Tenderloin in a thyme - plum sauce

Who said that it has to be a dessert with a plum? I’m a huge fan of aromatic fruit sauces for meats. It can be cherries, raspberries or even back currant preserve, Add some red wine, spices and instantly your meal gains a flavour and… a class.

Ingredients
2 pork tenderloins
1 tbsp wheat flour
½ onion
1 garlic clove
few thyme sings
1 cup red table wine
8 plums ( Hungarian type)
1 tbsp molasses ( or honey)
1 tbsp cold butter
¼ teaspoon ground coriander
optionally you can add some balsamic vinegar for taste
salt, pepper
oil


Method
Cut the tenderloin clean from the membrane, lengthwise into 2 cm slices. Each smash slightly with the fist, dust with flour, salt and pepper and fry (briefly) until golden brown. Meat set aside in a bowl to cool down.
Pour a little bit of oil into the pan (do not clean it after frying tenderloin) add onion and garlic, fry. Add plums cut in quarters, cook covered until juicy. Pour in the wine with thyme, coriander and molasses and stir fry until the sauce gets quite thick. Pour some meat-sauce from the bowl with the tenderloin, add pinch of salt and pepper. When you take the pan from the heat, add cold butter – the sauce will gain creamy texture and beautiful sheen.

Sweet and sour pork

I had a few pork chops in my fridge. As I didn’t want to make traditional pork chops I decided to fry them and simmer in a sweet and sour sauce. It’s an excellent dish for me!


Ingredients
5 boneless pork chops
2 tbsp brown sugar
¼ teaspoon ground pimento
¼ tbsp black pepper
¼ teaspoon chilli
¼ teaspoon dry thymes
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
¼ cup dry wine
salt
1 tbsp oil
optional: 1 tbsp wine vinegar (to taste), ¾ teaspoon potato starch


Method
Mix sugar with pimento, chilli and thymes. Season chops with salt and with the sugar mixture. Heat up the oil in a pan, fry chops each side until brown. Put the meat on a plate and leave aside. Add wine and vinegar to the meat juice left in a pan. Bring to boil and cook for a few minutes until the sauce gets thick, you can also add some flour to make it thicker. Season to taste. Simmer in a covered pot on a low heat for 3 min.

Stuffed pepper

Telling you the truth I made those peppers some time ago but I didn’t know what to write about them. And I still have no inspiration so it will be short: those are the peppers!

Ingredients
18 oz (500 g) minced meat
1 chopped onion
1 chopped garlic clove
½ teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary
¾ cup cooked rice al dente
salt, pepper, chilli
6 medium peppers


Method
In a bowl mix all the stuffing ingredients, season to taste. Wash and cut crossways peppers. Clean and remove the seeds. Put the stuffing inside the one half of each pepper, cover with another half, transfer into a greased baking dish. Bake until the pepper’s skin crease and peppers themselves get soft, for about 1 hour at 360F/ 180 oC. I suggest grind the onion or sauté it before baking because mine stayed hard.

Cannelloni with Bolognese sauce

When I have no idea what to serve for a dinner there is always a big chance I’ll serve pasta! It’s delicious, fast and you can make it with all kinds of sauce! Today version requires more work as you have to stuff all those cannelloni! (By trial and error I think the easiest is to use your own fingers instead of the icing bag to stuff cannelloni bags)

Ingredients
24 oz (600 g) mix minced meat
8 fl oz (250 ml) thick tomato juice
2 oz (50 g) butter
1/3 cup wheat flour
1 cup milk
¼ fresh ground nutmeg
2 garlic cloves
1 large onion
1 carrot, parsley root, celery root
salt, pepper
oil
rosemary
grated Parmesan


Method
In a saucepan melt butter add flour, stirring cook it for 3 min., continue stirring add warm milk, mix until smooth. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Sauté chopped onion, chopped garlic and rosemary. Diced carrot, parsley root, a piece of celery root and minced meat add to the onion. Fry until slightly brown. Add tomato juice. Well combine all ingredients. Season with salt and pepper. Uncooked cannelloni stuff with the Bolognese sauce. Transfer cannelloni into greased baking dish with a béchamel sauce on bottom. Each layer of cannelloni alternate with béchamel sauce. Sprinkle top with grated Parmesan. Bake for 20 min. at 360 F/180 oC.

Spicy white sausages

Some people are very lucky and has a Grandmother who is making delicious white sausage. And I’m one of them! This way of preparing the white sausage I saw in a TV and at once I tried it I loved it ever since!
I serve it with potato muffins.

Ingredients (serves 2)
18 oz (500 g) white raw sausage
freshly ground pepper
nutmeg
bay leaves
4 cloves
½ teaspoon cumin
onion
1 teaspoon honey
salt
oil


Method
Put the sausage in a greased baking dish. Drizzle with oil, season with pepper, nutmeg and salt. Add cloves, bay leaves and slices of onion. With a crushed in mortar cumin sprinkle the top. Bake in preheated oven to 400F/ 200 oC until golden brown. The remaining onion sauté in a pan with honey and salt. Serve sausage decorate with onion.

Caramelized onion and sausage Yorkshire pudding

I must admit this is my first contact (except English films and books) with the Yorkshire pudding and...I’m amazed! I like it so much I can serve it on a special occasion! Just imagine with baked beef, roasted vegetables and sauce. The pudding’s taste is delicate almost neutral. I was taken in by the whole process of making the pudding.

This pudding I served with French mustard brought from holidays. Probably English wouldn’t even take such a set to his mouth but we loved it!

The recipe I taken from Michel Roux cookbook.

Ingredients (make 6 Yorkshire puddings)
2 eggs
2,5 oz (70 g) wheat flour
7 fl oz (200 ml) full fat milk
salt, pepper to taste
2 oz (50 g) butter
1 big onion
pinch salt
6 tbsp after bake grease or oil + 2 tbsp oil to fry sausage
favourite sausage (2-3 for each portion)
balsamic vinegar
to serve: mustard, horseradish


Method
In a bowl whisk eggs, add flour and milk, mix. Season with salt and pepper. Place the batter in a fridge for about 2 hours. In a saucepan melt the butter. Simmer diced onion in a saucepan with butter until gets soft. Preheat the oven to 440F/ 220 oC. Pour an after bake grease or oil into a muffin pan. For 5 min. keep the muffin pan in the oven. After 5 min. Take the pan out from the oven and spoon the batter into it. Bake until golden brown for about 25 min.
Add sugar to simmered onion, fry until caramelized. Fry sausage. Serve with pudding which should be soft inside and crispy outside. Everything drizzle with balsamic vinegar.

Goulash soup with bitter

The end of February is almost here and still no Spring behind the Windows…

To make our waiting easier I recommend you this warming soup, thick and vegetable with a big meat pieces with the taste strengthen with a pint of bitter!

Wrapped in a blanket, wearing warm socks I’m eating this amazing soup. With such equipment we can survive even the longest Winter!

Ingredients
18 0z (500 g) beef
1 medium onion
3 carrots
1 parsley root
1 garlic clove
½ cup green peas (canned or frozen)
½ cup green beans (fresh or frozen)
1 green pepper
1 red pepper
1 cup bitter
few dry (or fresh) mushrooms
3 tbsp tomato puree
18 oz (500 ml) stock
1 tbsp wheat flour
½ teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon ground coriander
oil
salt, pepper, dry pepper (I used smoked one) – to taste
you can add potatoes – than soup will be more filling


Method
Cut all the vegetables in small cubes. Cut the meat in cubes with 1,5 cm long. Cover the meat in flour, fry in a heated pan until golden brown. Place the meat in a pot in which you will prepare the soup. In the same (not washed) pan partially fry the vegetables and garlic. Mix the meat with veggies. Pour a batter in the pan, heat up, pour in a pot with the veggies and meat. Add tomato puree, cumin, coriander and as much water as to cover all ingredients. Bring the soup to boil, add stock cube, season with salt and pepper to taste. Boil the soup on a low heat until meat gets soft (about 2-3 hours).

Classic for a weekend – stuffed pork

I must admit that it is a first time I made that pork (under my mum’s supervision). It’s delicate and crisp, the stuffing depends on your preferences. It can be classic: beacon and dry plums although we used smoked cured meat, some onion and sour cucumber and mysterious addition- mustard, which perfectly replaces other spices.
It’s a second posted recipe for a dish I made with Knorr’s stock cube.

Stock cubes can replace traditional bullion so it’s a great alternative if we don’t have 4 hours to cook bullion. Decreased amount of salt and fat make it even more desirable.

Ingredients (make about 12)
nice piece of joint of pork ( size depends on how many rolls we want to get), sliced in 0,5 inch/ 1,5 cm thick slices
to each roll:
1/8 sour cucumber
slice smoked cured meat
piece onion
1/3 teaspoon strong mustard
1 tbsp cumin
1 onion
2 bay leaves
3 grains pimento
½ cup wheat flour
2 cups bullion
oil
(dry cranberries to serve)


Method
Slices of pork pound with a meat mallet to flatten the pork. On each slice of pork spread the mustard evenly, place the cucumber, cured meat and onion in the centre. Roll the slices tightly. Each dip in a flour, cover well with flour. Brown the meta each side in a frying pan. In a big oil pour some oil, cumin, bay leaf and pimento, place the meat in a pot quite tightly. Pour the bullion over meat, simmer covered for about 1-2 hours, the meat should be juicy and crispy.

Stuffed roasted chops with yoghurt sauce

For me the Spring time is filled with a flavour of a dill and smoke from the barbeque during first meals in the garden! I live in a block of flats so it is easier for me to smell dill them the smoke but you can also heat up the grill pan so it will start to smoke almost like a barbeque! Today the Spring time dinner with a flavour of herbs and barbeque in a Greek style!

Ingredients
chops:
17 oz (500 g) minced beef meat
1 egg
bunch parsley
½ onion
1 garlic clove
½ teaspoon cumin
pinch chilli flakes
salt, pepper
package of feta cheese
sauce:
7 oz (200 g) thick Greek yoghurt
2 tbsp mayo
½ garlic clove
1 bunch dill
lemon zest from 1 lemon
½ fresh cucumber
salt, pepper


Method
Mix meat with thin chopped onion and parsley. In a mortar crush garlic, chilli and cumin. Mix all ingredients, add egg. Season to taste ( I suggest adding less salt as the feta cheese is already salty). Put in a fridge for about 1 hour so all the favours combine. After 1 hour, using wet hands form chops, in the centre of each put a slice of feta cheese and cover it with the meat mixture, you should get a ‘sausage’ shape. Each chop cover with oil, fry in a grill pan.

Mix yoghurt with mayo, chopped dill, lemon zest, salt, pepper, mashed garlic. Grate cucumber, drain the water, combine with the rest of the ingredients. Serve chilled.