Pork Tenderloin, potato salad and tomato mushroom 'salad'.

Happy Day After Australia Day! Yes, I know, the last post I did a few hours ago said happy new year, but shhh, work with me here. It all makes sense! Now I don't know about you, but for me, cooking when it is hotter than holy cooked egg on a rock is not on my list of 'top things to do today'. Eating a hot meal when it is hotter than that crispy egg on a sizzling rock is -equally- low on the list.

But, we need to eat or else we'll wake up at 2am with a growling belly going 'oh god so hungry' and after eating it's 'oh god so tired WHY do I have work in the morning' while you can't sleep and... yeah, it's just not pretty. So what do we do? We make a food that is eaten -cold-. Yep! Lovely coldness. For this recipe you will need:

Pork (tenderloin, chop, whichever, could also use a beef steak... doesn't matter)
Potato salad:
5 medium-large potatoes
5 eggs
2 cups of peas
2 cups of corn
~250g of bacon
2-3 Tbsp of mayonaise
1/2 tsp of worchestershire sauce
2 tsp white vinegar
1/2 tsp garlic powder.
Tomato salad:
1-2 tomatoes
3-4 button mushrooms, fresh
1-2 2cm thick slices of cheddar, cubed.

Peel and dice your potato, try to keep all of the potato pieces around the same size, as this is the size of your final potato salad will be. Put them in a pot with cold water, bring to the boil, put in the peas and corn -- yes, into the -same- pot, why waste water, or make extra dishes for yourself if you don't have to? -- put on the lid cracked a little to let steam out, and bring to boil a second time, leaving to simmer. Once that part is cooked, drain the water, and put them into a bowl to cool.

Get out four eggs from the fridge, put into a pot of water (you can use the potato pot if you like) and bring to boil (it should take around 5 minutes) once boiling (thats when the big bubbles are plopping up and effecting the water surface) put the timer on for about seven minutes. If you prefer, you can boil the water -first-, just add a teaspoon or so of vinegar to the water, this will keep the egg shells from cracking, and if they -do- crack, then the egg-white will stay inside, once boiling, carefully put the eggs in (I balance them on a table spoon and slide them in gently) and set the timer for seven to ten minutes. Once the timer is done, pull them off the heat and set aside to cool in the water, or, conversely, empty out the hot water, and replace it with cold. There's more than one way to boil an egg!

Once they are cool enough to touch without you going 'ow ow ow hot hot!' peel and dice the eggs. Three slices, and cut into quarters. You can add more, or less egg as is your preference. While the eggs are cooling, whip out a frying pan, spray oil in it to warm up. While it is warming, you want to slice and dice your bacon into small cubes. Fry them in the pan until cooked, slightly crispy, but not burnt. So they shouldn't crack or crunch when you eat them.

Toss them into the bowl with the potato, along with the egg, and leave to cool down. Or rather, let it rest while you mix the mayonaise with the vinegar. It will separate, and form little clumps as you are stirring it (in a separate bowl to the potato) but you should remix the vinegar in until the mayonaise looks like it did before you thinned it, only smoother and slightly creamy looking. Same principle, add the garlic powder and worchestershire sauce, stir until well mixed in and creamy looking, add to your potato, egg, bacon etc, and stir the whole lot through. Leave to cool -completely- in the fridge. Warm potato salad tastes funny to me.

For the 'tomato salad', I'd been having a hankering for raw mushroom, and this fullfilled that nicely. Raw button mushrooms are very dry, and powdery in taste, the tomato juice counterbalances that nicely, and there's cheese well.. because I like cheese in my salads.

Dice up your tomato, top and tail, three slices horzontally and then checker-board the upper edge, three cuts vertically through the meat of the tomato, and another three crossing over -those- cuts to cube the tomato nicely. Slice the mushroom into little umbrellas, and then cut each umbrella in half. Slice and cube the cheese, toss it all into a bowl, and voila. Another nice cold salad!

Put your meat on (whatever type you chose) and cook it through. If lamb, or pork, you'll be wanting/needing to turn it over -four- times, each time letting blood rise to the surface and puddle slightly before turning it over, the last turning is to sear the juices onto the outer layer. If it's beef, or steak, then you needn't worry so much. Just cook it how you like! 10 seconds sear on each side for, I think, blue rare, 30 seconds on each side for rare... and so on. Personally, I prefer medium well done which is blood to rise twice, and three turnings to cook on each side and sear.

Put the meat on the plate, serve up the potato salad and tomato stuff, and have a lovely cool dinner on a wicked hot day. If you wish to add a dash of surprising freshness, simply slice up some of a cucumber and place it on the plate. It works well!

Deliciousness Delivered.

Rolled-Roast stuffed chicken breast

Happy New Year everyone! Yeah, I know, I have been lazy and not updated for the WHOLE of the new year, how shameful of me! But here it is. A nice roast that I'm sharing with you, including a cheaty way to get your delicious roast vegetables.

A major problem with -having- those lovely roast vegetables, is how the devil do you know when to put them in? And if you -do- put them in and they come out cooked when the roast is done, you lose the delicious crispy to the pan, tray or foil! Dilemna! Never fear however, I shall help you make wonderful, delicious roast vegetables.





First of all, you're going to need some potatoes and carrots. Around one potato and one carrot per person you are serving. You want to cut the carrots in half crosswise, and then half them again down the length. Cut the potatoes in half, on the longest side of a decent potato. A 'decent potato' is the type known as nadine, they are about big enough to fill your hand, without your fingers curling over and connecting, white skin and white flesh.




An appropriately sized roast, I had a net rolled chicken roast, available from a chicken-specialist butchers, so I won't go into the preparation of how to make one. Wrap a baking tray in alfoil, tinfoil or whichever you want to call it. Put the rolled roast into the tray, net and all, if you take the net off, the roast will fall apart while cooking. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius, and once it is ready, put the roast in for fifty minutes. This is to cook the first side and make sure the skin is crunchy. While this is going on, you put the roast vegies on. But wait! I haven't said -how-!



If you've got yourself a banquet frying pan, then you're sweet. What you want to do is put some dripping into the pan, as it is heating, to melt down. Dripping is the fat that melt out of red-meat roasts, so like beef, lamb, the clear film that sits at the bottom of the tray, when it is still liquid, you pour that into a jar, and put it in the fridge to solidify. If you haven't kept/got any no drama's, butter will serve. BButter mind, not margerine. Duck fat as well, if you want to get expensive. Another alternative is to use cooking spray -and- vegetable oil. The cooking spray keeps the oil from sticking, and the oil keeps the vegetables from sticking, and you have a lovely crunchy roast vegie, undeniably the best method is the dripping. So, start saving the fat from your roasts!

Pop all your vegetables in -- you can also roast a whole onion in the same way, if you like, one onion per person that wants it. Cook on medium to low heat, checking them periodically, and turn them over when you have a lovely golden crispy layer forming.




Like so! Around this time, your oven should 'ding' and your roast is asking you ever so politely to turn it over. Do so, and roast it for another 20-30 minutes. If you're not sure, stick it with something sharp -- cake skewer, tip of a thin knife -- and if the juices that come out are clear, it's good to go.

This is when you get to polish up on your multitasking skills, as you also put on the frozen vegetables you want to add to the meal, peas, corn, beans, brussel sprouts... put them in cold water, bring to boil on the stove on a medium to low heat -- I cook with gas, and 'high' is insta-burn because of how hot the flame is. Now you just need to keep track of the time passing.

If your roast is done early, before you have finished doing all the vegetables, no need to stress, or worry, just turn the oven down. 80-90 degrees celcius will keep your roast nice and hot, without cooking it further. When your pot-vegetables (peas, corn etc) are boiling, put on the gravy.

Packet stuff, it's usually six teaspoons of the mix to a cup of water, or there abouts, and it should serve four people. Put the powder in a glass, (or cup measure) stir the powder and water together, put them into a pot and put it on high, while you are -still- stirring. Don't take my hazarded guess measure as gospel, read the packet for the precise requirements. Once the gravy starts to thicken -- you'll notice it -- turn the heat DOWN while still stirring. For the love of all that is holy do NOT let the gravy boil. If it boils you get brown water. Seriously, it does not thicken for love or money. Keep stirring until the gravy is completely thick and gloopy and delicious, the way we all like it, and turn -off- the heat. For everything!

Take your roast out of the oven, and it should look gloriously golden and crispy and delicious, like so;



But! We have a net around our food. And this is bad! What you want to do, is using a pair of tongs, and pair of scissors -- scissors, NOT a knife -- grip, and snip through the netting at the end, and work along the length of the roast. Being careful, and using the tongs to hold the roast, using your fingers peel the netting back. Do so gently, and patiently, and you will have a delicious thing in one piece ready to carve, if you rush, bits of the skin will stick to the netting and on the whole, it will look a lot less appealing. We -prefer- to eat things that look nice, not all mangled after all.

Carefully slice your roast, and serve, putting two halves of a potato, two to four bits of carrot, a serve of peas/corn/beans etc and drizzle gravy over the top. I am sure I have mentioned this in previous posts, but just in case I haven't, the serving sizes per person for the frozen vegetables, is one handful. So if there is peas -and- corn, then it is a half handful of each, per person. It doesn't seem like a lot, but it is all you need.

Enjoy your lovely roast and easy roast vegetables!

Deliciousness Delivered.