Red cabbage

Pork chop and cabbage

Posted by Gary


If you don’t want to read the introductory words, click here for the recipe.

Dear Reader,

Introduction

I hope you’ve had a good week. My week was rewarding and satisfying. Next week will be even better. 

Inspiration 

I got the inspiration for tonight’s meal from a bible study friend. She mentioned that she and her husband enjoy pork chops. I haven’t eaten a pork chop for I can’t remember how long. 

I went to the supermarket on Friday evening to dry brine the pork overnight for tonight’s meal.

Pork chop with red cabbage, potato wedges, and spicy tomato sauce

What have I been reading? 

I’m in the last part of “The Myth of Normal” by Gabor Maté.

I’m not sure what I’ll read next. It may be some science fiction. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know. I enjoyed the “Monroe Doctrine” series that advanced into science fiction with artificial intelligence-enhanced warfighting. The addition of biological and nuclear weapons heightened my interest. 

Recipe

  • Equipment 
  • Frypan 
  • Saucepan 
  • Oven 
  • Mortar and pestle 
  • Meat thermometer

Ingredients 

  • Pork loin chops with the bone in 
  • Flaky iodised salt 
  • Black peppercorns 
  • Garlic powder 
  • Rice bran oil 
  • Red (purple) cabbage 
  • Marmalade 
  • Potato 
  • Tomatoes
  • Worcestershire sauce

Instructions

  1. Grind some peppercorns in a mortar with a pestle.
  2. Dry brine the pork by seasoning it with salt, pepper, and garlic powder and refrigerating it uncovered overnight.
  3. Slice some cabbage and sauté in a frypan until it’s softened. 
  4. Add in some marmalade and stir it through. 
  5. Transfer the cabbage to a warm bowl for later. 
  6. Wash the dirt off the potato, quarter it longitudinally, rub in a little oil, and season the pieces with salt. 
  7. Place the potato into a hot oven (220 °C) and cook for about 25 minutes. 
  8. Cook the pork in a frypan for a few minutes on each side and measure the internal temperature. 
  9. The aim is to get the internal temperature to 68 °C. 
  10. Allow the pork to rest for the equivalent amount of time it took to cook on the frypan. 
  11. Quarter six small tomatoes and blend with some marmalade and Worcestershire sauce. Bring it to a slow simmer in a small saucepan. Then add ground peppercorns, salt, and garlic powder. I added too much pepper, so the sauce is bordering on uncomfortably spicy. It was surprisingly good with the finished meal.
  12. Dissect the bone from the meat with a knife and then slice the pork. 
  13. Plate up and give thanks to the Lord. 
  14. Eat with a fork while watching TV. 

What’s happening next week? 

I’m travelling and off to meet people I’ve only met online. It should be good. 

I’m shy and introverted, and meeting people in person can be awkward. We’ll see; I’m looking at it all positively. 

The rugby league State of Origin competition kicks off in Adelaide this week. I hope for a great game between the Queensland Maroons and the New South Wales Blues.

Because I’ll be away, I may not post next weekend. 

Self-hosting to WordPress.com 

I’ve considered moving from a self-hosted site to WordPress.com for this blog. The server charges are high, and my commitment to blogging isn’t as strong as it once was. 

My original idea when starting a self-hosted site was to be free to change things I desired without being constrained. Because of my current employment, income wasn’t a consideration. Drawing a second income would not be permitted. 

I’ve seen how WordPress.com has developed since then, and there are fewer constraints and more freedom. 

I’ve just paid my server fees for three years, so this is not something I’ll embark on soon, but it will be something to plan and execute at the right time. 

Final thoughts 

The pork was perfectly cooked. It was tender and juicy.

  • Do you like pork chops? How do you like them cooked, and what do you serve with them? 
  • Do you enjoy meeting people in person who you’ve only known online? 
  • What are you reading at present? 

Have a good week, and happy eating and living. 

Photographs

Pork chop
Pork chop
Pork chop
Pork chop
Pork chop
Pork chop with red cabbage, potato wedges, and spicy tomato sauce
Pork chop with red cabbage, potato wedges, and spicy tomato sauce
Pork chop with red cabbage, potato wedges, and spicy tomato sauce
Pork chop with red cabbage, potato wedges, and spicy tomato sauce
Pork chop with red cabbage, potato wedges, and spicy tomato sauce
Pork chop with red cabbage, potato wedges, and spicy tomato sauce
Pork chop with red cabbage, potato wedges, and spicy tomato sauce
Pork chop with red cabbage, potato wedges, and spicy tomato sauce

Pork belly red curry

Posted by Gary

Dear Reader,

Yummy Lummy’s mission is to help singletons cook meals for themselves.

Many of the meals here have enough leftovers, so if you are part of a family or a group house, you could use the recipe for an evening meal.

Tonight I put together some leftover bits and pieces to make a tasty evening meal.

During the week, I’d cooked a few pork belly strips and peppercorns in the pressure cooker. I’d also cooked some rice and had some leftovers.

One of the things I do with capsicum is to buy three of them (red, green, and yellow), slice them at the start of the week, and use the slices as needed.

I am a lazy cook, so I buy whatever looks good at the supermarket rather than make a curry paste from scratch.

Pork belly red curry

Ingredients

  • Cooked pork belly strip
  • Cooked peppercorns
  • Cooked rice
  • Capsicum slices
  • Chopped parsley
  • Sliced red cabbage
  • Red curry paste
  • Coconut cream

Instructions

  1. Lovingly sharpen your cook’s knife (as iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend (Proverbs 27:17 NLT).
  2. Slice the red cabbage
  3. Dice the pork belly strip
  4. Chop the parsley
  5. Heat a skillet and add some cooking oil.
  6. Heat the pork and peppercorns.
  7. Add a tablespoon of red curry paste as the pork softens, and gently stir everything with a wooden spoon until the pork and peppercorns have a curry paste coating.
  8. Add in the rice and mix everything and cook until the rice is hot. Remember that when you reheat rice or any food for that matter, you want to get the food in the cooking vessel hot enough to kill vegetative bacteria. Please don’t make the mistake of calling this a sterilising process. It isn’t. Sterilisation requires the death of spores, and the only reliable way to sterilise food in a domestic kitchen is to use a pressure cooker. At best, all we’re doing with a skillet is pasteurising the food.
  9. Pour in the coconut cream and stir everything. Bring the food to a simmer and keep cooking to reduce the coconut cream.
  10. Thicken the coconut cream to the consistency you want and turn the heat off.
  11. Mix through the capsicum, cabbage, and parsley and serve in a bowl.
  12. Give thanks to the Lord for the wages we earn to buy food and the skills we’ve learnt to prepare and cook food. 

Final thoughts

  1. How has your week been?
  2. Have you ever experienced food poisoning from poorly heated food?
  3. Do you like making meals from scraps of food you’ve cooked during the week?
  • Red cabbage Parsley Capsicum
  • Pressure cooker Pork belly Peppercorns
  • Rice Peppercorns
  • Pork belly red curry
  • Pork belly red curry

Mayver’s crunchy dark roast peanut paste slow beef curry

Posted by Gary

Mayver’s crunchy dark roast peanut paste has been a bit of a revelation. I often have a spoon of peanut paste as a snack at work. A friend at work suggested I try Mayver’s peanut paste. I wrote a short review on Random Yummy.

Dedicated to GC who put me on to Mayver’s peanut paste.

Thanks GC, you’re a star
Mayver's crunchy dark roast peanut paste slow beef curry with boiled red cabbage.
Mayver’s crunchy dark roast peanut paste slow beef curry with boiled red cabbage.
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Pork belly and red cabbage

Posted by Gary

I posted “pork belly and red cabbage” on Random Yummy last week, but I wanted to do something here with a little more detail.

Oven cooked pork belly and red cabbage with butter.
Close up. Oven cooked pork belly and red cabbage with butter.
Close up. Oven cooked pork belly and red cabbage with butter.

Dedicated to friends who have kept me company on-line so I can remain socially active while being physically distant.

You know who you are
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Corned beef and red cabbage

Posted by Gary

Wow, it feels like weeks since I’ve written here. I’ve written in other blogs but because I’ve been doing some very long hours, it’s not been easy to plan and cook and write.

Corned beef and red cabbage

Red cabbage

Tonight I went with another almost ‘prepper‘ type meal but it was inspired by a conversation I had with a friend. Conversation with a friend you question? Aren’t we all meant to be social distancing? Well, as I’ve written elsewhere, I prefer the term “physical distancing” so I can remain socially active.

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