Guest Post: The Creative Pot with Pork with Spiced Berry Pinotage Sauce

Hi! As I have mentioned, while I'm away on holiday, some of my lovely blog and twitter friends have offered to guest post for me! Blown away by this amazing offer, I've given them pretty much free reign to write what they like, and just LOOK at what they've come up with! 

Here's Marisa from The Creative Pot with something amazing, just for you. Take it away! 

Confession: I have some berry-related issues. It's weird, I know (and completely un-foodie like of me), but I can't stand the thought of pulverised berries. Berry coulis in dessert? Pass. And don't even get me started on berry jam. I'm fine with the whole berries, but then they need to be fresh and unabashedly firm. No, none of this mushy berry business for me. 

So I was a bit taken aback when the idea of pairing pork with a berry sauce started creeping into my thoughts. And refused to back down out of respect for my berry issues. My loud lamentations to TheHusband didn’t work either (he does not share my berry prejudice). And so I was forced to make this rather hideous looking berry pinotage sauce, infuse it with spices (star anise is a firm favourite of mine) and pour it over some succulent pork neck steaks. *Sigh* The things I do in the name of food. 

Despite my deep seated berry issues though, this tasted phenomenal and I found myself grinning with delight at the end of the meal, berry sauce splattered all over my front, plate and table. I am many things, but orderly is not one of them. Might be time to re-evaluate my berry-ist views though...

Pork with Spiced Berry Pinotage Sauce

Ingredients:

1 tbsp + 1 tsp olive oil

800g pork neck steaks

salt to taste

1 small onion, chopped

2 cups assorted berries

1 apple, chopped

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup pinotage (or red wine of your choice)

3 tbsp sugar

5 cloves

2 star anise

1/4 tsp crushed peppercorns

Method:

1. Heat  a tablespoon of olive oil in a large frying pan over high heat. Add the pork neck steaks and fry briefly on each side to brown. Season with salt and set aside. 
2. Heat the remaining olive oil in the pan, lower heat slightly and saute the onions for 5 - 7 minutes or until soft. 
3. Add berries, apple, water, pinotage, sugar cloves, star anise and peppercorns, bring to the boil, then lower heat and cook for 30 minutes. The liquid will have reduced considerably and the sauce will be very fragrant. Taste and adjust seasoning.
4. Spread pork steaks into an ovenproof casserole dish and spoon the berry sauce on top. Place in the oven at 180C for around 20 minutes or until the pork is cooked through. 
5. Serve with roasted butternut, polenta or mashed potatoes. 

If you enjoyed this, you might want to visit me over at The Creative Pot, subscribe to my feed or come join in the banter on twitter.

Guest Post: The Creative Pot with Buttermilk Corn Soup

Hi!

As I have mentioned, while I'm away on holiday, some of my lovely blog and twitter friends have offered to guest post for me! Blown away by this amazing offer, I've given them pretty much free reign to write what they like, and just LOOK at what they've come up with!

Here's Marisa from The Creative Pot with something amazing, just for you. Take it away!

When my fellow schemer, darling Twitter buddy Sigrid shared her distress with me regarding her long absence from her blog and her fear that you, her loyal readers, would run for the hills I knew I had to step up to the plate. Hell, the girl knows where I live. Plus, I had to keep our relationship in good stead, as she still has a large bottle of wine with my name on it squirreled away at her house. Clearly, a lot was at stake here. And after all, I had done one guest post before, so I figured it would be a piece of cake to do another. But I hadn't factored my indecisiveness in. What to make? I wanted to put my best foot forward, whilst also keeping an eye on that bottle of wine and adhering to the spirit of things around here, i.e. quick, easy, accessible-for-every-cook meals.

Hmmmm... Of course there was also a tiny part of me that wanted to keep all the good stuff to myself. There, I've said it. Political correctness is vastly overrated don't you think? I briefly considered cupcakes, in keeping with the name of the blog and her long-running cake-rocks joke. But when I made this soup, I knew I had to surrender the recipe. After all, it was the perfect candidate - easy, yet impressive looking. So I pinned my greedy blogger alter ego to the floor and wrestled this recipe away from my own post queue and plonked it into this one. 'Cause I'm a good friend like that. You hear that? Bottle of wine!

Um... right, so where was I? Oh yes, the soup. Looks easy right? You boil some potatoes, steam a couple of ears of corn, then bang everything together in a food processor with a good glug of buttermilk and off you go! Of course then you can get all fancy-schmancy and tart it up a bit for the all important presentation. Your dinner guests will love you. Especially if you serve it with a still-warm-from the oven bread.

Top tip: If you buy bread ready-made and gently re-heat it in the oven, no-one will be the wiser. I slathered my bread in mashed avocado which I then proceeded to dip with wild abandon in the soup. Yeah, I don't get out much. But I promise the curse doesn't get transferred through computer screens, so you should be safe.

Enjoy!

Buttermilk Corn Soup
Inspired by a recipe from 101 Cookbooks
Serves 4 - 6

Ingredients:
1 tsp olive oil
1 onion
1tsp garlic
1 tbsp cajun spice
2 sweet potatoes, peeled & roughly chopped
4 cups water
4 ears of corn
500 ml buttermilk
salt to taste
chopped green bellpepper, to serve (optional)
chopped red chillies (or peppadews), to serve (optional)

Method:
1. Heat oil in a large pot over medium to high heat. Add onion, garlic and cajun spice and fry for 5 - 7 minutes or until softened. Don't worry if the onion burns a little bit, I find it adds to the smoky flavour in this particular dish.
2. Add sweet potato chunks to the pot, stir to coat in the spices, then add 1 1/2 cups water and bring to the boil. Reduce heat, cover with a lid and allow to cook until soft.
3. Meanwhile, steam corn in their husks until cooked through. I normally just pop them in the microwave for a few minutes - it works a treat. Remove and allow to cool enough to handle them. Remove husks, then, using a knife, slice the kernels off.
4. Add corn kernels to the cooked sweet potatoes, then transfer everything to a food processor and blend to a smooth puree. If necessary add some more water to ease the process.
5. Pour back into the pot, add the rest of the water, as well as buttermilk and salt to taste, then gently re-heat until piping hot before serving.

PS: Happy happy honeymoon dearest Sigrid (and hubby)! Looking forward to have you back in this neck of the woods.

PPS: If you enjoyed this post, why not come and say hi over at my blog, The Creative Pot? Or drop me a witty one liner on Twitter. I promise to be on my best behaviour.

**All images are Marisa's own (and what lovely ones they are!!)