Glazed BBQ Pork with Cajun-style Pepper Rice

I helped my mum make this the other day for a tasty midweek meal. It was really good so I thought I'd share it with you. We adapted it from a recipe in the book: 'Jamie's 15 minute meals by Jamie Oliver'. I wouldn't say it was exactly that said amount of time, but it was reasonably speedy considering we did have to cook our rice first, whereas Jamie says to use cooked rice which will obviously save yourself a lot of time as your not having to pre-cook it first hand. 

I've never really been a big lover of spicy foods. Anything that makes my lips get that tingling feeling to the point where it's just unpleasant is just wrong if you ask me! I don't see why anyone would actually enjoy it and continue putting themselves through it. If you can't taste any flavours because all you have is a burning sensation in your mouth then you got to ask yourself - what really is the whole point?! I want to be able to taste my food! Having said that, I pretty much think that my threshold for what is deemed to be spicy enough is much lower than all of my friends so that explains why I only really eat korma or their mild-curry equivalent if I ever go out for an Indian. 

You'll probably be able to guess that this glazed BBQ pork isn't going to be a fire sensation on your tongue but that's because I only added a couple of drops of Tabasco to my sauce instead of the recommended 1 teaspoon!! I felt that a few drops was just a nice subtle heat to be going on with (and that I could just about cope with. ) But feel free to ramp up the spiciness to your desire... Just remember you can add all you want but you can't take it away, on that note I'll leave you with those last wise words and give you my adapted recipe below. 

Glazed  BBQ  Pork  with  Cajun - style  Pepper  Rice

Recipe adapted from Jamie's 15 minute meals

Serves 4

Ingredients

For the Pork: 600g pork medallions or a 600g pork fillet cut into 12 even-sized pieces. 1 heaped tsp chinese five-spice salt and pepper olive oil
For the Rice: 1 red onion 2 peppers 1 tsp smoked paprika 1 pinch of cumin seeds 1 tsp fennel seeds 500g brown rice 1 lemon a small bunch of fresh basil leaves 4 tbsp natural yoghurt
For the BBQ sauce: 2 cloves of garlic 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce 4 heaped tbsp tomato ketchup 2 tbsp HP sauce (brown sauce) 1 heaped tbsp runny honey 1 tbsp light low-salt soy sauce a few drops of Tabasco or 1 tsp if you like it hot

Method

Wash and rinse the rice really well.  Place in a saucepan with double the amount of water to rice and bring to the boil, then turn the heat down, cover the pan with a lid. Cook on the lowest heat possible for 20-30 mins without uncovering the pan until cooked. Brown rice can take a lot longer than white to cook. 
Put a large casserole pan on a high heat with 1 tablespoon of oil,  roughly chop and peel the onion and add to the pan along with sliced deseeded peppers. Once softened slightly add the paprika, cumin and fennel seeds. Stir to coat the spices with the veg and after 2-3 minutes add a cup of water, stirring regularly. Leave on a low heat.
On a large piece of greaseproof paper, sprinkle over the chinese five spice along with a good pinch of salt and pepper. Roll the pork medallions around in the spice to coat them all. Place a frying pan on a medium heat with 1 tablespoon of oil, place the medallions into the pan, turning once cooked on one side. 
Meanwhile peel and crush the garlic into a bowl, add all the remaining BBQ sauce ingredients and mix well. When the pork is cooked on both sides and has a good colour pour in the sauce and stir to coat the medallions. Cook for 2-3 minutes until glossy and the sauce just starts to release a bubble. 
Stir the cooked rice into the veg casserole pan along with a squeeze of lemon juice, then sprinkle over the basil leaves and dollop spoonfuls of yoghurt onto the rice before serving. Pour the pork with the sauce onto a large serving dish.