Pork Steaks with Wine, Tarragon and Mustard

I don’t need any encouragement to come up with a recipe that uses wine, because it’s one of those ingredients that adds instant flavour and complexity to so many home-cooked dishes. Here, I’ve paired juicy pork steaks with a voluptuous sauce of cream, mustard, tarragon and Nederburg’s 2011 Sauvignon Blanc/Chardonnay blend, created specially for Masterchef, in collaboration with Woolworths.

This is the seventh in a series of recipes for Woolworths South Africa, pantry sponsors of MasterChef South Africa.

Tarragon is a tricky herb to grow, and you don’t often see it fresh in the shops, but I’ve found that good-quality dried tarragon is a perfectly acceptable substitute. In fact, I’m at a loss to explain why dried herbs are so often considered inferior to fresh ones. Sure, some herbs (such as basil and parsley) do not lend themselves to drying, but others, and especially dried oregano, mint and tarragon, are valued ingredients in my spice drawer. For example, dried mint, much used in Moroccan cooking, is quite distinct in taste and aroma from fresh mint, with a peculiar charm all of its own. Top-quality dried Greek oregano has a heady pungency that leaves its fresh form in the starting blocks. Tarragon’s flavour does tend to intensify with heat, however, so use it sparingly.

You can use medallions of pork fillet for this dish, but I find they dry out quickly in the pan. I prefer Woolies’ pork steaks because they’re so lean, sweet and succulent (and, besides, I appreciate how economical pork is compared to beef or lamb). This is a quick, easy dish to make, but be sure to serve it piping hot from the pan, while the sauce is still smooth and silken.

My other recipes for Woolworths #wooliespantry:

• Moroccan-Spiced Lamb Chops with Citrus Couscous Salad
• Spicy Chicken, Tomato and Sweetcorn Soup
• Warm Lamb and Potato Salad with a Mint Dressing
• Curried Lamb Ribbetjies with Mint Yoghurt
• Champ with Chives and Garlic
• Gin-Cured Gravadlax with Crisped Capers

Pork Steaks with Wine, Tarragon and Mustard
4 large pork steaks, or 8 small ones
3 Tbsp (45 ml) flour
salt
white pepper
2 Tbsp (30 ml) olive oil
1 Tbsp (15 ml) butter
1½ cups (375 ml)2011 Nederburg Sauvignon/Chardonnay blend, or similar
¾ cup (180 ml) water
2 tsp (10 ml) dried tarragon
2 Tbsp (30 ml) Dijon mustard
½ cup (125 ml) cream

Trim any visible fat from the pork steaks. Put the flour on a plate and season it with salt and a little white pepper. Heat the olive oil and butter in large, shallow pan that will fit all the steaks on one layer. While the fat is heating, dip each steak in the seasoned flour, then shake to remove any excess. When the fat is very hot, but before the butter begins to brown, fry the steaks for 2-3 minutes on each side, or until they have a nice golden crust, but are still slightly raw on the inside. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside in a bowl. Drain any excess fat from the pan, but don’t wipe it out.

Pour the wine and water into the pan and stir to dislodge any brown bits on the bottom. Bubble briskly for 4-5 minutes, or until the liquid has reduced by about a third. Now turn the heat right down and stir in the tarragon, mustard and cream. Simmer for two minutes, then return the steaks (and any juices that have accumulated underneath them) to the pan. Cook at a gentle burble for about 5 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened slightly, and the steaks are cooked through. Shake the pan occasionally, and don’t allow the sauce to reduce too much or become gloopy – it should be just thick enough lightly to coat the back of a spoon. Check the seasoning, adding more salt and white pepper if necessary, and serve immediately, with crushed baby potatoes and mangetout, or mash and peas.

Serves 4.

Cook's notes: 

• Use a pan with a large surface area so that the wine and water reduce quickly. For a really glossy, rich finish, stir a teaspoon of butter into the sauce just before you serve it.
• You can use medallions of pork fillet for this dish, but take care not to overcook them, as they toughen easily.
• If you can find fresh tarragon, use that instead, but do so judiciously, as it has a more intense flavour than dried tarragon. Use one tablespoon of chopped leaves, and then taste the sauce at the end to see if you need to add more.

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Oven-poached Chicken Breasts with a Cold Lemon-Tarragon Cream

A pale, silken sauce, enriched with cream and eggs yolks and zinged with lemon and tarragon, makes this dish one of my all-time favourites for a cooling lunch on a hot day.

Tender poached chicken breasts in a creamy lemon-tarragon sauce: perfect for very hot weather.

 I can't remember who gave me this recipe, but when I first made it for my mother-in-law (a wonderful cook) some 18 years ago, it was a disaster. The sauce was lovely, but the breasts were rubbery enough to bounce across the kitchen. I was desperate to impress her, and she ate it politely, but I had the sense she went away from our house feeling as if she had elastic bands between her molars.

It's really tricky to poach deboned chicken breasts and keep them succulent and tender (you can try the clingfilm method), and it's only recently that I experimented with poaching them in the oven, with great success. A quick poaching and a long cooling in the cooking liquid is definitely the way to go.

If you're nervous about reheating the sauce (it has a tendency to curdle) once you've added the yolks, skip this reheating step, and add an extra teaspoon (5 ml) of flour when you make the initial roux.

Please note that this sauce contains partially cooked eggs.

This is delicious with salad leaves dressed in lemon juice and olive oil; the ones in my picture are red-vein sorrel, which grows like a weed in my herb patch.

I've used dried tarragon here as fresh leaves are hard to find at the moment; if you can find fresh tarragon leaves, you can afford to be a little more generous with quantities.

Oven-poached Chicken Breasts with a Cold Lemon-Tarragon Cream

8 deboned, skinned free-range chicken breasts
salt and milled black pepper

For poaching:
1 bay leaf
a thick slice of onion
8 peppercorns
a few sprigs of parsley
a slice of lemon, peel and all
the juice of 1 lemon
hot water (about 500 ml)

For the sauce:
2 Tbsp (30 ml) butter
2 Tbsp (30 ml) flour
grated rind and juice of 1 lemon
1 Tbsp (15 ml) dried tarragon leaves
2 large free-range egg yolks
300 ml single cream
salt
a pinch of white pepper

To serve:
a little finely grated lemon zest
lemon slices
salad leaves

Heat the oven to 180 °C. Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper and put them in a single layer in a ceramic baking dish (don't pack them too tightly). Add the bay leaf, onion, peppercorns, parsley, lemon slice and lemon juice, and pour over enough very hot water to just cover the breasts (about 500 ml).

Place, uncovered, in the hot oven for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and poke a hole into the thickest end of a breast: it should be just cooked. If there's any trace of pinkness, place the dish back in the oven for another few minutes. Cover with clingfilm and allow the breasts to cool for an hour or so in their cooking liquid. Refrigerate.

Strain off 300 ml of the cooking liquid and set aside. Now make the roux: melt the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat and stir in the flour. Cook, stirring, for a minute or so (don't let the mixture brown). Whisk in the reserved 300 ml of cooking liquid and bring to the boil, stirring constantly, until the mixture is slightly thickened. Cook over a gentle heat for two minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the lemon rind, lemon juice and tarragon. Season with salt and pepper.

In a separate bowl, lightly beat together the cream and egg yolks. Strain the mixture through a sieve into the hot sauce. Now put the pot back on a very gentle heat and cook gently for a minute or so to slightly thicken the sauce, as if you're making a custard. (You can skip this step: see notes above). I find it helps to keep a finger in the sauce as you stir: once it feels very hot (but not unbearably hot), it's ready; cook it any longer and it will curdle.

Remove from the heat and cover the surface of the sauce with a piece of clingfilm to prevent a skin forming. Cool completely, and then place in the fridge for an hour.

Tear the chicken breasts along the grain into strips as big as your pinkie finger, place them in a bowl and cover with the cold sauce. Toss well to coat, and allow to stand for another hour (in the fridge or out, depending on how cold you'd like the dish) so that the breasts absorb some of the flavour.

Arrange on plates and serve with lemon slices, salad leaves and perhaps some boiled baby potatoes.

Serves 6.


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