Pork Tenderloin with Mustard Sauce

This is the dish I cooked for previous MasterChef contestants and arguably the one that won me a spot in the quarter finals. Since the show went out I’ve been inundated with requests for the recipe so I’ve written it up below.  If anyone would like a printable step by step guide which includes timings and lots of detail just get in touch via the site and I will whizz one over to you! I’m a very methodical person (except when I’m in the MasterChef kitchen apparently) so I made myself detailed guides to help me stay on track with timings. If you’re making this at home, it’s probably not necessary unless your co-eaters intend to time you to exactly 60 minutes!

Ingredients:

Pork:

• 350g pork tenderloin  (outdoor reared is best if you can)
• 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoons wholegrain mustard
• 250ml crème fraiche
• 50ml whiskey
• Salt
• Olive oil for frying
• Black pepper
• Tablespoon dried sage
• Tablespoon dried parsley
• 25g parmesan

Vegetables:

• Chanteney carrots (allow a few per person)
• Teaspoon of sugar
• 60g butter
• 3 baby leeks
• 3 baby parsnips
• 1 tablespoon celery seeds

Apple sauce:

• 1 granny smith apple
• Juice of half a lemon
• 1 teaspoon honey

Method:

• Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees.
• Scrape the skin off the carrots using a sharp knife and wash the parsnips.
• Half the parsnips lengthways and toss in oil, salt, black pepper and celery seeds. Tip on to a roasting tray and put them in the oven, they’ll take about 30 minutes.
• Combine 2 tablespoons of Dijon mustard, herbs and parmesan in a small bowl and mix well. Use a pastry brush to coat the meat all over then set aside.
• Peel and chop the apple in to 2cm chunks then heat in a small pan with the juice of half a lemon. Once the mixture is soft and the apples are cooked, pass through a fine sieve and set aside.
• Heat 4 tablespoons of oil in a large frying pan and fry the pork on all sides until well browned, then transfer to a roasting tin and cook for 12-15 minutes. Don’t wash the pan; you’ll need it for your sauce!
• Once the cooking time has finished, transfer the meat to a board and cover loosely with foil to rest. A general rule is to rest the meat for the same length of time you’ve cooked it for.
• Place the carrots in medium saucepan then add enough water to just cover them. Add a big pinch of salt, a big pinch of sugar and 30g of butter. Turn the heat up and cook for around 15 minutes until the carrots are cooked through.
• Slice the leeks lengthways and give them a really good rinse under cold water. Slice them up and add a big knob of butter to a frying pan, leave the heat low and sauté until soft.
• Take the pan you cooked your pork in and put on a high heat. When hot, add the whiskey and a knob of butter.
• Once you can see the liquid has reduced slightly add the rest of the Dijon and the wholegrain mustard to the pan and give it a stir.
• Add the crème fraiche, turn down the heat and allow to bubble. Taste and season if necessary (add more mustard if you like).
• Slice the pork thickly and arrange on the plate with the vegetables.
• Give each plate a couple of teaspoons of apple sauce then pour plenty of mustard sauce over the whole dish.

Caribbean Oxtail Stew

Raw oxtail isn’t the most attractive ingredient, so it’s likely most people have seen it in the supermarket and swiftly moved on to safe old braising steak or brisket. That’s a real shame! Oxtail is flavoursome and rich, making it perfect for this Caribbean inspired slow cooked stew.

 Ingredients:

• 600g oxtail (300g per person)
• 6 spring onions, roughly chopped
• 1 large white onion, roughly chopped
• 3 celery sticks, washed and sliced
• 3 tomatoes, quartered
• 1 good quality beef stock cube
• 1 scotch bonnet chilli
• 1 teaspoon ground all spice
• 1 bay leaf
• Half a teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon celery seeds
• Sprig of fresh thyme
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar (light golden or Demerara is fine too)
• 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons oil for frying
• Black pepper
• Salt

Method:

• In a large saucepan, heat 2 tablespoons of oil then fry the oxtail for about 10 minutes, turning to brown on all sides. Transfer the oxtail to a plate.
• Add the white onions, spring onions and celery then turn down the heat. Cook gently for 5 minutes then add the all spice, cinnamon, bay leaf, celery seeds and a few twists of black pepper. Cook for a further 5 minutes until everything is soft and starting to smell great.
• Add the oxtail back to the pan and add the tomatoes, stir well then throw in the chilli (whole) and thyme.
• Dissolve the stock cube in a pint of boiling water and add to the pan with another half a pint of water. Bring to the boil then add the soy sauce and a tablespoon of brown sugar.
• Transfer the stew to a slow cooker or to a large oven proof dish. If you’re cooking in the oven, put a lid on your dish or make one using tin foil; this should be sealed tightly. Cook in the oven at 180 degrees or gas mark 4 for 3 hours or in the slow cooker on high for at least 6 hours.
• Once the cooking time is up, remove the oxtail and allow it to cool on a plate.
• Taste the liquid and add some salt, pepper or sugar to your own taste. Don’t be tempted to over season before cooking as you can always add more but can’t really take any away!
• Pour the remaining mixture back in to your saucepan and add a tablespoon of plain flour, whisk it in quickly so it doesn’t create lumps.
• Reduce the sauce right down to make lovely rich gravy. You can also give it a couple of squashes with a masher to make it slightly smooth and thicker.
• Once the oxtail is cool enough to handle, remove the meat from the bones. Take your time here and don’t waste any meat.
• Once you’re happy with the thickness and taste of the sauce, add the meat back and heat through.

If you want to make it stretch a little further, you could add potatoes, carrots or another root vegetable about an hour before the oxtail is removed. I stir fried some cabbage (left over from making my Cabbage Rolls) to serve with it – simple and seasonal!

You can keep this covered in the fridge for a couple of days and it’s also fine to freeze if you’ve made too much (unlikely).

Banana Cake with Lime Cream Cheese Glaze

Some people are a bit funny about eating over ripe bananas (my husband Jason just refuses!) so before you throw them away, consider using them up by disguising any darker bits in a cake. You can also freeze over ripe bananas then thaw them out when you fancy baking.

Ingredients:

For the cake:

• 350g ripe bananas (about 3 large or 4 medium)
• 150g plain flour
• Half a granny smith apple, peeled
• 120g unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 120g soft brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 50g walnuts, roughly chopped
• Pinch of salt

For the glaze:

• 200g cream cheese
• Juice of 2 limes
• 4 tablespoons icing sugar
• 1 tablespoon milk

Notes on equipment: It’s useful to have a handheld electric whisk for this recipe; they are very easy to find and at about £5 it makes sense to invest in one if you can. You’ll also need a sieve for the dry ingredients which will help you get air in to the cake and prevent it becoming too dense. The cake tin I have used is a loose bottomed 8 inch tin, but if you don’t have that exact one, you can use a similar size; a bigger tin will give a larger surface area, so you’ll need to reduce the cooking time slightly. You could also make this in a loaf tin which will mean a slightly longer cooking time.

Method:

For the cake:

• Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4, 180 degrees.
• Grease a loose bottomed 8 inch cake tin and line the bottom with baking paper.
• Using an electric whisk, cream together the butter and sugar until pale and creamy, then beat in the eggs a little at a time.
• Peel and mash the bananas and grate in the apple, give it a good mix then add the nuts and stir through.
• Add the fruit and nuts to the wet mixture and stir well.
• Sift in the dry ingredients through a sieve then fold in until well combined. Don’t stress about lumps here!
• Pour the cake mix in to the tin and bake for 40 minutes. After 40 minutes, stick a tooth pick in to the cake and if it comes out clean, take the cake out and allow to cool in the tin. If the toothpick doesn’t come out clean, give it another 5 minutes and try again.
• Once the cake has cooled and come away from the tin a little, turn out on to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the glaze:

• Combine all ingredients and beat with a wooden spoon until smooth.
• Once the cake is totally cool (don’t be impatient), pour over the top and smooth out using the back of a spoon, the glaze will drip down the sides and set very slightly.

Cabbage Rolls

This is simple, nutritious and great value. It’s also a welcome side step from the usual mince recipes like chilli or cottage pie. You can use pork or beef mince and adapt the sauce with flavours of your own like garlic or fresh green herbs. Here’s the recipe I like!

Ingredients:

• 1 savoy cabbage
• 500g beef or pork mince
• 1 mug of basmati rice
• Half a teaspoon nutmeg
• Salt and black pepper
• 2 x 500g cartons or jars of passata
• 1 medium red chilli

Method:

For the rolls:

• In a large saucepan, pour out a mug of rice and add two mugs of boiling water. Put a lid on and turn up the heat for a minute, then turn the heat down simmer for 5 minutes. Now take the pan off the heat, leaving the lid on and don’t touch it! The rice will continue to steam and should separate out nicely! (If you’re short on time or not confident about doing that, you can use 3 of the pre-cooked packets of basmati instead.)
• Prepare the cabbage by gently pull away the leaves, keeping them as intact as possible! I find it easiest to make incisions at the base of the cabbage using a sharp knife – this helps the leaves come away whole.
• Boil a big pan of salted water and drop in the cabbage leaves a few at a time. Cook for 2 minutes then remove from the pan and set aside on to a plate.
• Once the rice has cooked and cooled, combine with the mince, nutmeg and a big pinch of salt and black pepper. You can also add other flavours here if you want to; try finely chopped onions, peppers or even chopped nuts.
• Spoon a tablespoon of the mixture in to the centre of each cabbage leaf and wrap it around the filling. It doesn’t have to be neat but it does have to wrap all the way round so take some filling out if you need to.

Steam the rolls for 15 minutes. They are now cooked and can be eaten plain, but I like to accompany with a smooth, spicy sauce.

For the sauce:

• To make the sauce, simply add touch of olive oil and a chopped a chilli (seeds in or out) to a frying pan and fry gently for a few minutes.
• Add the passata and season well with salt, black pepper. Add a pinch of sugar and and a teaspoon of white wine vinegar then simmer for at least 10 minutes.

To serve:

 

You can serve this any way you like, but I usually pour half the sauce out in to a roasting dish then put the rolls on top of the sauce. Pour over the rest, cover and bake for 20 minutes. Alternatively, you can pour the sauce out on to a big platter then put the rolls on top; the colour contrast is fantastic. Either way, they’re just so simple and satisfying! I served some garlicky green beans on the side for crunch and extra flavour.

Stuffed Jalapenos!

Sure you can buy a version of these from the supermarket and stick them in the oven, but seriously, these are SO much better, cheaper and you’ll know exactly what’s in them. This recipe makes 18, which would be just enough for me on my own – they’re really that good.

Ingredients:

• 9 fresh jalapeno peppers
• 2 big tablespoons cream cheese
• 1 tablespoon grated parmesan (about 25g)
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 slice of dry bread (I always save the crusts of a loaf for stuff like this) or 4 heaped tablespoons of shop bought breadcrumbs
• Salt and fresh black pepper

Method:

• Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees or gas mark 6.
• Half the peppers lengthways and scrape out the seeds and white pith. Leave the stems on (for decoration and eating apparatus).
• In a small bowl, beat the cream cheese with the paprika, salt and pepper. It should loosen up quickly to make it easier to spoon.
• Blitz the bread and parmesan in the food processor, or just mix the shop bought breadcrumbs together with grated parmesan if you’re cheating.
• Using a teaspoon, push the cream cheese mixture in to the hollow of the peppers until you’ve filled them all generously.
• Tip the breadcrumbs out on to a plate then one by one, push the peppers (cheese side down) in to the breadcrumbs.
• Place the peppers on a baking tray and cook in the oven for 10-12 minutes.
• Leave to cool for about 5 minutes before serving unless you want third degree burns of the mouth.

Serve as part of a platter or just for a snack. beware that the heat of the peppers can be unpredictable so grab some water or beer to put the fire out if necessary.

Spiced Up Soup

It’s getting cold now, so time to reignite our love of warm, winter food. This recipe uses some pre-chopped vegetables which saves time, but of course you can buy them loose and chop them up yourself. If you don’t have a hand blender, you can pick one up for about £5 in the supermarket; you’ll be surprised how often you use it.

Ingredients:

• Two supermarket bags of soup mix (carrots, swede, leeks and onions)
• 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped or crushed
• 2 tablespoons medium curry powder
• 2 teaspoons of ground cumin
• 2 chicken stock cubes
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• Handful of fresh coriander
• 1 medium red chilli

 Method:

• Heat the oil in a large saucepan then tip in all the vegetables and sweat them down on a low heat for about 10 minutes..
• Add the garlic, curry powder and cumin and stir well to ensure everything is coated.
• Crumble in the stock cubes and add enough water to just cover the vegetables.
• Cook on a low – medium heat for 15-20 mins until the vegetables have completely softened, then blend in the food processor or using a hand blender until you reach your desired consistency (we like to very smooth).
• When you’re ready to serve, roughly chop the coriander and stir through, then slice up the red chilli and sprinkle over the soup.

To make a complete meal, serve with warmed garlic and coriander naan bread.

Tomato and Feta Salad with Herby Dressing

I tend to make variations of this salad all the time, but I thought this particular one was blog worthy! There is a great range of vinegars in the supermarket these days, and because they’re inexpensive, you can have a whole variety in your cupboards without spending very much. Sherry vinegar is lovely in place of white wine vinegar in this recipe.

Ingredients:

• Large handful of cherry or baby plum tomatoes
• Half a block of feta
• Half a red onion, very thinly sliced
• 4 or 5 sundried tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 3/4 shallots
• Small handful of fresh mint
• Small handful of flat leaf parsley
• Tablespoon of capers
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method:

• To make the dressing, combine the oil and vinegar with the mustard and a couple of twists of black pepper then set aside.
• Peel and finely chop the shallots – it’s worth taking your time to do this properly 🙂
• Chop the herbs together and add to the dressing along with the shallots and capers. Combine well and taste to check the seasoning.
• Half the fresh tomatoes and place in the serving bowl with the sundried tomatoes and red onion. Crumble in the feta using your fingers to get a range of sizes which makes for a lovely texture.
• Dress the salad with your lovely herby dressing.
• Enjoy with pretty much anything (especially wine).

Try your own combination or experiment with green herbs to find your perfect version.

Baked Figs with Red Onion, Shallots and Balsamic Vinegar

Figs are at their best at the moment, and they’re also on offer everywhere so it’s a great excuse to eat loads of them! This recipe couldn’t be easier, but the luxury of figs and shallots makes it feel special enough for a Friday night tea. Figs are naturally sweet so they taste fantastic with pork and a peppery rocket salad but if you fancy skipping the meat, I would go for a crusty roll, halved and smothered in goat’s cheese then baked until warmed through.

Ingredients:

• 4 fresh figs
• 5 or 6 shallots, peeled and trimmed
• 1 large or 2 medium red onions, peeled and trimmed
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method:

• Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees (gas mark 6) and put your griddle pan on to get super duper hot.
• Quarter the figs and red onion(s) then put them in to a roasting dish with the shallots.
• Drizzle generously with olive oil and add the vinegar, season really well and move the ingredients around gently to make sure everything is coated.
• Bake in the oven for about 20-25 minutes.
• Leave to cool down for 5 minutes before you tuck in, so the flavours have chance to settle.
• Some chopped flat leaf parsley makes a lovely fresh garnish.

 

Spiced Pork with Aubergine Puree and Sundried Tomato Salsa

I called this a ‘posh tea’ when I made it, but I think that’s really only because of the sweep of puree I put across the plate before serving. The aubergine puree is best if you can prepare the aubergine the night before, but it will still taste great if you can’t.

I think this recipe looks really impressive and because only the pork needs cooking just before serving, you could make in advance for a date or dinner party. If you’re just a bit strange like me, or you need a treat, you can make it for your tea on a Monday night.

Ingredients:

• 4 pork loin chops (2 per person)
• 1 aubergine
• 100g sundried tomatoes
• 6 anchovy fillets
• 1 tablespoon capers, drained
• 1 red chilli
• 1 tablespoon each of hot chilli powder, ground coriander and smoked paprika
• 2 tablespoons tahini paste
• Small handful of flat leaf parsley
• Small handful of coriander
• Juice of a lemon
• Olive oil for frying

Method:

• Start by pre-heating the oven to 180 degrees (Gas Mark 5).
• Turn on the biggest gas ring on your cooker (or heat the grill if you don’t have a gas hob), and place the aubergine directly on to the flame. Use tongs to keep turning the aubergine until all side have been charred. Place on a baking tray and cook in the oven for 20 minutes.
• Once soft, slice the aubergine length ways and when it’s cool enough to handle, scrape out the flesh in to a sieve, cover and leave suspended over a bowl overnight if possible. If you’re making everything on the same day, just leave it as long as you can. Draining the aubergine flesh in this way will intensify the flavour.
• Mix together the spices for the pork and pat the mixture on to the meat. Allow to come up to room temperature before cooking.
• Blend the aubergine with the tahini, a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, half the lemon juice and the parsley. Taste then season with salt if needed. I love a smooth texture but you can leave it a little rougher if you prefer. Cover and store in the fridge.

• For the salsa, blend the sundried tomatoes, anchovy fillets, chilli, capers, the other half of the lemon juice, 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil and coriander. Taste and adjust any of the flavours to your own tastes.

 

• When you’re ready to eat, pour some olive oil over the pork chops and rub in with your hands, heat a frying pan up to a medium heat (don’t let the pan smoke) then add the meat to the pan. Pork benefits from a lower cooking temperature than chicken or steak, so don’t be tempted to crank up the heat!
• Cook for 4 minutes then flip over and cook for a further 4 minutes. Once the time is up, remove the pork and leave on a chopping board or plate to rest for at least 10 minutes.

• While you’re waiting for the pork to rest, take the aubergine puree out of the fridge and heat it for a couple of minutes in the microwave (I had it cold but either works well). Stir the sundried tomato salsa and double check the balance now the flavours have had chance to sit.
• Put a big spoonful of puree on the plate and use the back of your spoon to push it across the plate, creating a swipe.
• Slice the pork in to strips and place in a stack at one end of your swipe.
• Top the pork with a generous spoonful of the salsa.
• Tuck in!

Balsamic Roast New Potatoes

So good with roast chicken or pork for a change from traditional roasties, or great eaten warm as part of a buffet.

Ingredients:

• 1 kg new potatoes
• 2 onions, peeled and quartered
• 100ml balsamic vinegar
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 cloves of garlic, whole, unpeeled
• Salt and pepper
• Chopped flat leaf parsley to finish

Method:

• Pre-heat the oven to 220 degrees (gas mark 7).
• Tip the onions all the potatoes in to your biggest roasting tin, cut the biggest potatoes in half and add plenty of salt and black pepper along with the garlic cloves, oil and vinegar.
• Toss everything together really well.
• Roast for 45 minutes by which time, the vinegar will have caramelised and the potatoes will be soft in the middle.
• Remove the garlic and throw in some chopped parsley for freshness.