Pork with Caramelised Apple and Parsnip + Pumpkin and Capsicum Pearl Couscous + Orange Salad

'Hey... can I come over to your place for dinner?' Mel asked over the phone.

'Yeah sure.... ' I answered.

Some people might think 'how weird.... why would someone invite themselves to people's home for dinner?!?!'... well... it's not unusual if this conversation applied to my home and Mel, cos she is our family's dearest sister in Christ!!! A close friend who hubby and I can chat with non-stop about everything and anything, a close friend who is also our family accountant, a close friend who organised our wedding in Hong Kong and paid everything up front for us! Thanks Mel!

OK... what's for dinner?!?!?!

Pork with Caramelised Apple and Parsnip

Pumpkin Couscous

Orange Salad

It does sound alot but we had 5 people for dinner at the end, and we polished every bit off the plate!

Pork with Caramelised Apple and Parsnip

7 pork chops

1 tbsp olive oil

sea salt + cracked black pepper

2 granny smith apple, peeled + chopped

2 parsnip, peeled + chopped

1 lemon, halved

60g butter

1 tbsp brown sugar

1. Preheat over to 200C

2. Heat frying pan over high heat. Brush pork with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook for 1-2 min on each side or until browned

3. Place the apple, parsnip, lemon, butter and sugar in a baking tray, toss until well combined

4. Top with pork chop, and roast for 25 min.

I very rarely cook pork chop, because I tend to overcook my pork, and therefore become dry and chewy! But this time, the pork chop was tender and juicy, and the sour taste in the apple helped to balance out the fat of the pork! You can always swap the apple with pear, parsnip with potato or sweet potato. Recently I bought the griddle pan from Aldi, loved the grill mark on the pork! =)

Pumpkin Couscous

1 pack of pearl couscous

1/3 of a pumpkin, peeled and diced

1 red capsicum, cut into small pieces

salt and pepper

1. Roast the diced pumpkin in the oven at 180C for 20 min.

2. Cook the couscous according to the instruction on the back of pack.

3. Mix pumpkin and capsicum into couscous, sprinkle in salt and pepper.

I first tried this pearl couscous in the Food and Wine Show, and i was in love with it! It has much better texture than the usual couscous, and the chewiness in the grain is awesome! Must try!

Orange Salad

2 oranges, peeled and sliced

1 tbsp maple syrup

handful of roasted hazelnut, chopped

1. Mix the maple syrup with a little water to make it more runny. Heat it up on stove or in microwave.

2. Arrange the sliced oranges on plate, pour the maple syrup on top. Sprinkle with hazelnut.

The orange itself was super sweet, and the hazelnut helped to give it a crunch to the texture. This fresh and citrus salad was a fantastic dish to help breaking up the heaviness of pork and couscous! If you want, you can substitute the hazelnut with other roasted nut, maple syrup with honey, and add some chopped mint in there to make it extra fresh. Be creative!!! I just used whatever I had left over at home! =P