pork with red wine recipe

jessop1

Hey all

I'm wondering if I can garner some suggestions on how to improve on a pork recipe I recently tried:

http://magazines.ivillage.com/goodhousekeeping/recipefinder/recipe/0,,398792,00.html

It was simple but yummy and I served it with creamy mashed potatoes, green beans and carrots. ahm. I added some crispy bacon to the red wine sauce and mixed herbs to the pork medallions, as a personal touch

Anyway, a couple of questions on how I can improve it:

1) would it be a good idea to marinate the pork medalions in the red wine for a while before cooking?

2) The sauce tasted great, but was way too thin. Is there anything I can use to thicken it without affecting the taste too much?

3) Any suggestions on how to jazz up the potatoes and veg side serving or an alternative?

ps I'm a complete amateur (as if you hadnt guessed ) so please keep it simple!


pps - any suggestions on starters or desserts that would compliment dish this would also be appreciated, thanks

Blub2k4

jessop1 wrote:

1) would it be a good idea to marinate the pork medalions in the red wine for a while before cooking?

2) The sauce tasted great, but was way too thin. Is there anything I can use to thicken it without affecting the taste too much?

3) Any suggestions on how to jazz up the potatoes and veg side serving or an alternative?

ps I'm a complete amateur (as if you hadnt guessed ) so please keep it simple!


pps - any suggestions on starters or desserts that would compliment dish this would also be appreciated, thanks

1/ Marinading the pork should be good, it will cold cook it a little and it should be very tender as a rule.

2/ Thicken the sauce using a roux of 50:50 butter and flour, melt the butter without burning and then add an equal weight of plain flour and cook it out for a few minutes, be careful not to burn it. Add the gravy to the roux or alternatively mix the roux into the gravy. You can also do this with buerre marie, which is a mix again 50:50 of butter and flour and you can just throw a knob of this into the stock/gravy in the roasting dish and thicken it on a hob.
I personally dont like the jelly like consistency and ugly gloopiness of anything thickened with cornflour and find a roux to be far superior, this does depend on the application mind.

3/If you are using mashed potatoes you could roast some garlic cloves in their skins and then pop them when they are soft and sweet and mash them into the mash too. Alternatively a few chives, some butter and a drop of milk.

Hope that helps, enjoy

jessop1

thats great stuff thanks a mil I will definately give those a go,
thanks again