January 2012 - Pork skewers with peanut noodle salad

Wow, it is nearly the end of the month already. It seems to have both flown by but dragged at the same time. I have a new accounting system to learn at work which has been keeping me busy. So I have been doing easy meals this month.

As usual this is a double issue so I had already made something for it for December. In previous years the December/January issues have been filled with Christmas recipes but this year there was a nice variety of other recipes. I did just realise though that both the recipe I made for December and the one for January were from the same feature by David Morgan. A variety of different menus. December was Moroccan, for January I went with the Vietnamese. These were both very good recipes. I particularly enjoyed the pork skewers. They were supposed to be barbecued but since I don't have a gas bottle for my barbecue I just grilled them instead. It was also a very thrifty meal since I had everything to make it in the house including pork fillet in the freezer. 

Pork Skewers 

Ingredients: 

• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1/4 red onion, very finely chopped
• 1 tbsp fish sauce 
• zest & juice of 1/2 lime
• 1 tbsp palm sugar or brown sugar 
• 1 red chilli, seeds removed and finely sliced 
• 500 g pork fillets, sliced into 3 cm pieces. 

Method: 

• Combine everything in a non-reactive dish and leave to marinate for at least 1 hour. 
• Remove pork from marinade and thread onto skewers. 
• Cook under grill for 3 - 5 minutes each side or until cooked. 

Peanut Noodle Salad

Ingredients:

• 100 g dried thin rice stick noodles
• 1/2 cucumber, roughly chopped 
• 100 g snow peas, sliced
• 1/4 red capsicum, sliced 
• Handful mint and parsley leaves, chopped 
• 50 g peanuts, roughly chopped (I used cashews) 
• zest & juice of 1 lime
• 2 tsp soy sauce 
• 1 tsp brown sugar or palm sugar 
• 2 tsp olive oil 
• 2 drops sesame oil

Method: 

• Soak rice noodles in boiling water until soft. Drain. 
• Add cucumber, snow peas, capsicum, herbs and nuts. Toss to combine. 
• In a small dish combine zest, juice, soy, sugar and oils and mix well. Add to salad and toss to combine.