Pork Tenderloin Steak

At home, I serve steaks on weekends if  I´m able to get the meat from my discounter supermarket on my Friday food shopping. Aldi has quality meat and sometimes I get lucky to buy discounted steaks at very reasonable price. The thing is, meat at Aldi are usually discounted on Thursdays & Fridays just before weekend comes, and so one has to get early to be able to get some. 


Over the weekend, I have more time to prepare the meals properly , no hurry, no rush...just slow slow slow cooking and not looking at the clock :-). So here is what I did when I had the chance to have one prepared for lunch.

Pork Tenderloin Steak

This is a 2-minute steak fried in heavy skillet with olive oil. I simply brush all sides of the meat with soya sauce and fry it  in a hot heavy skillet with 2 tbsp of olive oil for 2 minutes til all sides were golden brown... remove and place on a platter, keep warm until served.

Then I make the gravy out of the pan dripping by heating the 1/2 knorr beef cube, add 1/2 tbsp soya sauce+ 1 tsp of green whole pepper, mix until the cube crumbls then I add 1 cup water, 1 tbsp creme fraiche, reduce the heat and boil once more.

To make the gravy thicker, I add 1 tbsp. cornflour diluted in 1/3 water , let it boil, reduce heat and lastly, season with salt & green pepper... (adjust seasoning according to your taste..)

To serve: Place the steak on a plate, season with salt and ground black pepper, add the fresh salad as well as the gravy in a saucier and serve with fried potatoes or rice. Serve hot.

Bon Appetit!

Hope you´re enjoying your weekend!

Haloumi Bacon Canapés

 

 

    Haloumi  Bacon Canapés

Fridays are reserved for my food shopping.. and today´s  shopping spree  included the Haloumi cheese from Cyprus.  Haloumi is a semi soft layered cheese semilar to Mozzarella and this one here is made of 90% cow´s milk, 5% lamb´s milk, 5% goat ´s milk.

I haven´t cooked this for months and so I decided to get a pack from my fave supermarket and made some canapés  that I ´m now featuring here in this blog.

 

Here´s what you need for the canapés..

 

1 pack Haloumi cheese

2 big peeled potatoes sliced into 1/2 cm ( around 0.20 Inch)

1 seedded apple cut into 4 quarters, thinly sliced

Bacon, thinly sliced

Fresh lettuce leaves or rucola

Mango chili spread ( sweet & sour chicken spread will also do)

medium size Tomato, thinly sliced

Olive oil for frying

 

Preparation:

 

1. Heat the Teflon pan with 1 tbsp olive oil and fry the thinly sliced potatoes for about 2 minutes on each side or until done, golden brown and crispy.

  

 

 

 

2.Take out of pan and put on a platter lined with paper towels to absorb excess oil.

 

 

3. In the same pan under medium heat, fry all the cut Haloumi cheese until they become crispy on both sides, remove onto a platter.. then fry the sliced bacon until they become golden brown, remove  onto a platter and set aside to cool down.


 

 

4. The base of the canapés are the potatoes, so it´s going to be a layering process:

 

first, put 1 tsp of  the mango spread  on to each potato slice and alternately thereafter followed by the apple ,  the fried haloumi, mango chili spread, lettuce/rucola leaves, mango chili spread, then as top the bacon fritters. Secure the canapés with a toothpick for easy handling as appetizers.

 

 

This can be prepared a couple of hours in advance if you´re having a party..goes well with white wine and beer...

Hope you like this one. Have a nice and sunny Saturday everyone!


                                                   xoxo,

                                                  Mercy

 

 

Stuffed Squash Flowers + Recipe

 

 Stuffed Squash Flowers

 

 

With the high temperatures we´re having right now, my potted Squash is blooming tremendously and amazingly... and I think it´s now time to harvest these flowers, during the next days they will just dry-off.

 

 

 

 

I have grown squash before and it was kind of tricky to have many flowers blooming in just a day.. 

 

 

 

 

 

It was the time to cut the flowerettes and the best time to make that was today in the morning, where their petals were really wonderfully opened.

 

 

 

 

I must say , these blooms are very aromatic....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

so I picked about 6 flowerettes.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and stuffed them with ground meat ...

 

 below, you´ll find how I cooked them.

 

 

Ingredients:

 

5-6 Squash flowerettes fully bloomed

100 grams ground beef or 50/50 ( beef/lean pork)

1 medium sliced onion 

 3 cloves of crushed garlic

2 tbsps diced bell pepper,

2 tbsps diced zucchini

1 tbsp creme fraiche ( optional)

2 tsps soya Sauce

salt, pepper to taste

olive oil or any vegetable oil for fyring

 

 

For the Gravy:

 

1 medium Zucchini, cut & diced into small pieces

1 bell pepper , cut just like the size of the zucchini

1 medium onion,

2 cloves crushed garlic

1 tbsp creme fraiche ( optional)

1 tbsp all purpose flour dissolved in 3 tbsp water +1 tbsp soya Sauce

salt & pepper

1 1/2 Cups water

 

 

Preparation:

 

1.

 Wash the Squash flowerettes and set aside.

 

2.

In a frying pan, heat 1-2 tbsp. olive oil and fry the garlic shortly, add the cut onion.  Fry until golden brown, add the ground beef, stir fry until beef is tender or turning pale.

 Add the bell pepper and the Zucchini, continue to stir fry about 2 minutes, add the cream fraiche and season with salt & pepper.

 

 

3.

Carefully stuff  about 1 1/2 tbsps meat mixture into the flowerettes and by overlapping the petals towards the flower center , secure this with a toothpick closing the top opening.

 

 In a heated  pan with 1 tbsp olive oil, fry all sides of the flowerettes until golden brown , set aside and keep warm.

 

 

 

 

 For the Gravy :

 

 

1.

In a heated casserole with 1 tbsp olive oil,  fry the crushed garlic, add the cut onions, zucchini and  bell pepper,  stir fry until they become soft.

 

2.

Add 1/2 cup water, let boil....then add  the flour-soya--water mixture and cook

for 2 minutes stirring all the time until mixture gets thicker. Add the creme fraiche and season with salt & pepper... adjust the seasoning &  liquid if necessary.

 

3. If you are using a stab mixer, you can liquify the cooked gravy ingredients directly in the casserole. If using a blender, blend the mixture until a fine & smooth consistency is achieved.

 

Serve with cooked Rice or White bread

 

 

Note: The cooked ingredients for the gravy can also be made and served as by-dish by simply stir frying them( without adding the liquid- see the above title photo). 

 

 

 

 

 

Hope you will enjoy this recipe....

 

 

 

Have a nice Sunday !

 

 

Til next,

 

Mercy

Clay-Grilled Chicken in Römertopf

  

 

 

 

 

Today, I rediscovered my clay pot called RÖMERTOPF for grilling in the oven... I haven´t used this pot for a long time.... Claypot grilling is a common method used here. It was a method used by the Romans even before Christ.

 

Römertopf is very convenient to use, which means less time and effort spent in the kitchen and fat is avoided and saved because the meat is grilled in it´s own liquid. You don´t even have to attend to it, cover it and simply place in the oven and grill for about 1.5 hours and it´s done... It will come out crispy and juicy.

 

What you need :

 

clay pot like the one in the pic

1 whole dressed chicken

salt, pepper, crushed garlic,  fresh Rosemary or dried one ( optional)

1 tbsp soya Sauce

vegetables cut into bite pieces ( i.e...potatoes, spring onions, carrots, bell peppers)

 

 

Note: Before using the clay pot or Römertopf, soak this in lukewarm water for at least  15 minutes... this will later help produce the liquid of the meat during the cooking process.

 

  Here´s what I did : 

 

 

 

  I seasoned the chicken with soya sauce, salt, pepper, crushed garlic and with rosemary ( optional), added cut potato wedges and other vegetables and then placed all in the Römertopf that is beforehand soaked for at least 15 minutes in the water. Cover the Römertopf and place it on the lower oven rack.

 

 

 

 

 

  Then I slowly heated the oven at 150 °C for 10 minutes, increased the temperature at 200°C for a few minutes then at 225°C for the rest of the grilling time... when the time was up, I removed the cover, remove the veggies and the liquid and grilled more for another 10 minutes at 200°C to make the chicken crispy...

 

 

 

The Römertopf  

 

 

 

  The veggies were arranged on a platter and I added the crispy chicken cut into half and served it with its own chicken gravy...as simple as that!

 

 

 

Bon Appetit!

 

 

Easy Braised Pork Leg - Pork Pata

 

 

 

Friday is usually my shopping day, but today I had a day off from the office work and so I went food shopping. One of the meat offered at the shelf of our local supermarket were pork legs which we haven´t eaten for a long time.

 

Spontaneously, I got the ready cut legs ( the pig´s behind legs are longer than its front and have more meat), and I ´ve intended to cook it in my own version of the filipino dish called Pork Pata or  Braised Pork Leg... It is one of the fave dishes of filipino families usually cooked on Sundays.  It´s also served  in fiestas and family gatherings or on special occasions.

 

So, here is my version which is so easy to make,  that you would eventually sit and relax once it´s inside the cooker.

 

Ingredients :

 

1 kg pork leg (behind part) cut crosswise as in the photo shown above

3/4 Cup soya Sauce,

2 tbsp vinegar

2 tbsp sugar or equivalent sugar substitute

5 cloves crushed garlic

1 bunch of spring onions cut into halves

1 tsp black peppercorns +1/2 tsp. crushed 

3-4 Cups water

1 bay leaf

salt (optional)

 

 

Procedures:

 

1. In a pressure cooker, arrange a portion of  the cut spring onions until they  

    cover the bottom of the cooker, then arrange the cut pork legs on top of the

    spring onions.

2.  Put the water in a Container  adding  all the rest of the ingredients into the  

    water.  Pour  mixture   into the  pot slightly covering  the leg pieces. Cover the

    cooker  cook under high heat until it boils, then reduce heat to low and simmer 

    for an  hour until leg pieces are soft. Check the liquid in the cooker from time to

    and adjust the  water if necessary. Adjust the salt according to your taste.

 

3. The spring onions placed  on the bottom of the  cooker will prevent the leg skin

    from sticking onto the surface of the cooker. Arrange the legs on a platter, set 

   aside. Meanwhile add extra fresh  spring onions into the cooker and cook in the 

  remaining liquid for 5 minutes til tender and garnish the meat on the platter with

  these , add  the  remaining liquid onto the platter.

 

  Goes well with cooked rice, serve hot.

                                                 Enjoy Cooking!

Note: I will post the recipe of  the Spinach Tomato Tart next after this blog.

 

Til next,

 Mercy 

Stir-Fry Sweet & Sour Pork Filet

I´m the only daughter in my family of 5 brothers. As I was growing-up, I had the chance to see how my mom cooked....not that it was a privilege in my early teenagers days, but I seemed to have enjoyed it seeing how food was being processed.

While my girlfriends enjoyed playing outside, I was in the kitchen helping mom peeling potatoes & carrots, seeding the bell peppers, my mouth stuck with matchsticks to prevent teary eyes while cutting the onions...it´s the paraffin that creates a chemical reaction against the sulfuric acid of the onion, I was told. There are actually other methods to prevent  sobbing sessions when cutting the onions...like, peel its skin under  running water..  or have an exhaust fan running towards the onions while peeling and cutting them, that way the sulfuric acid is being scattered away from you.

 My recipe below is a deviation of the sweet and sour pork filet being offered in a chinese restaurant, my mom´s version simply calls for more vegetables where the meat isn´t coated with flour... here´s how I did it....



 

 

 

Ingredients

• 1 can (8 ounces) pineapple chunks in juice, drained (juice reserved)
• 2 tbsps table vinegar
• 2 tbsps soy sauce
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• Vegetable oil
• 2 medium carrots thinly sliced and then cut into elongated 2 cm x 2 cm strips
• 300 gramms of pork filet cut into thin strips ( see photo above)
• a bunch of spring onions, cut into 1-inch lengths
• 1 each red & green bell peppers cleaned from seeds, cut into 2-inch pieces
• 1/2 head of broccoli stripped into flowerettes

Instructions:

In a small bowl, stir together 1/2 cup pineapple juice, vinegar, soy sauce, cornstarch, and 1/4 cup water. Season sauce with salt and pepper.

 

In a large nonstick skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium-high. Cook pork, in two batches, until well browned on one side, about 1 minute (pork will cook more later); transfer to a plate.

To skillet with 1 tbsp oil, fry the crushed garlic til golden brown,  add the spring onions and bell peppers; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring, until peppers are crisp-tender, 6 to 8 minutes, set the spring onions aside.

Add pork to the skillet together with any juices left, then add broccoli, and pineapple chunks. Whisk the sauce and add this to skillet. Bring to a simmer; cook, stirring, until broccoli is heated through, around 4 minutes. Stir in spring onions , and serve with rice.

Wishing you happy cooking and a beautiful weekend!

 

Til Next,

Mercy

MENUDO ...My Dad´s Version

MENUDO - My Dad´s Version

The mexican menudo is kind of a soup that has chili in it! My Dad´s version or to say, the Filipino version  uses pork meat and is a mild one and has little liquid to almost dry in consistency. We always enjoyed this dish at home when my Dad cooked this on Sundays at home... He had all those fresh bell peppers from our backyard ... and I can still vividly remember how he cooked his recipe... This is really a delicious dish which can be eaten with or without rice and most Filipino families serve this on special occasions. I hope you would find this recipe worth trying....  

Ingredients:

1 Kg pork filet cut into cubes of about 2x2 cm or bite size marinated in 2 tbsp soya sauce for about 20 minutes
1 kg potatoes , peeled & cut the same size as the pork filet
3 cloves crushed garlic
1 onion, also cut into cubes
3 toast bread cut into cubes same size as the cut meat
1 each red & green bell pepper cubed
2 cups frozen peas ( thawed)
3 tbsp soya sauce
2 tbsp tomato paste
3 cups vegetable soup ( Knorr cube) or water
salt & pepper, creme fraiche (optional
cooking oil for deep frying potatoes and toast bread
 

 

How to:

 1. In a casserole, deep fry cubed potatoes in hot oil til golden brown ...set aside. In the same oil, fry the cubed toast bread til golden brown, set aside.

2. In a pan with 2 tbsp cooking oil, fry the crushed garlic , add the onion, then the pork filet.. all til golden brown...

3. Add the bell peppers to the pan, continue mixing....then add the tomato paste, soya sauce, 2 cups vegetable ( broth) soup, thawed green peas,.... bring to boil, simmer under low fire til the meat really becomes tender about 15 minutes. 

At this stage, the liquid must have evaporated already, so add 1 tbsp flour diluted in 1 cup soup/water + 1 tbsp soy sauce ( more liquid if necessary) to the meat and carefully ´mix all ingredients...

4. Season with salt & pepper ... if you prefer to add the vegetable soup instead of water, season with less salt as the vegetale broth contains salt already...

Now, for a more tasteful menudo, I add 1 tbsp of creme fraiche ( or double cream) to the meat... but this is really optional.

5. Add the deep fried potatoes to the meat mixture and carefully mix all ingedients... adjust seasoning as necessary.

Serve with cooked rice or white bread...This dish can be eaten alone because of the potatoes, but we prefer to eat it with freshly cooked rice.
  

Happy Cooking !

Culinary Art - Simple Stuffed Bell Peppers

Stuffed Bell Pepper

 

 

Some recipes of stuffed bell pepper  may include rice and cheese in ingredients and are baked in the oven. What I have here is a very simple recipe that is not only delicious but also lighter to eat...

Ingredients:

• 4  bell peppers - any color
• 1 tablespoon butter/margarine
• olive oil
• 1/2 cup chopped onions
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• salt and ground black pepper for seasoning
• 2 teaspoons Soya sauce
• 1/2 kg lean ground beef or 50/50 ground beef /lean pork
• 1 zucchini cut into cubes (carrots can also be a substitute for zucchinis)
• 2 tbsp. creme fraíche (optional)
• 1/2 Liter clear vegetable soup ( can be a remainder from the day before )....or you may substitute this with 1/2 Liter Knorr vegetable soup or Beef soup..

 

 

 

How to :

 

1. Cut tops off peppers; remove seeds and membranes, save the tops. Rinse peppers

    under cold water and set aside. 

 

2. In a pan with 2 tbsp Olive oil, fry  1 clove of crushed garlic and the cubed onions til golden brown.    Add the ground meat and fry until pale in color for about 4-5 minutes. Add 1 tbsp of creme   fraíche, mix properly then  season with 2 tsp. soya  sauce,  salt and pepper .

  

3. Fill the cooked meat into each bell pepper and arrange in a steamer, steam all ( include the pepper  tops  separately )  for about  half an hour. When the skin of the bell peppers become soft, remove  from  steamer, set aside and keep  warm.

 

4. In a casserole with 1 tbsp butter/margarine, fry 1 clove of crushed garlic and the rest of the cubed   onions, cubed zucchinis  until golden brown.. Add 1/2 Liter vegetable soup, cook for 

   about 3 minutes til  zucchinis become tender. 

 

5. Arrange the stuffed bell pepper covered with its top  in a deeper plate (preferrably soup plate) and

    pour a portion of the  liquid with zucchini onto it. Serve with white bread or sliced baguette.

 

 

 

 

Optional : if you wish to make the liquid thicker, you may add cubed carrots to the zucchini´, cook til tender and liquify the vegetables in a blender , then add 1 tbsp of creme fraíche ( see above photo with thicker liquid).

 

 

 

Wishing you happy cooking and enjoy your weekend!

 

Til next,

 

 Mercy

 



 

Imam Bayildi ( Stuffed Eggplant ) Recipe

The eggplants I used for this recipe came from my organic pot planting. I just harvested 3 of them and decided to cook a famous turkish recipe called Imam Bayildi. 

According to the legend, Imam Bayildi was a turkish caliph (muslim priest) who was presented this dish by his wife...and "fainted" after eating it . Many speculated that he lost his conciousness because of its goodness when he ate this dish. Others said , he fainted because the dish was braised with so much olive oil...The story became famous throughout Turkey that they named it after him!

This is my version, instead of marinated olives,I used raisins so as to give it a sweet and sour flavour... This can also be frozen easily without causing any change in its flavor when thawed, so it´s perfect for lunch or dinner as main course or by-dish.

This was the pic of the 3 bigger ones before I harvested them. Below is the Recipe which is my own version of Imam Bayildi .

Ingredients :
3 Eggplants medium size
4 macerated fresh garlic, a bunch of spring onions
4 big tomatoes about 1/2 kg, cubed
1 cup raisins or 2 tbsp sugar substitute such a Stevia in powder form

1 cubed red bell pepper
1/2 cup olive oil juice of 1 lemon or 1 calamansi
1 cup water
250 ml tomato purée
1 tbsp soya sauce ( optional )
salt, pepper according to your taste

Here´s how I did it:

1. Slice the eggplant as in the pic above... the ones in the pic is the original cut per Turkish recipe. But I always slice them one by one so it would roast better in the oven.

2. Mix the lemon juice/calamansi juice with 1 cup of water + 3 tablespoons of olive oil (or normal cooking oil will do), and brush all the sides of the slices...this prevents the slices from getting dark.

3. fry the garlic til golden brown, add the cubed bell pepper then the cubed tomatoes, add 1 tbsp soya sauce.

4. add the tomato purée and cooked til the tomatoes crumbled loosing its form, add the raisins or the sugar substitute. Add salt & pepper and adjust taste...if you don´t like the sweet taste, omit the raisins and add green or black olives instead..or don´t put the olives at all. Set aside til ready to top the sliced eggplants.

5. Arrange the sliced eggplant in an oven pan and distribute the tomato fillings evenly on top of it

If you wish, you can also stuff or fill-in the eggplants as in the fan method shown below... taste remains the same, the only difference is that its appearance would look more bombastic and more appealing to your guests...

6. Cover the oven pan with aluminum foil, place in the middle rack of oven  and bake 1 hour in a preheated oven of 220°C . If you´re using gas oven , please google the conversion of this heat.

7. Remove the foil and brush the top of each slices with the mixture of 1 cup water+2 tabsp olive oil to prevent each slice from drying... bake 15 minutes more without the cover under 180°C. Remove the pan and let the slices cool down..

Imam Bayildi can be served hot or cold and best eaten with white bread or baguette.

PS: Last photo is an update on this blog on 7th of May, 2017