Pork Fillet With Apple and Leek

Submitted by MellowMel

"This meal is really restaurant food, it looks great on the plate with the various colours, smells fantastic, and the taste is wonderful, a classic pork and apple combination done well."

 

• Ready In: 35mins
• Ingredients: 12
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• 800 g pork fillets
• 3⁄4 cup chicken stock
• 2 medium leeks, sliced thickly
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 2 medium apples
• 10 g butter
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar, extra
• 400 g baby carrots, trimmed, halved
• 8 medium yellow pattypan squash, 100g quartered
• 250 g asparagus, trimmed, coarsely chopped

directions

1. Preheat oven to very hot.
2. Place pork, in single layer, in large baking dish, bake, uncovered, in very hot oven about 25 minutes or until pork is browned and cooked as desired. Cover; stand 5 minutes before slicing thickly.
3. Meanwhile, heat half of the stock in medium frying pan, cook leek and garlic, stirring, until leek softens and browns slightly. Add sugar and vinegar; cook, stirring, about 5 minutes or until leek caramelises. Add remaining stock; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered,about 5 minutes or until liquid reduced by half. Place leek mixture in medium bowl; cover to keep warm.
4. Peel, core and halve apples; cut into thick slices.
5. Melt butter in same pan; cook apple and extra sugar, stirring, until apple is browned and tender.
6. Boil, steam or microwave carrot, squash and asparagus, separately, until just tender; drain.
7. Serve pork, topped with caramelised apple and sweet and sour leek, on top of the mixed vegetables.

Reviews

[salubriousbunny]

Absolutely delicious, but this recipe really needs to specify more about how to cook the pork. Saying to cook it "in a very hot oven" is not cool. I looked up pork cooking temps and I found this useful chart here: http://www.askthemeatman.com/pork_cooking_chart.htm.<br/><br/>I also reviewed some other recipes before cooking this and decided that the meat would obviously be too dry without any sort of marinade, so I made the sauce first, basted the pork in half of the sauce, and then poured an extra 1/2 cup of chicken broth on top while I cooked. Fortunately I had a meat thermometer and it seemed to take forever to reach 160 F internally. I would try a temp of about 425 F if you want to cook this in a hurry (like 30 mins). (I did *not* cover the meat so the water could evaporate and the juices could thicken.)<br/><br/>Also, I did not have leeks on hand so I used 1/2 of a white onion and 1 shallot instead. I also couldn't find our red wine vinegar so I used apple cider vinegar instead - the apple paired well with the apple! =)<br/><br/>I chose to steam these veggies in a big pot - I used a large colander in a big stockpot to do it all at once. I threw some dried rosemary in the water to give it just a little something. <br/><br/>I added more butter and more sugar to the apples because the caramel sauce was so delicious! (FYI, using a wide flat pan would be ideal for making this so you can lay all the apple slices flat at once. I cored, but did not peel my apples, and I sliced them into thirds b/c halves seemed way to big for a bite, esp. for my three-year-old.)<br/><br/>Ultimately it all came together and would have been quick if I had known the proper temps for cooking to time it better. It was fairly simple for how complex it looked, and was very tasty and healthy. I liked that the sauce brought everything together nicely and that I didn't have to do anything extra to the veggies. I also like that all the carbs in this recipe come from local summer veggies instead of a grain. I don't eat pork very often, but this seems like a simple recipe to add some variation to your fare. Enjoy! - Salubrious Bunny