Lazy Pork Ramen

I love Wagamamas. I was always a ginger chicken udon kind of girl but then I discovered their pork ramen and I was hooked. It was the tea stained egg and the crispiness of the pork that made me try it and my gosh it is delicious. I was craving it this weekend and looked up a recipe. The recipe I found was very long and involved with 12 hours to make stock and 3 hours to roast pork. I couldn’t be doing with it (even thought I am sure if you have the time it is totally worth it) so I used it as an inspiration but totally changed it. This is my cheat’s ramen recipe and it hit the spot. It wasn’t quite Wagamamas but it was damn tasty.

Italian Pork Stew with Summer Herbs (Slow Cooker)

It was my birthday last month and as you can imagine, there were one or two cook books in the mix of all the wonderful presents I received (I have wonderful friends and family!). One of the books I received was from my sister and very thoughtful, given my new slow cooker love affair, it is aptly named ‘I Love My Slow Cooker‘. This recipe (from the aforementioned book) caught my eye because despite liking pork we very rarely cook it at home, the addition of chickpeas and mint had me sold. I love coming home from a long day and walking through the front door to the delicious smell of dinner already cooked! This stew was divine, the meat was tender and the sauce rich and tasty.

The recipe states tinned plum tomatoes but my secret convenience ingredient is tinned cherry tomatoes, they have much more flavour in my opinion.

Spaghetti & Meatballs

When it comes to a comforting meal, for me pasta is king. Whether it is macaroni cheese, bolognese, lasagne, my go to pasta recipe or spaghetti and meatballs, I am a big fan; James loves meatballs but nearly all meatball recipes have breadcrumbs in, so since I gave up gluten, meatballs have been off the list. Until, that is, I had some stale gluten free bread and thought to make breadcrumbs out of it. Don’t ask me why this hasn’t occurred to me before.

I think this might be my go to meatball recipe from now on. I have made other meatballs and they were tasty too but I quite like the combination of pork and beef in these (although feel free to use whatever mince takes your fancy).

I know it says spaghetti and ideally spaghetti it would be but I used dried gluten free pasta for this and of all the shapes, fusilli cooks the best. I used some left over sauce I had using my roasted tomato sauce recipe, then made the sauce below for the left over meatballs/remaining portions (it made 6 portions, so we had it for three nights, the meatballs freeze really well once cooked).

Pork, Sweet Potato & Kale Chili

A note on kale, if you will indulge me: I love kale in all its forms but my favourite is nero kale (cavolo nero to be precise), its leaves are a super dark green, almost look bubbly and it tastes out of this world. Kale it quite a robust leaf and I like to use it in smoothies, stir fries and stews etc. Kale belongs to the brassica family, one of my favourite families of vegetables, they are packed with goodness and taste great too. I’m dying to get my hands on this brassica cook book one day! For more info on the goodies kale has hiding in it, see this great article by Nutrition Stripped.

Moving on, I had to work late one night this week and I was very lucky to come home to this meal cooked for me by my lovely man. It was a recipe I’d seen online and want to try because James loves sweet potato and I love kale. We switched the turkey mince for pork mince because we prefer pork over turkey. It was a really tasty dish and I’ll definitely be incorporating more sweet potato into my chilies and stews, they add such flavour and makes it a really hearty meal.

 

Before I get onto the recipe, I wanted to tell you about a great book I’m reading. I mentioned how much I’d enjoyed reading ‘The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul – Deborah Rodriguez‘ in my post Afghan Butter Cookies (a recipe I found in that book) and this book is by the same author. The book I’m currently reading (The Kabul Beauty School) talks about the beauty school Deborah helped to open in Kabul, it is a fascinating insight into Afghan life; she is a great writer and fascinating person. Her next installment, about her life after moving out of Afghanistan, is out in the USA and comes out in the UK soon, I cannot wait to read it.

Grilled Basil Pork Steaks with Pesto Mash

Given that I am a huge fan of basil, in both sweet and savoury settings, I immediately wanted to cook this dish after seeing the recipe for the grilled pork on Paleo Leap (A fantastic resource for all things paleo). I was also pleased they’d used pork as it is a meat that I don’t cook enough and I have been looking for new ways to cook it. A great bonus was the left over pork steak which I had chopped up on my salad at lunch the next day, delicious even when cold.

I’d come up with the idea (I know many other people before me must have done this very thing but it had never occurred to me before) a few weeks ago about using pesto in mashed potato and was eager to try it out; these pork steaks seemed to be the perfect pairing. The pesto mash moment was an inspired one for me, due to my very strong feelings about pesto. I love it and highly recommend you try some on toast, yum!