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.

Printable version

Chicken in Cider - the "nearly rabbit".

I really wanted to find a rabbit from the butcher, this week.  Unfortunately, neither of our local butchers had rabbits (Spring Fields only stocked rabbits from China – what’s with that?) so I was left pondering on chicken versus pork as a satisfactory stand-in.

As it turned out, I forgot to take the chicken out of the freezer in time, so we got another 5 chicken breasts for £5 and put two of them in the freezer for next week.  Far easier than pondering further on what cut of pork to use!

I can quite see how this recipe would be really suited to cooking a rabbit, as the chicken was nice, but rabbit would have lent a rather more earthy flavour to the ensuing sauce.  However, a gold star for excellence must be awarded to the Cider I used.  It was Sheppey’s Dabinett Cider, a single variety cider that at £1.54 for a 500ml bottle wasn’t the cheapest choice, but equally it could have been worse.  However, for flavour, it really was perfect.  In fact, by the time hubby and I had had tasties, there was little more than the required 350ml left!

I certainly didn’t miss the rabbit, as the chicken made for an excellent stand-in and we didn’t have to contend with son and heir’s distaste for rabbit.   He’s having problems getting past the “fluffy bunny” aspect, you see, but considering he’s just 12 it’s understandable.

One thing to bear in mind with this recipe is that it requires overnight marinating – so you need to have a plan in place and not forget to take the chicken out of the freezer, like I did. 

CHICKEN IN CIDER (serves 3)

Ingredients :

3 skinless chicken breasts

9 prunes

350ml dry cider

a large onion, sliced

1 tsp wholegrain mustard

2 bay leaves

salt and pepper

2-3 tbsp plain flour (more = thicker sauce, less = thinner sauce)

2 tbsp olive oil

10g butter

1 large parsnip, peeled and cut into chunks

small can red kidney beans, drained

Method :

1.  Put the chicken pieces into a large bowl with the prunes, cider, onions, mustard, bay leaves and 250ml water.  Season and stir gently to mix, then cover tightly and refrigerate overnight.

2.  The following day, pre-heat your oven to 180deg C/350deg F.

3.  Remove the chicken breasts and pat dry with kitchen paper.  Whilst the oil and butter heats up in an ovenproof casserole dish, toss the chicken in seasoned flour.  Then fry until brown and remove to keep warm.

4.  Sprinkle any remaining flour into the casserole and stir round.  Pour in the marinade, reserving the prunes.  Add the parsnips, return the chicken to the dish and bring to the boil, covered.

5.  Once at boiling point, put into the oven and bake for around 40 minutes.

6.  Add the prunes and the beans, cover again and bake for a further 15-20 minutes or until everything is tender.

Serve with mashed potato and green beans.

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