I got the inspiration for this dish by this Spanish recipe by Lauren Aloise, but I had to make quite a bit of changes as we are not so fortunate in South Africa to always get the produce our counterparts get in Europe – like Iberian pork cheeks for example. I also took the starch out of the dish and made a separate starchy dish to go with the main course.

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So I Googled for “Pork and Bean” and came across this Corsican Bean Soup with Greens and Pork recipe on Food & Wine which sounded very interesting. Unfortunately I couldn’t source all the ingredients and had to make do with what I had. I also decided not to use the word Corsican in the title as I was not too sure how strict you have to follow this recipe to call it anything from Corsica.

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We have not had proper Mexican food in ages. Most “Mexican” restaurants around here is decidedly more Tex Mex – load of tacos and chilli poppers but sadly not a  Mole or Recado Rojo sauce in sight.  Not that we don’t enjoy Tex Mex  occasionally but it doesn’t come close to the real deal.  I made  Chicken Mole Poblano  and Adrienne made Achiote Chicken and Ancho Pork a while back. Since then our  Ancho (dried Poblano) and Guajillo (dried MIrasol) chillies have been sitting in the back of the food cupboard. To make up for this travesty I decided to make 3 main dishes for our Mexican date night.

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I was thrilled to find Gochujang in my local Asian grocer recently.  This fermented red chilli paste is made from chilli powder, glutinous rice, fermented soybean powder, barley malt powder and salt.  It has a spicy, savory, sweet flavour and is an essential ingredient in various Korean dishes.  I decided to use it in a spicy Korean marinade for pork belly.

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