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!