Mains - Pork

Lasagne

quantity of my spaghetti bolognaise (page 22)

1kg ricotta

20g grated tasty cheddar

500ml chicken consommé

2 Tbls Plain flour

2-3 Tblsp butter

300ml milk freshly ground nutmeg white pepper fresh baby spinach - or frozen chopped spinach, thawed

1 cup grated parmesan lasagne sheets

Roast Pork

Leg of pork plenty of boiling water olive oil sea salt

Tip for great crackling:

Make sure your butcher scores your pork skin well, or use a Stanley knife or super sharp filleting knife to create your own scoring.

Boil up the kettle (full to capacity), place leg of pork on a trivet over your sink & pour boiling hot water all over the (raw) pork at least twice - where the skin has been scored it will shrink back and open up allowing the

Method

Make the cheesey bechamel: Melt the butter and add the flour. Cook for 1-2 minutes until the flour is cooked off.

A little at a time add the milk, until a lump free sauce is achieved. Gradually add in the chicken consommé and allow to thicken and come to a simmer. Crumble in the grated cheese and the ricotta and cook over low heat until the cheeses have melted.

Season with white pepper and a grating of fresh nutmeg. You can either use fresh lasagne sheets (homemade or otherwise), lasagne sheets you have to cook before using, or instant lasagne sheets which don’t require pre cooking before compiling your lasagne. Your choice.

If you are using left over bolognaise, the sauce may have thickened up a little, so loosen the bolognaise mixture with a little additional passata and/or consommé if required. The meat sauce should be fairly ‘sloppy’ - not too dry or the pasta will be dry as well.

Into the base of a deep sided rectangular baking dish, spoon some of the bolognaise mixture and spread over the bottom evenly. Make a layer of pasta to cover the base, then top with a generous covering of meat sauce.

Add a layer of spinach leaves then another layer of pasta sheets. Spoon over a generous quantity of the cheesey bechamel sauce.

Continue building the layers - meat, spinach, pasta, bechamel, finishing with a layer of bechamel.

Sprinkle grated parmesan over the top and bake at 175˚C for approximately 45 minutes.

Keep an eye on the topping, if it starts to get too brown, cover with a layer of aluminium wrap (shiny side down).

high heat of the oven to penetrate quickly and create brilliant crackling. Dry thoroughly with paper towels, making sure to dry in all the score marks as well. Lightly oil & massage into the skin.

Sprinkle with a little salt - you don’t need too much.

Place pork onto a roasting trivet - which keeps it away from any juices and helps the underside to become crisp too.

For at least the first hour of cooking, the temp of the oven has to be really really high - 220˚C (make sure your windows are open, especially if you open the oven door, or your smoke alarm/s will sound off!!)

After an hour, reduce temp to around 180˚C & continue cooking to desired ‘doneness’. Remove roast from the pan and allow to stand for at least 30 minutes in a warm place. Do not ‘wrap’ the roast or you’ll steam the crackling and it will lose some of it’s crispness.

Deglaze the pan with either stock, water or wine... bring to a simmer and reduce to create delicious gravy/jus.

Spaghetti Bolognaise

1½ kg good quality pork mince

500g veal or lean beef mince

4 onions, peeled and finely diced

4 large carrots, peeled, finely diced

4 stalks of celery, stripped of sinewy fibres, finely diced

4 roasted red capsicums, skinned, deseeded, deveined (of white membranes) and sliced thinly*

1 head roasted garlic, crushed*

4-6 anchovies

1 Tblsp each of - oregano, mixed herbs, sweet basil and flat leaf parsley

2-3 bay leaves

2-3Tblsp tomato paste tomato passata - around 500ml

500ml chicken consommé good glug (around 1 cup 250ml) of good cabernet sav., shiraz or merlot,

4 largish field mushrooms, skinned and chopped or blitzed in a food processor olive oil

Method

Preheat your oven to 200˚C.

Season the meat well with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Brown meat in batches in heavy casserole dish in a little olive oil OR roast in a heavy baking dish in the oven alongside the capsicums.

Remove meat as cooked and place into a bowl.

Heat a generous glug of olive oil over medium heat and fry off the carrots, celery and onions until softened.

Make a clearing at the bottom of the pan and melt the anchovies.

Add mushrooms and cook for a minute or two until they have reduced down OR roast them, well seasoned, in the oven alongside the capsicum & garlic. Deglaze with the red wine.

Add herbs and tomato paste and fry on medium to high heat for at least 1 minute. Add chopped capsicum, crushed garlic, consommé and passata and stir well. Bring to the boil and and reduce the heat to a simmer.

Add the browned meat and the bay leaves and stir well. If mixture is too thick add either some consommé, wine or water. The longer it simmers on low heat the richer it will be - it can also be popped into the oven on 160DegC and allowed to cook slowly, lid on, for a few hours to enrich the sauce.

*Oven roasted capsicum & garlic: wash capsicums well & remove most of the stalks (so that you can stand them upside down in a baking tray).

Separate the head of garlic into individual cloves. Cut a large piece of aluminium foil, top it with a similar sized piece of Glad Bake, then the cloves. Drizzle with olive oil and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Wrap up into a parcel and scrunch top into a twist.

Place whole capsicums into baking dish, drizzle with olive oil, together with the ‘knob’ of garlicand bake at 200˚C for around 30-45 minutes. Once cooked, immediately place capsicums into ‘freezer’ bags and seal tightly. Wrap garlic in foil and allow to cool.

Once cooled sufficiently for handling, gently remove skins, deseed (and devein capsicums) and slice or chop into chunks. Squeeze the base of each clove, the garlic pulp will ooze out of the tip.

The oven can also be used to ‘roast’ the (pork and veal) mince, maximising the energy use of the oven too. Roast the meat in a heavy based high sided roasting pan. Use 2 forks to break up the meat as it cooks - will take around 40 minutes to 1 hour. Roasting it generates a wonderful ‘roast pork’ flavour which makes for a superb bog! Make the sauce atop the stove as usual, then pour it over the roasted mince and return to the oven to continue baking at 160˚C

Alternatives: chicken cacciatore - substitute 1½ kg diced chicken meat - other ingredients & method the same. When the kids were young and refused zucchini and carrots I used to grate it and add while cooking the onions. Was a great way to get more vegetables into their diet.

For some odd reason they never questioned the big ‘herbs’!

Spicey Sausage and Rice

Gordon Ramsay

5 Chorizo sausages (not smoked, raw) - or spicy Italian, Merguez

1 large red onion - sliced

1 red capsicum - chopped into 1cm chunks

1½ cups basmati rice

2 cloves garlic, finely diced

1 heaped tsp hot smoked paprika

1 red chilli - finely chopped

500ml stock (chicken or vegetable)

½ cup white wine (or verjuice or more stock) olive oil

4 spring onions, sliced flesh only of 1 or 2 tomatoes

½ cup chopped flat leaf parsley

Method

Skin the sausages and chop/tear into small balls/pieces.

Heat a heavy casserole dish on medium to high heat.

Add drizzle of oil and fry off the sausage meat until browned.

Remove and keep warm.

In the same pan, fry the onions, garlic, chilli and capsicum.

Cook on medium heat until onions are transparent but not overly browned.

Sprinkle in the paprika and fry off for a minute or two.

Return the sausages to the vegetables and mix well.

Add the raw rice and mix thoroughly and sear with a drizzle of more oil if needed for 2-3 minutes (the process is similar to that of a risotto - so the rice needs to be seared).

Deglaze the pan with wine then add the stock.

Turn down the heat to lowest setting and simmer gently (ideally, over a simmer mat) for 12 - 15 minutes or until rice is cooked.

When cooked, add sliced spring onions, finely diced tomato flesh and parsley.

Fried Rice

Cold, steamed Basmati rice (see page 25)

Thick slices of cured leg ham, cut into small dice OR thick cut streaky bacon, cut into strips/cubes

1 large brown onion, finely diced

3 cloves garlic, finely diced

2 ears of corn cooked and removed from husk, or tinned corn

2-3 carrots, finely diced

2-3 stalks celery, sliced

1 small green capsicum

1 small red capsicum

3cm piece ginger, grated

6 eggs, slightly beaten

1 cup frozen peas

6 spring onions, chopped rice bran, canola, sunflower or vegetable oil kecap manis dark soy chilli paste or fresh chilli, finely diced

Spiced Mexican Rice

1 cup rice

1 cup water

1 packet Old El Paso Taco seasoning spring onions, chopped