Sunday 27 February 2011

Pork in cider gravy

I did this dish at the Northumberland County Show and ive had a few requests so here it is.  I served it with the leek suet pudding and glazed toffee carrots you can find the recipe for those under the accompaniments section.



Ingredients Serves 2
1 tenderloin of pork aprox 250g
150mls of dry cider
100mls chicken stock
Sprig of thyme, or rosemary (optional)
Salt and pepper
Oil (vegetable or olive)Method
Pre heat the oven to gas mark 6Trim the fillet of any sinew, theres a sheet of white
muscle along the top of the fillet, this needs to come off with a sharp knife or it will shrink and make the meat curl when you cook it, it wont taste any different so don’t worry.

Get a frying pan smoking hot.
Rub the fillet with a little oil and season it with salt and pepper
Add the pork to the pan and brown on all sides for 2 minutes per side.
This gives the meat colour and flavour.
For the last 30 seconds of the cooking time add a knob of butter to the pan and baste the fillet in the butter.
Add the fillet to a pre heated baking tray and cook for 20-25 minutes.  It should feel firm with a little give when its touched.  This means its cooked.  If its too springy and jelly like to the touch whack it back in the oven for 5 minutes.
Now make the gravy.
Put the frying pan back on the full heat (you don’t need to clean it).
Add the cider, it should bubble and splutter, this is good! Add the herbs if using, whole it doesn’t matter they are only in for flavour.
Once its reduced by about half the volume (keep the
heat high or it will simmer not reduce).

Add the chicken stock and again reduce by half.
Remove the herbs which will have done their job and add a knob of butter to enrichen the sauce.
Keep warm on a very low heat.
When you take the pork out of the oven let it rest for at least 5 minutes this is really really important to make the meat juicy and tender.

Serve the pork sliced with the cider gravy poured over and accompanied with whatever you like!



No comments:

Post a Comment