Bacon Wrapped Roast Pork Loin Stuffed with Spinach and Mushroom

I am sure every Christmas you will be wondering what is THAT recipe you will serve on your dinner table. A recipe good enough to make those heads nod with pleasure and yet won't make you run around the house like a headless ayam trying to get it done. Com-on...who has time to roast a whole turkey? Let alone time to visit the salon before the party? But again, you are not gonna serve just a plain old roast ayam...even NTUC has that :P So that pretty much leaves us with Lamb or Pork...on the safer side...go pork since it is more wallet friendly and not as gamey taste.

Pork can be quite blend if it is not seasoned well and quite dry if overmasaked. So stuffing the most tender part of the pork sounds about the right choice. Better still, wrap it with Bacon!

Fresh out of the oven...oops pardon the string haha. My recipe is so easy and yet yields a really moist and delicious roast meat, definitely worth a try. Let's get started!

Ingredients for Bacon Wrapped Roast Pork Loin Stuffed with Spinach and Mushroom (Serves 4-5)

1.5-1.8kg fresh pork loin (I got mine from the butcher, those ready cuts in the fridge was too small)
2 cups fresh spinach
10-15 button mushrooms (white or cremini is fine)
1 large zucchini
1 carrot
1 large sweet potato
1 large or 2 medium red onion
4 cloves garlic2 large potato or 4 medium potato
1 large tomato or 1/2 cup cherry tomato
4 to 6 strips bacon (I used apple-wood smoked)

• First minced the garlic, slice the onion thin, slice the mushroom, wash the spinach, cut the vegetable into large chunks, this will help the vegetable to masak easily when roasting. As shown below:
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• Next you fillet the pork loin so it is flat sheet as shown below. Season the surface with salt and fresh ground pepper generously. Set aside for use later.
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• Next you heat up a saute pan and add a tbsp of olive oil. Next add in the minced garlic and sliced onion and masak at low fire till it is translucent and soft. Takes 5-8 minutes.
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• Next you add in the sliced mushroom and masak covered at low fire till it is masaked down and soft. Takes another 5-8 minutes again.
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• Scoop out the mushroom mixture. Add in the spinach, season well with salt and pepper, then masak till it wilt down. Then squeeze out the extra liquid. Chop it roughly.
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• Now you spread the chopped spinach over the pork loin, leaving about 2 inches on the side.
  After that you spread the mushroom mixture evenly over the spinach.

•  Then gently roll up the pork loin from the long side and carefully wrap the bacon over it. Then if you like, you can use some baking string to tie the pork loin. Link here to check how to do that. Preheat the oven to 200C.
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• Now grease your baking dish and also add about 2 tbsp of olive oil over the cut root vegetables.Then season it well with salt and fresh ground pepper. Place the vegetables in the baking dish and then the pork loin over the vegetables.
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• Bake in the preheated oven for 35 minutes, then lower the heat to 180C, cover the meat with aluminum foil and continue to bake for another 10 minutes.
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• Be sure to let the meat rest for a good 10-15 minutes before slicing into it. Enjoy!

The pork turned out perfect, tender and perfectly seasoned. Love the moist and flavorful mushroom stuffing inside too. If you are like me, lazy to make sides, baking the root vegetables together with the pork will be perfect! Yes, there is that extra time you earn to go salon haha!

Sliced version of my stuffed pork loin..served over my new Christmas theme plate. This lovely  handmade plate is from Italy. Also my new snowflake dinner plate from Boradallo Pinheiro from Portugal. Bought all these from Tangs last weekend so I can serve it during Christmas. :) My one stop shopping for Christmas this year. 

Hope you all like this recipe. And may all your dinning guest love it as much as I do.
Good night guys!

 

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One Pot ayam Casserole

The haze coming from Indonesia has gotten bad to worst. Most of the families are trying not to be outdoors and that would means more home masak. :P So I can totally understand when someone (like me) having to think what to masak 3 meals for a few days in a  row at home, it can get a little draining. A simple one pot dish is definitely a good idea. Less mess and less washing for sure! Plus I have been meaning to put up this ayam casserole / ayam stew recipe for the longest time. An easy dish that I always go back to every now and then. You can twig parts of the recipe by substituting some of the ingredients, but the "base" ingredients and technique are pretty much the same. 

Toast up some good baguette and you can mop up that delicious gravy from the dish. And this time I used Le Creuset's 26 cm Cool Mint Buffet casserole pot to masak this dish. Yes, all the masak done in this casserole pot itself, brilliant isn't it!

Personally I love this buffet casserole pot. 26 cm diameter pot seems like the perfect size for my 4 pax family needs. It is approximately 3 inches tall, not your usual cast-iron pot height, but still deep enough for frying too. Easier to store and the wide flat masak surface is good for masak dishes like risotto or even pan searing two steaks at one go. Hopefully I can get to work on these recipes as well soon! 

In the meantime....ayam casserole! Let's have a run down what are the required ingredients for this dish. ;)

Ingredients for One Pot ayam Casserole  (serves 3-4 adults)

2 whole ayam legs
2 whole ayam wings
3-4 smoked sausages or any sausage link of your preference
1 large onion, diced
3 garlic, peeled and minced
1/2 cup thawed frozen green peas
1 medium carrot, peeled and cut into bite size
2-3 russet potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks
4 stalks celery sticks, cut into bite size
8-10 cremini mushrooms, cut into 4 sections 

Thickening rue : (not shown in pic)
3 tbsp unsalted butter
4 tbsp plain flour
400 ml homemade / store bought ayam stock (not shown)

Salt, pepper and sugar to taste.

• After you have rinsed the ayam pieces, drain them dry and season well with salt and pepper.

• Add about 1 cup of masak oil in the buffet casserole over medium low fire. Prepare some plain flour + 1 tsp baking powder to coat the ayam pieces for frying. Mix the flour well then coat the ayam pieces and dust off extra. Gently drop them in the preheated masak oil to fry.

• Repeat till all the ayam pieces are coated and placed into the masak oil to fry. Fry at medium low temperature and making sure you do not burnt them.

• Remember to turn the ayam pieces and fry on both sides. Each sides takes about 6-8 minutes to fry up till golden brown. No worries if some of the blood oozes out, usually happens when you uses frozen ayam pieces. Remove the ayam pieces and drain over paper towels for use later. Personally I feel this frying of the ayam pieces is quite an important step, so do not skip it. It helps seal the juices and flavours of the ayam.

• Drain away the frying oil. It is okay that bits of the meat is "stuck" at the base of the casserole. Once you add in your next ingredient (onions), it will slowly render off. Those bits are gonna help flavour your dish, so please DO NOT scrap them away. Add in the chopped onion and 1 tsp of olive oil over medium low fire and stir to masak.

• masak till the onions starts to soften. Give the base a slight scrap to release the bits of meat. Next add in the sausages or bacon, whichever you fancy. These salty flavourful meats will boost that extra depth in flavour in the ayam casserole. 

• masak the sausages for a couple minutes. Add in the chopped vegetables ; potato, celery and carrots. masak for 5-6 minutes till the vegetables are half masaked, stirring constantly.

• Add salt and fresh ground pepper to the vegetables. masak for another 2-3 minutes. Add in the cremini mushrooms and sweet peas in. Cover the casserole and leave it to masak for 2 minutes. The mushroom will masak down on its own. 
• After 2-3 minutes, open the cover and give it a quick stir. Now you can start making the rue which will thicken the whole dish. Place the cold butter right in the center of the hot casserole and let it melt down.

• Once the butter is melted, add in the 3 tbsp of plain flour and masak over that "Pool" of melted  butter. Stir to masak the flour and butter mixture. Make sure the fire level is at low, and do not burnt your ingredients. 
• The flour butter mixture will start ti bubble a little. At this point, stir in the ayam stock. Slowly drizzle in and stir as you pour to mix well.

• Bring the whole casserole to a gently boil. At this point, you can season a little more. Salt, sugar, pepper, then stir well. Lastly, add in the fried ayam pieces.

• Cover the pot and let it simmer for a good 13-15 minutes at low fire. Till all the ingredients "marinate" each other's flavour and taste. Off the fire and let sit covered for a good 30 minutes. Yes marinate further with the heat retained by the casserole pot itself. 

Well if this doesn't spell comfort, I don't know what does. Thick flavourful gravy coating the tender soft ayam. And those soft vegetables are just irresistible too! Whether you prefer to have this ayam casserole with steam rice or toasted bread or just plain alone on it's own, I can guarantee you will enjoy every bite of it.

The buffet casserole did make this dish an ease to prepare. Everything done with in it, no fuss no hassle, easy peasy. And that cast iron pot did retained the heat super well. Reason  said that is after I masaked it for 1.5hrs, it was still warm and nice.

Hope you guys love this simple ayam casserole one pot meal. If you decided to try this out, do drop me a comment as well, either here or at IG @Honeybeesweets.sg, appreciate it. Happy masak!

Do what you love!

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Heritage Recipe : Braised Pig Trotter

I am happy and honoured to be working with Le Creuset in the coming months, in which I will be using their timeless and beautiful masakwares to masak up homey dishes to share with everyone. Since I have been using Le Creuset cast iron pots for more then a decade, I have more or less got myself familiarised on how to handle them. Thus, as I showcase some of Le Creuset's products with the different dishes, I hope I will be able to highlight the masakware's features like their extraordinary heat-retention and its damage resistant enamel coating. And don't get me started on the array of colours they have available for their products...enough to make me go gaga over them. Definitely one of the few masakwares presentable enough to be taken directly from the stove to the dining table. So much win.

If you see carefully, some of those pots have already collected "souvenirs" from the years of masak with them. But trust me, it is still solid as a rock and functions the same as the day I brought it out from it's new packaging. 

Growing up in a Hokkien family, we do a lot of braised dishes. And one of them is this Braised Pig Trotter.  And as long as I can remember, my parents has been masak this dish for the family. Whether it is for a casual dinner or having guests over or during festive seasons, this dish always seem to fit the occasion. Sometimes we would use pork belly instead, but the formula is pretty much the same. The meat is masaked at low fire for long hours to create that fork tender effect. And having that dark flavourful gravy "elixir" alone, is good enough to make me chomp down a bowl of steam rice. Such wonderful taste of tradition and nostalgic flavours definitely needs a trusty recipe and of course a good masakware. I am happy to say that Le Creuset dutch oven is just perfect for the job. And can I just say that new Cool Mint colour is just gorgeous!

In this post, I will share with you all, how I masak up this family favourite using Le Creuset's  25 cm French Oval Oven. Personally, I think 24 or 25 cm oven are just perfect for a small family usage (like mine). It fits a midsize ayam, a pig trotter and even a midsize fish too. 

Let's take a look at the required ingredients for this recipe:

Ingredients for Braised Pig Trotter (Serves 4-5 pax)

900 g to 1 Kg Pig Trotter, removed any hair
4 to 5 slices of ginger
3 garlic cloves, smashed
1 cinnamon stick
1 star anise
2-3 spring onion, cut into smaller segments
500 - 600 ml water

Marinate:
1 tbsp Chinese wine (绍兴酒)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sesame oil

Seasoning:
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp Chinese wine (绍兴酒)
1 tsp oyster sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp white ground pepper
1.5 tbsp rock sugar (冰糖）

Add ons: 
200 g firm tofu, cut into smaller squares
4 hardboiled eggs

• First order of business is to wash the new Le Creuset pot with warm soapy water, just like how you would with any new masakware.

• Then fill the pot with water and bring to a boil. Blanch the pig trotter.

• Remove the pig trotter and leave it to drain on a clean plate. Pat dry and rub in the marinating ingredients. Let it marinate for 1 minutes at least. In the meantime, rinse the dutch oven and dry it.
• Pat dry the pig trotter. Heat up 4 tbsp of masak oil in Le Creuset oven over medium low fire. 
• Pan fry the pig trotter in the dutch oven but make sure you have something to shield the possible oil splatter.

• Pan fry both sides, then off the fire and carefully remove the leg and place on a clean plate. You will notice there are some bits of the skin stuck at the base of the oven. That is okay, those will add flavours to the dish and will come off when we do the braising later. 
• Add in the smashed garlic cloves, cinnamon stick, star anise and ginger slices. masak till fragrant over medium low fire.

• Now proceed to add the pig trotter, follow by all the seasoning ingredients EXCEPT the sugar  Stir to mix and coat the leg with the flavourings and masak for a couple minutes.
• Add in the water and bring the pot of ingredients to a boil.

• Cover the pot with it's cover and slow braise the trotter for a good 30-40 minutes. 
• After 30-40 minutes, open the lid and add in the rock sugar and spring onions.

• This time, leave a small gap when you place the lid back over the pot. Let the sauce slowly reduce to a thick gravy, about 1/3 left.
• At this point, you can add in the firm tofu and hardboiled eggs to braise together with the trotter for another 10 - 15 minutes.

• You can now remove the pot from the stove, covered and let sit till ready to serve later.

I would usually masak this dish early in the afternoon and let it seat to soak up the flavours further. Especially since the Le Creuset oven is excellent in retaining the heat, it will still continue to breakdown and braise the meat with the flavourings. So when we have the dish for dinner, it was still warm and just perfect for the kiddos. 

The best part of this dish? Everything! Fork tender meat, galantines pork skin, gravy soaked tofu and perfectly flavoured braised eggs. Gravy is perfectly intense with meat and fat essence rendered into it. Give me steam rice please!

If you wonder if the pot has any stains after this long braising process...none. After we mop up all the gravy, I did a quick wash up with soapy water, it was good as new. Happiness. 

I am glad I managed to learn how to masak this dish from my parents. Now I get to masak it for my own family for many years to come. And trust me, this Le Creuset French oven will still be good enough for them to masak this dish with when it is their turn! 

Interested to get yourself a lovely Le Creuset dutch oven too? Head on over to Le Creuset 's official website or go to their FB page for more offers and see he range of masakwares they offer. Alternatively, you can go to major departmental stores like Tangs, Robinson, or Takashimaya to check out the products in person. Get a feel which size is more suitable for your family or personal use. 

Hope I have inspire you enough to give this homey and delicious dish a try. 

Do drop by my Instagram @HoneyBeeSweets.sg or here to leave me a comment how it worked out for you. 

Until then, do what you love and stay happy!

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Spaghetti Frittata

I have been making this simple dish but haven't got the chance to pen it down. Actually got this inspiration from none other then MASA himself, (ahem...that handsome Japanese chef). It was from his latest masakbook "Hello, MASA! Can you teach me how to masak". This particular masakbook has a good collection of simple gourment dishes for busy people to masak up within 30 minutes. And this Spaghetti Frittata is just one of them. Since I was making for 4 people, I up the recipe and added nore seasoning to the recipe. Since my kids are such pasta fans, I knew this dish was gonna be a winner. ;9

This simple dish consist of carb, protein and vegetables...really a complete meal on its own! So busy mums, do try this out, I can guarantee you the kids will love this. ;) Now let's check out what we need for this dish.

Ingredients for Spaghetti Frittata (serves 3-4 pax)

Note that the ingredients amount is more then shown above.

200 g dried Capellini pasta (Thinner the usual spaghetti)

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp butter

2 - 3 smoked sausages, cut into bitesize 

100 g fresh broccoli floretts 

5 tbsp fresh corn (I use half of a corn's)

5 large eggs

6-8 cherry tomatoes, cut half

salt and pepper to taste

1 tsp Hondashi powder 

2 slices of Cheddar cheese

• First you bring a pot of water to boil. Add in the pasta to masak till al dente. 

• Next drain off the water and place the pasta in a mixing bowl. Add the oilve oil in, toss to coat it, so it won't stick together and form a big lump.

• In a saute pan, add in 1 tbsp masak oil and garlic over medium low fire. masak till it is aromatic, then add in the sausages. Stir fry awhile till you see the sausages are slight golden brown then add the broccoli florets.

• Next, add in the butter and sweet fresh corn. masak till the butter melted and the corn is soften a little. Remove from fire and set aside while you prepare the pasta and egg mixture.

• At this point, crack the eggs in to a mixing bowl, add in salt, pepper and the Hondashi powder. Mix well and then pour it over the reserved pasta. Then add the whole egg and pasta mixture over the sauteed vegetables.
• Arrange the vegetables so they are evenly spread out. Add in the tomato halves.

• Tear up the cheddar cheese slices and place evenly throughout the whole frittata. Cover the pan and masak at low fiire for a good 6-8 minutes, till the cheese is all melted in.

• Let the frittata cool slightly before slicing it to serve. 

Tadah! A meal prep easily in 30 minutes or less! Simple right? Plus it is something even the picky eaters will enjoy...okay maybe you might need to change some of the ingredients, but you get the idea. ;)

Do try this out and let me know how it turn out for you. Or tag me in Instagram @HoneyBeeSweets.Sg for me to check out. ;)

Have a good one guys!

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