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AAF’s Recipe of the Day: Double Whammy!

Since I didn’t post a recipe yesterday (due to having made the acquaintance of Mr Bubbly) today I have two, one that will please the carnivore in us, and one that will delight the vegetarians & “cannibals” alike!

The first one is Roast Loin of Pork & Root Vegetables with Dijon Mustard Sauce.

Ask your butcher to select a loin of pork for 6 to 8 persons, and if you know him, ask him to tie it up with bacon or lard strips. If that’s not an option, you can do it, it’s not hard. Get some strips of bacon, a bit of string and having rolled out the loin on the cutting board, butterfly it, flatten it with a meat mallet, salt & pepper it, throw in some fresh rosemary or thyme if you can get it, and roll it up. Apply the slices of bacon around it and tie it up, one bit at the time (unless you’re familiar with the continuous tying method) and you’ve done it. Now here are the ingredients for this great dish: 2 pints of chicken stock, half a glass of acacia honey (or wild honey), 1 pint of fresh cream, and the contents of 2 Grey Poupon Dijon mustard glass jars. For the root vegetables, I’d get some 2 old potatoes per person, 1 pound of carrots, 1 pound of parsnips, 4 large onions, cut in quarters, a celeriac cut in large cubes, 12 garlic cloves, un-peeled, a glass of dry white wine for deglazing.

Pre-set your oven at 350, and stick the pork into a large baking tray, with the potatoes and the onions around it. Cook for 40 minutes, then add the carrots, turnips, garlic, celeriac (or sweet potatoes too would go well with this) and cook for another 40 minutes. In the meantime pour your stock into a saucepan, add the cream and whisk in the mustard, then the honey. Cook slowly as not to break the cream, for as long as the roast. When the roast is cooked, take it out of the baking tray with the vegetables, keep warm, let it stay still for a few minutes, while you finish the sauce: in the baking tray, over a high flame, add the white wine and scrub the bottom, then add the mustard sauce which would have reduced by at least half. Keep whisking and pass the sauce into a sieve, and pour into a sauce boat. Serve at once.

Now for the vegetarian dish, I have a beauty: Red Thai Vegetable Curry with Jasmine flavored Rice.

This is my favorite curry! Quite often I add fish to it if the kids aren’t home (they “hate” fish). You would need quite a few vegs for this to make it interesting, and you can add tofu or tempeh or both at will. This is for 8 to 10 as there’s a thing called leftovers (plus you can actually freeze this if you so wish): 1 kg of new potatoes, 1 quarter of a red cabbage, cut in strips, 1 half of a Chinese cabbage, also cut in strips, 200 grams broccoli florets, 200 grams cauliflower florets, 6 to 8 carrots, cut in strips, 2 large eggplants, cut in long strips, 2 red bell peppers, cut in little triangles, same with 2 yellow bell peppers, 8 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced, 250 grams of bean shoots, 200 grams of red lentils (which you have soaked previously), 1 large bok choy, 1 knob of ginger, cut into fine strips, 250 grams of red Thai curry paste, 1 pint of coconut milk, 1 pint of cream, 1 few lime leaves, a pinch of galangal, some cilantro, the juice of 2 limes, and if you could get a fresh coconut, get a few slivers with your knife and throw in at the last minutes. Have some sesame oil and Tamari handy as well. You’ll also need about 4 pints of vegetable stock and 500 gram packet of Thai Jasmine rice.

In a large skillet, pour a little sesame oil and throw in the onions, the garlic, the ginger, the galangal, and stir while cooking, then add the curry paste, the Tamari (2 tbsp) the cream, the coconut milk, keep stirring, then the vegetable stock & the lime leaves. Add the potatoes and cook at a moderate heat with lid for 30 minutes. Then stir, and add the red lentils, and all the vegetables except the bok choy which only takes 2 minutes to cook, save it for last, with the cilantro and coconut bits. Keep the lid on and cook for another 30 to 40 minutes(or until the lentil are cooked). Cook the rice separately and serve. Toppings of smoked tofu or tempeh can be fun!