Pork – The Hectic Cook

My blogging has become erratic again. I blame the fact that my work space is affectionately referred to as ‘The Black Hole’. It’s basically in the store room – a room created in what was the garage (and not particularly well, it’s got to be said – not by us I may add). So it has no natural light and is full of crap. I’ve tried to prettify it by adding fairy lights (obvs) but really, there is no polishing a turd. So now that the nights are getting lighter, and the weather better (allegedly), holing myself up in the arse-end of the house is not so appealing.

But we’re currently in the middle of decorating the living room, so have removed the doors separating the kitchen from said room. This means I have no escape from the deafening volume of my children. Hence even the Black Hole is appealing.

And thus here I am. With a recipe I’ve had waiting to blog for several weeks. It’s a real ‘throw-it-all-in-a-pot’ type of recipe, and the result is really tasty. It isn’t complicated (when are my recipes ever complicated?) and uses mostly stuff you’ll have in the kitchen cupboard already. I’m a big fan of shredded meat, so this ticked that box too. Give it a go, I promise its worth it.

I made this for 4 adults and 4 kids, hence used almost 1kg of meat. If you don’t want to make this much, just halve all quantities (it will freeze really well too though).

Ingredients

2 x 450g pork fillets
1 stick of celery, finely diced; 1 onion, finely chopped; 1 carrot, finely diced (or just use the frozen bag from Sainsburys, about half a bag)
4 cloves of garlic, crushed / 4 tsp of garlic paste
2 tins of chopped tomatoes
1 tin of beans (kidney, black eye, cannellini – whatever your choice), drained and rinsed
1 oxo cube
1 heaped tsp of ground coriander
2 heaped tsp of ground cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
150ml water

1. Place the meat into the slow cooker or ovenproof casserole dish (that looks fairly unappealing doesn’t it?!)

2. Top with the veg.

3. Add the garlic and the tomatoes.

4. Throw in the beans.

5. Top with the oxo cube, spices, salt and sugar.

6. Add in the water and give it all a good stir/moosh around. Cook in the slow cooker on low for 7-8 hours (halve the time on high if necessary), or in the oven at about 150°C for 2 hours.

Basically, chuck everything into the pot, stir, and leave to cook until done.

7. Once the meat is lovely and tender, remove it from the sauce and shred it using a couple of forks.

Pop it back into the sauce and mix it through.

Serve it up with rice, bread, salad, cheese, soured cream… whatever takes your fancy. Or all of the above.

Happy cooking!

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:50]

I’ve already ‘Face-bragged’ so now I’m going to ‘Blog-brag’ – I’m just back from a weekend away. A whole weekend sans children (trumpets, fanfare). The Husband did the necessary childcare letting me escape for 2 whole nights (he’s a keeper). I went to see one of my best friends in the whole world – she knows way too much about me to piss off now. We drank copious amounts of alcohol, ate diet-unfriendly food, and spent an afternoon wandering around Ikea. We know how to live. It was awesome. So now I’m home feeling refreshed, and ready to take on the world – well my kids at least. I’ve already broken a couple of nails trying to scrape stickers off the new rug thanks to Lucy. But even still, I am a happy-mother-of-four-including-triplets.

So this recipe is a really old Slimming World recipe I came across yonks ago. I’ve followed Slimming World intermittently for the past 6 years. I really rate it as a diet-plan, I just can’t seem to follow it. Oh well. But this is a recipe I make a lot. It has a nice lightness to it, but is still really filling. You can use any meat you like. I often use chicken, but on this occasion had pork in the freezer. Beef would also work really well.

Ingredients (Serves 4)

8 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tsp white wine vinegar
4 garlic cloves, crushed / 4 tsp garlic paste
1 heaped tsp ginger paste
1 tsp Chinese 5 Spice
600g pork loin steaks, thinly sliced
4 dry egg noodle nests
1 tbsp oil (I used groundnut, but use whatever you have in the cupboard; vegetable, sunflower etc)
stir-fry veg of choice
1 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil

It looks like quite a few ingredients, but it honestly takes no time to make, so don’t be put off.

1. Mix the light soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, ginger and 5 spice in a bowl.

2. Add the pork and leave to marinate for around 20 minutes (use the time to chop your veg).

3. Cook the egg noodles according to the packet instructions. I’ve stated a quantity, but use as many noodles as you think you need, depending on the appetites you’re feeding.

4. Heat the 1 tbsp of oil in a large wok. Add the pork (including the sauce) and cook over a medium high heat until almost cooked through (about 5 minutes).

Note:

The only thing I’ve changed from the original recipe is the 1 tbsp oil. Slimming World use the spray oils you get, which are ‘syn’ free, to reduce calories . Use whatever you’d rather – 1 tbsp oil is 6 syns.

5. Add your veg – I used carrots, courgette, pepper and mushrooms – and cook for a further 5 minutes (or until the veg is as cooked as you like it).

6. Add the cooked noodles to the wok, plus the oyster sauce, dark soy sauce and sesame oil (this was in the original SW recipe and counts as 2 syns, so 1/2 syn per person). Stir through (2 forks are good for this) and cook for a further few minutes until everything is piping hot.

7. Serve straight away.

This is a really good dish to make on those weeknights when you don’t have much time, but fancy something healthy. You can change the quantities of meat and noodles to satisfy any size of appetite, and still keep it pretty healthy.

Happy cooking!

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:42]

Tag: Pork

Shredded Chilli Pork

Healthy Pork Chow Mein

Ingredients (Serves 4)

Note: