Tahini Roast Pork

I have been using the oven quite abit recently. It have always enjoyed using the oven to cook- it's clean and simple.

This was actually taken from Nigella's website. I did have some tahini paste and wanted to use it. I was also curious to know how sesame will taste like with pork- should be good I imagine. Sesame goes well with most things!

I didn't use pork belly- but used a leaner cut of pork roast instead. I also did marinate it overnight as instructed but added more lemon juice instead hoping that the acid will help tenderise the lean cut further.

The result is a rich roast. I didn't think it was that rich! The taste was strong- so less is more for tahini paste I think. It's a different type of roast- one that is very easy to do.

Tahini Roast Pork
1 kg of pork shoulder or pork belly
3-4 tablespoon of tahini paste
3-4 tablespoon of soy sauce
1 whole lemon juiced

Marinate pork with everything overnight.

Preheat oven 160C. Roast for 2.5 hours till done! Serve with veges.

Roast Pork

I'm so excited to share this with you. I made roast pork with CRACKLING! I know!! Proper crispy crackling.  I have always thought that roast pork with crackling is difficult to do, but having do some research, I realised it's not too difficult but just time consuming.

Having spotted some good looking pork loin all rolled up, I decided to give it a go in making pork roast myself. Scoring the skin, pouring some hot water over it, patting it REAL dry and then sprinkling it with generous amount of sea salt, olive oil and pepper.. I stuck it into the oven for a good 30 minutes on high 230C. Then I slow cooked it for another 1.5 hours before blasting it in the hot oven for another 45 minutes for a real crisp skin.

The result was so worth it. The pork was tender, the skin was crispy. I think we found our favourite roast dinner now!

Pork Roast
1.8 kg of pork loin roast
heaps of olive oil
sea salt
pepper


Preheat Oven 230 C.
Score the skin. Pour hot water over it. Pat very dry with paper towels. Season with generous amount of olive oil, salt and pepper on the skin and meat. Roll and tie it up with kitchen string.

Stick in a hot oven for 30 minutes. Remove and season with a little more olive oil. Reduce heat to 170C for around 1 hr to 1 hr 30 minutes.

For the last 30mins -45 minutes, increase heat til 230 C. See the skin crack!! Enjoy with vegetables.

Indonesian Spicy Roast Chicken

I'm not quite sure why this is Indonesian? Perhaps my indonesian friends could let me know why? But I see this recipe as rather interesting. It really is a curry baked chicken!! I was attracted to it because the paste was made exactly the way when we could make a curry but only we pour the sauce over the chicken and roast it!

All I could think of was, slow cooked chicken in rich coconut curry sauce. That is bound to be a winner! And indeed it is. I know it is summer now but eating chicken this way with some rice or simple salad is such a comfort.

Indonesian Spicy Roast Chicken (Serves 4)
8 chicken drumsticks with skin and fat trimmed

125 ml coconut cream
3 pieces of kaffir lime leaves
1 tablespoon of oil
salt

Spices (blended)
3 chili padis
2 dried chili soaked in warm water
1 whole knob of garlic
5 shallots
1/2 cm size piece of turmeric or I used 2 tablespoon of turmeric powder
a 3 cm piece of galangal
3 candle nuts
2 tablespoon of curry powder

Preheat Oven to 200 C>

Place blended ingredients in a pot. Cook till fragrant. Add in coconut milk and some salt. Taste and season accordingly. Cook all ingredients till thick. Then pour it on to chicken. Bake for around 30-40 minutes.

Twice Cooked Red Wine and Rosemary Lamb Racks

We are very blessed to have a friend who is a chef. On a gathering one evening, he brought gorgeous sexy looking meat for a bbq. Alas, they (and the rest of the crew) wanted steamboat and the meat was kept aside. As we were leaving, C started splitting the meat (I still have 2 pieces of steak in the freezer) and handed us the dorper lamb racks. They are the lamb to have in terms of best quality. The 1. something kg of lamb would have at least costs us AU$40ish if we buy it at retail.

You can just imagine my excitement.

 I decided to marinate these gems with some red wine, rosemary and garlic. Then, I was at abit of a loss. Should I roast it or pan fry them? Luck has it that I under cooked them by around 5-10 mins (hey, my first lamb racks, i wasn't sure how long to cook them for, at least i under cooked it! ;p), and I finished them but quickly searing them on high heat.

Then, I pour the sauces into the pan, stir in some flour and some magic beautiful red wine gravy was born.

Twice Cooked Red Wine and Rosemary Lamb Racks
around 1 kg of lamb racks
1 red onion chopped
2-3 springs of rosemary from the garden
2-3 tablepoon of garlic
2 cups of red wine
sea salt
pepper

Wash and clean racks. Score the meat and marinate with onion, rosemary, garlic, salt, pepper and red wine for around 20 mins or so. Pre heat oven at 200C. Roast meat for around 20 minutes. Rest. Slice cutlets up and sear in high heat for around 1 min on each side.

Gravy-after roasting, keep gravy aside. Pour gravy into pan and add around 1 tablespoon of flour. Stir and stir. When it is thicken, lower heat. Simmer. Serve lamb with gravy and roasted veges.