My lovely husband did the grocery shopping this week, and he brought back minced pork, something I would never usually buy. Such is the difficulty with not writing a very SPECIFIC shopping list for him.
We have friends coming to stay and I’m going to have to cook a meal for four people with this stuff.
Anyone got a good, simple, cheap, tasty recipe?
Preferable one which doesn’t involve cabbage, as the reason I dislike minced pork is because I was fed pork meatballs wrapped in cabbage as a child and ever since I’ve hated the combination.
The only idea I have so far is pork/onion/apple meatballs or some sort of asian stirfry.
My favourite thing but you might not have all the ingredients on hand
Lightly fry the minced pork, with no extra fat, chopping at it all the time to break it up into its individual “grains”. When it’s all cooked then put it into a sieve in the sink and put a plate over it and squish all the juices and fat out of it.
Return the mince to the frying pan and fluff it all back into bits again. Now add a big knob of finely grated fresh ginger, and then soy sauce, mirin and sake in 2-1-1 proportions. (You could add a teaspoon of brown sugar and some sherry instead.)
Fry on a low heat, stirring all the time until the liquid is all gone and the meat is coated.
Serve it with rice boiled with pumkin/squash pieces. Or even do the rice separately and bake the squash. You also need a fresh green like spinach or broccoli.
Hey Man I Love! I thought that was our little secret
Irishgirl my husband is a “big fan” of the following
sausage rolls - use ready made flakey pastry, try and squeeze the meat into a vague sausage shape, wrap in pastry, glaze with beaten egg, bake in the oven for 20-30mins about 200°C. Serve them hot as you would a meat pie with spuds/peas/courgettes etc.
stuffed aubergine - pre-fry the pork to give it some colour, scrape out the inards of the aubergine (leaving about 1cm flesh in the skin), fry them with the pork and some tomato purée to give some juice then pour the mix into the shells, put breadcrumbs and/or parmesan on top and bake for half an hour or so.
You could make tamales. Recipe, tutorial. Here is a page with different brands of masa harina, you really should stick with it if you can possibly get it, though I hear you can substitute, I don’t know how.
It tends not to absorb the flavours so well as beef, or even to let them adhere, so you can end up with sauce containing little pale rubbery nuggets of pork.
Meatballs; that’s the way to go, or make some sort of pastry tart filled with onions, potatoes and pork; that would be nice.
Saute onion and pork in olive oil, stirring frequently. When browned, drain off excess fat. Stir in:
2 packages ramen noodles, broken up - any flavor, but I like “Oriental” the best
1 seasoning packet from the ramen
1 cup water - the amount of water needed varies, so keep an eye on it and add more if the noddles aren’t softening up.
1 cup of frozen green peas, or more to taste
Then add:
1 head or 2 hearts of romaine lettuce, shredded by knife into 1/2 inch wide strips
Cover and let it steam until the lettuce has wilted, then stir again. Add as much of the second seasoning packet as you like, as well as tamari or soy sauce.
How about fried rice? I don’t have a specific recipe on hand, but I guess I’d cook the pork with some soy sauce and sesame oil added to the regular veg oil, and toss it in a wok with some (already cooked) rice, chopped onions, maybe some peas (need something green), bean sprouts if you like them, and pour in some raw scrambled egg at the end, toss it all till cooked. And serve it with some chopped spring onions on top.
Mix with equal parts ground (minced) beef, then cook as in a regular meatloaf, however you like it. You can mix all sorts of meat together for meatloaf and get essentially the same flavor – I’ve meatloafed with beef+pork+veal, Beef+pork+turkey, beef+venison, beef+pork+veal+venison. Etc. Its best if you have at least part beef, though, I wouldn’t make straight porkloaf – its so fatty.
Another idea – mix with scallion (green onion), fresh minced ginger and garlic. Fry in little balls then drop in soup (this really fancies up a bowl of ramen noodles). The is essentially a dumpling without the “wrapper” – I imagine wonton wrappers aren’t easy to find in Ireland.
How much of it do you have? If it isn’t any tremendous amount, I’d probably just season it lightly, form it into patties, and fry or broil it. Add egg and breadcrumb if it won’t form into patties.
I’d put it out with toasted buns and a variety of toppings, much as one would with hamburgers. Alternatively, after broiling/frying you could slather them with barbecue sauce and make an at-home (and better) version of the McRib. Side dishes, if needed, could be anything you’d serve with burgers.
It goes without saying that I’d wash these babies down with beer.
