Homemade Smoked Pork Loin

Smoked Pork Loin served with roasted mushrooms, baby urugula and lettuce salad 

This is one of those unexpected flavors that worked well together. The pan-roasted mushrooms gaved that tacky earthy flavor and well contrasted with the balsamic vinaigrette, that tangy strong bite of urugula which is neutralized with the bland lettuce and that smokey taste of every bite of the homemade smoked tender loin (courtesy by Chef B.)   The flavors are dancing in the tongue of every bite which was really enjoyable that i cant afford to miss a post about it.  Oh well, i wouldn't remember it for sure after sometime, which makes this blog handy.  

I am not going write much about the salad because it is easy to make.  Let me write about how this smoked tender loin was made because it entailed a lot of processes and expertise to do it. Practice makes perfect indeed, and this one is nailed perfectly.

Oh well, Chef B isn't really blogging but I can do it for him! (winks!) I think i can do his recipe it if i had more patience! ssshh.  I had a lengthy interview while enjoying dinner last night. Don't tell him I blogged about it. Anyway, its not for him.  I will keep the recipe for our budding little Chef L.

Here's how he made the Smoked Pork Loin:

1.  Prepare a brine which is a mixture of 200g of salt per liter of water and freshly ground pepper.

Make sure the whole meat is soaked in the brine for a day and half at room temperature

2. Remove from the brine and soak meat in plain water for at least 2 hours. Pat Dry with a kitchen towel.

3. Whilst the meat is still moist, roll it on a bed of freshly ground pepper until all the surface of the meat is fully covered with pepper.

4. In goes the meat to the smoker for 5 hours at a very low temperature in continuous smoking.  He used mixed of Hickory and apple cider wood chips.

5. Chill the meat when done.  Wrap it cling wrap tightly until ready to serve. Slice as thinly as you can to serve.

This smoked loin has a perfect texture with just the right tangy flavor and succulent to the bite.

This goes well with this salad which was made by pan roasting the mushrooms, then toss with the leaves (baby urugula and lettuce).  Vinaigrette was made with fresh ground garlic (1 clove), salt and pepper, balsamic vinegar and olive oil.  Mix the vinaigrette until emulsified and drizzle over the salad.

For winter soups, we usually chop the loin finely and sprinkle it over our soup.  It eventually will sink and invisible therefore our little chef calls it "treasure" as she has to find the sinkers.  If she doesn't like asparagus soup, we negotiate with the "treasures" and she eventually loved asparagus soup.  Mushroom soup is not a problem, she just loved it since first serving, but she doesn't eat mushrooms! thats when she can see them on her plate. It is the sight of it she doesn't like but when blended, she cant see the mushrooms! By far, the "treasure" trick is still working.  She'll bust me out one day like how she busted me with the toothfairy!

#thekitchenjournal #homemade

Honey lemon glazed pork loin with freen salad

IMBUTIDO

Imbutido is a Filipino meatloaf made of minced meats,vegies and spices. It is one of the mostly loved occasional recipes at all times.

Imbutido can be prepared ahead of time that's why I love making them because I can make it in advance. It is a big job of chopping the ingredients finely but with a food processor, it does the job well in no time therefore saving a lot of my energy. I prefer to buy lean meat and grind it with the food processor together with onion and garlic. It makes the meat well flavored before I add in other ingredients. Another advantage is you choose the meat that goes into it, rather than buying minced meat that has plenty of fat in it.

For shaping the imbutido into a log shape, you will need aluminum foil (10" x 12" per log) and sushi mat for easy rolling up.

This mixture yields 12 logs about 2.5 diameter each.

Ingredients:
3 pcs. Onions
1 whole head of garlic
½ kg. minced beef
1 kg minced pork
6 pcs. Chorizo (bilbao)
1 jar (180 g) pickles (baby gerkins)
¼ kg carrots
¼ kg green and red bell pepper
5 pcs eggs
¼ kg flour
100 g. raisins
Salt and pepper

For filling: boiled sausage or hard boiled egg (sliced into quarters)

Procedure:

Finely chop onion, garlic, chorizo, pickles, carrots, red and green peppers. In a large mixing bowl, mix the finely chopped ingredients with the minced beef and pork until well combined. Add eggs and mix well, add flour and mix further until well combined. Season with salt and pepper, add raisins and mix well.

On a flat working surface, place a sushi mat and lay aluminum foil flat on the mat. Place a portion of meat mixture about 3 inches wide leaving at least 2 inches at the end of the length of the foil for sealing the ends. Place the filling either sausage or hot dog at the center of the mixture along with its length. Roll up the sushi mat making the mixture round making sure that the foil is tight as you roll. Start sealing the ends after the first roll and continue rolling up until the end of the foil. Seal the ends by pressing and twisting the ends of the foil taking care not to make it overly tight so that foil will not break up.

Set up the steamer and steam the wrapped imbutido for 45 minutes.


To serve: slice imbutido into rings. Remove the aluminum foil and serve. It can be served warm or chilled in cold cuts.


Storing: Imbutido can be stored in the fridge for 1 week.

Roasted Pork Belly with crispy crackling

This one pot dish is heavenly delish.. Love the crispy crackling skin! Nope it wasn't me who made it, it was my dear hubby. This can not be done quickly as it will take two hours of roasting in the oven. But it was worth waiting and the house smelled like there was a big feast whilst it was just the two of us feasting on this for lunch with a bottle of red wine. Tell you what, it wasn't really that heavy lunch. It was light meal full of goodness. Light in a sense that the portion was just enough. The potatoes were perfectly done, not overcooked, carrots were still a little bit firm to the bite, it was just the cabbage were a little bit overcooked. The meat was tender on the inside, well done but what I love the most was the crispy skin! That crackling sound every bite was the highlight for me.

I could have elaborated more on its procedure how it was done if I made it myself, but I was busy with other houseworks and left hubby in the kitchen. All I know is he seasoned the pork belly with olive oil,salt, pepper,thyme (dried), fresh basil and parsley (from our tiny garden). He seasoned the meat nicely by massaging all the flavors into it for few minutes. In an oven proof dish, he put quartered potatoes, chunks of carrots, cabbage and the remaining marinade from the meat. Placed the pork belly on top, added a glass of white wine and roast for 2 hours in the oven at gas mark 7 and finished with gas mark 8 on the last 10 minutes.

This was an indulgence for us because we have been watching our fat intake but we are not really that strict on our diet and once in a while, we treat ourselves with good stuffs, needless to say, some good foods are packed with fats.

Grilled Pork with Caper Sauce

This is my favorite easy-to-do recipe. I have tried it in one of the restaurants before but it was with white fish and figured out it would be nice to try it with pork, hence since I tried it at home, it became a regular on our dinner table.

Here's how to do it.

prepare the pork:
Sear the pork in very hot pan until slightly brown, grill in the oven for 20 minutes just cook the pork completely. While the pork is in the grill, prepare caper sauce.

prepare the caper sauce:
Sauté garlic and butter, add the the capers with brine, season with salt and pepper, partially crush the capers with the back of a spoon to release its flavor.

Take out the pork from the oven and let it rest for 2 minutes, serve with the caper sauce on top.
Here, I served it with steamed potatoes and asparagus, but it also works well with rice.

Pork Terrine

Pork Terrine

This pork terrine goes well with salad. It can be made ahead of time, at least a day before you are planning to serve it. It can be served as an appetizer or as a main course, depends on what you serve with it. I think potatoes would go well with this as well.

It is my first time trying to make terrine and without any recipe to follow. I just imagined how things would go and with what consistency I was looking for and it worked just right and I'm so pleased with it, especially when you slice and it reveals the black olives and tiny green leaves of thyme. In fact I’m going to explore some more flavors with terrine. Some interesting ideas came up during dinner; hubby suggested fish terrine but use smoked salmon instead of bacon. Hmmm… quite a challenge to figure out how it would work out.

Ingredients:

500 g. minced pork

1 large onion (finely chopped)

4 cloves garlic

Salt and pepper

100 g. black pitted olives

1 Tbsp. Corn starch

1 Tbsp. flour

fresh thyme

300 g. bacon

Procedure:

Preheat oven at 250 degrees C. or gas mark 6.

In a mixing bowl, mix pork, onion and garlic, season with salt and pepper. Using a food processor or blender, blend the mixture until fine. Remove from the blender and add flour and cornstarch. Lastly, add fresh thyme Mix thoroughly by hand. You may want to use gloves as it will be messy.

Line a loaf pan with foil with 3 inch extra on the sides to overlay. Arrange the bacon on top of the foil leaving the ends overhanging the tray.

Put the meat mixture in the lined tray using a spoon. Randomly put the pitted black olives with the sides lying down. Push the mixture with the back of the spoon to make it compact.

Fold inside the remaining bacon that is exposed to cover the meat. Make sure the meat mixture is fully covered with bacon; add extra bacon if necessary

Fold the foil inside to cover the bacon.

Place the pan in a large roasting pan and add boiling water until it reaches half of the loaf pan.

Bake for 1 hour and 30 minutes at 250 degrees C.

Remove the pan and drain extra fat from the bacon by tilting the loaf pan to the sink, but do not remove the terrine just yet.

Put some weight onto the terrine so to keep it pressed and compact and leave overnight in the fridge until ready to serve.

To reveal the terrine, carefully remove the foil on top and turn upside down and completely remove the foil. Serve in slices with salad. If served as a main course, potatoes would go well with it.

Christmas Honey Glazed Ham

Christmas Honey Glazed Ham

Ingredients:
5-6 lb. fully cooked ham
1/4 cup whole cloves
1/4 cup dark corn syrup
1 1/2 cups honey
2/3 cup butter
1/8 tsp. white & Black pepper

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Place ham cut side down in a foil-lined roasting pan. Using a sharp knife, score the surface of the ham in a diamong pattern. Insert a clove in each of the scored intersections.

Combine corn syrup, honey, butter, and pepper in the top half of a double boiler, and heat until the butter melts and mixture is smooth, stirring frequently. Keep the glaze on the top of a double boiler, over hot water, while baking ham.

Brush glaze over ham. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes at 325 degrees, basting ham every 10 to 15 minutes with the warm honey glaze. Remove ham from oven, cover with foil, and let sit for 10 minutes before serving. Just before serving, caramelize the glaze and serve it with the ham.

Egg Surprize

Egg Surprize

Ingredients:
Oil for deep frying
1 kilo ground pork
1 onion (finely chopped)
Coriander (finely chopped)
Salt & pepper to taste
6 boiled eggs
2 slightly beaten eggs
Bread crumbs

How to:

Season ground pork with onion, coriander, salt & pepper. Place a plastic cling wrap on a flat board. Form a ball of the seasoned ground meat on top of the plastic wrap. Place another plastic cling wrap above the meat and flatten the meat with the palm of your hand. Do this by pressing it slowly until flat forms a round flat meat. (as shown in the picture) Remove the plastic on top and place the egg at the center of the meat. Form the meat into an egg wrapping the egg. (Shown in the picture) Remove the plastic at the bottom or the meat. You now got an egg wrapped with the seasoned meat. Dip into beaten egg and then roll into the bread crumbs for coating. Do this procedure twice (coating) to achieve a firmer coating by dipping the egg formed meat again into the egg and roll again into the bread crumbs. Deep fry until golden brown. You’ll get a crispy crust with tender meat and a soft egg inside.. lots of texture lots of flavor. That is a real egg surprise! Good for outdoor picnic.

Stuffed Pork Rolls

Stuffed Pork Rolls

Ingredients:

Oil for frying

slices of lean pork

Salt & Pepper

Finely chopped parsley

How to:

Flatten slices of pork with a meat tenderizer. Season with salt & pepper and sprinkle finely chopped parsley. Roll the piece of meat and tuck with toothpick. Set aside. In a nice and hot flat pan, pan fry the stuffed rolls of meat setting the sealed side down. (Toothpick removed) When slightly brown, turn the meat over slowly until done. Remove from pan and bake for 10 minutes more at 190 degrees F. This allows the meat at the inner core to be cooked. Remove from oven. Slice and serve with mashed potatoes. Garnish with a tomato rose.

Crispy Pork coated with couscous

Crispy Pork

4 Tbsp. Olive oil
2 thin slices of lean pork

½ Cup Couscous

Ground black & white pepper

Salt

How to :

Season pork with ground pepper (rubbing each side to distribute the flavor) add salt and set aside. Coat the pork with couscous and deep fry.

Stir-fried Pancit with pork ribs

pancit with pork ribs

To prepare pork ribs:
Boil the ribs with water for 30 minutes or until well done. Marinate with soy sauce for another 30 minutes. Brown the meat in a very hot pan with 2 Tablespoons of olive oil and straight to a very hot oven for 20 minutes.

To prepare stir-fried pancit (egg noodles)

1 onion

1 garlic

1 red pepper

1 green pepper

250 g egg noodles

salt and pepper to taste

Cook egg noodles by boiling 1 liter of water for 1 minute until done. On another pan, saute garlic and onion, add the peppers and add the noodles. Toss well until well mixed and season with salt and pepper.

Serve pork ribs with stir-fried pancit.

Yellow rice with green peas topped with spinach and grilled pork

Yellow rice with green peas topped with spinach and grilled pork

It’s my first adventure with tumeric. In short its my first time to have this ingredient and I am so pleased with the yellow vibrant color on my plate! I love to incorporate vegetables with my dish for the sake of having fiber intake.

Ingredients:

1 cup long grain rice
1 cup water
1 teaspoon tumeric
1 white onion (finely chopped)
2 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
2 tablespoons oil
Salt & pepper to taste
A handful of spinach
2 pork fillets

Preparation:

In a casserole, put water, rice and tumeric. Bring to boil and simmer covered for 10-15 minutes or until rice is done. When done, fluff the rice with a for to avoid rice sticking together until completely cold at room temperature.

Meanwhile, sauté garlic and onion in oil until translucent. Add rice and mix vigorously until all the flavors are well blended. Add green peas and continue cooking until peas are done. Sprinkle a little water to provide a little moisture. Season with salt and pepper.

On the other hand, grill 2 pork fillets until done.

In another pan, bring to boil 2 cups of salted water, blanch spinach for 1 minute or until wilted.

To plate the dish, place rice in a plate; add blanched spinach in the center and topped with the grilled pork.