Pork Chops with Sweet and Sour Peppers

This is a simple quick dinner solution that I love. I learnt this recipe from Gordon Ramsay's video series on YouTube but it has definitely become a favourite of mine. And although Ramsay doesn't add red onions to the peppers, I find that they add a different dimension of flavour to the peppers. There is no sauce with this recipe but the sweet and sour peppers are just delish! A nicely cooked pork chop with a great accompaniment are enough to make anyone salivate and that is exactly what this dish does, it makes you want to devour it.

Ingredients:

• Pork chops- enough for two people, roughly 6 oz fillet each
• Bell peppers- red, green and yellow. The more colours the merrier! Sliced finely
• Extra virgin olive oil- as needed
• Red onion sliced finely
• Garlic whole and unpeeled
• Fresh thyme
• Sugar- a couple of teaspoons
• Red wine vinegar- a couple of tablespoons
• Butter- 1/8 cup
• Fresh basil- chiffonade 
• salt and pepper

Method:

• For the chops, get a frying pan hot and place a dollop of butter in the pan along with a drizzle of olive oil. Tossing in your unpeeled garlic and thyme, let the butter sizzle the herb and garlic till you can smell the aroma and gently place the chops on the pan to sear them. Allowing each side to cook for four minutes each, you will need to baste the chops with the butter in the pan. This will ensure that the chops don't get dried out while being pan fried. Add more butter to the pan if you think you require more. 
• In the meantime, while the chops are cooking, in a secondary frying pan heat some olive oil and toss in the peppers and sliced onions. Make sure to keep the heat high enough for you to hear the peppers sizzling on the pan, if they aren't sizzling, they are stewing and trust me, you don't want stewed peppers for this dish.
• Add a teaspoon and half of sugar and a sufficient tablespoon of red wine vinegar to the peppers and gently toss them in the olive oil. When you think that the peppers are just wilting, add the basil chiffonade and give it another toss. 
• Please allow the chops to rest for half the cooking time before serving them. 

Serve the pork chops on a bed of sweet and sour peppers and you will wonder why had you never tried this before!

The Best Damn Bolognese Sauce You Have Ever Tasted!

This is possibly the most amazing pasta sauce I know and make. There is no way you can make an individual serving of this sauce because the number of ingredients that go into it are just not possible to work with in small quantities, or at least it holds true for me. I also do not like specifying measurements of each and every ingredient in this recipe because it is a matter of personal preference and taste. If you prefer it spicier then go ahead and add another teaspoon of your spice blend but otherwise, eye-balling the measurements in accordance to the amount of vegetables and meats you are using is critical. Typically I use a kilo of each of the type of the mince, so in total there is about three kilos of mince and about the same amount of uncooked vegetables going into the sauce pot. Once you have this on a rainy day, that's all you will want on a rainy day. A bowl of steaming pasta and the magical meat sauce that makes you all warm and fuzzy inside. 

Ingredients:

1. Extra virgin Olive oil
2. Onions grated
3. Carrots grated
4. Celery grated
5. Diced tomatoes (fresh Roma or vine ripened tomatoes is what I prefer using, you can easily sub that for caned ones)
6. Diced shallots
7. Chopped Parsley
8. Chopped Cilantro
9. Dry or fresh Thyme
10. Garlic crushed
11. Tomato paste
12. White wine 
13. Dry Bay leaves
14. Cinnamon sticks or powder
15. Nutmeg powder
16. Cloves 
17. Beef mince
18. Pork mince
19. Lamb mince
20. Veal mince (if available)
21. Salt and pepper

Method:

• In the biggest sauce pot you have, bring some E.V.O.O to heat and add all the grated vegetables and sauté them till they start to sweat and the onions are fragrant. 
• Add the garlic to the vegetables and stir to mix everything together. Let the vegetables sweat till they are starting to lose moisture and blend into each other. 
• At this stage, we will add the different minces. Making sure that there are little to no big lumps of meat, break down the meat and mix it well with the veggies so that any fat that is released from the mince is absorbed by the veggies as they cook together. Let this cook for at least ten minutes, stirring it every three to four minutes. 
• Once the meat has rendered most or all the fat, add the white wine. Make sure however to not lower the temperature of your stove, because we want the wine to not boil the meat but sauté in it. This will also ensure that the meat doesn't absorb the alcohol because it will evaporate quickly on a high heat and the moisture from the wine will keep the mix from dying out. 
• Once the wine has fizzled away the alcohol, add the tomato paste and coat the entire mix in it.
• When you start to notice the oil separating from the tomato paste, it is time to add the spices and herbs. At this stage you are more or less done, simply take care to mix that spice blend into everything. 
• As soon as you are done mixing the spices and herbs, add the tomatoes and give it a rough mix and let it sit and simmer for at least forty minutes before you even think about grabbing a bowl and trying it. Add salt and pepper to taste and stir the concoction every ten to fifteen minutes till it fills your entire house with aroma. 

Serve with pasta or use it as pizza sauce, I don't care. You can even eat it like chilli, that's how hearty this is. I hope you enjoy making it and eating as much as I do. Ciao!

Butter Chicken

I love this because it's rich and very tasty. But I take this recipe as something I am not going to make every other evening, I like making this recipe once every two months or so. The reason is that I love to eat a rich creamy dish and I don't want to substitute the amount of butter I use in this. So here it is, and I hope you guys like it as much (or more!) than I do. Another thing before I begin. I do not always follow by measurement cups and spoons. I do give a rough measure in my recipes but they are left to the discretion of the cook.

You will need for the gravy:

• Tomatoes 15 to 20 diced (or 2 cans of diced tomatoes, I prefer the vine ripe variety however)
• Oil (1 tbsp) and butter (Honestly, why bother measuring the damn thing. I mean, it's called 'butter' chicken for a reason, right? Use as much or little as you can justify)
• Cardamoms about 5 or 7 (toasted in a dry pan and powdered fresh)
• Mace, powdered 1 1/2 tsp
• Garlic crushed 8 (or more if you dare) cloves
• Ginger about an inch or inch-and-a-half piece grated or pounded using a mortal and pestle

Ingredients for the chicken marinade (to make tandoori chicken): 


Chicken; you may use any cut of chicken i.e. whole, thighs, bone in chunks, breasts (cut into size-able chunks). It's completely and utterly upto you and what cut you prefer.
Ginger; about 3 inches of a root in length and about 1 inch wide
Garlic; 6 cloves
Yoghurt; 1/2 cup Greek variety (or you can hang the yogurt using muslin cloth and give it a dense and rich texture)
Turmeric 1 tsp
Red chili powder 3 tsp
Coriander (toasted on a dry pan and powdered fresh) 3 tsp
Cumin (toasted on a dry pan and powdered fresh) about a teaspoon
Black pepper powder 1 tsp
salt 1 tsp
Cayenne pepper 1 tsp
Oil 2 tsp
Fresh Cilantro
Lime wedge

Heavy cream 2 tbsp

Honey 1 tbsp

Kasuri methi -fenugreek leaves 1 tbsp

Method:

To start things off we'll make the marinade for the chicken because the chicken has to have the full spectrum of flavours pop. Blend all the fresh cilantro, lime juice, garlic, ginger, red chili powder, turmeric, coriander, cumin, cayenne pepper, salt and yogurt to get a thick marinade mix. After dicing the chicken to the size of chunks you prefer, marinade the chicken and set them aside for at least thirty minutes. You can do this process the night before and leave the marinating chicken for 8-10 hours/ overnight.

After the chicken has been adequately marinated, grill or bake the chicken on 400*F for at least 40 minutes. Once the chicken is in the oven or is being grilled it's time to make the sauce.

For the sauce, we start with butter. And I can't stress this enough, if you think you have enough butter, put a little bit more (or don't, whatever floats your boat!). In a big,shallow pan start melting the butter and add the mace, cardamom, garlic and ginger as the butter is slowly melting. Make sure to not have the heat on high as it will burn the butter and the garlic and yea, no one wants burnt garlic. So as the butter starts to heat up, add the diced tomatoes and quickly but carefully stir the tomatoes so that the aromatics are thoroughly combined. Let this cook on medium heat for as long as you can bear to let the pot simmer. I'd say cook the sauce no less than 30 minutes. Once the sauce looks and smells like a garlicky-tomatoey goodness, pour it into a big bowl and using a hand blender, pulverize the sauce.

Now, using a strainer, strain the sauce back into the same pan. Make sure that there is enough seasoning in the sauce and keep the heat at a simmer. At this point, check to see if the chicken is cooked; if it isn't, give it more time till it's done. If it is, depending on what cut of the chicken you used, make it into bite sized portions and add it to the sauce which should be simmering by now. Now you can add the cream, honey, and kasuri methi to the sauce and give it a good stir. Making sure that the chicken pieces are evenly covered in the gravy, let the curry sit for fifteen or twenty minutes before serving it with hot basmati rice or fresh baked naan.

Curried Pork Stew

This is a fantastic stew that makes in one pot, with all the ingredients simmering in harmony. I never measure my ingredients unless I am baking so these measurements are approximations that I remember using. If you want to change some things, feel free to do so! Also, it helps if you are aware of the rough proportions of spices you prefer to the quantity of meats/ vegetables etc.

For this recipe you will need:

• Roughly four to six pounds of stewing pork, cut into cubes or stew like pieces.
• Potatoes three to four large ones or 6 medium ones; cut into cubes like the meat (optional)
• Three to four large onions (pick your favourites: I always seem to favour the red onions)
• Garlic: think an entire head of one (read: lots!)
• Ginger, roughly a two inch piece of the root, skinned and chopped into medium sized chunks.
• Greek yogurt, about 600 ml
• Mustard/ Grape-seed/ Canola/ Vegetable oil: between 4 to 6 tbsp
• Black peppercorns whole about a tablespoon
• Cumin seeds: 2 tbsp
• Coriander seed powder: 2 tbsp
• Turmeric: 1 tbsp
• Chili powder: to taste
• Salt: a teaspoon full perhaps. I don't usually cook with salt but the onions are large and salt helps the veggies reduce by releasing their moisture.

You will most definitely want to own a mortar and pestle. I highly recommend it because it a simple yet multi-functional tool. You can make any number of pastes or powders with it. Not to mention that the flavours that are released because of the grinding action of the pestle against the mortar are incomparable to anything you can whip up with a food processor. However, I do understand that it is purely my opinion and you may disagree with me greatly. 

Process:

Take the biggest pot you have at your disposal. Coat the bottom of the pot with at least 3 tbsps of oil.

Chop the onions into halves and then into fine slices. Then toss them all into the pot. At this point I would add the potatoes but if you don't want potatoes, that is cool too.

Cut the pork and add into the pot. Take a frying pan and heat it up without using any medium (oil/ butter etc.). Roast the cumin seeds on the dry pan till your kitchen begins to smell like cumin. Take it off the heat and grind it into a fine powder in your mortar and pestle, adding it to the mix in the pot.

Take the peppercorns and grind them to a coarse powder using your mortar and pestle, then add the garlic to the peppercorns and crush them up together. Once the garlic is crushed adequately, add the ginger to the mortar and crush them all together to form a happy medley of garlicky goodness. Add this paste to the meat and onions in your pot. Add a heavy dose of yogurt, I put in about a cup or more. Follow it up with coriander seed powder, turmeric, chili powder and salt.

When all the ingredients are finally in the pot, stir them nicely to combine all of the agents together. After they are thoroughly mixed, put the pot to cook (covered with a lid) on medium heat for fifteen minutes first. Once the fifteen minutes are up, take a peek to see how the stew is doing (is it starting to boil?), turn down the heat to medium-low and give the pot a stir. Once the temperature is set to mid-low, leave the stew to stew for another forty minutes or so.

The stew will be ready by the time the forty minutes are up.
Serve with freshly made rice.