The dish with the pork // Pork fillet with confit shallots

This recipe pays homage to my mothers pork fillet dish with the crispiest potatoes you've ever had. In this dish, I went for a light summery dish so sadly, those potatoes aren't included.

So without further adieu, here's my recipe. Remember colour is flavour, so ensuring you achieve the golden colour on your fillet firstly will really help it taste good and be visually appealing on the plate.

Ingredients (Serves 2)

For the Sauce

1 x granny smith apple, cored and cubed.

1 x shallot, finely diced

1 x stalk celery, finely diced

1 x small carrot, finely diced

50ml sherry

500 ml chicken stock

1 x teaspoon honey

5g cornflour

20g butter

For the pickle

2 x tbsp / 30ml apple cider vinegar

Small handful pink peppercorns

1 x tbsp white sugar

100ml water

5 x asparagus (peeled)

Remaining Ingredients

1 x small cauliflower

1 x pork fillet (silver skin removed)

2 x shallots (cut lengthways)

Method

Timing here is super important so first thing is to get the pork out of the fridge and to room temp. Get your oven on to 180C and remove the silver skin from the pork and tidy up. Set any off cuts to the side to use for your sauce. Place your 2 shallots in the oven wrapped in tin foil to slowly roast.

Next lets get the sauce going. Bring a pan up to medium high heat, add a splash of vege oil and the butter (this will stop your butter burning). Add the carrot, celery and diced shallot to the pan and sweat down. Add any off cuts of meat to the pan and colour, then deglaze with the sherry. This will sizzle and you'll need to cook off the alcohol for a minute or so. Add the cubed apple then add the chicken stock, season, stir then let reduce on a low heat for about 20 - 30 minutes. You're looking for a slight bubble here. This process will remove excess water and thicken the sauce up naturally.

In a separate pan, get it up nice and high and get ready to sear the pork fillet. Remember to focus on your timings. It will take about 14 minutes in the oven for medium rare and you're looking for an internal temperature of 61C. This will have a nice pink hue to it but not rare.

Oil, salt and pepper the pork and place in a pan for about 1 minute per side and get some colour on it. Place in an oven proof pan in the oven (not fan forced) and put a timer on for 10 minutes so you can check the internal temp. You're looking for an internal temp of 61C so probe it and check. It should be about another 4 minutes or so. The reason I've asked you to check 10 minutes is because some ovens are hotter than others, nothing worse than overcooked pork.

Whilst this is going on, lets get the pickling solution on. Bring to the boil then place the asparagus ribbons in and turn off. Now, cut your cauliflower two ways. 1 - Keeping the shape of a floret, 2 - Into small pieces and use as the lighter carb element of the dish. These should be small and similar in size to rice. Cook these gently in butter then set aside in a small container.

Your sauce should be nicely reduced now, you're looking for a thick ish consistency but not over reduced. To test, dip a spoon into the sauce and then run your finger across the back of the spoon. If the line remains, the sauce is perfect. If this is the case, turn off and place a lid on to keep warm. If not quite there, keep reducing or you can make a cornflour slurry with the 1tsp of cornflour and 2 tsp room temp water. Tip this into your sauce, whisking as it goes in to even incorporate and avoid lumps. When you're ready to serve, strain through a fine mesh sieve to remove impurities/clumps.

Bring the pork out of the oven and rest for about 8 minutes, covered in tin foil.

When it comes to plating, you can either copy mine above or come up with your own interpretation, You're looking for a combination of textures and flavours whilst paying homage to the pork.

As always, finish with a dash of flaky salt.

Buon appetito

TFB