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that the dinner I cooked tonight was better than what we had in the restaurant the other night

And he dribbled over that

I did thick pork loin steaks, quickly pan-fried in olive oil and garlic, steamed potatoes and green beans and the bestest bit - according to him - was the red pepper, garlic, red onion, white beans thingy, with added bay leaves and rosemary.

It sounds delicious

Normal Friday night back in Sodbury would have been 5 pints of Blackthorn and a takeaway

I bought a huge pork loin from the butcher in the village - over a kilo - for just about 8 euros And it was so tender, so I cut thick steaks off it for tonight and I've cubed the rest for a surprise for himself later in the week.

Never done it before, but I'm going to try porc Alantejana - which is pork and clams.

Oh God Ton, if you can buy pork loin for that price and cut it into steaks of your choice you have to try stuffed pork loin chops.

Any old solid style stuffing will do, from sage and onion as used in chicken to nut and fruit mixes, just make a pocket for the stuffing and off you go.

I know WM, I know, the pork is soo soft and gorgeous, you could almost eat it raw.

I wanted to stuff the pork - as t'were with something but Grumpy just wanted it plain, - and as I never do as I'm told, I added the garlic, and also some thyme from the garden.

I love the pork and clams Ton

I used to do a pork loin stuffed with pork kidney. Unfortunately I can't remember what else went in it, probably rosemary, and I know we did a red wine/redcurrant jelly/cream sauce with it.
There's a good story to it though
We lived on the edge of a village, the ex and I, with a proper village butcher, sadly long gone as the son wasn't as keen as the (very old) father.
There were - and are - quite a lot of rather well-off folks in said village. One day I went to the butcher, said we had guests for dinner that weekend and had he any good ideas. He asked would we fancy pork, stuffed with pork kidney, so I said it sounded good.
He leaned forward, as no doubt he had to every other customer that week, and told me that a regular customer had asked for something good with pork as they had a special guest coming. This guest had been a few years before, and he'd done them a loin of lamb, stuffed with lamb kidney so had the idea of doing the same with pork.
It was a success and the customer had brought in a photo of their guest at the meal, which he wasn't allowed to put on the wall but was showing everyone - it was Elizabeth Taylor

Berlimey

We can't get a lot of things I took for granted in England Di - but I can also get a lot of stuff I haven't a clue how to cook

A lot of it is trial and error, but I do enjoy experimenting. And now Grumps is taking more interest, we can try stuff we wouldn't have normally tried.

I know I can get clams in the village market on Tuesday, so we'll get them, wash them for a day - as our neighbour told us to - and eat the pork on Wednesday, I'll marinade the pork from Tuesday. I was given the recipe from the lady in the restaurant we went to earlier in the week.

She also gave me the recipe for piri-piri which has been handed down for years - and the secret is whiskey Used to be madrona, but now they use whisky. But it's still blummin' lethal

It may take you a time or two to get it just right then - but I'm sure it will taste good

A lovely maid showed us to put a layer of onion skin in with prawns when we cooked them, I've no idea why really but we did it She seemed to be saying it was for the colour, but they go really pink anyway

Piri-piri varies such a lot doesn't it, like the hoummus we had on Zante, each place made it differently, which was great as it was obviously not bought in as it is in the bigger places.
Methinks you should spill the piri-piri recipe over on the cooking board

Okay dokes

That all sounds delicious!!

Wow Di!!