Sunday 2nd September - Pork Medallions

This recipe is by request: if you are not interested in food (however good it tastes!) then stop now and go and do something else.

You will need: pork tenderloin, garlic, olive oil, black pepper

I've used this site to check cooking times: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/porkmedallionswithci_85516

and the idea for the recipe came from Delia Smith's "One is Fun" cookbook.

The bbc food recipe is for one person, using 150g of pork fillet. If you are cooking for one, buy a 300g piece of pork loin, and slice it into 6 medallions of equal thickness. If you examine the tenderloin, you will see a whitish sinewy bit on the underneath. If you slice through from the top until you reach that, you can then persuade the meat to shear off, leaving it the sinew behind. You can cook three of the pieces, and freeze the other three. They will defrost more quickly if you arrange them inside the plastic freezer bag in a single layer rather than as a solid lump. When you want to cook them, take them out of the freezer the night before, put your the marinade into the bag and leave it all to defrost inside the bag on a plate. It should be ready to cook the next evening.

So; the marinade is a dollop of virgin olive oil, a crushed clove of garlic, and crushed black pepper. I prefer whole peppercorns laboriously crushed with the back of a spoon (they will ping themselves all over the kitchen unless you crush them slowly). Or use a pestle and mortar (but I don't think you've got one, have you? Or a robust bowl and the end of a rolling pin. Ah, you haven't got a rolling pin.). You can just grind the peppercorns using a pepper mill.

Smear the pork generously with the oil, garlic, and crushed pepper (no salt at this stage). You can add a squeeze of lemon juice, real lemon juice, not that horrible stuff out of a yellow plastic lemon-shaped bottle.    

Delia does this to a pork chop and says marinade for 45 mins or overnight. I'm just saying. I give it the time it takes to get the rest of the meal ready (veg, potatoes) and cooking. The pork will only take less than 10 minutes from putting the frying pan on, to being ready to eat.

You get your frying pan properly hot, so that the pork sizzles when it goes in. Sprinkle with salt and cook for 3-4 minutes on each side, until a light golden brown.

Hopefully you have scheduled everything so that the other bits of the meal are about ready.

Pour a couple of tablespoons of wine or cider or sherry or veg water into the pork pan, let it bubble and reduce for half a minute, and stir in 1 tablespoon cream or creme fraiche.

All done!