Mushroom, Spinach and Gouda Pork Loin Roulade

The other day I decided to make dinner instead of bake! Don't ask me why I had that crazy idea, but to tell you the truth it was probably all those endless summer-nights watching the food network that got me going. Anyways, I was rummaging through the deep freezer and came across this interesting hunk of meat, and unsure of what it was I read the label... pork tenderloin! Hmm... just looking at the piece of pork I already knew that I wanted to try out a recipe that I'd been keeping my eye on. I'd always wanted to make a roulade out of some sort of meat... be it chicken, fish or pork. And now was my chance!

Mushroom, Wild-rice, Spinach and Gouda Pork Roulade
(Yields 1 Roulade, 6-8 servings)

1 large piece of pork tenderloin
1 cup fresh button mushrooms, chopped
2 tbsp canola oil
1 tbsp garlic, minced
1/2 medium onion
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1/2 cup fresh spinach, chopped
1/2 cup cooked wild rice+brown rice mix
8 slices of smoked gouda
Additional 2 tbsp canola oil
Salt & Pepper, to taste
A mixture of root vegetables (yams, carrots, potatoes, zucchini) sliced

1. To prepare the filling, heat oil in frying pan and fry garlic and onions until fragrant. Add in the mushrooms, chopped spinach and continue to heat mixture until vegetables become tender. Remove mixture from heat, place in a medium-sized bowl and mix in the wild rice and parmesan cheese. Add in salt and pepper to taste.
2. Prepare the meat by butterflying the fillet and using a meat-tenderizer to flatten out the pork
3. Leaving a 1/2 inch border around the edge of the pork, place the 8 slices of smoked gouda down (overlapping is okay).
4. On top of the gouda, spread on the mushroom, spinach, wild-rice mixture.
5. Roll the pork "jelly-roll" style and secure the meat with butcher's twine. Rub the outside of the roulade with oiled hands, and season with salt and pepper.
6. Heat the additional 2 tbsp oil in a large frying pan (large enough to hold the roulade). Once hot, place the roulade, seam-side down into the pan. Sear the seam and then rotate the roulade to sear the entire outside of the pork roll.
7. Well-grease a large, tall-sided baking pan and place enough sliced root vegetables to cover the bottom of the pan. Reserve the remaining vegetables to add later. Season the vegetables with salt and pepper, and any herb you enjoy. Place the seared roulade on top of the vegetables and bake at 375degrees for 45 minutes. Once the roulade has only 30minutes more to cook, add in the remaining vegetables.8. Once cooked, remove roulade from oven and allow to cool for 10minutes minimum before slicing. Once cooled, slice the roulade and serve with the vegetables and enjoy!

My parents were very impressed with the presentation of the meal. Really, a roulade is so easy to make and provides an amazing wow-factor for any occasion. Try making one tonight and your family will be very impressed by both the look and the taste!

Gyoza

Inspired by Florence's beautifully crafted gyoza, I decided to try my hand at making these cute dumplings. I always remembered the way my mom and her friends would sit at the kitchen table and prepare wontons and other dumplings for soups and for frying. Those precious memories of the past are sadly faded away, nowadays we usually purchase the gyoza/wontons from T&T or from Hon's. We don't even by the wonton skins from the grocer anymore! So in rememberance of thos moments I decided we must continue on the tradition of home cooking (okay, enough ranting).

My sister isn't a big fan of green onions and is allergic to prawn/shrimp. So I made her a batch of gyoza with only beef... she appreciated it. As for the rest of the gyoza I decided against using mushrooms (since I didn't have any on-hand) and added in garlic, ginger and carrots.

Fried Ginger + Pork Gyoza

Filling
Ingredients:
- 1 cup raw pork, minced
- 1 knob of ginger, minced
- 1 clove of garlic, minced
- 1/4 cup carrot, grated
- 1/4 cup green onion, chopped

- Salt and Soya sauce, to taste

Method:

1. Fry pork, ginger and garlic together until pork has turned brown and no longer pink.

2. Once fragrant, add in the green onion and carrots.

3. Continue to mix and drain away the fat. Add in the salt and soya sauce to taste.

Gyoza Skin

Ingredients:

- 1 cup plain flour

- 2/3 cup tapioca starch

- 100ml boiling water

- 40ml cold water

- 1/4 tsp salt

- 1/3 cup shrimp, deveined and cooked

Method:

1. Combine the 2 flours and salt together in a mixing bowl.

2. Add in the boiling water and stir with a wooden spoon (or chopstick) until they resemble small flakes.

3. Incorporate the cold water and knead into a pliable dough.

4. Roll onto a floured surface and divide the dough into small (ping-pong sized) portions.

5. Use a rolling pin to flatten out dough. Use a small bowl to create circular gyoza skins (10cm in diameter).

6. Place a shrimp in the middle of the wrapper and then continue by adding the filling.

7. Fold wrapper in half and close edges (to prevent the filling from spilling out)

8. Heat some oil in a frying pan and cook gyoza until nicely browned.

9. Eat with japanese vinegar, dumpling dipping sauce, chilli... basically whatever you wish.

I rather enjoyed eating these gyoza. They turned out very crisp and flavourful, unlike the frozen ones from the market. It seems that when you thaw the frozen dumplings and then fry them, they retain some liquid within the dumpling and turn out mushy, soggy and just plain gross. Homemade dumplings are seriously the way to go... try it and you'll be impressed.

Pork Salad Sandwich?!??!

I found myself hungry at around 9:30 pm today... I know it's not particularly healthy to snack that late at night but meh, I really don't care. My stomach pretty much controls my actions :P

Staring at the leftovers in my fridge I decided to make a Pork Salad Sandwich (the first of its kind, according to google... I mean if you can't find it on google then it probably doesn't exist) out of the leftover bbq pork roast we had for dinner a few nights ago. The recipe is pretty simple... in fact there is no recipe. Basically I just chopped the pork into tiny shreds and added sour cream, mayonnaise, dijon mustard, dill weed, chopped waterchestnuts (for the crunchy texture) and shredded carrots (for colour). Add whatever else you want to make this sandwich more tastey, if that's even possible? Really, this sandwich can be made to suit your taste... so experiment; that's what I did.

I would have put a picture of it along with this write up, but you would basically be staring at a picture of what looks like a chicken salad sandwich with McGavin's whole wheat bread... boring I know. But the sandwich was far from boring, the mustard gave it a good zing (next time I think I'll buy some of that Hellmann's Dijonnaise, I've heard it's really tasty... not to mention healthier than regular mayo)