Pork Provençale

This is a tasty and delicious way of cooking pork, I leave the pork in large pieces which are then cooked for an hour and a half so that they are very tender. This dish is best served with rice or couscous.

1kg pork shoulder
1 eggplant
1 zucchini
1 red pepper, chopped
1 medium brown onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 400g can tomatoes
2 tsp thyme
1 tsp smoked paprika (piménton)
⅓ tsp chilli powder
100ml chicken stock
salt and freshly ground black pepper
100ml white wine
pitted black olives

Chop the pork into 4cm cubes and lightly brown the pork in batches. Remove the pork from the pan and set aside,

Sweat the red pepper in the pan over a low heat. After about 5 minutes, add the onion and cook gently until the onions softens. Add the garlic and some sea salt and cook, stirring for a minute. Add the paprika, chilli powder and thyme.

Now add the can of tomatoes with the tomatoes chopped or crushed, white wine and the chicken stock. Add the pork to the pan, bring to a gentle simmer, cover and cook for 1½  hours or until the pork is very tender.

Meanwhile cut the eggplant into 2cm slices, and then these into quarters.  Heat 60ml olive oil in a heavy based frying pan and fry the eggplant in batches until golden brown on all sides, Drain on a paper towel and set aside.

About 10 minutes before serving, slice the zucchini and add the the pan. Then just before serving, add the eggplant and heat for 2 minutes so the eggplant is heated through. Garnish with pitted black olives.

Cook for approximately 1 1/2 hours on a low heat.

Serves 4 

Barbecued Leg of Lamb

As I mentioned in an earlier post, it is summer here in Australia, which of course is a good time for a barbecue, but then any time is a good time for a barbecue. One of my favourite summer meals is barbecued leg of lamb. I buy the lower half of the leg, and starting from the side of the leg with least meat, slice down the leg and then remove the bone so that I have have a triangular piece of meat left. I butterfly this so that it is about 4 or 5cm thick. If you wish you can butterfly a whole leg of lamb which would feed more people. Here is my recipe using quantities for half a leg.

1 half leg of lamb, about 1.2kg

3 garlic cloves
a knob of fresh ginger
grated rind of 1 lemon or lime
2 teaspoons ground cumin
3 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 cup of olive oil

Remove the lamb from the refrigerator 1 hour before cooking.

Put the garlic,  ginger, cumin, coriander and paprika in a mortar and pound into a rough paste with the pestle. Add the grated rind of a lemon or lime and pound for a further minute, then stir in the olive oil and mix well. You can also process this in a food processor if you wish. Spread the marinade over the lamb by hand, working it in to the meat with your fingers, and leave about an hour for the flavours to infuse the lamb.

This lamb can be barbecued over a gas-fired barbecue grill, or better still, over a charcoal grill. When the barbecue is hot, put the lamb on. Cook for about 12 minutes on each side for medium rare. Put on a plate and cover withe foil. Rest in a warm place for 10 minutes before carving.

When the lamb has been rested, carve the meat into 5mm slices and serve.

I barbecued the lamb with some potatoes wrapped in foil. They are a delicious accompaniment!

Pimentón Spiced Pork Kebabs

I love Spanish chorizo. Recently, when I bought some pork mince, I decided to spice the pork with pimentón (Spanish paprika) and make some kebabs which taste similar to fresh chorizo. Here is my recipe.

1kg pork mince
100g bacon, chopped
3 tsp dried oregano
1 1/2 tbsp Spanish paprika, preferably the ahumido (smoked) variety
1 tsp dried red chilli powder
50ml dry white wine
1 tsp salt
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
24 bamboo skewers

Soak the bamboo skewers in cold water.

Place the pork mince in a mixing bowl. Add the other ingredients (not the skewers!) and knead thoroughly by hand. Cover the mixture with cling film and refrigerate for at least one hour to allow the flavours to cure and develop.

Remove the bamboo skewers from the water and pat dry. Take a handful of the mixture and shape it into a sausage shape about 1.5cm wide by rolling it by hand. Thread a skewer through the shape to form a kebab, carefully pressing the sausage shape onto the skewer.

Cook the kebabs over a barbecue or in a grill pan on the stove. Serve with a chutney or caramelised onions.

Roast Chicken Provençale Style

Roasting a chicken is something which we all often do. I like a moist chicken with lemon and rosemary flavors which is what this recipe gives. The moist chicken is obtained by covering the chicken with aluminium foil for 2/3 of the roasting time, and then uncovering it to brown. The same result could be obtained by first browning the chicken for about half an hour and then covering it aluminium foil.

1.4 kg chicken
sprig or two of rosemary
1 lemon, sliced lengthwise into eighths
1 bay leaf
5 cloves of garlic, halved
olive oil

Slice a lemon into eighths, and halve 5 cloves of garlic. Stuff the inside of the chicken with the lemon slices and garlic together with a sprig of rosemary and a bay leaf. Place the chicken, breast side up, in a roasting pan with 3 cups of warm water. Rub a small amount of olive oil into the chicken breast. Cover the pan with foil and roast in a 175°C oven for about 1 hour. Now take the chicken from the oven and  remove the foil from the roasting pan. Put the pan and the chicken back in the oven for another half hour to brown the chicken.

Remove the chicken from the oven and rest it for a few minutes before serving accompanied by a sauce made from the garlic cloves and cooking juices.

Tortilla

Spanish-style tortillas are one of my favourite foods, whether served hot, served cold on a picnic, or best of all, served sliced and warm in a baguette on a picnic high in the Pyrenees, with a glass of red wine.

1 large potato, diced
1 onion, chopped finely
4 eggs
pinch of salt
olive oil

Pre-cook the diced potato in a covered plastic container in the microwave for 3 to 4 minutes until softened slightly. Meanwhile cook the onion in a small non-stick frypan moistened with olive oil until the onion has softened. Add the softened potato and gently cook with the onion until they are both soft but not browned. In a basin, mix the eggs and salt. Add the potato and onion to the egg mixture and return the whole lot back to the frypan. Cook over the stove until the bottom of the tortilla is set. Meanwhile heat the griller and when the bottom of the tortilla is set, put the frypan under the griller to set the top. A useful technique is: when the top of the tortilla is set slightly, take the pan from the stove, put a plate on top of the pan and quickly invert the whole lot so that the tortilla is on the plate. Now slide the tortilla back into the pan and cook it a for a while on top of the stove. You should aim to keep the centre of the tortilla slightly runny.

Remove the tortilla and serve hot or let it cool and then serve. It is a great dish to serve on a picnic in a sandwich sliced between 2 halves of baguette.

Poulet Basquaise

I first tried Poulet Basquaise at a small restaurant whose name now escapes me in St Jean Pied de Port in the French Basque country. It is a delicious and great way of preparing chicken.

1 chicken, cut into 8 pieces
olive oil
100 g onions, finely chopped
2 red peppers, de-seeded and sliced
2 green peppers, de-seeded and sliced
4 tomatoes, peeled, de-seeded and chopped (use canned tomatoes if you wish)
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 bayleaf
1/2 teaspoon of pimenton
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1 glass dry white wine
chicken stock
salt and pepper


Fry the onions, garlic and peppers until soft. Remove from the pan and set aside. Reheat the pan and brown the chicken pieces. Then add all the other ingredients except the chicken stock. Simmer gently, stirring from time to time,  until  the vegetables have formed a sauce, about 40 minutes. Add some chicken stock if the sauce becomes too thick. Add seasoning before serving.

Mussels in Tomato Sauce

 I recently spent some time in Sydney. At a café there I had a delicious plate of what the restaurant called Italian Mussels. This is my attempt at something similar. I have used oregano as flavouring which may make this dish more like a Greek Mussels dish. On the other hand, the smoked paprika gives it a Spanish feel.


1 kg mussels
1 large onion
2 large garlic cloves, sliced finely
1 tin of chopped tomatoes (450g)
200 ml white wine
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp paprika
1 pinch dried chilli flakes
1 tbsp finely chopped fresh oregano
black pepper
1 bay leaf
olive oil

First find a large pan or pot with a heavy base. Heat some olive oil in the pan, then add the onions and garlic and let them fry gently until they are translucent. Add the paprika, chilli flakes and chopped tomatoes. Now add the white wine, oregano and bay leaf. Simmer the sauce gently until it thickens.
Meanwhile clean the mussels. Remove the beards and clean the outside of the shells Throw out any mussels that are broken or that don't close when you touch them.
Open the mussels in a saucepan. Then add the opened mussels to the tomato sauce together with a little of the mussel juice. Mix the mussels into the sauceso that the flavours of the sauce assimilate with the mussels.
Serve in large bowls.

Braised and roasted turkey leg

Turkey legs can now be bought in some poultry shops here in Australia. They make a delicious and reasonably priced basis for a meal. The legs do need a fairly long time to braise for them to be tender and, unless they are treated carefully, tend to dry out.

a 1 1/2  kg turkey leg
2 tablespoons of Dijon mustard
4 cloves of garlic, peeled
2 brown onions
100 ml warm water
1 tsp vegetable stock powder
40 ml brandy
200 ml red wine
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon thyme
salt, pepper

1. Peel and cut the onions into thin slices. Peel the garlic cloves.
2. Place the turkey leg into a roasting pan, rubbing the French mustard onto the two sides. Salt and pepper the top of the leg.
3. Place the onion slices and garlic around the turkey leg. Add the warm water, brandy, wine, thyme and stock powder to the pan over the sliced onions. Drizzle the olive oil over the turkey leg.
4. Cook the turkey leg in a 200°C oven for about 45 minutes, basting the turkey with the juices from time to time.
5. Cover the roasting pan with aluminium foil and return to oven for another 45 minutes.

Chicken with Prawns

This is a recipe inspired by the Catalan region of France

Ingredients
1 small chicken, cut into 8 pieces
12 large green prawns
1 brown onion
1 red pepper
1 eggplant
1 tomato, peeled, de-seeded and chopped
3 cloves of garlic
200 ml of chicken stock
1 lemon
2 cups rice
1 packet powdered saffron
salt, pepper, olive oil
chopped chives

Method
Brown the chicken pieces in olive oil in a quite hot frying pan. Remove when the pieces are browned on each side. Put onions, garlic and vegetables in the pan, cut in small pieces, to soften a few minutes. Add the pieces of chicken, saffron powder, chicken stock, salt, pepper and spice slightly. Gently cook covered for about 20 minutes (add a little water if necessary). During this time, make the rice with water saffroned to give a yellow colour. Before being served, put the prawns on the pieces of chicken, cover, cook for 2 minutes, remove from the flame and let rest for 5 minutes. The prawns should be cooked at that point. Place a little rice, a chicken quarter, and 3 prawns on each plate. Sprinkle with cooking juices and vegetables, squeezed lemon, and some chopped chives. Serve at once.