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Archive for the ‘Pork’ Category

There are many variations in spring roll recipes. This one originates from Vietnam and makes truly excellent spring rolls. The spring roll shells or pastry sheets used in this recipe are quite large and so are cut into quarters.

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

Ingredients:

1 pkt spring roll shells – quartered

Filling:
1 kg finely minced lean pork
3 cloves garlic – finely minced (or crushed)
250 g carrot – grated
8 dried mushrooms – soak and sliced finely
2 medium onions -  finely minced
1 cup soaked mung bean vermicelli
2 ¹/₂ Tbsp sugar
1 ¹/₂ tsp salt
¹/₂ tsp pepper
oil for deep frying
a little plain flour and water made into a paste

Sauce

6 Tbsp Fish sauce
2 Tbsp sugar
juice of 2 lemons
6 Tbsp water
3 cloves garlic – finely minced
2 red chillies – finely chopped
1 small carrot – cut into fine julienne strips

Method:

1. Soak the dried mushrooms in hot water until soft then drain and slice finely.
2. Mix all of the sauce ingredients together in a bowl until sugar is completely dissolved and let stand for around 30 minutes.
3. While the sauce is standing, mix all filling ingredients together in another bowl.
4. Take approximately 1 tablespoon of mixture and roll up in shell.
5. Seal the edges with the paste made from water and flour
6. Deep fry in hot oil until golden brown (around  7 minutes).
7. Serve with the sauce as a dip

Variations

If you don’t have mung bean vermicelli, you can substitute rice vermicelli.

This is a simple stir-fry recipe. When I do stir-fries, I tend to mix in lots of vegetables so that the dish is pretty much a meal in itself.

Five Spice Pork With Lettuce

Ingredients:

1  large carrot or 2 small carrots
1 tin water chestnuts
1/2 red capsicum (or red pepper if you are in the northern hemisphere)
6 – 12 snowpeas
3 or 4 shallots
1 tsp sesame oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2.5cm piece ginger, peeled and grated
500g pork mince
1/3 cup dry sherry (or rice wine)
1 tblsp soy sauce
1 tsp sweet soy sauce
1/2 – 1 tsp Five Spice powder
1 tsp sugar
2  cups cooked brown rice
6  lettuce cups (the innre leaves of iceberg lettuce is best for this)
oil for frying

Method:

1. Finely chop carrots, water chestnuts, capsicum, snow peas and shallots.
2. Heat 1 – 2 tblsp oil in wok then add crushed garlic, grated ginger and chopped shallots.
3. Stir fry for about 1 minute
4. Add minced pork and stir fry for about 3 – 4 minutes.
5. Add chopped carrots and fry for 2 minutes.
6. Add water chestnuts and capsicum and fry for 2 minutes.
7. Mix together dry sherry (or rice wine), soy sauce, sweet soy sauce, 5 spice powder, sesame oil and sugar.
8. Add cooked rice to wok and pour in combined sherry soy mixture.
9. Add snowpeas and mix thoroughly. Heat through, stirring frequently.
10. Wash lettuce and separate into cups.
11. Place lettuce cups on plates,  spoon in a quantity of the pork mix and serve.

Variations

If you prefer, you can use finely chopped chicken instead of pork.

The ingredients and quantities can be varied. You may like to add baby corn or bamboo shoots to this recipe. You can also use shitake mushrooms (if dried, you will need to soak and chop them first).

Tips

Have everything chopped and ready to go before you start cooking.

This recipe can be easily adapted to whatever you happen to have on hand. Try and have different colours in it to make it look interesting and appetising.

Don’t cook the vegetables too long or they will start to lose their colour and become soft.

You can prepare the rice the day before hand and keep in the refrigerator. This helps prevent it sticking and becoming gluggy when you fry it with the pork.

The preparation time for this recipe is a little long but the end result is worth it. Most of the time is taken up by simmering so, other than giving it the occasional stir, you can spend the time having a relaxing pre-dinner drink, chatting to guests or whatever takes your fancy.

While the recipe uses pork, there is no reason why you couldn’t use chicken or veal instead. As you will find with many recipes, you can vary them to suit your individual tastes and preferences. Just because it is written in the recipe doesn’t mean you have to use exactly that.

When serving, choose your accompanying vegetables according to what is in season. For example, in warmer weather you might serve it with a crisp green salad; in the cooler months you might have steamed vegetables.

Sherry Cream Pork Chops

Preparation Time: Around 75 minutes (easier than writing 1-1/4 hrs don’t you think)

Ingredients:

4 leg pork chops
1/4 cup seasoned flour*
1 tsp sage (chopped if fresh, otherwise dried is fine)
3 tbsp butter
1/2 chopped onion
1 x 300g tin Cream of Mushroom Soup
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup cream sherry (if you can’t find cream sherry, use sweet sherry)
1 cup sliced champignons
1 cup sour cream
chopped shallots (for garnish)

Method:

1. Trim the chops and coat in the seasoned flour and sage.
2. Heat the butter in a saucepan (don’t let it burn) and brown the chops.
3. Add the onion and saute until tender.
4. Combine the milk, soup and sherry and pour over the chops.
5. Cover and simmer 45-50 minutes. Stir occasionally.
6. Add sliced champignons and cream and reheat carefully. You do not want the cream to boil!
7. Serve with buttered noodles and sprinkle chops with chopped shallots.

Serves: 4

Tips

*Seasoned flour is just flour with salt and pepper (or other dry seasonings) added to it. An easy way to prepare it is to put the flour in a plastic bag, add the seasonings, close the bag ensuring a lot of air is trapped inside and then gently shake the bag to mix everything.

You may find you need extra butter when browning the chops so feel free to use extra. I usually always need extra oil, butter etc when cooking. The way I look at it is the quantity given is just a starting point.

Variations

As I said above you could use chicken thighs, chicken breasts or even veal for this recipe.

You could also serve it with rice instead of noodles if you prefer.

And, yes, you could use light sour cream instead in this recipe – but what’s the point? Rather, enjoy the meal and reduce your cream intake for the next few days. Having an occasional creamy sauce is not going to cause serious weight gain. The key is moderation.