Ají de Cerdo - Peruvian Pork Stew

Ají de Cerdo aka Peruvian Pork Stew is a twist on the classic chicken dish made with yellow chili peppers called ají amarillo in Spanish. It’s spicy, rich, irresistible sauce makes it a favorite in our house. 

When I was growing up, my father worked/lived for many years in northern Peru so when school let out for the summer, I’d pack up and head south. While the little town didn’t have a lot to recommend it, it was an ideal place to be a free-ranging child with nothing but time on her hands! They were wonderful summers.

Daddy employed a cook named Cata who came in every morning to prepare our main meal which was served at midday. She was an older local woman who had years of experience cooking for her own family and made her living cooking for others.

One of her specialties was ají de gallina, a traditional Peruvian chicken stew served with white rice and garnished with hard-boiled eggs and black olives. It was always a good day when that was for lunch! A bad day included sweet stewed beets.

I hadn’t thought about Cata or her ají de gallina for years, when a great neighbor gave me a couple of chili pepper plants, one growing the bright yellow peppers I’d need to make it! We had been eating a lot of chicken at the time so I decided to make a variation on the classic recipe using pork instead. It was an excellent decision!

Ají de Cerdo – Peruvian Pork Stew

If you don’t have white sandwich bread, unsalted crackers or fresh breadcrumbs can be substituted. This dish calls for a specific yellow South American chili pepper. If you live in a big city then you may be able to find these in your supermarket or, failing that, you can find yellow ají paste in a jar online. Search for Inca’s Food which is a reliable brand.

Ingredients

4 slices white bread, about 3 1/2 oz or 100g

1 can (1 1/2 cups or 355ml) evaporated milk or light cream

2.2 lbs or 1 kg pork shoulder, cubed

2 tablespoons white vinegar

Fine sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Olive oil

4 cups or 960ml pork or chicken stock, or more as needed

4-5 yellow ají (yellow chili peppers – see note above ingredient list)

1 large onion, finely chopped

6 cloves garlic, chopped

1 oz or 28g cotija or Parmesan cheese, grated

1/4 cup or 30g pecans

To serve:

Boiled potatoes

Cooked rice

Garnish:

Hard-boiled eggs

Black olives

Method

Soak the bread in the evaporated milk or cream till it softens and gets mushy.

Season the pork shoulder chunks with the white vinegar and a good sprinkle of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Mix well. Set aside for 30 minutes to marinate.

In a large pan, heat a splash of olive oil and fry the pork in batches until the pieces are nicely brown, removing each batch to a big plate when it’s done. 

If you can’t eat too spicy, remove the seeds from the chili peppers and mince. If you love spice like we do, leave them in.

In the now empty pork pan, add another drizzle of olive oil and fry the onion, garlic and chili peppers until soft. 

Scrape them into your blender jug or a measuring vessel for a hand blender.

Add the pork back into your once again empty pan and add in the stock. Bring to a boil then simmer, covered, about 1 hour or until the pork is tender. 

Add your bread mix to the onions, garlic and peppers in the blender, along with the cheese and pecans.

Blend until smooth. 

When the pork pieces are tender, add the smooth blender ingredients to the pork pan, adding more stock as needed to make a thick sauce. 

Simmer for 30 minutes, checking and stirring occasionally and adding more stock as needed.

Serve with the rice and potatoes. Decorate with a hardboiled egg half or quarter and a couple of black olives for each plate.

Enjoy! 

This is our third year to work our way through the alphabet sharing recipes with ingredients or title featuring the letter of the post so welcome to the 1st edition of Alphabet Challenge 2026, brought to you by the letter A. Many thanks to Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm for organizing and creating the challenge. Check out all the A recipes below:

• Ají de Cerdo - Peruvian Pork Stew from Food Lust People Love
• Aloo Bhaji & Poori from Mayuri’s Jikoni
• Amygdalopita from A Messy Kitchen
• Anday Aur Subzi Pulao from Sneha’s Recipe
• Apple Crumb Pie from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Apple Pork Chops from Blogghetti
• Arancini from Jolene’s Recipe Journal
• Argentine-Style Burgers with Chimichurri Sauce from Karen’s Kitchen Stories
• Artichoke Spinach Rolls from Magical Ingredients
• Atchara: A Pickle from My People…and My Grandmother from Culinary Cam
• Homemade Apple & Whiskey Barbecue Sauce from Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
• Magic Pan Orange and Almond Salad from Palatable Pastime

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Cheesy Sausage and Egg Casserole

This cheesy sausage and egg casserole is the perfect make-ahead breakfast or brunch dish that your whole family will love! It rests in the fridge overnight, then baked when ready to serve. 

I was first introduced to a recipe like this a long, long time ago when a Canadian friend gave me a cookbook from home that she loved called The Best of Bridge. It was put together by a group of bridge playing ladies who so enjoyed the food they brought to share on games days that they decided to write a cookbook. 

Their warm and wonderful cookbooks are staples of Canadian culture and are still available today, almost 50 years after the first one was published! In that first book, which I still have and treasure, the breakfast casserole was called Christmas Morning Wife Saver. It called for Canadian bacon, naturally, or you could substitute ham. 

I made some version of it often years ago, sometimes substituting breakfast sausage or cooked crispy bacon instead but somehow it got dropped from the weekend/holiday rotation. Time to bring my rendition back! 

Cheesy Sausage and Egg Casserole

I like to spice things up with the addition of jalapeños but if your family can’t take the heat, feel free to add some chopped green peppers aka bell peppers instead for inside the casserole and to sprinkle on for garnish. I also use the Jimmy Dean “hot” sausage for extra spiciness. Use your favorite. 

Ingredients

1 lb or 450g bulk pork sausage

2 fresh jalapeños

6 large eggs

2 cups or 480ml milk

1 teaspoon mustard powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

6 oz or 170g sliced sandwich bread – about 4-5 slices 

4 oz or 113g extra sharp cheddar, grated

For baking:

2 oz or 56g extra sharp cheddar, grated

Method

In a skillet, brown and crumble sausage; drain and set aside to cool.

Cut the bread into 1/2-inch  or 1cm cubes. I leave the crusts on.  

Cut several round slices of jalapeño to decorate the top before baking, then mince the rest and discard the stems. I leave the seeds and ribs in because we like things spicy but you can discard these if you don’t.  

In a large bowl, beat the eggs. Whisk in the salt and mustard powder. Then add the milk and whisk again. 

Stir in the bread cubes, cheese, cooled sausage and minced jalapeños.

Spoon into a greased 9x13-in or 23x33cm baking dish. Cover snugly with cling film and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight. 

Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before baking and preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C. 

Top the casserole with the extra grated cheddar and decorate with the reserved jalapeño slices.

Bake, uncovered, for 40 minutes or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean.

Remove the pan from the oven and let the casserole rest for five minutes, before cutting in squares to serve. I like to put out our favorite hot sauce in case anyone wants to add a sprinkle or two. 

Enjoy!

Welcome to the 19th edition of the 2024 Alphabet Challenge, brought to you by the letter S. Many thanks to Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm for organizing and creating the challenge. Check out all the S recipes below:

• Blogghetti: Air Fryer Sausage Balls
• Food Lust People Love: Cheesy Sausage and Egg Casserole
• Karen’s Kitchen Stories: Cold Sesame Noodles
• Mayuri’s Jikoni: Schezwan Sauce
• Sneha’s Recipe: Shami Kebabs
• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Southern Style BBQ Shrimp
• Magical Ingredients: Spanakoparatha
• A Messy Kitchen: Strawberry Mint Spritzers
• Jolene’s Recipe Journal: Summer Squash Salad
• Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice: Sweet Whiskey Skillet Teriyaki Chicken

Here are my posts for the alphabet challenge, thus far:
A: Anchovy Deviled Eggs
B: Spicy Braised Ginger Pork Belly
C: Cecilie's Favorite Coleslaw
D: Cajun Chicken Eggplant Dressing
E: Everything Pizza Tartin
F: Baked Chicken and Feta Meatballs
G: Grape Juice Jigglers
H: Crispy Bacon-wrapped Chicken Hearts
I: Raspberry Rhubarb Ice Cream
J: Java Dry Spice Mix Chops 

K. Korean Barbecue-style Meatballs 

L. Easy Lamb and Fresh Tomato Curry 

M. Fresh Mint Sauce 

N. Miso Butter Noodles 

O. Spicy Orange Braised Short Ribs 

P. Homemade Piri Piri Sauce 

Q, Cointreau Glazed Orange Quick Bread 

R. Leek and Lobster Mushroom Risotto 

S. Cheesy Sausage and Egg Casserole - this post!

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Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms

These tasty stuffed portabella mushrooms are filled with well-seasoned pork, fresh spinach and tomato, roasted until golden brown. They make a rather hearty appetizer or serve as part of the main course with sides.

I have to start off today with an apology. Somehow most of the process photos for this recipe have gone missing so I have none to show you the steps of wilting the spinach, sautéing the vegetables or assembling the stuffing. 

It’s not complicated though so I hope my directions will suffice. We loved these stuffed mushrooms so much that I still wanted to share them. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask. 

Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms

Once I had mixed the stuffing together, I weighed it so I could divide by four and know how big to make the patties. The whole weight was 650g so each mushroom is filled with 162g of stuffing.  For those of you who do ounces, that's 23 1/4 oz and 5.8 oz, respectively. 

Ingredients

2 good handsful or 50g baby leaf spinach

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 cloves garlic

1 shallot

1 small tomato, cored

1 small red chili pepper

4 large Portobello mushrooms

1.1 lb or 500g lean ground pork

several sprigs fresh cilantro, hard stems removed, plus more for garnish

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt and/or Cajun seasonings, to taste

Method

Cook the spinach with a drizzle of water in a covered pan until wilted. Scoop it into a strainer over a bowl and leave to drain.

Trim the stems from the mushrooms and discard any hard bits. Chop the tender parts. 

Mince the garlic, shallot, tomato, chili pepper and cilantro stems. 

Add the olive oil to the pan along with the minced vegetables and mushroom stems. Cook till softened, occasionally stirring and adding in any water that has dripped from the spinach. 

Remove from the heat and transfer to a mixing bowl that will fit the pork as well. Leave to cool. 

Use the back of a spoon to squeeze as much of the spinach water as you can into the pan, then tip the spinach on a cutting board and chop finely with a sharp knife. 

Add the spinach to the bowl with the sautéed vegetables. 

Once everything is cool, add in the pork, seasoning it with about a 1/2 teaspoon of fine sea salt or, if you prefer, Cajun seasonings. Mix well.

If cooking to serve immediately, preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C.

Remove a small teaspoon of the stuffing mixture and cook it in a small frying pan. Taste when cooked through and add more salt or seasonings to the stuffing, if needed. 

Form your stuffing into four large patties (see note just above ingredient list) and place one on top of each mushroom. Press down gently. Drizzle the tops with olive oil. 

N.B. The prepared mushrooms may be covered with cling film and refrigerated for several hours, until you are ready to cook them. They will take a little longer to cook through when chilled. 

Roast the stuffed mushrooms in your preheated oven for 30-35 minutes or until the stuffing is browned and cooked through. 

Garnish with a little more cilantro, if desired.

Enjoy! 

It’s Sunday FunDay and today, this first day of September, we are celebrating National Mushroom Month by sharing mushroom recipes. Many thanks to our host, Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm.  Check out the recipe links below. 

• Sue of PalatablePastime served up Chicken and Mushrooms in Wine Sauce
• Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm made Mushroom Paprikash with Homemade Spaetzle
• Mayuri of Mayuri's Jikoni created Mushroom Spinach Hand Pies
• Amy of Amy's Cooking Adventures shares Sauteed Mushrooms, Onions, & Peppers
• Stacy of Food Lust People Love made Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms
• Renu of Cook with Renu served up an Easy Vegan Mushroom Pulau (Instant Pot Lunchbox Recipe)
• Sneha of Sneha's Recipe shares Red Pepper Mushroom

 

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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Korean Barbecue-style Meatballs

These tasty Korean barbecue-style meatballs are made with both pork and beef, seasoned with garlic, ginger, brown sugar, soy and gochujang paste. Roasted in a hot oven, they caramelize beautifully! 

Serve these delightful sweet and savory bites simply with forks or toothpicks as an appetizer or with rice and/or vegetables as a main course. I like to drizzle the rice with kecap manis – sweet soy sauce – or just more regular soy sauce. Either way, the meatballs are wonderful and bursting with flavor.

Korean Barbecue-style Meatballs

The meatball mixture can be made ahead, covered and refrigerated for three hours or even overnight. You can use all beef for the mixture but make sure it is at least 80 lean/20 percent fat so you don’t end up with dry meatballs. I prefer the mix of beef and pork. This recipe is adapted from one in New York Times Cooking. cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1019763-korean-barbecue-style-meatballs

Ingredients

8 oz or 225g ground beef 

8 oz or 225g ground pork 

4 whole green onions/scallions

2 in or 5cm knob fresh ginger, peeled

5 cloves garlic 

1/2 cup or 38g panko 

2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce

2 tablespoons gochujang paste

2 tablespoons, firmly packed, dark brown sugar

2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil

1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

A few generous grinds of black pepper

Optional to garnish: chopped cilantro or parsley leaves

Method

Heat your oven to 425° or 218°C. Use a small food processor to mince the ginger, garlic and the white parts of your green onions. Chop the green part of the green onions with a sharp knife.

In a large bowl, combine all of the ingredients, including the minced items and the chopped green onion.  

Use your hands or a firm spatula to gently mix it all together till homogeneous.

At this point of any meatball or patty recipe, I always recommend you cook just a little of the mixture to see if it needs more salt. This pan is my tiny one for frying a single egg so you can see how little I cooked. Add more salt, if needed. 

Use a spoon or small cookie dough scoop to divide the meat mixture on to a baking pan lined with foil or a silicone liner. With damp hands, shape the meat into balls. As you can see from the baked photo. I made 27 bite-sized balls.

Bake until golden and cooked through, about 10-12 minutes. Broil for a further 2-3 minutes if you’d like them darker brown. The pan looks like the juices burned but I am here to tell you that once it cooled, we were scraping that off with our bare fingers and eating it! So good! 

Serve warm, sprinkled with a little chopped cilantro or parsley, if desired.

If you are going the rice route, pop the meatballs on top with a little extra soy or sweet soy sauce. 

Enjoy! 

Welcome to the 11th edition of the 2024 Alphabet Challenge, brought to you by the letter K. Many thanks to Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm for organizing and creating the challenge. Check out all the K recipes below:

• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Kwasnica (Polish Sauerkraut and Pork Soup) 
• Jolene’s Recipe Journal: Key Lime Pie Cocktails 
• Mayuri’s Jikoni: Khamang Kakdi 
• Sneha’s Recipe: Kala Chana Batata Chaat 
• Culinary Cam: Purple Napa Kimchi 
• Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice Kalamata, Mozzarella, & Tomato Couscous Salad 
• Blogghetti: Key Lime Mousse Tarts 
• Karen’s Kitchen Stories: Kung Pao Chicken 
• Food Lust People Love: Korean Barbecue-Style Meatballs 

Here are my posts for the alphabet challenge, thus far:
A: Anchovy Deviled Eggs
B: Spicy Braised Ginger Pork Belly
C: Cecilie's Favorite Coleslaw
D: Cajun Chicken Eggplant Dressing
E: Everything Pizza Tartin
F: Baked Chicken and Feta Meatballs
G: Grape Juice Jigglers
H: Crispy Bacon-wrapped Chicken Hearts
I: Raspberry Rhubarb Ice Cream
J: Java Dry Spice Mix Chops 

K. Korean Barbecue-style Meatballs - this post!

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Java Dry Spice Mix Chops

These java dry spice mix chops are seared for a few minutes in a hot grill pan, then finished off in a hot oven, which keeps them tender and juicy. The java dry spice rub is made with ground roasted coffee beans, cumin, brown sugar, smoked paprika and garlic powder. And, of course, salt! 

This is probably my favorite homemade spice mix. The roasted coffee really adds a depth of flavor that goes so well with pork. So well, in fact, that I also use it on whole pork roasts. If you have a sous vide precision cooker, you'll want to have a look at my sous vide java dry spice pork roast recipe. Boy, howdy, it is good! 

Java Dry Spice Mix Chops

Apologies for the lack of photos of the pork chops being cooked in the griddle pan. Lighting wasn't great but I hope I have made up for it with good instructions. Should you have a question, please leave me a comment. 

Ingredients

2 thick cut pork chops, untrimmed 

3­-4 teaspoons java dry spice rub (Get the recipe here: Java Dry Spice Rub)

Tools needed

heavy grill pan 

wooden skewers

Method

Wash the pork chops and dry them slightly with a paper towel. Sprinkle the chops liberally with the java dry spice rub and use your clean hands to rub it all over.

Cover the chops with cling film and refrigerator at least half an hour or longer if you have the time. 

When you are ready to cook the pork chops, preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C and remove the chops from the refrigerator. 

When the oven is just about at temperature, heat your grill pan or an iron skillet over a medium high flame. 

Use several wooden skewers to pin your chops together, fat/skin side together. Once the pan is hot, stand the chops up fat/skin side down for 4­-5 minutes. 

Move them around the pan to take advantage of the heat to render the fat and get the skin a bit crispy. 

Transfer the chops to a plate and remove the skewers. 

Put the chops back in the pan, this time on their sides and set a timer for 3 minutes. 

When the timer rings, turn the chops over and set it for another 3 minutes. 

Repeat, giving the chops only 1 minute on each side. If you want to get fancy, turn the chops so the grill lines cross. 

Transfer the grill pan to your preheated oven and roast for a further 8-10­ minutes. You can cut near the bone to check for doneness. (If you have a meat thermometer, the ideal temperature is 145°F or 62.8°C.) The pork can be slightly pink. It will continue to cook as it rests. 

Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 5 minutes before serving. 

Enjoy! 

Welcome to the 10th edition of the 2024 Alphabet Challenge, brought to you by the letter J. Many thanks to Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm for organizing and creating the challenge. Check out all the J recipes below:

• Mayuri’s Jikoni: Jeera Bhaat | Jeera Rice 
• Sneha’s Recipe: Jhatpat Bhendi Masala 
• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya 
• Culinary Cam: Bulgogi-Inspired Oven Beef Jerky 
• Jolene’s Recipe Journal: Blueberry Jam Palmiers 
• Karen’s Kitchen Stories: Johnnycake Cobblers 
• Blogghetti: Jam-Filled Corn Flake Muffins 
• Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice: Brown Sugar Caribbean Jerk Seasoning 
• Magical Ingredients: Jackfruit Paratha 
• Food Lust People Love: Java Dry Spice Mix Chops

Here are my posts for the alphabet challenge, thus far: 

A: Anchovy Deviled Eggs

B: Spicy Braised Ginger Pork Belly

C: Cecilie's Favorite Coleslaw

D: Cajun Chicken Eggplant Dressing

E: Everything Pizza Tartin

F: Baked Chicken and Feta Meatballs

G: Grape Juice Jigglers

H: Crispy Bacon-wrapped Chicken Hearts

I: Raspberry Rhubarb Ice Cream

J: Java Dry Spice Mix Chops - this post!

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Spicy Braised Ginger Pork Belly

Tender morsels of pork simmered with ginger, garlic, chili peppers, brown sugar and soy sauce make this spicy braised ginger pork belly the most succulent meal!

This is a recipe I’ve been sitting on a long time because I never seem to have time for good looking “after” photos when it’s done. So please excuse the terrible lighting. I promise that this dish is much tastier than my photos make it look! I chose to share it now because with B for braised and B for belly, it is perfect for today's Alphabet Challenge post. (More on which after the recipe.)

I like to serve this dish with fluffy steamed rice, either long-grained basmati or brown, and stir-fried greens, like baby kalian. A good substitute, if you can’t find baby kalian, is broccolini aka tenderstem broccoli. 

Spicy Braised Ginger Pork Belly 

It takes a while to braise so that the pork belly is melt-in-your-mouth tender. Also, you don’t want to rush the process by using a high fire when reducing the sauce or it could burn. This dish is so worth the wait. Your patience will be amply rewarded.

Ingredients

800g or 1.75 lbs pork belly

2 red chili peppers

4 cloves garlic

2 inch or 5cm knob ginger

1/2 cup, firmly packed, or 100g dark brown sugar

1/4 cup or 60ml soy sauce

1/4 cup or 60ml Shaoxing wine or substitute dry sherry

1/4 cup or 60ml rice vinegar

To garnish: fresh cilantro leaves

Method

Trim any gristly bits off of the pork belly and discard. Cut the pork belly into small chunks. 

Peel and chop your garlic and ginger. Slice the chili peppers. 

Add the pork, ginger, garlic, peppers and brown sugar to a wide pan that has a tight-fitting lid. Add in the soy sauce, Shaoxing wine and rice vinegar. Stir well. 

Now add just enough water to almost cover the pork. This amount depends on the size of your pan.

Bring the liquid to a boil then reduce the heat to simmer. 

Cover with the tight-fitting lid and simmer for about 1 hour, stirring occasionally and adding a little water, if necessary. Remove the lid and raise the heat a little, cook till you have reduced the liquid to deliciously thick stickiness. 

At the very end, a spatula or spoon should leave a gap that the sauce doesn’t immediately run in to close again. 

Garnish with some fresh cilantro leaves when ready to serve. 

Enjoy!

As mentioned above, I'm sharing this recipe today as part of the 2024 Alphabet Challenge. Every other Wednesday we will share a recipe starting with the next consecutive letter of the alphabet. Many thanks to my friend and fellow blogger Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm for including me. This is our second post so, of course, we are highlighting the letter B. If you missed A, you can find those links here in my Anchovy Deviled Egg post. 

• Palatable Pastime: Blueberry Biscuits 
• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Bisque of Lobster 
• Blogghetti: 20 Minute Bean and Beef Tostadas 
• Karen’s Kitchen Stories: Bagel Chips from Leftover Bagels 
• Sneha’s Recipe: Beetroot Mezhukkupuratti 
• Food Lust People Love: Braised Brown Sugar Pork Belly 
• Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice: Spicy Barbecue Seasoned Rice Chex Mix 
• Culinary Cam: Börek with a California Twist 
• Mayuri’s Jikoni: Beetroot Tomato Soup 
• Magical Ingredients: Beet Fennel Paratha 
• Jolene’s Recipe Journal: Brooklyn Blackout Cake
• Sizzling Tastebuds: Barley Karamani Adai

Here are my posts for the alphabet challenge, thus far:
A: Anchovy Deviled Eggs
B: Spicy Braised Ginger Pork Belly - this post!

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