Festive Season and Food-Roasted Pork

The weather during the past ten days has been biting cold , it snowed for two days (thank Heavens) and then stopped, although the snow stayed atop trees and the fields were covered with a white blanket, since the temperature remained below -04C. My wife and me came back from Malaysia and Thailand after a three week holiday in November and the cold just does not agree with our old bones. We yearn for the 40C heat and the blue skies, the brilliant light and shimmering seas. And the food! What delicious food. But C'est la Vie.


As a rule we do not eat sumptous food during Christmas and the New Year. This year our younger son went on a four month backpacking tour of India, Malaysia, Indonsia and singapore and lost twenty kilos weight. During his four month trip, from ninety kilos he came down to seventy kilos and has stopped eating meat and fatty foods.


However, on the 24th December, we oven grilled a loin of pork meat (which is called roti in Germany) stuffed with coliflower, onions, ginger and mushrooms. This was accompanied by cooked red cabbage, boiled black potatoes and mojo picon. This is made by shredded green herbs submerged in extra virgin olive oil, wine vinegar, lot of very finely chopped fresh garlic, salt and hot chilli powder. Mojo Picon is ideal for grilled and boiled potatoes, fish and pork chops etc. For dessert we had Vanilla pudding with fresh cream. We opened a bottle of red wine from Valencia (Spain) and a bottle of Lambrusco white wine from Italy. My wife and son do not drink alcohol, so they had a few sips and I finished the white wine in two days and then had red wine too.


This morning for bidding farewell to the year 2007 we are fixing honey pork spare ribs with baked potatoes and garlic bread. Very simple.



To prepare honeyed Pork SpareRibs I use a seasoning of cumin and corriendar powder, tandoori masala, mixture of grinded cardamans, cloves and canella and marinate the ribs for two hours and then grill in the oven at gas mark 200 for foty minutes or until the meat it tender. When the meat is nearly done, spray the ribs with a mixture of honey and little vinegar with a bristle baking brush and leave it (the ribs and not the brush) in the oven for further ten minutes. With this delicious food, I will open a bottle French red wine wine from Bordeaux, a Medac 2006 from Chateau Pessange.




The photo at the top left is of the market a few hundred metres from China Town in Kuala Lumpur. We had delicious coffee there. The market is full of shops and stalls selling clothes, antiques, perfume, hand carvings and much more. Worth a visit when in KL


Wishing you all a Very Happy New Year, Peace & Harmony and Lots of Travel & Adventure.