You are browsing the archive for Pork Recipes.




Avatar of janicetripepi

by janicetripepi

Mettwurst, Poached Duck Eggs and Mozzarella Wings … will make you Fly!

August 3, 2012 in Breakfasts, Italian Classics, Janice Tripepi, Pork Recipes, Sapori chapter 2 - The Breakfast Club, Uncategorized

1 Comment »

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Mettwurst and poached duck eggs with what can only be described as wings of crispy, believe it or not, mozzarella is on the breakfast menu this Friday.  I haven’t posted a breakfast recipe for yonks and with all of the fantastic sport that we have to watch on our telly’s I find myself either nibbling on tea and biscuits to keep myself awake at 11pm or waking up to a good breakfast to enjoy whilst watching the rugby.  The Sharks play the Chiefs in Hamilton, New Zealand at 9.30am tomorrow morning and I am planning a little early breakfast with some girlies.

The atmosphere amongst the Tripepi menfolk is nothing less than Vesuvian!  They are all about to erupt with excitement for there is a Tripepi wedding coming up.  Yes, a Big Fat Italian Tripepi wedding is a wonderful occasion.  The bride or groom even look like they are going to sneeze and it’s turned into an pre-pre-wedding event with dinners, themes, colour schemes and THE ENTIRE FAMILY and I just love it, we all do!

This is Claudio’s bachelor weekend and, as usual, they are going big!  Max is one of the groomsman at the wedding and as we share an open plan office I have a fair idea of the weekend’s itinerary and planned events!  My lips are sealed!  All I shall say is that it brings a big happy lump to my throat to watch all of the cousins, brothers in law, uncles and friends do their utmost to ensure the perfect weekend for their couzzie, Claudio.   He is so very special and loved by the entire family.  So I propose to kick off the events with a good, tummy lining breakfast with a glass of some lovely bridal bubbles!

Mettwurst and Mozzarella Crisps with Poachced Duck Eggs.

Mettwurst and
Poached Duck Eggs with Mozzarella wings!

To make you fly
Claudio!!!

For 4

Ingredients

Olive oil or butter for frying

2 Mettwurst Sausages

Fresh thyme

Salt & freshly cracked black pepper

2 Mozzarella balls or a few slices of block Mozzarella

Pesto – either basil or tomato.  Use your favourite pesto!

4 duck eggs (one egg each – if you are feeding men I would suggest two each)

1 or 2 slices of butter Toast per person

I just love plump white duck eggs!

Method

Cut the Mettwurst into slices, you will get about 9 slices from each sausage.  Brown the slices in a non-stick pan with
olive oil, salt pepper and a few sprigs of fresh thyme.  Set aside once they are cooked.

Cut each Mozzarella ball in half.  Place two halves into the frying pan that you cooked the sausage in with a teaspoon of your favourite
pesto spread over each half.   The cheese will melt and once the liquid has cooked out it will crisp up nicely.

The mozzarella will melt completely and the liquids will cook out.

In the meantime, add
1tsp of vinegar to a small saucepan of boiling water.

Crack an egg into a
cup and gently lower it into the water and poach it to your desired softness.

A good tip when poaching eggs – the water must not be boiling vigourously when you add your egg otherwise it will split up

and you will end up losing most of your egg white.

Place the poached egg
on a slice of buttered toast

Top with two slices
of Mettwurst and two ‘Wings’ of crispy Mozzarella.

Season with salt and pepper and serve.

How about these alternative Breakfasts

Eggs Fiorentina

 

Huevos Rotos

 

The Crown Jewels

Good Luck to the
Sharks,

Good Luck Chad also
from Durban

And

Good Luck Claudio

Xxx

As always Buon
Appetito

jan

Avatar of janicetripepi

by janicetripepi

Salsiccia e Polenta .. A Romantic Venetian Dinner.

April 18, 2012 in Polenta, Pork Recipes, Venetian Food, Winter Meals

12 Comments »

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Salsice e Polenta .... a Venetian Memory!

As our water taxi chugged and puffed its way around the last corner she came into full view and my heart leapt, it honestly nearly leapt right out of my chest.   I must have stopped breathing for a few seconds as I remember catching my breath in a dizzying gasp, and from that very moment I fell hopelessly in love with her ….. And have been ever since.  

Venice is like a magnificent jewel incrusted Baroque ring perched on the index finger of an impossibly beautiful masqued courtesan.  She is an enigma of churches, cupola’s, canals and piazzas that seem to cling to each other for dear life.  A million facades, even more balconies holding even more secrets in their shadows.

I yearn for Venice and her bars, cafe’s, frito misto’s, pasta e fagioli, polenta’s and food markets.  I had occasion to partake in the first European Conference of Crisis Lines for Abused Children when I was working for Childline in Durban.  My director and I didn’t have a small budget, we had NO budget!  We stayed in a 16th Century Monastery on the small island just off Venice free of charge, and lived on freshly sliced prosciutto’s and salumi, beautiful plump flavoured olives, warm crusty Italian cornetti which are all but hollow bread rolls and what we ate dozens of what we affectionately called “Ferrari’s”, which were the reddest tomatoes you will ever see – this all shopped from the market in Venice.  We ate like Queens!

I shall pass on one sage piece of advice to you.  If you visit Venice, don’t make the same mistake that TrickyRicky and I did.  We chose to stay in a hotel that backed on to St Mark’s Square and as the bells of St Mark’s Cathedral pealed ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT -  wardrobe doors flew open, draws jumped out of their comfy nights stands and our bed hopped across the floor!  By the morning we woke up somewhere near the door!  But Oh my madumbi’s is she the most beautiful and romantic city in the whole world!

Salsice E Polenta

This is a hearty Autumnal dish that celebrates the ‘fruits’ of the early half of the Italian hunting season, plump Italian sausages and another of

A selection of exotic mushrooms add flavour and texture to this dish.

Venice’s prized favourites, Polenta.  My rendition of this dish includes a selection of exotic mushrooms and small side bowl of my

Truffle & Porcini Mushroom Finishing Salt

 

Dried Porcini & Truffle Oil Finishing Salt.

Ingredients

 

Italian Sausages, Pancetta, Lardo, Mushrooms, Onion & Rosemary.

150g Pancetta or Smoked Streaky Bacon chopped into bite sized pieces or lardons

150g Lardo or Pork Fat chopped into bite sized pieces or lardons

1 packet – 8 Italian Sausages – or your favourite Sausage

200g mushrooms

2 onions finely chopped

1Tbs finely chopped garlic

4 sprigs of fresh Rosemary

2 glasses of dry white wine

 

Method

Place a heavy bottomed pot on your stove on a medium/hot heat and add the chopped pancetta and lardo and gently fry.  This releases the fat from the pancetta, now add your sausages and fry for about 4 minutes until they are lightly browned on both sides.

 

Once your pancetta and lardo are browned and have released their fat add the sausages.

Remove the bacon and sausages and set aside.  Now you will see that the bottom of your pot is covered in the caramelisation from the meat – this is where your sauce is going to get all its flavour from.

Add the garlic, onion and rosemary and fry until the onions are golden, then add your mushrooms and fry for two minutes.Add back the sausages and

Add in the mushrooms and fry for two minutes

bacon, season with a little salt and plenty of black pepper and fry with the onions for 2 minutes.  Don’t go wild with the salt as the pancetta and lardo are quite salty.

So the secret here is to TASTE your food, before adding the salt and pepper.

Add your wine, cook until the alcohol had cooked off and then put the lid on and leave to cook for 25 minutes.

Add the dry white wine and cook with the lid off for 3 minutes to allow all of the alcohol to evaporate.  Use a wooden spoon to scrape all of the nice flavour off the bottom of your pot into your sauce while the alcohol is cooking off. 

Once all the alcohol has cooked off, pop the lid on and reduce to a very gently simmer for 25 minutes when it will be ready.

If you don’t like to cook with wine, you can deglaze the pan with a little vegetable or chicken stock. 

Italian sausages are very thick – so if you substitute with a thinner sausage eg. pork sausage or boerewors, I would suggest that you reduce the cooking time to 15 minutes.

 

 

 

Polenta

Feeds 6 people

Buttery Yellow Polenta.

This is Italy’s version of our South African staple, Mielie Meal.  Polenta is produced from yellow sweet corn as opposed to the white Mielie which is why is has such a beautiful soft yellow hue.

The rule of thumb here is 1 part polenta to 4 parts water and 1 cup of polenta will easily feed 6 people.

Ingredients

Add parmesan or pecorino cheese for flavour.

1 large cup of Polenta

3 cups of water

100g butter

1 cup of fresh cream

2 stock cubes

1 cup of grated parmesan cheese or pecorino cheese.

 

Method

My apologies for a lack of picture here – once the polenta is in the pot you must not stop stirring or your polenta will get lumpy – so picture taking was impossible.

Bring the 3 cups of water with the two stock cubes and butter to the boil.

Bring the water, chicken stock and butter to the boil.

Very slowly add the Polenta in a steady stream whilst stirring the pot constantly with a whisk.

Once all the polenta is in, keep stirring and add the cup of fresh cream and stir the polenta constantly for 4 minutes.  This is a great workout for your biceps!

That’s it!  Ready.

Pronto a tavola!

 

The polenta is traditionally poured onto a large wooden board and left for 5 minutes to cool slightly then it’s cut into portions using a piece of cotton.  Alternatively place one ladle of polenta into the centre of your plate and top it with two sausages and some sauce.

Polenta cut into portions on a board.

This is quite a rich dish so a man’s portion would be two sausages and a woman’s portion would be one.

 

Using a piece of cotton to cut the polenta into portions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TrickyRicky's Dinner Plate last nigh .....

 

Have a great Wednesday.

As always

Buon Appetito

Jan

xx

 

 

Avatar of janicetripepi

by janicetripepi

The Three P’s : Crumbed Pork Chops, Rosemary Peas & Potato Bake.

November 29, 2011 in Pork Recipes, Potato Bake, Uncategorized

20 Comments »

 Pork chops, peas and potato is one of those meals that rolls slowly like a golf ball and falls firmly into the hole marked with a flag with “Holy Trinity Man Food’ in that it’s the epitome of meat and two veg.  MAN FOOD doesn’t attempt to seduce them into eating arty farty nouvelle cuisine decorated with those ghastly tasting pea shoots.  I can just about get away with one sprig of fresh rosemary to dicky the plate up for a blits vinning quick pic before the feeding frenzy begins.  You know what I mean, when you are just lining up a stunner of a shot with all the elements blab la bla.. And the plate disappears in front of your eyes and all you hear is a whoosh as it sails past your ear!  The family are like a pride of lions, they circle, attack and then feast

Crumbed meat or fish is always a huge hit with the Tripepi boys.  There is something extremely satisfying about the crunch as you bite into fried crumbed pork chops.  My lot have been raised on an Italian staple, Cotolette (crumbed flattened chicken fillets) and my housekeeper Monique is the queen of queens of this technique.  On those days when I simply don’t have enough time to cook a whole meal myself, Moni-Q comes to the rescue and crumbs the meat for me so all I have to do is fry it and serve!  Love you Moni-Q xx

I remember one poker game years ago where I made a platter of 28 pieces of crumbed chicken fillets and the whole lot was devoured in less than 5 minutes. When my son Daniele is coming home to visit us in Durban, the first meal that he requests is cotolette and I have often flown to visit him in Cape Town with a suitcase laden with packets of frozen cotolette (and basil pesto) for his freezer. 

If you observe the basic rules of crumbing you are guaranteed success and at the very least a new handbag.

This is my first post in our new WordPress Platform – I am sooo excited that I could just burst!

Thank You Food24 and all of the elves who worked tirelessly to bring us humble bloggers

a superb and very exciting new platform.  I am trying to work out how to customize my new space …. give me a few

days and I shall have my spot looking spunkier than a Kardashian!!!

 

The 1 2 3 of Crumbing

No matter what meat you are crumbing – the rule stays the same.

Crumbed Pork Chops

Ingredients

6 Pork chops

2/3 cup of flour – seasoned if you like with herbs, pepper and spices

3 cups of bread crumbs

 

First you flatten your meat and in the case of pork chops this is particularly important.  As they are quite thick they require a fair amount of frying before the meat is cooked through.

 

 

Pat the meat dry and using a pair of scissors cut off the thick piece of fat.

  

Using a meat hammer or rolling pin, flatten the meat – but don’t bash the living daylights out of it. 

Firstly coat the meat in some flour seasoned with herbs. I like oregano with my pork chops so used this with some black pepper and a touch of paprika.  Don’t add salt to the flour as it will start drawing the moisture out of your meat.

In a bowl beat 3 eggs and dip the floured meat into the egg making sure to cover it completely in the egg mixture

Pour your breadcrumbs into a flat bowl or onto a tray and place the meat down and give a good hard pressing to coat it in bread crumbs, turn it over and crumb the other side.

Once you have crumbed your chops, it is absolutely essential to cover them and put them into the fridge for at least 20 minutes.  This will prevent the crumbs from falling off into the oil when you fry them.

 

I am using organic pork chops here from Dargle Valley Pork Products. If you live in Durban or surrounding suburbs I would really recommend that you consider buying their meat – it’s guaranteed free from boar taint, is hormone free and is absolutely delicious. Many restaurants and shops stock their products all over the Midlands from Hartford House to Indigo Fields to Piggly Wiggly and they deliver in Durban once a month. Contact Caz Griffiths on cazg@iafrica.com you won’t believe how fantastic their pork is.

To fry the meat

 

Use your largest frying pan and fill with at least 4cm of oil.

Heat the oil to very hot – to check if it’s ready, drop a few crumbs into the oil and if they immediately start to sizzle when they hit the surface then the oil is ready.

If you put the meat into lukewarm oil – the crumbs will absorb the oil and the crumbed chop will be soggy and oily.  You need the extremely hot oil to seal the crumbs and make them nice and crunchy.

Serve with a good sprinkling of salt and lemon wedges.

Lemon wedges are essential for deep fried, crumbed food as the lemon cuts the oiliness and each mouthful is crunchy, light and lemony!

 

Piselli al Rosmarino

Ingredients

Olive oil

1Tbs finely chopped garlic

1 sprig of rosemary

½ cup of chicken or vegetable stock

Black pepper

Frozen peas

 

Method

Dead quick and easy are these peas.  Just a little tweaking raises the humble pea up to first class airline lounge status.

Heat a few table spoons of olive oil in a pot

Add a sprig of fresh rosemary and 1Tbs of finely chopped garlic.

Add your frozen peas, black pepper and ½ cup of chicken or vegetable stock.

Bring to the boil and cook out all of the stock.

AH-HAaaa …. I found the big picture thingy!!!

When all of the stock is gone, this only takes 5 minutes, remove the rosemary and add a knob of butter.

Give them a good stir and serve.

 

Ps: make extra and eat the left overs with some wasabi mayo for lunch the next day!

 

Potato Bake

Oh how I love potato bake.  You will always see a big dish of potato bake on the table when we braai.  You could make mash to go with the crumbed pork chops.  But potato does need to be served with pork chops.  It’s law!  There is nothing remotely Italian about my recipe – this is a great home grown South African potato bake that celebrates the good old ingredient, Brown Onion Soup!

Ingredients

 

7 large potatoes peeled and sliced thin

3 – 4 large onions sliced thinly

3Tbs of finely chopped garlic

1 packet of brown onion soup

100g melted butter

1Tbs dried oregano

1Tbs black pepper

½ grated nutmeg

Thyme

400g grated cheese – a good strong cheese like cheddar is best

250ml cream

100ml milk

½ cup of bread crumbs

 

Pre-heat your oven to 180d

 

Place the cream, milk, brown onion soup, oregano, nutmeg, pepper and garlic into a jug.  Give it a good stir and microwave it for 3  minutes.

 

First layer – potatoes

Second – Onions

Third – cheese

Now pour over half of the cream mixture.

Fourth – onions

Fifth – potatoes

Top with the rest of the cream mixture, some herbs and a good sprinkling of bread crumbs.

 

Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour at 180d, then remove the foil and bake for another hour at 160d.

 

And that’s it!

Dear Sam, Cath and Caro – I hereby grant you all the rest of this day off – go to a spar and

make beula, then go to lunch and drink many bottles of Champagne!!!

Grazie Infinite Amici

xxxx

Buon Appetito

jan

xx

 

Switch to our mobile site