitable for stewing, chopped in to cubes (mine had the bones removed)
4 - 5 cups of Stock (You can use chicken/beef stock cubes to make it)
3 red Onions, chopped
3 Carrots, chopped
3-4 sticks of Celery, chopped
4-6 cloves of Garlic, chopped
2 Bay Leaves
Small bunch of Thyme, rinsed
A few dashes of Worcestershire Sauce (optional)
Salt & Pepper to taste

Place all the ingredients into a large, heavy based pot and bring to a slow boil. Reduce the heat & simmer for 2 – 3 hours until the liquid has reduced and thickened, the meat is tender and the vegetables are soft. (Check it occasionally during the cooking time, stirring every now and then to prevent sticking and adding a little more liquid if necessary.)

Individual Baked Potato Rosti (taken from the ‘Glenacres SuperSpar’ Newsletter - April 2010)

500g (about 1 lb) waxy potatoes, peeled
30g (about 2 tbsp) butter, melted
1 onion
Salt

Preheat the oven to 220°C/425’C/Gas Mark 7. Cook the potatoes in a pan of boiling, salted water for 7 minutes, or until just tender - drain and cool. Brush 12 muffin tins with a little of the butter. Grate the potatoes and onion, mix in a bowl and add the remaining butter - season with salt and mix well. Divide the mixture into the muffin tins, gently pressing in. Bake for 45 minutes, or until cooked through and golden brown. With a small palette knife, gently loosen each rosti around the edges and lift out for serving.

Sweet & Sour Pineapple Pork Chops

These 'Sweet & Soup Pineapple Pork Chops' are lovely served on a bed of noodles with some stir-fried veggies on the side

I know that pork features quite a lot on this blog - as I've mentioned before, the quality of our local lamb and beef is not great which is why we tend to eat a lot of pork and chicken.

Having said that, the quality of our local pork chops has not been that great recently either, so I have had to come up with clever ways to make them taste better (and more tender) than they actually are. Because as most of you know, I have an extremely fussy husband …. who just happens to love this dish – so in my book, it’s a winner !

I have not tried this sauce with chicken yet, but my guess is that it would work just as well -:


Sweet & Sour Pineapple Pork Chops

1 kg Pork Chops (around 8 chops)
Oil for frying
1 ½ cups Water
2 tbsp Soy Sauce
½ cup Tomato Sauce (Ketchup)
½ cup Vinegar (Grape or Cider)
½ cup Sugar
4 tbsp Cornflour (Cornstarch) mixed with 2 -3 tbsp cold Water
1 cup fresh Pineapple, cubed
1 large Carrot, sliced into thin ribbons (I use a potato peeler for this)
1 Green Pepper, sliced into strips (optional)

Salt & Pepper (optional)

Lightly brown the pork chops in a little oil on the stovetop. Remove and place in an ovenproof dish. Place the water, soy sauce, tomato sauce, vinegar and sugar into a saucepan & bring to the boil. Boil until the sugar has dissolved, stirring occasionally. Turn down the heat & slowly add the cornflour/water mix, stirring continuously to prevent lumps from forming. Continue to cook (whilst stirring) over a low heat for around 5 minutes, and add the pineapple chunks, carrot, green pepper & seasonings (if using). Now pour the sauce over the pork chops in the ovenproof dish, and bake (uncovered) at Gas Mark 5/190'C/375'F for around +- 45 minutes until done (may take less/more time depending on the thickness of your chops). Serve on a bed of noodles with some stir-fried vegetables on the side.

Orange Pork Chops - in a Sweet, Toffee Coloured Sauce

These pork chops are deliciously tender in their sweet, toffee coloured sauce

This is an unusual and tasty recipe for pork chops, which I got from my newly acquired book (which you can read about over here) “Return To Corriebush” by Lynn Bedford Hall.

Pork chops are always a favourite in our house, and this is a great recipe as it requires very little preparation before placing it in the oven to cook for just over an hour – which gives you time to get on with other things !

I must admit that I’d never heard of the ingredient ‘Verjuice’ before, but a quick Google search told me that it is made from the juice of unripe grapes, and is often used to replace vinegar in dishes as it is quite acidic. I left it out of this recipe, but you could just as easily substitute it with vinegar if you found the final dish to be too sweet (see recipe below for more info on this) -:


Orange Pork Chops (from the book “Return To Corriebush” by Lynn Bedford Hall)

a dash of Oil
6 large Pork Loin Chops (around 1 kg) without rind or excess fat
a little Sea Salt
250 ml (1 cup) fresh Orange Juice
30 ml (2 tbsp) Soy Sauce
30 ml (2 tbsp) smooth Chutney
2 ml (1/2 tsp) ground Cinnamon (I left this out as I had none in my pantry !)
A small knob of fresh Ginger, peeled & coarsely grated
5 ml (1 tsp) very finely grated Orange rind
10 ml (2 tsp) runny Honey
60 ml (4 tbsp) seedless Raisins (I left these out - at my husband’s request !)
30 ml (2 tbsp) Flour
Verjuice (optional) – I left this out

Heat the oil in a large frying pan, add the chops and seal quickly on both sides – do not brown. Transfer to a baking dish to fit fairly closely, and season lightly with the salt. Quickly mix the orange juice with the rest of the ingredients, except the flour and the Verjuice. Add the flour to the pan drippings and, when absorbed, add the orange juice mixture. Stir while it comes to the boil, then pour over the chops. Cover securely with a sheet of greaseproof paper* and then one of foil, and bake at 180’C/350’F/Gas Mark 4 for 1 hour. Turn the chops, cover again, and bake for a further 15 minutes, by which time they should be wonderfully tender in a toffee-coloured sauce. Taste and, if too sweet for your liking, add a dash of Verjuice. Serves 6.

*I didn’t cover mine with greaseproof paper – only with the foil – and the chops still turned out really well.

A Marinade For Succulent Pork Belly Ribs

This marinade made the pork belly ribs succulent & juicy and would also work well with chicken

We are midway through the first month of Spring already, and the weather here is warming up nicely … we decided to make the most of it and have a barbecue last Sunday, and I took a rack of pork belly ribs out of the freezer to enjoy with some baked potatoes and salads.

I made this easy marinade for the ribs the night before, and they were succulent and juicy by the time we barbecued them the following day.

I think that this marinade would also work well with chicken – and if you don’t feel like barbecuing, you could just cook them underneath the grill !


A Marinade for Succulent Pork Belly Ribs

½ cup Soy Sauce
½ cup Honey
2 cm pce fresh Ginger, finely grated
4 large Garlic cloves, freshly grated

Mix all ingredients together until well blended. Pour over the pork belly ribs and massage into both sides. Place in a covered glass dish & refrigerate overnight, turning once or twice if possible.

Slow Baked Pork Chops In An Orange & Soy Sauce

These slow baked pork chops work well when served with mashed potato - to sop up the delicious orange & Soy sauce which they bake in !

This is a quick and easy recipe to throw together and works well if you’re feeding a crowd (just double or treble the quantities below accordingly). You can just put it in the oven and (almost) forget all about it until it’s done ! This was one of the first meals I cooked when I returned home to Tanzania last month ….


Slow Baked Pork Chops in an Orange & Soy Sauce

4 Pork chops
Olive Oil
¾ cup Orange Juice
½ cup Brown Sugar
¼ cup Soy Sauce
2 tsp freshly grated Ginger

Brown/seal the chops in some olive oil in a pan. Mix the orange juice, sugar, soy sauce & ginger together. Place the chops in a single layer in an oven proof dish. Pour the sauce over them. Cover with foil. Bake at 190’C/375’F/Gas Mark 5 for 45 mins & then remove the foil, baste and turn the chops & bake for a further 5 mins.

Crumbed Lemony Pork Chops

The pork chops after they've been coated in the lemony crumb mixture and before being chilled (above) - the yogurt really helps the crumbed coating to adhere to the chops nicely

The pork chops (above) after they've been baked. Even with frequent turning, the crumbed coating does not come off

I served the chops with a tangy mustard sauce

Crumbed pork chops make a nice change to grilled or fried chops, & this crumbed coating has a nice tangy twist, with the unusual addition of lemon juice and rind to it.

I also find that the yogurt dip mixture seems to work much better than dipping the chops in plain egg/milk as it helps the crumbed coating to adhere to the chops properly !

If you don’t have plain yogurt in the house, you can substitute it for milk mixed with 25 ml’s of Lemon juice instead. (This way the milk will thicken to the consistency of yogurt.)

I have included measurements (which I’ve used successfully for this recipe) in the equivalent tablespoons/teaspoons for those of you who don’t work in ml’s -:

Lemon Pork Chops (from “More Food With Flair” by Lynn Bedford Hall)

1 kg Pork chops
Yogurt Dip Mixture:
100 ml plain Yogurt (6 tablespoons)
50 ml Mayonnaise (3 tablespoons)
25 ml Lemon Juice (1 tablespoon & 2 teaspoons)
2 ml (scant) finely grated Lemon Rind (1/2 teaspoon)

Crumbed Coating:
300 ml Breadcrumbs (1 cup & 3 tablespoons)
7 ml dried Sage (1 ½ teaspoons)
5 ml Salt (1 teaspoon)

Dip the chops into the yogurt mixture, then into the crumbs & chill for 2 – 3 hours. Heat just enough oil to cover the bottom of a large baking dish, & arrange chops in single layer. Cover & bake at 325’C/160’C/Gas Mark 3 for 1 hour, then uncover & bake 30 minutes longer. (I turned them a few times during the baking process). Serve hot with mustard sauce - you can see my recipe for that over here.

Pork Cooking Times

A pickled, smoked leg of pork which I recently served when we had visitors to the farm for Sunday lunch. This would make a lovely lunch for Easter Sunday - which will be here before we know it !

When I first moved into my own home & started cooking for myself and friends, I was a bit daunted by the thought of cooking and serving a full traditional Sunday roast – so I stuck to easy roast options like whole chicken. That was many years ago now and over time, and as my confidence grew, I have experimented with all sorts of different types and cuts of meat.

As I’ve mentioned often on the blog, the beef and ‘lamb’ (more like tough, fatty mutton !) which we get here is mostly of a very poor quality, so I tend to stick to pork roasts, especially when I am entertaining. The butcher in our nearby city does a nice rolled pork roast, and we can also choose between de-boned joints or those with the bone still in (I prefer to cook meat on the bone as cooking it on the bone helps to enhance it’s flavour, I feel). Sometimes I pre-order a gammon ham for a special treat as it’s usually only available around Christmas time, and then the leftovers I slice thinly and use for luncheon meat.

Several weeks ago we were expecting friends for Sunday lunch and I decided to order a pickled, smoked pork leg from our butcher for a change (pictured above). It weighed 4 kg’s so took some time to cook (I usually give 30 minutes per 500 gm’s/1 pound) but was tender and delicious once done. I served it with oven roasted mixed vegetables, roast potatoes, gravy, apple sauce and sauerkraut and it all went down a treat !

I don’t cook with much salt at all, and as we are not used to a lot of salt in our food we found the pork to be quite salty (due to the pickling process no doubt), so the next time I think I will soak the leg in water overnight first. (I usually rub my pork all over with salt, pepper, crushed garlic & olive oil before roasting, but was glad this time that I had decided to leave the salt out !)

With Easter Sunday coming up soon, and with pork being a popular meat (at least here in Africa ?) to serve for Easter Sunday lunch, I thought that I’d list some cooking times for different joints of pork incase anybody found them useful (I never cover my meat when roasting, but prefer to cook it in an open tray or roasting pan) -:

PORK LEG ROAST (Roast at a Moderate temperature of 180’C/350’F/Gas Mark 4)

With bone – 30 minutes per 500 gm*
Boneless – 23 minutes per 500 gm

PORK LOIN ROAST (Roast at a Moderate temperature of 180’C/350’F/Gas Mark 4)

With bone – 30 minutes per 500 gm
Boneless – 30 minutes per 500 gm

*Grams/Pounds – 500 gm’s is around 1 lb so if you work in pounds you can calculate the cooking times accordingly

Sweet & Sticky Pork Loin Chops

The chops in their marinade, before cooking (above)

After cooking the chops are deliciously tender & tasty !

The marinade for these pork chops is quick & easy to throw together – you could even make it the day before you plan to cook them, and leave the chops marinating in the fridge overnight.

You can serve these with fresh vegetables and some boiled or mashed potatoes on the side - my husband likes his with noodles !


Sweet & Sticky Pork Loin Chops

4 tbsp Tomato Sauce (Ketchup)
4 tbsp Honey
2 tbsp Ketchap Manis (Sweet Soy Sauce)*
2 tbsp Onions, finely chopped
1 tbsp Soy Sauce
4 – 6 cloves Garlic, crushed (or equivalent in dried garlic flakes)
Pepper to taste
500 gm Pork Loin Chops
Oil for frying

Mix all the ingredients together in an ovenproof glass dish. Add the pork loin chops & turn them to coat well. Cover, & allow to marinade for a few hours or overnight (in the fridge). Then remove chops from marinade, shake off excess and lightly pan fry them in oil on both sides until brown (around 10 minutes).

Remove from the oil, place back in the marinade (turning to coat well), cover & place in the oven at 190’C/375’F/Gas Mark 5 to bake for 30 minutes. Halfway through cooking, turn the chops over& baste them with the marinade to keep them succulent & well flavoured.

*Thanks to Elenka for sending this info in about the Ketchap Manis -: "Ketchap Manis is an Indonesian sweet style soy sauce that is used in stir-fries and many savoury dishes. A quick substitute can be made by mixing together 3 tablespoons of soy sauce and 1 tablespoon of dark brown sugar."

Crumbed Sage & Rosemary Pork Schnitzels

Delicious served with a cheese sauce, these crumbed pork schnitzels are also great served with just a squeeze of lemon juice

These pork schnitzels are so quick and easy to make, especially when you need supper on the table in a hurry, or have unexpected guests – I always make sure that I have a few pre-portioned pork steaks in my freezer, so that I can throw this meal together at a moment’s notice !

I buy my pork steaks from our local butchery in the city, & pound them (placed in a thick, re sealable plastic bag) with a meat mallet until they are quite a bit thinner (more tender & quicker to cook). I then dip them in a mixture of egg & milk, and into my own seasoned breadcrumb mix (I buy my breadcrumbs ‘fresh’ from the local bakery & season them myself – so much better than the artificial tasting shop bought varieties we find on our shelves here) & then straight into a hot pan !

They really do taste delicious and can be served with a variety of sauces – from traditional gravy to cheese sauce or even apple sauce if you like. (My favourite way to eat them is with some freshly squeezed lemon juice on the top !)


Crumbed Sage & Rosemary Pork Schnitzels

500 gm Pork Schnitzels (or Pork Steaks)
1 Egg, beaten
Dash of Milk (about 1 tbsp)
¾ cup Breadcrumbs
3 heaped tsp dried Sage
1 heaped tsp dried Rosemary
2 tsp dried Garlic flakes
1 ½ tsp Salt
Oil for frying

Place the pork steaks inside a thick, re sealable plastic bag & pound flatter with a meat mallet or heavy rolling pin before removing from the bag. Mix the egg & milk together and pour onto a large dinner plate. Mix the breadcrumbs & seasonings together on another dinner plate, and toss to blend well. Dip each steak into the egg mixture and then into the breadcrumbs, coating each side evenly. Put them straight into a hot pan with a little oil and fry on each side until golden & cooked through.

Serve topped with cheese sauce, gravy, apple sauce or my personal favourite – a squeeze of lemon juice.

(You can see a similar recipe I posted last year for Crumbed Pork Steaks with a Cheese Sauce over here).

Couldn't-Be-Simpler Sausage Casserole

This casserole is great served with mashed potato - or even pasta !

When we returned from our recent trip to Nairobi, supplies in the house were a little low – especially things like fresh fruit & vegetables. Until I could get into town to do some grocery shopping, I made use of store cupboard ingredients and meat which I had in the freezer to come up with a few different meals.

Luckily I still had some onions (they keep forever !) & I always have tinned tomatoes in my pantry and a selection of dried seasonings, plus some frozen pork sausages at the back of the freezer – so I was all set to make my “Couldn’t Be Simpler Sausage Casserole”.

Here it is -: (You can see another of my easy pork sausage recipes for "Lazy Sausage Casserole" over here)


Couldn’t-Be-Simpler Sausage Casserole

1 x 400 gm pkt Pork Sausages
A little oil for frying
1 x 400 gm tin chopped Tomatoes
3 x medium Onions, sliced
½ a tin cold water
2 heaped tsps Mixed Dried Herbs
Garlic flakes – to taste
Salt & Black Pepper – to taste

Lightly fry the pork sausages in the oil until browned.

In a casserole dish, mix together the tinned tomatoes, onions, water, dried herbs, garlic, salt & pepper. Add the browned pork sausages to this mixture, turning to coat. Place (uncovered) in oven at 190’C/375’F/Gas Mark 5 and cook for 30 to 40 minutes until done, turning the sausages once or twice during the cooking process.

This dish goes well with mashed potato. (My husband even enjoys eating it with pasta !)

Sweet Memories of Sweet & Sour Pork .... & A Theme Evening or Two !

The table's all set .... for a Chinese theme dinner in the foothills of Mt Kilimanjaro !

Sweet & Sour Pork .... one of my absolute favourites !

When we lived on an even more remote farm than this one, I would regularly go for up to 3 months without seeing anyone other than my husband, Justin, Jerkin (the part time gardener who was actually called Julius but who called a jerry can a Jerkin which took me months to figure out, hence his nickname forever after became Jerkin) & our askari Simon (he is the one staff member I haven’t written about on the blog yet because … well …. because Simon is such a character that I don’t quite know where to start. In fact, Simon deserves his own entire blog !)

Anyway, where was I ? Aaahhh … yes. When we lived on our old farm and before we had started a family (read: I had more than an hour’s free time a day !) one day used to slip pretty much into the next and to change things up a bit, my hubby and I used to have a food theme evening every once in a while. (I know, it all sounds rather sad in hindsight, doesn’t it ? But I suppose at the time you do what you can to keep yourselves sane ! Ha ha) So, one night a week we would go Chinese, another night Italian, another night Indian & perhaps another night, Thai. I would cook food & decorate the table according to the ‘theme’ & we would light the candles and proceed to have a lovely evening …. imagining that we were in a posh restaurant in some far flung exotic city (what some people do for fun, ‘eh ?!)

Once we had a team of 3 Australian combine harvester drivers working on our farm for the safflower season. They stayed in a local guest house where a local lady cooked Tanzanian food for them and I used to have them over once in a while to our house for a slap up dinner. The first night I ever invited them over, I did a special Chinese theme evening for them – complete with all the tableware, music etc …. I will never forget the look on their faces as they walked in – after 3 month’s of bush living and eating goat every other night – they were blown away ! In fact, they still talk about it whenever I run into them in town & tell me it was one of the best meals they ever ate. (Well, of course they were going to say that, weren't they ? They wanted to be invited back for Italian the following week !)

So, every now and then we still have the odd ‘theme evening’ and I decided to have one recently when my mother-in-law was here …. so here is one of my favourite genuine Chinese recipes to serve … and one which the Aussie boys still talk about all these years later !


Sweet & Sour Pork (from “Foods of the World - The Cooking of China by Time-Life International, 1968)

450 gm lean boneless pork, preferably shoulder pork – cut into cubes

Batter:
1 Egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp Salt
3 tbsp Cornflour (Cornstarch)
1 tbsp Flour
3 tbsp Chicken Stock
Oil for deep frying

Sweet & Sour Sauce:
2 ½ tsp Sesame oil (or groundnut oil)* I have used sunflower oil before
1 tsp finely chopped Garlic
1 large Green Pepper, seeded, de-ribbed & cut into small squares
1 medium Carrot, peeled & sliced into matchstick sized pieces
6 tbsp Chicken Stock
3 tbsp Sugar
3 tbsp Red Wine Vinegar * I have used Balsamic Vinegar before
1 tsp Soy Sauce
21/2 tsp Cornflour (Cornstarch) mixed with 5 tsp cold Water

In a large bowl, mix together the egg, salt, cornflour, flour, 3 tbsp of chicken stock & salt to make a batter. Set aside.

For the sauce, have the sesame oil, garlic, green pepper, carrot, chicken stock, sugar, vinegar, soy sauce and cornflour/water mixture within easy reach.

Just before cooking, add the pork cubes to the egg & flour mixture (batter) & stir until each piece of meat is well coated.

Pour the oil into a wok (or large saucepan) over a high heat and heat until it almost begins to smoke. Drop in half the coated pork cubes, one by one. Fry for 5 – 6 minutes, regulating the heat so that the pork turns a crisp, golden brown colour without burning. Remove the pork with a perforated spoon, drain on absorbent kitchen paper and place it in the oven to keep it warm. Then fry the other half of the batch of pork in the same manner.

To make the sweet & sour sauce, pour off any remaining oil in the wok/saucepan & just leave a little on the bottom. Heat until almost about to smoke, then add the garlic, green pepper & carrot and stir-fry for 2 to 3 minutes until the carrot & pepper begin to darken in colour. (Be careful not to let them burn).

Pour in the 6 tablespoons of chicken stock, the sugar, vinegar and soy sauce, and bring to the boil. Boil rapidly for about 1 minute, or until the sugar as thoroughly dissolved. Immediately give the cornflour/cold water mixture a quick stir to recombine it & then add it to the pan. Cook for about a minute longer, stirring constantly. When the sauce is thick and clear, pour the entire contents of the pan over the fried pork, stir to blend & serve immediately over a bed or rice or noodles.

Devilled Pork Chops

These Devilled Pork Chops take a devilishly long time to cook, but don't let that put you off - they are still tender & delicious !

This is a recipe that my mother-in-law has been making for years and years. I’ve eaten it at her home on 2 different continents when my husband & I were dating, then engaged, then married. It’s one I never tire of eating & also one of those simple recipes that gives maximum flavour for minimum effort – it’s always a hit !

As you know my mother-in-law is visiting us at the moment from the UK, and when she offered to make the dish for us the other night I jumped at the chance to photograph it & get the recipe from her (not to mention having a night off from cooking !) – although I must admit that I was a little dubious at first about cooking the pork chops for so long but they turned out perfectly and the flavour was also a hit with my 4 year old !

Here’s the recipe -:


Devilled Pork Chops

500 gm Pork Chops
Oil for frying
1 Onion
2 tbsp Flour
3 tbsp Tomato Sauce (Ketchup)
1 tbsp Worcester Sauce
2 tsp Mustard, prepared (we used Hot English)
1 stock Cube
2 cups Water

Lightly fry the pork chops in a little oil until brown. Place in an oven proof dish. Then fry the onion until brown & to this add the flour, tomato sauce, Worcester sauce, mustard, stock cube and water which have been blended together in a separate bowl. Cook for a few minutes until it thickens, stirring constantly & then pour the sauce over the pork chops and bake at 180’C/350’F/Gas Mark 4 for an hour until done.

Garlic Peri Peri Pork

You can serve the left over cooked sauce as a gravy poured over the fillet

I usually use this Garlic Peri Peri sauce for chicken, but it works just as well with pork fillet or chops.

I use pork fillet because it is one of the better cuts we can get here, but you could use a different cut of meat if you prefer (chops, steaks ….)


Garlic Peri Peri Pork

500 gm piece of lean Pork fillet
1 tbsp Peri Peri sauce
3 tbsp Tomato Sauce (Ketchup)
1 heaped tsp Garlic, crushed
Salt & Pepper to taste
2 tbsp Olive Oil

Whisk all ingredients together until well blended. Pour over the pork fillet and turn so that both sides are coated. Roast at Gas mark 5/190’C/375’F for around 30 – 40 minutes, turning frequently and basting with the sauce until cooked through.

A Lovely Pork Pie Recipe

This pork pie tastes great served hot with mashed potato & gravy, or cold the next day with salad as a light lunch

I’m not really a pie person. (Except when it comes to an apple pie !) But my husband is. He loves pork pies especially, so this is a recipe I came up with for him years ago, and I make it for him at least once a month.

Sometimes I use this exact same recipe to make individual mini pork pies, which are great when you are traveling as they are easy to pack and eat on the road. I use muffin pans as my mini pork pie ‘dishes’ or moulds, which work perfectly !

There is a lady in the city who makes Puff Pastry at home and packages it simply and sells it to some of the local shops. I make sure that I always have a few packets in my deep freeze for recipes like this. I love working with – and creating - pastry and dough but let’s be honest here – making your own puff pastry is a real fiddle ! (Life’s just too short, you know ?)


Pork Pie Recipe

1 kg Pork Fillet- cleaned, trimmed & cubed
2 Onions, sliced
Olive oil (for frying)
2 tsp dried Sage
4 cloves Garlic, crushed
Salt & Pepper (to taste)
2 heaped tbsp Gravy Granules (any flavour)
¼ cup cold Water
3 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 packet of ready made Puff Pastry (enough for a pie top & bottom, about +- 600 gm’s)

Pan fry the cubed pork fillet and the onion slices in the olive oil. Once they begin to brown, add the sage, crushed garlic, salt & pepper. Continue to cook for about 5 minutes and then add the Gravy Granules, cold water and Worcestershire sauce. Stir until a nice thick gravy forms. Remove from the heat. (The pork does not have to be completely cooked as it will cook through in the oven later.)

Grease a 25 cm round pie dish. Split the puff pastry into 2 pieces, and roll each piece into a fairly thin round. Place the first round on the base of the pie dish, and press to cover the dish & sides of the dish completely. Pour the meat/gravy filling on top of this. Top with the 2nd pastry round, neaten the edges and add any patterns which you’d like on the top of the pie crust, using excess bits of pastry. Make a few small holes/slashes in the top of the pie with a knife*, and then baste with a beaten egg. Bake at Gas mark 5/190’C/375’F for 30 to 40 minutes until golden brown.

Serve hot with mashed potato, gravy & vegetables.

* I make small slashes on the top of my pie before baking, as I just feel it cooks better this way as the steam can escape and the gravy inside won’t overflow.

Marinated 'Kechap Manis' Pork Kebabs

I used pork for these kebabs, but chicken would work just as well

In Tanzania you will find “Mishkaki” which are seasoned or marinated cubes of meat (goat, beef, mutton or even fish and chicken) threaded on to a wooden skewer (sometimes with vegetables in between, sometimes not) and cooked over the open coals. This is a variation of the popular South African “Sosatie” (which is the same thing as a “Mishkaki”, but with a funny name !) or the wider known Kebob, Kabob or Kebab.

Who doesn’t like a nice Kebab (as we call them in English here) ? They’re great served at a barbecue – I usually make vegetable kebabs threaded with onions, peppers, courgettes (zucchini), tomatoes & carrots and baste them in a simple lemon, oil and fresh herb marinade.

Yesterday I decided to make some Kebabs and cook them inside, under the grill. We had them for supper with a side salad and baked potatoes, and they were really tender and very tasty.

I was 'inspired' to create a new Kebab marinade when last week in the big city, I found a new ingredient in a local shop called “Kechap Manis” (or “Kecap Manis”). This originates from Indonesia (the bottle I bought came from Thailand though) and is basically a thick, sweet, syrupy soy sauce that has the same colour as soy sauce, the consistency of runny honey, and is much sweeter. It is thickened with sugar (or molasses), and has a distinctive flavour with just a hint of liquorice (I’m guessing that it has aniseed or star anise added, although the bottle does not say !).

I was first introduced to this syrupy delight a few years ago by some Dutch friends (it seems to be used quite commonly in Holland ?). It is great for stirring through noodles, adding to rice, using as a basting sauce, adding to a stir-fry or even, I am told, can be used to make Peking Duck.

This is the marinade recipe I came up with, and it worked a treat -:


Marinated ‘Kechap Manis’ Pork Kebabs

1 kg Pork fillet, cubed (or another cut of pork meat)
4 Onions, quartered
3 tbsp Kechap Manis (Sweet Soy Sauce)*
3 tbsp Sesame Oil
2 tsp Garlic, finely grated
1 tsp Ginger, finely grated
1 tsp Salt
2 tbsp Lemon (or Lime) Juice
Black Pepper
Wooden Skewers

Whisk the Kechap Manis, sesame oil, garlic, ginger, salt, lemon juice and black pepper together until well blended. Then add the cubes of pork and the quartered onions. Stir to blend & then cover, & set aside to marinade for around an hour. In the meantime, leave your wooden skewers to soak in a bowl of cold water (this helps to prevent them from burning when you cook the kebabs).

After the meat/onions have been marinating for about an hour, break the onion quarters up slightly and then thread a piece of onion followed by a piece of meat and so on, on to the skewer until all the meat/onions have been used.

Cook under a hot grill until done, turning often and basting with the marinade to keep it moist. You could also cook the kebabs on an open fire/over the coals.


*If you can’t find Kechap Manis in your part of the world, you could always and equal parts of honey and soy sauce instead.

Tangy Sausage Casserole

This is a tangy, filling casserole and is delicious served over rice or pasta

One of the first recipes I ever posted on my blog was for my “Lazy Sausage Casserole” (you can find the recipe for that by clicking here). This recipe below is a similar sausage casserole dish – it is so easy to prepare, and delicious too, with a lovely tangy flavour.

You could substitute the Tomato Soup mix for any other type of soup flavour (or even use a tinned soup) and it would taste just as delicious. This is a great, easy “Friday night” meal and is what we are having tonight !


Tangy Sausage Casserole

Oil
1 pkt Pork Sausages, cut into rounds
2 red Onions, sliced
2 tsp Garlic, chopped
1 Sweet Potato, peeled and sliced
1 cup instant Tomato Soup mix
2 tbsp Tomato Sauce (Ketchup)
1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
Black Pepper, freshly ground
½ cup Water

Pan fry the pork sausage rounds, onions & garlic until nicely browned.
Meanwhile, par boil the sweet potato slices until just cooked. Now combine the pork sausage mix with the potatoes and place in a casserole dish.

Mix the tomato soup, tomato sauce (ketchup) and Worcestershire sauce together and pour over the sausage/potato mix in the casserole dish, season with black pepper & stir to blend.

Bake, uncovered, at 190’C/375’F/Gas Mark 5 for about 30 minutes. Mix once or twice during the cooking process - you may also need to add around ½ cup water if the sauce looks too thick.

This dish is great served with rice or pasta.

Sausage Rolls

These are lovely served with a fresh salad and Tomato Sauce (Ketchup)

This morning after our “Farmhouse Breakfast” tradition which I spoke about last Sunday, I had some pork sausages left over and decided to make some sausage rolls.

Now, I know that sausage rolls should be made with a light, fluffy puff pastry but we prefer a slightly different pastry on ours. Not as flaky as the traditional sausage roll pastry, but not as oily either – and to be honest, this pastry is MUCH easier than trying to make fiddly puff pastry !

This pastry recipe comes from my Grandmother, and I use it for all my savoury pie recipes as well. It is unusual in that it uses boiling water in the mix – which somehow just makes the pastry come together all that much better ?

For the sausage rolls I simply roll the pastry out and cut it in to a large rectangular shape. Then I cut it in to 6 (or however many sausages you have) smaller rectangles and roll one around each (raw) pork sausage. I then make a few slashes across the top of each & brush it with some beaten egg. These are then baked at 190’C/375’F/Gas Mark 5 on a baking tray in the oven for around 30 minutes until golden brown. They’re great served with a salad as a light meal, or with mashed potato, gravy and peas as a main meal. You could even cut them in to smaller pieces and serve them as cocktail snacks. Or add them to a school lunch box.


Hot Water Pastry

3 cups Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
1 cup Margarine
½ cup boiling Water

Sift the dry ingredients together. Rub the margarine in with a fork until well mixed but not too fine. Add enough of the boiling water to make a stiff paste. Roll out on a well floured surface & use as desired.

Grilled Peppery Pork & Apple

Served on a bed of cabbage, we garnished ours with parsley & also served it with carrots

Ainsley Harriott is one of my all time favourite ‘celebrity’ cooks (I must confess that I'm all "Jamie Oliver'd out" at the moment !)

My Mum was lucky enough to meet Ainsley when he visited South Africa on a promotional tour a few years ago. She watched his cooking demonstrations, and was able to chat with him afterwards. She said that he is every bit as nice (and charismatic) in person, as he is on TV.

I was very lucky as she managed to get him to autograph my copy of his then recently published book “Ainsley Harriott’s Barbecue Bible”.

We cooked one of his recipes at my parent’s home during my recent stay with them, and it really was delicious. Apple and pork go so well together, yet I had never thought to serve cooked apple slices on top of the pork before. It makes a nice change to apple sauce.


Grilled Peppery Pork & Apple
(Taken from Ainsley Harriott’s “Meals In Minutes”)

Serves 4
Preparation time : 10 minutes
Cooking time : 10 minutes

Ingredients

400 gm Pork Fillet, cut into ¾ inch (12 x 2 cm) cubes
1 ½ tsp freshly ground Black Pepper
½ tsp Paprika
Grated rind of 1 Lemon
1 tsp fresh Lemon juice
4 tbsp Olive Oil
2 Apples, unpeeled
300 gm Savoy Cabbage, finely shredded
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
150 ml Vegetable Stock
200 ml carton Crème Fraiche
Salt & Pepper

Method

Pre-heat the grill to high. Place the pork slices between 2 layers of plastic wrap, then press down with the palm of your hand to flatten the meat out to a thickness of about ¼ inch (6mm). Remove plastic wrap.

In a bowl, mix together the pepper, paprika, lemon rind and juice and 3 tbsp of the oil. Slice each apple width ways into 4 slices. Drizzle the oil mixture over one side of the pork and apple slices. Grill the pork slices for 4 – 5 minutes on each side, turning once. Grill the apple slices, on the oiled side only, for about 5 mins until cooked. Keep the pork and apple slices warm.

Meanwhile, heat the remaining oil in a large frying pan. Add the cabbage and garlic and cook, covered, for 4 – 5 minutes until just tender. Stir in the stock and Crème Fraiche, warm through briefly, season to taste then spoon on to warmed serving plates. Top with the pork slices and serve the apple slices on the side or on the top.

Oriental Roast Pork Fillet

Oriental Inspired Pork

We really enjoy oriental food and are lucky to have some great Chinese restaurants in our local towns. Some we have been visiting for 10 years now and we don’t even have to order off a menu anymore as the owner’s know our favourite dishes – they are simply placed in front of us !

I cook a fair amount of Chinese inspired food at home. When I travel, I bring back Chinese ingredients which are difficult to come by here (things like Star Anise, Chinese 5 Spice and Hoisin Sauce). But this recipe below does not require any ‘special’ ingredients, and provides maximum flavour for minimum effort !

I just made the recipe up one day from ingredients I had on hand and my husband (and toddler) absolutely loved it – so it has since become a regular on our dinner table .....

Oriental Roast Pork Fillet

500 gm Pork Fillet
Olive Oil

Salt
4 tbsp Soy Sauce
4 tbsp Orange Juice
2 cm pce fresh Ginger, finely grated
1 bunch spring onions, chopped (incl. tops)

Rub the oil in to the fillet & season with the salt (not too much, as the Soy Sauce is quite salty). Mix the soy sauce & orange juice together, and pour over the fillet. Scatter the ginger & spring onions over this, and cook (uncovered) at 190’C/375’F/Gas Mark 5 for about 30 minutes, or until done. Baste with the juices a couple of times during cooking.

I serve this sliced, on a bed of egg noodles.