Last night I made the Veal with the creme fraiche sauce again. I used thinly sliced boneless pork chops - they came that way, I didn't do anything special to them.
Here is what I did. I used 1 tbsp of butter(for taste) and 1 tbsp of healthier olive oil and cooked the pork quite quickly until they were done - only a couple of minutes on each side was enough. Took the pork out and put in the shallots and the mushrooms and a wee bit more olive oil and a sprinkling of salt and cooked it for a couple of minutes. The salt makes the mushrooms lose moisture so they cook faster, at least so it seems to me. When they looked done, I added the calvados and a bit of chicken broth to deglaze the pan. I didn't set fire to the calvados, and I don't think it added much to the flavor. then I added the pork again, just for a minute to heat and to let the juices cook down a bit more, maybe by half. Finally I added 1/2 cup of creme fraiche, (which was perfectly adequate) and stirred. It was quite nice, although I think it could have used.... something. It was a bit bland. I put quite a lot of parsley on mine and that helped some. Maybe sprinkled with fresh thyme.... or instead of calvados, I'm going to try maybe red wine or marsala or something. I know it changes the recipe to something entirely different, but so what.
Oh. apples. I did intend to make the baked apple side dish, but the apples I wanted to use were a bit old - the last of the local organic farm - so I made apple crisp instead.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I love pork chops lightly fried like that. The rest of the recipe--the mushrooms and shallots, the créme fraîche, the calvados are just distractions. So I'm not surprised it seemed a bit bland.
I wonder if fennel or some other fruity herb would add punch. Or possibly fennel, cilantro or sage....
Maybe just having the baked apple alongside would help. Those were mighty tasty.
In contrast, I thought the mushrooms, shallots and calvados could be eaten alone, and the veal was only an excuse for the sauce. But I expect the drippings of the veal (if that's the right word) are part of what made the sauce so splendid.
What about searing the pork in a very hot pan, so there are little pork crisps to be glazed off into the sauce? There's a recipe for steak that I've made many times that is similar -- you cook the meat (an inch thick) very quickly, then deglaze with merlot and dried cherries, adding butter at the last minute to thicken (according to the tv chef from whom I learned the recipe).
But that would be entirely different from this recipe, except in the concept of meat sautéed, add sauce ingredients, deglaze and serve.
Post a Comment