monday night potful of flavour

Providing readers with recipes to cook for Father’s Day always has me troubled because you fathers are all at different ages and stages — for those with littlies, no recipe is required, as you will delight in something resembling toast and cold tea. Well-taught tweenies will put on a lavish breakfast with all the trimmings. Those with teenagers will get a nice breakfast sometime in the afternoon, and those with adult children, well it’s all on — out for breakfast, favourite snacks for afternoon tea, a full three course meal . . . You see, everyone is looking for different types of recipes and those who don’t have children are not interested at all.

So this year I’m focusing on the fact that not all men are dads, but all men have a dad — so it may be you cooking for him. If he’s no longer with you, it’s a great day to cook in remembrance of him — making the food you love, for yourself. Ray has all the inspiration you need to do this well on page 8.

I won’t be with my dad on Sunday but I like the idea of having a box of venison sent to his door (page 7) and I have already made a batch of lime and tequila marmalade (page 14). He won’t be interested in it on toast but come cocktail hour, he will feel the love.

Portuguese pork and rice stew

Serves 4 Olive oil, for frying 600g pork shoulder, cut in 2cm pieces 2 chorizo sausages, sliced 1 onion, finely chopped 1 red pepper, deseeded and chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed 2 tsp sweet smoked Spanish paprika ½ cup red wine 2 bay leaves 400g can chopped tomatoes 4 cups chicken stock 1 cup Italian risotto rice

1 Heat a large pan over a high heat. Add a little olive oil and brown pork pieces in 2-3 batches. Remove to one side. 2 Add chorizo to the pan, tossing to brown for 2-3 minutes. Remove to one side. 3 Add onion and red pepper to the pan, turn down heat and cook for 5 minutes until soft, adding more oil if necessary. 4 Add garlic and paprika and cook for 1 minute. 5 Add red wine and simmer for 3-5 minutes, stirring to loosen any sediment from the bottom of the pan,

then add bay leaves, tomatoes and chicken stock. 6 Return pork and chorizo to the pan and simmer gently for 30 minutes. 7 Add rice and simmer a further 20-30 minutes until rice is cooked. Season with salt and pepper and rest for 10 minutes. 8 Serve with a squeeze of lemon juice to bring out the flavours, and some crusty bread and salad greens.