Everywhere looks very bright and lush with all the new leaves on the trees, and flower blooming everywhere.
I think it’s fair to say that we can safely put hearty, wintry dishes behind us for a few months, and look at lighter, fresher dishes.
Pork tenderloin is a very versatile cut of meat, and it can very easily be dressed up to create a dish worthy of a dinner party – yet it doesn’t take long to cook.
The trick with pork tenderloin is to keep it moist. As it’s very lean, it can be dry if it’s overcooked. While it’s cooking, baste it regularly, or wrap it in foil to keep the moisture in.
Pork works very well with sage, and the recipe below makes good use of this aromatic herb to create a rich, flavoursome and summery dish.
Roast pork tenderloin, fondant potato, summer cabbage, fine beans and bacon, almonds, sage and lemon
Serves 2
Ingredients
1 pork tenderloin
Splash of olive oil
2 large Maris Piper potatoes
3 cloves garlic
Sprig of thyme
175g butter
200g fine beans
2 rashers back bacon
40g toasted almonds
1 summer cabbage
Small handful of chopped flat leaf parsley
Small handful of chopped sage
Small handful of Panko breadcrumbs
Zest of 1/2 a lemon
Good quality chicken stock
Fondant potato
Put pan on moderate heat with a little oil and colour the potato cut into a cylinder shape to a golden brown colour, flip over then add 50g butter, roughly chopped garlic and thyme, then fill the pan with chicken stock to halfway up the fondant, cover with foil and cook approx 35mins at 180C until soft.
Pork
Remove sinew, cut into half, season and place in a pan with a splash of oil on moderate heat, and colour both sides, then add 50g butter and sprig of thyme and cook for 12-15mins at 180C.
Summer cabbage
Slice cabbage finely, and slowly cook in 75g butter and season
Almonds, Panko breadcrumbs, herbs and lemon
Blend panko breadcrumbs and then add chopped parsley and sage and lemon zest, then toast almonds and mix together
Grill bacon and dice to sprinkle over blanched fine beans, place cabbage on the plate with pork sliced on top, and with the almond mix on top of pork, drain off fondant potato and serve any sauce from it with the pork.
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