Glazed pork chop with peppers and herb dressing
This week’s book was: Simple to Sensational, by Jun Tanaka. This is a really novel idea for a cookbook, with each double-page dedicated to a related pair of recipes, one simple, one sensational, using similar ingredients.
The week started on a relatively simple recipe: Simple Rice Pilaff, which we served with grilled salmon. This is an excellent recipe; fry a few onions, add rice, stock, bay leaf and finish in the oven – really, really tasty. We cooked the “sensational” version later in the week. Another simple recipe was Simple Lamb Casserole with onions and new potatoes. This is one we’ve cooked before and is a little cracker! It’s simple but so tasty – the only way it could be better is with a slightly thicker sauce. Weeknight pasta is always something popular in our house, so the Fast Pappardelle Bolognaise had all the hallmarks of a family favourite. This little recipe did not disappoint at all and was really simple.
The sensational sibling to Simple Rice Pilaff was the really rather lovely Chicken and Prawn Rice Pilaff. It was a little like Paella and made a nice change from the Spanish classic, which we regularly make. The final recipe of the week was the Sensational – Glazed pork chop with peppers and herb dressing. I can safely say it lived up to its billing. The combination of the glazed pork chop (glazed with tomato puree and soy) with sweet and sour peppers and pineapple, combined with a mustard-laden salsa verde, was absolutely fabulous and really not that involved for a Friday night supper. All in all, Jun Tanaka, your book was sensational, and most of the recipes were refreshingly simple!