Result of Challenge #2 - Cypriot Afelia

When I got this challenge from Mary, I thought Afelia sounded awfully familiar! After some research on in internet I realised it was my favourite dish when I was in Cyprus.  There is a nice cosy restaurant I would go to almost everyday when I was in Nicosia, Xefoto, and I had Afelia every other day.  It was sooooo delicious.  The owner of the restaurant was really nice,  I had free coffee and sweets almost all the time.  Before I left, the nice old man even bought me a jar of honeyed walnuts.  And when I told him I miss rice so much, he made me rice.

So I was really excited that my 1st Challenge from Mary was Afelia.  I am suppose to use Pork shoulder meat but cos I was making it during the Chinese New Year period, I couldn't find pork shoulder meat, so I settled for Prime Ribs and Pork belly...YUM...both are my favourite part.


Ingredients

1kg Pork shoulder or prime ribs or Pork belly
2 cups of Red wine
2 sticks of cinnamon
3 Tbs of Coriander seed
1 sliced onions
Olive oil
Salt & ground black pepper
Bulgar wheat
Chicken Stock
Plain Yoghurt









How to make

Cut pork shoulder/Belly into 1.5inch cubes

Roast the coriander seeds in a Pan on low heat till fragrant.

Crush the coriander seeds.

Marinate pork with 2 tablespoon of crushed coriander seeds, 2 sticks of cinnamon, 2 cups of red wine and some salt and black pepper. (Leave it to marinate covered, in the fridge for 24 hours, I did it for about 16hours)

In a heavy pot, heat olive oil over medium fire.  Lightly brown the pork.  (Save the juice from marinate for later use, discard cinnamon stick)

In a seperate pot, caramelize the onions and some crushed coriander seeds till fragrant.  Put in the pork.  Add the juice from marinate and add enough water to cover 1/2 the pork.  Add salt to taste if it's not salty enough during cooking.

Cook it covered on low fire for 1hour.   (Stir occasionally to prevent burns at the base)

After one hour, open lid and put in the rest of the crushed coriander seeds and cook for another 30mins, if there is too much liquid, cook with half open lid till sauce reduces.

Making Bulgar Wheat

Put 1/2 cup of bulgar wheat and 1/2 cup of chicken stock in a pan and cook it till bulgar wheat is soft.  You can make bulgar wheat with other things but I chose to make plain bulgar as Afelia is quite a heavy dish and would be perfect with plain bulgar wheat.  If you do not have chicken stock feel free to use water and butter instead.

Serve Afelia with cooked bulgar wheat and some yoghurt.

Bon Appetit

Monica Eng

Singapore