Tag Archives: pork

Fresh tuna fish with caraway cream sauce

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I adore caraway, a taste I fell for when I fell for Prague.  Some people hate caraway however, and even I don’t want it absolutely always. So be footloose and fancy free:  be inventive – the recipe works very well with just about any herb or spice that is your favourite, or which you happen to have available, and changing the herb or spice makes a different dish every time. Just make sure your choice “feels” right with the cream in the sauce: imagine the taste in advance, and think a bit about the geography of the fact that it is marrying with cream.  So smoked paprika would give a touch of Hungarian dash, ground coriander something delicate and aromatic, and even a mild curried sauce works well.  But given the cream, don’t try to go all Mediterranean and slice a few olives in it (that would be a different sauce, probably made with tomatoes …).

If you’ve got just one herb/spice and you’re not sure if it will work – try it anyway!  You’ll find something out, and as long as you don’t tell your diners that you are uncertain about it they will probably wolf it down.

This recipe uses ground caraway, but use whole seeds if you prefer or that is all you have – it makes a slightly different dish, but just as good.

The essence of it

Lightly saute the tuna steaks.  When they are nearly cooked, stir the herb/spice into the oil to cook briefly.  Add some cream and season.  Dish up with the sauce over the tuna.  Voilà!

Bon appétit!

Anna

And now in more detail

Ingredients per person

A tuna steak of the size you like or can get (150 gr will be on the small end of things,  250 gr for heartier appetites)

Cream – a couple of tablespoons (any of soured cream, cream. or creme fraiche are all good)

Ground caraway seed – or unground caraway, or almost any other herb or spice you choose.  1/2 a tsp or so of caraway per person.  Most herbs or spices you could probably use nearer a tsp, but to little is better than too much – this produces a very delicate sauce, to match the delicacy of the cream.

Salt and pepper

Butter or oil to cook

If you think your diners will find tuna quite a strong-tasting fish – it’s always referred to as “meaty”, then have a look at this tip to make the flavour more delicate.

Put a little oil or butter in a shallow pan that is as nearly the size of the pieces of tuna as you have available, and gently sauté the the tuna steaks until they are nearly done.

How long this will take will depend on whether you have ended up with steaks that are thin cut or thick cut – anything from about 4 minutes to 10 or more.  If they are very thick, sear both sides on a high heat and then let them cook as gently as possible so they don’t get hard.

When the steaks are nearly done – test them by snipping through the thickest part with a pair of scissors if you are uncertain – push them to one side of the pan.  (If the tuna fits into the pan so snugly that it is taking up all the room, remove the steaks to a plate and cover them with foil if possible to keep the tuna warm.)

Stir the herb/spice into the oil for about a minute to cook it briefly.  Add some cream and salt and pepper and stir the sauce as it warms through, avoiding boiling it if you can.  If you had to remove the tuna from the pan to make the sauce, put it back in for long enough to warm through.

Dish up with the cream sauce spooned over the tuna.

And now some variations

It doesn’t have to be tuna:  this dish works well with any white fish – cod, plaice, dabs haddock.  And salmon or trout.  Don’t go there though, I think, with mackerel or herring.

You can make the sauce more substantial in all sorts of ways – useful if pieces of fish you bought by pantomine and gestures in a foreign market turn out smaller than you had expected.  Saute an onion before you add the tuna;  or some mushrooms; or both.  If you add veg in this way, you will probably need more cream.

And now you have a dish fit for a dinner party!

Happy quick and easy cooking and – bon appétit!

Anna

 

 

Pork with melted goat’s cheese

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Pork with melted goat’s cheese

This recipe started life as a way to use up leftovers from two different entertaining episodes, but it makes a brilliantly simple travelling recipe that can be made in a single pan (though two might be easier depending on what vegetables you choose).

I had a leftover pork loin chop (uncooked), just enough leftover uncooked asparagus for one (it mystifies me now how there can ever have been too much asparagus), and a small knob of goat’s cheese.

I used the asparagus, since it was there, but this recipe will work with many different vegetables, with the bonus that this produces a different dish each time.  Just choose anything that would welcome the sharp astringent taste of the goat’s cheese:  broad beans (frozen are fine); French beans;  mushrooms; even broccoli cut small.

Put a smidgen of olive oil in a pan that will be the right size to be able to take both the pork and the vegetables.  To start with just add the pork, frying it gently.   Meanwhile, cook the vegetables (simmering them in a separate pan or frying them alongside the pork if you are using say mushrooms or tomatoes) until they are not quite done to your taste .

When the pork is just cooked (click here for a tip for testing), add any separately cooked vegetables to the pan and sprinkle the roughly chopped up the goat’s cheese over both the meat and vegetables.  Give it a brief stir and put the lid on the pan on a very low heat, to let the goat’s cheese melt.  Stir again after a minute, and then again after another minute.

Test the mix for seasoning just before you serve, but the goat’s cheese has a tanginess which means you may get away with no salt at all, certainly with the strong flavour of pork, and all you need is a stylish flourish of freshly ground black pepper, if your travelling kitchen runs to this.

Happy quick and easy cooking and – bon appétit!

Anna

And for some variants

Pork is the most obvious meat to go with goat’s cheese, but chicken would work well too, in a different way.  I haven’t yet tried it with lamb but if you added any spice that had a hint of the Middle East (cumin, or coriander say) as you fried the lamb it would probably be brilliant.  I will be trying that variant soon, but let me know what you think if you get there before I do.

If no meal is complete for you without some carbohydrates, then you could serve it with couscous, or some rice, or you could sauté some potatoes in the pan with the pork. If you have walked far enough that day, or have been outdoors enough and are not feeling over-fussy, you could get away without bothering to parboil sauté potatoes, though they will take longer to cook.  Otherwise cut them small, and parboil them for about 5 minutes in the pan you will then use to cook the vegetables (no need to wash up in between – it’s all going to be mixed together in the end).  Anything that is ready too early will happily wait on a plate while the other bits and catch up, so timing is not very crucial.  If the plate can be kept warm, that’s good.  If it can’t, it doesn’t matter because the veg and potato can be added back into the pan  for however long they need to warm through again just before serving.