Ok so here we are, my last week of classes before my finals begin. The studying is becoming slightly overwhelming but my friends and family seem to have faith that I'll make it through, which is a good sign I guess. So far I've managed to post up all the recipes we have done that were on the exam list for cuisine, and a few from the pastry side. Which means that this week I'll be finishing my posts for pastry as well as posting one cuisine recipe per day.
This mornings post is from yesterdays class, and its actually a meat heavy dish that I could see myself devouring, in fact, I almost did devour it all! It was also a very hectic class as we were also asked to prepare three side dishes. Now that may not sound like much of a challenge, but since exams are around the corner, they chose side dishes that all involve small finicky techniques and each take about 45 minutes to prepare. With 2 1/2 hours to get the pork and the sides finished let me tell you that kitchen was becoming very hot to say the least! Either way we all managed to pull it off!
Since the pork was the second shortest thing to prepare, I'll also tag along with it one of the sides which actually was relatively quick. I don't have an individual picture of that side dish, so I may have to do some pointing out to you in a group shot of all the sides! Oops, silly me! I guess I just really wanted to finish that class! :)
Noisette de porc saute, Sauce au thym
Pork medallions with thyme sauce
Ingredients:
1 pork tenderloin
100g butter
salt and pepper
100g pork trimming leftovers
50g mirepoix
5g tomato paste
50g white wine
200g veal stock
3 branches of thyme
50g butter
1. Begin by trimming up the pork tenderloin. Using a boning knife, or a thin non flexible knife, very carefully remove any silvery skin and excess fat. Also trim the meat into a nicer looking cylinder shape. Don't be afraid of cutting of meat, since all of these trimmings will be used for the sauce. When it's all trimmed up, slice it into medallions about 3/4 of an inch thick. Tie each medallion around the center to help it keep the nice round shape while its grilling. Set them aside in the fridge for now.
2. On the stove top, heat a medium size pot with some oil. When it's good and sizzling hot, add the pork trimmings. You want to get alot of good colour on these, so don't be afraid to let them get very brown and leave good sticky bits on the pot, this will all contribute to flavour later. When they are browned well, add in a roughly chopped carrot and half of a roughly chopped onion. Saute these until they begin to colour and then push everything to the edges of your pot and add the tomato paste in the center. This is called, to penser, and what you are looking for is for the tomato paste to change colour slightly, from its normal red, to a very bright, deep red colour. It's a subtle change, but it's there. Then stir it all in with the rest and deglaze the pot with the white wine. When all the gooey bits are up from the bottom, add the veal stock and the thyme, and let this simmer for about 30 minutes.
3. For the pork, heat a grill pan or a real grill if you are lucky enough to have one, over medium high heat. Oil and season one side of each medallion, and lay onto the grill. Check for good dark grill marks after a few minutes, and then just rotate each piece 90degrees to obtain a second crossing set of grill marks. After about 5-7 minutes check them again. If the grill mark arae nice and defined, then flip the medallions and let them finish cooking to your liking. (Don't forget to season and oil this side before flipping over to it)
4. To finish the sauce, pass it through a fine sieve into a clean pan. Over medium low heat, allow it to reduce a little more, and then in small chunks add the butter, cold. (This is called Monter au Beurre) When the sauce reaches a smooth and silky consistency and can nicely coat the back of a spoon, then its ready!
5. Remove the strings from each medallion. Pour some sauce in a circle on the plate, and place the medallions on it however you think looks the nicest, serve hot and enjoy!
Ok next up is the side dish of a Garniture Languedocienne. This is a very simple eggplant dish that looks really cute and tastes awesome with the sauce for the pork. In the photo below it is the little circles with a stuffing on top, closest to the camera.
Garniture Languedocienne
Ingredients:
1 eggplant
10g flour
200g cepes mushrooms
25g olive oil
200g tomatoes
15g olive oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
4 br parsley, finely chopped
1. Slice the eggplant into 3/4inch thick slices, season both sides with salt and pepper, and coat the slices with flour. Heat oil in a frying pan over medium high heat. Fry each eggplant slice until nicely browned on both sides. Remove from pan do a cooling rack set over paper towel to drain.
2. If your mushrooms are dried, place them in boiling water for about 15-20 minutes, if they are fresh, lucky you! Boil a large pot of water on the stove. With each tomato, cut out the stem and then on the opposite end, make a small cross incision. When the water is boiling drop in your tomatoes for 15-20 seconds and then remove to a bowl of cold water. Remove the skins of the tomatoes, cut in half and squeeze out the seeds. Roughly (but still small) dice up the mushrooms and the tomatoes.
3. Put oil in a pan over medium high heat and fry the mushrooms, until beginning to soften. Add the tomatoes and fry until the mixture dries out a little bit. Add the garlic and cook another minute or so. Set aside to cool slightly.
4. When you are ready to put everything together, mix the parsley into the mushroom mixture and spoon a bit of the mix onto each eggplant slice. If things have gotten cold waiting for the pork, don't worry, just pop the little stacks onto a tray and heat them in the oven at 360 degrees for about 5 minutes. Serve with the pork and enjoy!
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