Category Archives: Pork

Filo Pomegranate Pork Parcels

22 Sunday Mar 2020

Posted by in Dinner, Pies, Pork

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Curry? No. Chicken? No. Pasta? No. Though the ingredients were available, they just didn’t rock my boat. We did have some pork mince in the fridge and Mr MWCED said “use that filo up”, so that was a start. I felt like something a little different to our usual, and found some great middle eastern recipes – it feels a bit wrong to use pork, but as (1) we don’t eat beef or lamb and (2) I had pork, well I’d just have to go with it (and absolutely no disrespect intended). I love pomegranate molasses flavour – though for some reason the bottle seems to sit at the back of the pantry and I forget about using it. So, out you come and flavour up tonight’s dinner!

I got the original recipe from here – though made a few alterations. After googling “znoud el-sit” the most common recipe seems to be a sweet deep fried pastry and not savoury. I don’t do deep fry – and the body doesn’t particularly like it either – but definitely want to try one of these one day – they look very bad but very very good.

I served the pork with Israeli couscous (cooked in a vegetable broth, then sliced spring onions, mint, parsley and coriander, s&p added) and a healthy green salad (freshly picked from the garden).

For those with moderation, one of these with sides would probably be enough. For the likes of people like me who just don’t have enough resolve to be moderate, then 2 was plenty. If I could have, I would have had 3 – because they were so good! At least there is something left over for lunch tomorrow!

Recipe:

  • ⅓ cup             pine nuts
  • ⅓ cup)             olive oil, plus extra, to brush
  • 1                      large onion, finely chopped
  • 250 g               pork mince
  • 1-1/2 tbsp        pomegranate molasses, plus extra, to serve
  • 6 sheets          filo pastry, fresh or thawed

Spice mixture:

  • ½ tsp               allspice
  • ½ tsp               black pepper
  • ½ tsp               ground cinnamon
  • ½ tsp               ground coriander
  • ½ tsp               ground cumin
  • ½ tsp               ground nutmeg

Instructions

To make spice mixture, combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and set aside.

Place pine nuts in a frying pan over medium heat. Cook, stirring, for 2 minutes or until browned, then remove from pan and set aside. Add oil to the pan with onion and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes or until softened. Add meat and cook, breaking up with a wooden spoon, for 6 minutes or until browned. Add the spice mixture and ¾ tsp salt and cook for 2 minutes or until fragrant. Remove from heat and stir in toasted pine nuts and pomegranate molasses. Set aside to cool completely.

Preheat oven to 200°C. Line an oven tray with baking paper. Lay a sheet of filo pastry on a clean work surface or chopping board, with a long edge facing you. Brush the half closest to you with oil, then fold in half lengthwise. Turn filo so that the short edge is facing you and brush with oil. Place 1/6th of the cooled filling along the short edge closest to you, leaving a 2.5 cm border on sides and bottom. Roll short edge over filling to enclose, then fold in the 2 longer sides and roll up to form a cigar shape. Place seam side-down on prepared oven tray and repeat with remaining filo pastry and filling to make 6 rolls.

(you can make these rolls larger or smaller.  If larger I’d use 2 sheets of filo pastry per roll)

Place in oven and bake for 20 minutes or until golden. Serve pastries with extra pomegranate molasses and some hummus on the side.

Herby Israeli Couscous
Rocket & Cos, Red Onion and Garden Tomato Salad, dressed with Balsamic Syrup

Ginger Meatballs and Coconut Broth

30 Sunday Jun 2019

Posted by in Dinner, Pork, Rice

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Saturday night – need something that is reasonably easy to eat for Mr MWCED had a tooth extracted/stitches so doesn’t want anything too hard on his gums. I had pork mince and a quick search on my favourite food blog soon found the inspiration. Thank you once again, Smitten Kitchen.

The original recipe suggests that the broth is sieved – but I wanted to ‘beef’ it up with some vegetables so added some onion, celery and carrots. You can add whatever else might be in the magic fridge – I would.

This would serve about 4 people – though I’d probably add a few more veges, make more meatballs or have a side of something. While I halved the original recipe for the meatballs I kept the broth at around the same amount of ingredients – for you can never have enough of a delicious broth, right? Chile is up to you – you could use more, or less.

MEATBALLS

  • 500g minced pork
  • 1 large egg
  • 1-1/2 tablespoons panko breadcrumbs
  • 1-1/2  tablespoons grated peeled fresh ginger
  • 1 large garlic clove, finely chopped
  • 1 tablespoon fish sauce
  •  teaspoons salt

BROTH

  • One 165ml can coconut cream
  • 1-1/2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
  • 1/4 cup thinly sliced peeled fresh ginger
  • 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
  • 1 fresh red chile, thinly sliced
  • Finely grated zest and juice of 1/2 lime
  • 1 tablespoon fish sauce
  • 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
  • 1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar
  • salt
  • 1 small onion sliced
  • ¼ cup thinly sliced celery stalk
  • 1 small carrot thinly sliced
  • 100g baby spinach
  • Coriander and mint for serving

Make the meatballs: Preheat oven to 220 celsius. Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl.  Make small size meatballs and place them on a baking tray about 1-inch apart. Bake until the meatballs are golden brown and just cooked through, about 12 to 14 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the broth: In a large saucepan, combine everything except the spinach and bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat so the broth is simmering. Simmer 10 minutes, until the flavours are infused into the broth. Season to taste, if needed, with salt. 
Add the meatballs to the broth, return to a simmer, cover, and simmer until cooked through and tender, about 10 to 15 more minutes. Add spinach and cook just to wilt. Season the broth with salt and lime juice if necessary. Serve with herbs, additional chiles, lime wedges, rice and roti.

Pork Empanadas with Cabbage

25 Sunday Nov 2018

Posted by in cabbage, Dinner, Pies, Pork, Uncategorized, Vegetables

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Cabbage you say!  Yep,  I didn’t fancy currants, olives and capers as per the recipe I was looking at, and I knew for certain Mr MWCED was not going to want currants and olives, so I figured best substitution was something fresh from the garden, and cabbage it was.

Usually we make these in the winter, but it was a chilly evening so I thought they would be perfect. And they were.   This recipe is an amalgamation of a couple from the web – the filling (apart from the bits I didn’t use!) came from Emerils.com with the pastry from My Colombian Recipes  (and while you are there check out the amazing recipe for Columbian Black Cake – I am definitely going to try that!)

Search out my post from last year for Rustic Chicken Empanadas for another take.

Enjoy your Empanadas!

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Pork Empanadas

Dough:

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
115 gms butter, cut into small pieces
1 egg
¼ cup ice cold water (or a little more if your mixture is too dry).

Mix flour and salt in the food processor then add butter, egg and cold water. Pulse until mixture comes together.   Shape into a ball, wrap and refrigerate for between 30 minutes to an hour (no panic if it is a bit longer).

Filling:

350g pork mince
1-1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
¾ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon ground allspice
¼ teaspoon dried oregano (or mixed herbs)
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper (or chilli flakes)
½ cup chopped onion
1 tablespoon minced/chopped (whatever you prefer) garlic
Diced capsicum – about half a cup
3 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons cider vinegar (can substitute with rice vinegar)
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 cup water
Chopped cabbage (we picked ours from the garden – use as much or as little as you like)

1 large egg, lightly beaten (for brushing finished pastries)

While the dough is chilling, prepare the filling.  In a medium frypan over high heat, combine the pork, cinnamon, cumin, allspice, oregano and crushed red pepper and cook until meat is golden brown and cooked through (about 6 minutes) – use a spoon to break meat up if it is forming clumps.  Add onion and cook until soft, about 4 minutes then add garlic and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly.  Add the capsicum, tomato paste, vinegar, brown sugar and stir to thoroughly to combine.  Stir in the water and reduce the heat to medium.  Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until sauce is very thick and flavours have come together – about 15 minutes.   At about the 10 minute stage, add chopped cabbage.

Once finished take off heat and let cool.     Before you roll out the dough and fill the pies, heat oven to around 180 F.

Place the dough on a floured surface and sprinkle with flour.  Roll out to a circle about 1/8” thick.  Using a small saucer as a guide, cut as many rounds as you can.  Press scraps together and knead again to reform dough to cut more.  We got 9 from our pastry, enough for dinner and a couple of freezer meals (1-1/2 pastries each was plenty).

Using a tablespoon, top one side of dough with about 2 tablespoons of the cooled meat filling.  Using a pastry brush, brush the edges of one side of a round with some of the beaten egg, then fold the edges over so that the dough meets to form a half-circle shaped pie.  Using the tines of a fork, press the edges of the dough circle firmly to crimp.

Line a baking tray with baking paper (or use nonstick cooking spray) and place the pies on the tray.  Using the tip of a small knife, cut several small slits into the top of each empanada to allow air escape while baking.

Brush empanadas with leftover egg mixture.

Put tray into oven and bake for around 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

I served this with a fresh green salad: frilly lettuce from the garden; tomatoes; blanched asparagus and fresh herbs (mint and basil).   We also had an onion marmalade.

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