Braised Pork Hocks With Sliced Mushrooms.....Light Hospital Food!!

As it is probably known, that the Christian Orthodox Easter was exactly one week after the Catholic one this year. There we were making plans to have lunch at my brother in law's pool side as we do every year, and Maria, Barbara and I (mainly I) got struck by the frigging FLEW....heavy head with headache, cough as if my lungs were on fire, eyes burning, no taste or smell and the worst of all, fever 39 degrees centigrade (102.2F)!!! Haven't fallen ill like this in years. I was always the one taking care of the others...now my wife was taking care of me. I know what the Bible says "in sickness and in health" but yet I was always the strong one. Of course all this has nothing to do with braising or cooking but it does.....

After 5 days of antibiotics etc. and feeling like a bunch of elephants tread over me, I woke up today feeling much better, still weak, but better and the first thing that came to my mind was to cook something myself !!  Doctor's order are to eat very light stuff so Maria's cooking is perfect for this purpose. However I decided to cook something light yet gourmet!! No fat, no oil, no salt, no saute, no frying .

The process is as follows:
-  4 pieces of pork shin (800 gms).
-  1 kg frozen sliced mushrooms.
-  1 cup of water.
-  1 onion in quarters.
-  2 cubes (one pork and one beef)
-  1 tsp. Bovril 
-  1 Tbsp. of dry sage.
no salt.
Method:
-  Let water boil in a casserole dish ( casserole dish which works on stove top and oven).
-  Drop in Bovril, and cubes and make sure they are well dissolved.
-  Add onion, sage, frozen sliced mushrooms, bring to a boil.
-  Add meat, bring to a boil again.
-  Insert in 180 degree C oven for one hour.
-  Bring out of oven, ladle out most of the liquids, return to oven for another hour till meat is tender.
-  Reserve liquids in fridge for another recipe.

This must be the most insipid dish I have ever made but it must be light and nutritious (meat, Bovril, onions and mushrooms)  for the occasion.
I believe pictures are not needed.

Note: There was no oil, fat added or sauteing done.

Serve on boiled potatoes.

When you are sick and want something gourmet but light, this is the dish!!
Enjoy!!
Stelio

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bamia Mafroukeh--Ladies fingers with beef or lamg -Taste of Sudan.

S udan is the largest country in Africa. Lately there was a quarrel between the North and South (Juba). The reason: Oil. Chevron and other Petroleum companies found lots of Oil reserves in the South and so the fight started. I personally visited the village of Bentu, in the South during one of my visits to Chevron Oil Company in the South. As all countries, the Sudan also has its local foods. A very popular one is Molokhia which grows only in summer. Bamia, in Arabic, lady's fingers or internationally known as Okra can be readily found all year round. Bamia Mafroukeh is a delicious food eaten with the Sudanese bread called Kisra. The term Mafroukeh is act of breaking down the bamia when it well cooked to turn it into a thick, soup. There is special wooden utensil the Sudanese use. Ingredients: - 1 kg bamia Lady's fingers or Okra. - 1 kg beef or lamb bone free. - 1/2 kg fresh tomatoes cut in quarters. - 1 big onion roughly cut. - 6 cloves of garlic finely cut. - 
Read more

First Post (after a long time) January14th 2020 Pommes Dauphinoise

Image
A  most delicious common side dish for the Christmas Holidays, where fresh cream may be consumed without too much worry, is baked dish of sliced cream potatoes or culinarily the French would call  Pommes Dauphinoise. Please bear with me as it has been over 3 years I haven't blogged or used this program. Ingredient: - 1.4 kg of potatoes. - 500 ml full cream 35% - 500 ml full fat milk. - 2 cloves of garlic very finely cut. - some butter, salt and pepper to taste. Procedure: - Buy the potatoes as clean as possible. Peel and slice without washing into half inch slices. -  Mix sliced potatoes into a pan which can withstand the fire of the hob,all the milk and all the cream. Mix well. - Add the garlic. - Season with salt. pepper and nutmeg to taste. - Boil the potato mix till the potatoes are nearly soft. - At this point scatter a few pieces of butter around the pan and immediately transfer the pan into the oven till a nice color is obtained. 40 to 60 minutes. Carefu
Read more

Brandade de Morue - Cod / Potato Mash Gratin.

Image
T his recipe is based on Jacques Pepin's with a slight twist from myself to suit Greek taste. This recipe is for 4 persons as a starter. Ingredients : - 1 kg of salted cod fillet. - 1 kg of potatoes skinned. - 1.5 cups full fat milk. - At least 6 large cloves of garlic - 2 tsp. grated lemon zest. - 4 tsp, lemon juice. - Cayenne pepper to taste. - 1 cup of olive oil. - Freshly ground black pepper to taste - Freshly grated Parmigiano cheese. Procedure : - Preheat oven to 200 deg. C. - Skin the cod fillet and immerse into cold water and refrigerate. - Change water as many times as possible over the next 24 hours to desalinate. - Meanwhile boil the potatoes till tender (fork easily pearces potato).Peel and cut into pieces when cool. - When the cod is desalinated, cook in water by lightly simmering water until fork easily pearces the fish. Do not over cook the fish lest it becomes too hard. - Once cooled, make sure to the best of your ability to omit all the bon
Read more