I didn't order a starter or a dessert, just this dish, and it was an inspired idea! It meant that nothing interfered with the gorgeous textures and flavours of the dish. I have tried in the past to extract the recipe from the waiting staff, or even a clue to the main ingredients in the sauce, but it never works! I didn't even try it this time. I did, instead spend a week or two trying out a few different versions of it, to see if I could even come close.
The one I settled on is not really hitting the flavours, but I stopped with this one, as I am quite happy with it.
First, you need a pork fillet, trimmed. 1 fillet serves 4 in this recipe. It's best to ask your butcher to trim the pork, but Super Valu have good deals on pork fillet at the moment, so you could try your hand at it. This video is a good demonstration of how to do that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFVYcfyd_S8
Then you need to get your hands on some pak choi. This is fairly easy to get hold of at the moment, I got some in Super Valu on a 2 for 1 deal last week and I was delighted to see it was grown in Ireland. 1 pak choi per two people for this recipe.
So, first, slice the trimmed pork into slices no thicker than 1/2 cm. Toss the slices in seasoned flour.
Fry off the pork in batches in a pan with a couple of tablespoons of sunflower oil on a high heat for a minute on each side. Make sure it is cooked through, then leave the cooked pieces aside while you put on the noodles to cook (these only take a minute or two.) I used the medium egg noodles as they have a bit more body than the fine rice ones. It is best to cook the pork a few pieces at a time, because if you crowd the pan, the pork will not crisp up on the outside and will stew.
Chop the pak choi in half, separating the leafy bit from the crunchy white part. Chop the white piece into wedges, four or six depending on how big the pak choi is. Leave the leaves whole.
(The white part needs no more than 2 minutes to cook and the green part no more than 30 secs to 1 minute.)
Now put the pork and white pak choi back in the pan with a couple of drops of sesame oil, a good dash of soy sauce, and a small squeeze of honey. After one minute add the leaves and only allow to barely heat, try not to wilt them too much and turn off the heat. Toss the cooked noodles into the pork and pak choi and serve.
If you have a nice Chinese dipping sauce, you could serve it on the side, but this dish is so yummy. And it is quicker than ordering Chinese!!
The next recipe is not quicker than Chinese, but it is a truly scrummy dish.
I got the recipe from the Good Food channel website, a real little gem for great recipes.
Meatloaf
Ingredients
600g minced beef
200g minced pork
200g bacon bits, fried until cooked
300g soft white bread cubed
1 egg
150 ml milk
1/2 t ground nutmeg
1/2 each salt and pepper
1/2 dried oregano
1 t dijon mustard
A good T of fresh chopped parsley
Beat the egg and mix with the milk and pour over the milk and let it soak up the liquid. Then mash the bread until it is mushy.
Add all the remaining ingredients and use your hands to mix together.
Grease 2 small loaf tins and fill with the mixture.
You can freeze one at this point. One loaf tin serves 4.
Cook for 50 minutes at 180c or until cooked through. (There will be pink flecks in the meatloaf from the bacon so don't panic!)
Serve with mash and gravy and peas or beans, or anything you want really!
This makes a lovely sandwich the next day, sliced cold and with a bit of Ballymaloe relish. (Apologies for the APALLING photo!!)
The chunky white pieces are the bread, you can blitz it in the food processor if you want it less rustic, but I quite like the texture of the large pieces.
This is a really good value meal and the kids LOVE it.
See ya soon!!
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