Smokey BBQ pork tenderloin

This is an easy and quick dish to make for a tasty midweek dinner.

Smokey BBQ pork tenderloin served with an onion sauce and Nappa cabbage with pancetta

Roasted pork tenderloin

This is a quick and easy way to prepare a delicious pork main. You can mix your own blend of spices.

Roasted pork tenderloin with pickled cabbage and carrots

Apple compote

Ever since I started shopping more at my local butcher's, I'm eating more pork than ever and I've come to enjoy pork chops (though still not a fan of ham fillets). Lately I've been trying to think of new ways to cook or serve pork. While classic, plain applesauce isn't something I like all that much, perhaps because it reminds me too much of baby food. But inspired by the classic combination of pork and apples, I made an apple compote to go with the pan fried pork chops for dinner tonight.

Pan fried pork chop with apple compote on a bed of blanched Romaine lettuce, served with fried sesame aubergine

Pork chops with mango & peach salsa

This is the dinner that almost didn't happen.

Last week, I bought a perfectly ripened mango and some peaches and decided to make a salsa to go with pork chops. I had trimmed and marinated the chops, made the mango and peach salsa, prepared the baby potatoes and Brussels sprouts. Husband came home around 7pm and said he was hitting the gym and probably wouldn't be having dinner when he returned. Then he walked into the kitchen and saw all the raw ingredients for dinner and apologised for not letting me know of his plans before I went to all this trouble. While I was a bit irked, I did appreciate how hard it was to keep fit, particularly when one hit middle-age, so far be it for me to thwart his endeavours.

And off his went. When he got home around 9.30, he said he was hungry and would like the dinner. So I fired up the grill and pan and within 20 minutes, I came up with two plates of beautiful food. 

Grilled pork chop with mango & peach salsa, served with sautéed Brussels sprouts and crackling, steamed baby potatoes

Taiwanese stir-fried rice vermicelli 炒米粉

Taiwanese stir-fried brown rice vermicelli

Mini 'hamburgers'

Mini 'hamburger'

Buttered pork tenderloin with Granny Smith

So taken I was with the beef & kale cauliflower rice, I had it for dinner again last night and made buttered pork tenderloin and sautéed lamb's liver to go with it.

Buttered pork tenderloin with Granny Smith, served with beef & cauliflower rice and sautéed lamb's liver & mushrooms 

Buttered pork tenderloin with apple

Buttered pork tenderloin with apple, served with turmeric basmati and charred Brussels sprouts

Fried marjoram pork with claypot rice 牛膝草煎豬排暨肝腸炊飯

Fried pork with marjoram, charred Brussels sprouts with crackling, claypot rice with Cantonese sausages and sweet potatoes

Là ròu chicken rice 臘肉雞腿飯

Following the success of the first la rou fan I'd ever made, I recreated the smokey chicken rice dish, swapping out the chorizo with the la rou.

Chinese cured pork rice 'là ròu fàn' 臘肉蒸飯

My friend TT sent me two chunks of là ròu from Taiwan. La rou is a southern Chinese specialty. Growing up in Taiwan, my memories of Chinese New Year are accompanied by the aromas of la rou rice steaming in the rice cooker. 

Grilled pork chop with mushroom mustard sauce

Grilled pork chop with mushroom mustard sauce, served with baby potato & courgette hash and steamed mange-tout

Marjoram pork chops

Marjoram pork chops with cranberry sauce and mustard,
served with potato & courgette hash

BBQ pork chop with roasted vegetables