Pork Fillet – Chica Andaluza

Finally, back to the cooking. An easy recipe which looks like you´ve put lots of effort in and hours of work! This would also work well with pork loin or chicken breast.

You´ll need for 2 people (with leftovers which is always a good thing)

1 pork fillet
A sprig of rosemary (discard after cooking)
About 10 mushrooms thinly sliced
2 rashers of bacon finely chopped
½ a medium onion finely chopped
2 cloves of crushed garlic
Small glass of dry white wine or sherry
Seasoning
Olive Oil
Set the oven to about 180ºC (medium)

Put the pork fillet on a sheet of aluminium and rub in about 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and season all over with pepper and salt. Tuck the rosemary spring under the meat and bring the aluminium up to create a basket for the meat, but don´t cover it completely. This basket will save the cooking juices.

Put the meat onto a baking tray and into the oven and cook for about 30-40 minutes until the juices run clear when you put a skewer into the thickest part. Remove from the oven, remove the rosemary, wrap the foil tightly round it and keep it warm for about 5 minutes to let it rest a little.

While the meat is cooking, put a few tablespoons of oil into a deep frying pan and cook the onion, garlic and bacon together gently until the onions are soft. Add the mushrooms and a grind of pepper, stir over the heat until the mushrooms have all absorbed a little oil then add the wine and a few grinds of black pepper (no salt usually needed because of the saltiness of the bacon). Put a lid on the pan and simmer gently for about 10 minutes or until the mushrooms are cooked and the liquid has reduced by about half.

Now pour in the meat juices and stir in. At this point you could add a dash of cream if you fancy a creamy sauce. Slice the meat and either pour the bacon and mushroom sauce over or serve separately.

Any leftovers of meat can be finely chopped, mixed with the mushrooms and bacon with a little cream and are delicious on pasta!

Apologies to my veggie pals and readers (you know who you are 🙂 ) this is an unashamedly porky plate with little room for adaptation but I hope you will understand and forgive….

A popular dish for special occasions is fillet of pork cooked in a sauce. We are lucky that it´s not too expensive, so pork fillet is eaten fairly regularly in our house, but usually it´s just plain grilled and served with a drizzle of olive oil and lemon juice.

Although New Year´s Eve was not the culinary delight we had hoped for, we had all rallied a little by the next morning, and my mum and I made this dish. It´s actually quite simple to put together and requires no last minute fiddling, so a good dinner party dish if you have guests.

Ingredients (to serve 2)

One pork fillet
1 large onion peeled, halved and thinly sliced into half moons
2 tablespoons of raisins soaked in half a cup of sweet wine (bring the wine and raisins up to a simmer and leave for an hour or so or even overnight to plump up)
1-2 cups of chicken broth
1 teaspoon of cornflour dissolved in water
Seasoning
Olive oil

Start by seasoning your pork fillet all over and fry in a tablespoon or two of oil to seal and colour the outside then put the meat to one side.

Pour the wine into the pan in which you sealed the meat and warm it through, scraping up any meat juices as you go.

In a separate frying pan, slowly fry the onions until soft and transparent in some olive oil. You can put a lid on to help them “poach”. When they are soft, put the pork fillet into the pan, pour over the wine and meat juices and a cup of broth. Simmer gently for about 20-30 minutes until the meat is cooked through. You may want to add a little more stock as it is cooking.

When the meat is done, remove from the sauce and add a little blended cornflour to thicken the sauce slightly. This is optional, it´s up to you how liquid you like your sauce.

The fillet can either be served whole or sliced thickly with the sauce poured over. If you don´t drink alcohol, this is still a lovely dish made without the dessert wine, just plump up the raisins in extra stock. With the wine the sauce is slightly sweet but tangy and savoury from the seasoning and stock. Delicious served with boulangere or puréed potatoes or rice.

For another lovely version of this popular dish, check out Michi´s version here.