Pork Life

I've spent a lot of my life not liking pork. I think it was something to do with the sweet/savoury mental trauma of roast pig plus apple sauce. I used to save the apple sauce til last, being very, very careful not to contaminate it with gravy, and have it as a pre-pudding palate cleanser. Anyway, now that I'm a grown up I love it and can thoroughly recommend the following recipe (adapted from one of Nigella's) which is a quick and delicious combination of pork steaks with mustard, cream and apple juice...

Make a pig of yourself

Mustard Pork Steaks

2 pork steaks

2 teaspoons garlic oil

125ml apple juice

1 tablespoon grainy mustard

75ml double cream

Bash the steaks with a rolling pin. Heat the oil in a frying pan and cook the steaks over a medium-high heat for about 5 minutes a side, or until they have a nice brown crust. Remove them from the pan and keep them warm in the oven while you pour in the apple juice to de-glaze the pan. Let it bubble for a couple of minutes, then stir in the mustard and the cream, and cook for another couple of minutes. Pour over the steaks and eat without delay. Nigella suggests serving with gnocchi; I had mash.

Pig out

I have never met a child that doesn't love bacon. Ergo, children love gammon steaks. Add sugar and they love them even more. Tonight's meal is honey-mustard gammon steaks with sweet potato mash and broccoli. All made very quickly.

Honey-mustard gammon steak and sweet potato mash

Honey-mustard gammon steaks

2 gammon steaks (feeds one mother and 2 children)
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons mustard
a knob of butter

Pre-heat grill to medium-high. Place the butter in a roasting tin or similar and put it under the grill for a few moments to melt. Mix together the honey and mustard, adding a few grinds of black pepper. Pour it into the tin with the melted butter and drag the steaks through it. Turn them over and grill for about 5 minutes each side.

For the sweet potato mash I used equal quantities of sweet and normal potatoes (about 500g for the 3 of us) which I boiled in salted water with a clove of garlic. When they were cooked I drained and mashed them with some butter and a little milk.