Pork in cider sauce : a princely thing to do to some pork steaks

I mentioned this in passing, during my piece regarding what was for dinner this week.  I billed it as "a return to man food" - which it certainly was.

When I'd gone to the butchers to get the pork steaks, I was amazed to see that for £2.99 I was getting six steaks cut from what looked like a gorgeous piece of loin - and they certainly lived up to that brief glimpse.

I decided to cook all six steaks, as I wasn't sure whether they'd shrink much and although one steak would be enough for son & heir, hubby might raise an eyebrow at just the one.  As it was, one steak was considerably smaller (having been cut from the end of the piece) which made portioning the meal out a complete doddle.  The two steaks were ample for hubby and I.

My bay tree

This dish really couldn't have been any easier to make.  Sometimes you seem to be cooking and setting aside stuff for ever before you get to put it all together in the final dish - but with this one it's a simple matter of flash frying the steaks and setting them aside while you cook down the onion, then it's everything into the pan and in the oven it goes.  Easy peasy.

Incidentally, the Dabinett Cider from Sheppey's was glorious in this.  It has such a rich fruitiness that stands up well to the onions and the slow cooking.  Not only that, but I used low fat creme fraiche, without any comment from either of the chaps, which I take to mean that it was sufficient unto the cause.  It's definitely a mashed potato dish - you need something to mop up that gorgeous gravy with, because you certainly don't want to leave any on the plate!

31 August 2016

I made this recipe again today, the first time in a long time, and because I had some dill in the fridge and dill is a fundamental flavour in the pork meatballs that go into making Swedish meatballs, I thought I'd add some.  I also added a couple of teaspoonfuls of apple sauce.  Oh, and a little bit of thyme.  Oh and I forgot to include the bay leaves.  Oh yes, and I used wholegrain instead of Dijon mustard.  *sigh*  It was very nearly a whole new recipe.  LOL

However, my message to you is that I have included some of these things in the recipe as the end result was AWESOME!  Honestly, it was really good.  I almost ate that sauce with a spoon.  Here's what it looked like :

Oh yes.  This can come again - and this time, a whole lot sooner!

PORK STEAKS WITH CIDER SAUCE  (feeds 3)

Ingredients :

2 tbsp olive oil
700g of pork from the shoulder, or pre-cut steaks

sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

a large onion, thinly sliced

500ml cider

2 bay leaves
15g fresh dill, chopped
15g fresh parsley, chopped
1 tsp dried thyme
1 ham or pork stock cube

4 tbsp crème fraiche (use low fat if you want)

2 tsp Dijon mustard.

 

Method :

1.  Pre-heat oven to 160deg C/325deg F/gas 3.

2.  Heat the oil in a large frying pan and sear the pork on both sides, adding a touch of sea salt and black pepper to the one side, (you'll probably need to do this in two batches to maintain the temperature of the pan) then remove from the pan into a flameproof casserole dish with a lid and set aside.

3.  Reduce the heat under the pan to moderate and add the onions.  Fry until softened and golden – around 10 minutes or so.

4.  Add the cider, herbs and stock cube and stir everything through, bringing it to a simmer.

5.  Decant the cidery herby mix into the casserole dish, give everything a light stir to make sure the liquid has reached each piece of pork and cover.  Place into the oven for 2 hours.

6.  At the end of the cooking time, remove the pork and reserve to keep warm.  Either decant the sauce into a saucepan or (if it will handle it) put the dish directly onto the heat.  Stir in the mustard and bring to a boil.  Reduce the sauce by one third and then reduce to a simmer. 

7.  Stir in the creme fraiche and return the pork to the pan until fully re-heated.

Serve with mashed or new potatoes and seasonal vegetables.

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