PORK IN PICKLE SAUCE

While the pork is cooking – and before you make the sauce – put
ice-cream-scoop-sized dollops of mashed potato on a flat baking
tray lined with greased greaseproof paper and score lightly with a
fork all the way round to tart them up a bit. Or pipe the potato
through a star-shaped nozzle if you have enough time and patience
– not to mention a piping bag. In fact, you can make a fairly good
piping bag yourself by twisting a large semicircle of greaseproof
paper into a cone shape then securing with Sellotape all the way
along the join and snipping off the pointed end, but only work
with small amounts of potato if you’re using a home-made piping
bag; mashed potatoes are a lot heavier than cream or meringue
and too much will burst the bag. (You’ll still need the star-shaped
nozzle for this to work though.)
2 thin pork fillets per person
1 cucumber
1⁄2 onion
1⁄2 pint (250 ml) pale stock (chicken or vegetable)
Milk
Butter
2 tbsp flour
1⁄2 tsp nutmeg
1⁄2 very small jar of pickled gherkins (with vinegar)
Method
1. Grill or fry the pork fillets for a few minutes to brown the
outside then transfer the meat to a casserole dish, cover tightly
with foil and bake in a preheated oven, Gas Mark 3 (170ºC),
while you make the sauce.
2. Now peel and de-seed the cucumber and chop it into chunks;
also peel and chop the onion while you warm some butter in a
frying pan. When it’s just about foaming, add the cucumber
and onion and cook gently for a few minutes until the onion
has softened but not coloured.
3. Add the flour and nutmeg to the pan, stirring well, and cook for
another minute. (Take the pan off the heat while you make the
stock.)
4. Make the stock in a measuring jug (with one stock cube) to
barely 1⁄2 pint (about 250 ml), adding a splash of milk and 1–2
tbsp of vinegar from the jar of gherkins.
5. Add the stock to the pan, stirring well. Bring to the boil then
simmer gently for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly until
the sauce thickens.
6. Allow the sauce to cool slightly then blend in a food processor
or liquidizer.
7. Cut roughly half the jar of gherkins into slices and add them to
the sauce.
8. Pour the sauce over the pork fillets then cover with the foil
again and cook for another 30 minutes or so until the pork is
completely tender.
9. Serve with creamed potatoes (see above) and green vegetables
or salad.