A Meal to Impress

Everyone loves a good meal; it gives us the energy to get through the day, delights our palates, and satisfies our appetites. A combination of rich and subtle flavours, as well as having various food textures are a great start to creating a sophisticated meal. Our recipe for the week is a meal to impress, tried and tested; we felt we needed to share this one immediately. Citrus roasted pork medallions on a bed of kale with wasabi mashed potatoes and flash fried vegetables, this is the meal that will win over your in-laws, get you that promotion or just give you a fancy dinner in. 

Serves 4

Ingredients:

 

• 3 medium sized potatoes peeled and cubed

• 300g button mushrooms roughly chopped

• 1 orange thinly sliced

• 12 to 15 long asparagus stalks cut into thirds diagonally

• 300g kale thinly sliced

• 1 ½  tsp. wasabi paste

• 2 Tbsp. butter

• 4 Tbsp. full cream milk 

• 500g pork loin

• Salt and pepper to taste

• 4 Tbsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

• ½ tsp. crushed garlic (optional)

• Pinch of coriander powder

Method:

 

1. Begin by chopping all the vegetables as the cooking process is a quick one.

2. Boil the cubed potatoes on high heat.

3. Pre-heat the oven to 150°C.

4. Add 1 Tbsp. of Extra Virgin Olive Oil to a pan and bring it to searing hot.

5. Slice the pork loin across, about 2.5 cm thick, lightly salt and pepper and sprinkle coriander on both sides of the pork medallions.

6. Brown both sides of each medallion in the searing hot pan to seal the meat; be very careful to not cook the pieces all the way through but only sear them. Place medallions onto a plate once sealed.

7. Line an ovenproof ceramic dish with aluminium foil and place the medallions close together – but not on top of each other. Place orange slices on top of medallions, making sure to leave 4 slices of orange to the side for decoration, and cover again with tin foil, place in preheated oven for 15 min.

8. On a medium to high heat, add 1 Tbsp. of Extra Virgin Olive Oil and place thinly sliced kale in a pan and allow the kale wilt slightly.

9. In another pan on a high heat, add 1 Tbsp. of Extra Virgin Olive Oil and roughly chopped mushrooms with crushed garlic and a few cracks of black pepper.

10. Remove and drain potatoes, add in butter, milk, wasabi paste with salt and pepper to taste. Mash until lump free and is easily shaped.

11. Slice the remaining four slices of orange from the center to one side of the skin to create the “orange ribbon”.

12. Remove kale from heat and replace with asparagus.

13. Remove mushrooms from heat.

14. Remove medallions from oven and allow to rest while vegetables are being plated.

15. Begin plating up by dividing the kale into four equal portions and laying them as a “bed” on the plates. Divide the wasabi mashed potatoes into four equal portions and shape into balls, placing next to the kale beds. Arrange the mushrooms and asparagus on the plate either separate or together. Place 3 medallions in a fallen domino formation on the bed of kale, take sliced orange and twist where the skin was cut in step 11, gently placing over the pork medallions.

16. Serve immediately.

This meal may be complicated for some chefs but given the time to adequately prepare, it becomes quick and effortless to create. Always remember that a recipe can be made your own by taking away ingredients you don’t like or adding ingredients that you do. So long as you enjoy a good meal with good company, any recipe is a success.