This past Wednesday night I took inspiration from a request from Rose to cook "that pork with the chilli oranges dish". Our main course was Spanish Pork with Orange and Poppyseed salad, and dessert was Caramelised Oranges with Chocolate Ice-cream.
It always pays to read the recipe ahead of time just in case you need to do something important like marinade for more than a few hours. Lets just say a little quick thinking let me get the marinade happening throughout the day. For the Spanish Pork, you need to marinate for 24 hours. Mine marinated for 9 hours and still tasted great. For the marinade throw 1tsp cumin, 1tbs of smoked paprika, zest and juice on 1 orange, 1/2 cup of tomato sauce, 1/3 cup of maple syrup into a large ziplock bag with 2 pork fillets, and refrigerate. For the orange and poppyseed salad, zest one orange and peel and slice the flesh place into a bowl with 1 de-seeded lebanese cucumber 1/2 cup of coriander and 2 finely sliced chillies. In a separate bowl put 1/3 cup white wine vinegar (i used white balsamic, just as good) 1/2 cup olive oil, 2 tbs caster sugar and 2 tbs of poppyseeds. Whisk ingredients till combined.
Cook the pork on chargrill or BBQ 5-6 minutes each side until cooked or blackened. To dish up place salad on plate and top with sliced pork and drizzle with dressing. This dish was yet another successful main course.
Dessert on the other hand - not quite as successful. I have trouble with some of my desserts, especially ones that involve caramel. First off, take the zest off 3 oranges and blanch 3 times in boiling water. peel and remove the pith from said three oranges and slice, removing any seeds. Place in the bowl with zest. Boil up caster sugar and water till golden and pour over the oranges and let cool. This is where I fail to understand any caramel recipe as mine always turns to toffee.
To serve place into dish and top with a delicious scoop of chocolate Ice-cream. Tonight I cheated and used bought choc ice cream. Colin James Gelato, very nice indeed and to make it better he uses local produce from Maleny. I'm going to give my dessert a thumbs up but gee i wish i could do caramel.
Tonight's scores: Spanish Pork with orange and poppyseed salad 5/5 Tongs
Dessert: Caramelised oranges and choc ice-cream 2.5/5 Tongs
The pork dish had great flavours and colours. The sweetness of the orange tempered the fire of the chilli and helped to round out the spicyness of the marinade. Yum, yum, yummy, yum, yum! 5/5 Wooden spoons.
ReplyDeleteThe toffee-like state of the caramel in the dessert made for an interesting time. At one point I almost ditched the spoon and went for a fork. But I managed to separate the toffee from the bowl with a little more effort. This dish has great potential, but was far too sweet. Perhaps less caramel or even a salted caramel next time? I give it an extra 0.5 point because of the amazing chocolate ice-cream from a local dairy. 2.5/5 wooden spoons :(
Two pork fillets must feed lots of people....did you have left overs for days? It sounds like a recipe I must try. I've never tried to do the orange/caramel thing so have no advice to give....but surely if it's caramel it's meant to be toffyish?!!
ReplyDeleteThere would have been enough for one more lunch i spose. I think i might have over boiled the caramel, as it did set rather quickly. I would have preferred it not a hard toffee but a nice rich sauce.
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