PORK WITH PRUNES

We recently invited friends round for a midweek dinner at short notice. We had commitments during the day they were coming so planning the meal was a challenge.  It was therefore a question of combining a quick trip to the shop with what we already had in stock and cooking something that wouldn't take all day in the kitchen to produce.

I looked up what I could do with the two pork steaks I already had, settled on an Asda recipe* (which has since disappeared from their website) and went to the nearest shop.  I ended up with a menu of Palestine soup (because the shop had Jerusalem artichokes) followed by pork with prunes, hassleback potatoes (because we had plenty of potatoes), green beans (in the freezer) and pumpkin pie for dessert (I had a tin of pumpkin purée).    All I needed to get was two more pork steaks, a bag of prunes, a pack of ready made pastry, a jar of redcurrant jelly and a tin of evaporated milk.  All available in the little supermarket (with the added bonus of spotting the artichokes).  I decided to use white wine rather than buy cider for the casserole as we had some already.

The soup was done in the soup maker earlier in the day while the pie cooked in the oven, both to be warmed up later.  The casserole and potatoes were happy to tickle along in the rather unpredictable woodburner oven in the afternoon while I laid the table and were ready when the guests arrived.

Apologies for the poor photo which I suddenly remembered to snap just before I took it to the table.  It was delicious.  The sweetness of the prunes and redcurrant jelly along with the creaminess of the crème fraîche turned it from a simple casserole into something rather special.  I shall definitely be doing this again.

Update……after a late afternoon visit to M&S in the UK between Christmas and New Year we came home with some amazing and fabulous yellow sticker items (called anti gaspi in France!). This included two gorgeous pork steaks.  I didn’t have any redcurrant jelly so used cranberry sauce instead.  It was delicious!

*I searched for the recipe online and found several links to it which have, of course, all disappeared.  It’s a popular dish chez nous so if I hadn’t recorded it in a blog I would no longer have it.  I'm thinking of recording all my favourites from my own blog in such a way that they can't disappear if, for example, Blogger just vanishes, or a paid subscription is required to access my own stuff.  I might just print them all out and put them in a folder.  If you have your recipes in a book they're yours for ever!  My shelves are groaning under the weight of cook books that nobody can take away from me or demand money for every time I want to open one!

Ingredients

2 tblsp sunflower oil

4 pork loin steaks, halved  (or 500g cubed pork)

1 large onion, chopped

1 heaped tblsp crème fraîche

100 ml chicken stock (made with half a chicken stock cube or stock pot)

250 ml white wine

1 tblsp redcurrant jelly (or try cranberry sauce)

 1 tsp Dijon mustard

16 prunes

2 level tsp cornflour

Method

Heat 1 tblsp of the oil in a frying pan and brown the pork steaks or pieces in two batches.  Transfer to a casserole or oven proof dish.

Add the remaining oil and the onions to the pan and cook for a few minutes until soft.

Mix the crème fraîche with the stock and add to the pan with the redcurrant jelly, wine and mustard.  Stir to combine, bring to the boil then transfer to the casserole dish.  Then add the pork with the prunes.  Stir, cover and cook in the oven at 180°C / 160° fan / gas mk 4 for about 25 minutes or until the meat is tender. 

Mix the cornflour with 2 tblsp water and stir into the casserole, returning it to the oven for another 5 minutes to thicken the sauce.

Serves 4.

PRUNE AND CHOCOLATE MINI MUFFINS

For the afternoon tea in France a few weeks ago (see here) I made some mini muffins to a recipe by Delia Smith.  I spotted the recipe in one of her older cook books, simply called "Baking", when I was actually looking for something else - the lemon curd layer cake that's on the cover (and in the next post).

I wanted some little bite sized cakes to adorn the top layer of the cake stand and these sounded perfect for the job.  I haven't found the recipe anywhere on the internet but it does seem that chocolate, prune and Armagnac (or other alcohol) is a combo that Delia is quite fond of as she has other recipes such as for a cake, mini cakes and a chocolate log.  I can't fault it - they are a match made in heaven...well probably not quite that saintly, owing to the booze!

For the icing I used Lynn Hill's recipe for a chocolate glaze which you can see here although I only made a half quantity.  In the above picture it looks a bit dull because the cakes had been in the fridge for a while, but on the day of making it looked fabulous - dark and glossy.  I decorated my muffins with halved glacé cherries, chocolate raisins and chocolate vermicelli, but you can obviously use your imagination here.  

They were very rich, boozy and chocolatey!  The prunes gave a slightly fruity hint but I doubt anyone would have identified it as prune if they didn't already know.  (Prunes do have a bad press, owing to their 1950's health food connotations !)  Each one was a perfect little morsel.

I froze the leftover muffins to enjoy later and they were just as good.

Ingredients

For the muffins

50g Agen prunes, stoned

55ml Armagnac

150g plain flour

2 tblsp cocoa powder

1 dessertspoon baking powder  (a dessert spoon is about ⅔ of a tablespoon)

¼ tsp salt

1 large egg, beaten

40g golden caster sugar

120 ml milk

50g butter, melted and slightly cooled

50g plain chocolate drops

For the topping

100g dark chocolate, chopped

45g unsalted butter

glacé cherries, halved, chocolate raisins and chocolate vermicelli to decorate.

Method

Chop the prunes into small chunks and soak in the Armagnac overnight or for as long as you can.

Preheat the oven to 200°C / 180° fan / gas mk 6.  Put 24 mini muffin cases into a mini muffin tin.

Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt into a large bowl.

In another large bowl, mix together the beaten egg, sugar, milk and melted butter.

Sift the dry ingredients (again) into the wet mixture and fold them in quickly.  Then add the chocolate drops, prunes and Armagnace and mix briefly again.

Divide the mixture evenly between the muffin cases (about one heaped teaspoonful in each) and bake for 10 minutes.

Cool in the tin for 5 minutes before removing from the tin to cool completely on a wire rack.

To make the topping, melt the butter and chocolate together in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water.  Stir frequently until smooth and allow to cool slightly before using.  Spread about a teaspoonful on the top of each muffin and decorate as you like.

Makes 24 mini muffins.

AFTERNOON TEA

With all the Queen's Jubilee celebrations for being on the throne for 70 years there has been much talk of street parties and afternoon teas.  In fact in our part of France friends held their own afternoon tea party to celebrate but unfortunately I was unable to attend.  I'm back home in the UK because my father is in hospital and his future care is again under debate.  

So instead I decided it was time I posted about the afternoon tea I held for a friend's birthday just a couple of months ago.  That was in France too.

I used my three tier glass cake stand which I acquired at a brocante a couple of years ago for just 2€.  It matches some dessert plates and a regular one tier cake stand that were also collected for next to nothing from brocantes over the years.  My best white tablecloth doesn't come out very often but with that and real cups and saucers the table looked the business, even if I say so myself! 

The bottom layer was a selection of sandwiches with the crusts cut off (of course!).  There were home made egg mayonnaise and rocket on brown bread, smoked salmon, cream cheese and cucumber on brown and smoked ham with tomato and cucumber on white.

You can see the recipe for egg mayonnaise here.  I have never seen cress for sale in France so opted for rocket instead.  It was a good substitute.

Being in France, the sliced bread available is not quite like in the UK.  Generally the texture is nice but it always seems to me to be slightly sweet.  We toyed with the idea of making our own bread but as it was only a few days after we had arrived and we were still dealing with all the usual problems of being away from the house for so long decided it was a step too far.

The middle layer was Victoria scones.  For such an important occasion I didn't trust myself to make ordinary scones, my success with those being variable.  The Victoria scones are easy to make from the Be-Ro book recipe and for me they work every time.  They looked cute on the stand although someone who saw the pictures on Facebook said they looked like fat rascals!  

I can't say I've ever eaten a fat rascal so wouldn't know but they sound like fun so will add them to my ever lengthening bucket list of thing to bake!  You can see the recipe for Victoria scones here or look it up in the Be-Ro book - it's in all the recent editions.

The top layer, the crowning glory, was of small cakes.  The raspberry sponges were cut from a traybake recipe for a jam and coconut sponge, otherwise known as "school cake" and which I have been hankering after making for some time!  I used a recipe on the Asda website which you can see here.  It is very quick and easy and the little squares looked very pretty when topped with fresh raspberries.  You can also see the recipe here.

The little chocolate cakes were to a recipe from one of the collection of slim volumes that Delia Smith put out many years ago called "Baking".  They are chocolate, prune and Armagnac mini muffins and I topped them with an excellent chocolate icing from Lynn Hill's website Traditional Home Baking.  You can see the icing recipe here and I added a few decorations including halved glacé cherries, halved chocolate covered raisins and choclate vermicelli.  They were delicious!

No afternoon tea would be complete without an actual slice of cake so for that I made a lemon layer cake filled with lemon curd to another Delia recipe from the same book.  You can see that here.  I didn't make my own lemon curd but used a Bon Maman jar which I brought over from the UK.  Bizarrely you can buy lemon curd in France but not the Bon Maman one!

I had never made this cake before but had eaten it several times as it's a family favourite of Nick's sisters.  It was easy to make and, of course, yummy!

Our birthday guests enjoyed the afternoon tea and so did we.  Being Americans they had only ever had afternoon tea a couple of times before when in London.  It was fun to make and fun to eat.  It does involve a lot of preparation and baking with all the different elements but it's well worth the effort.

You can see my lemon curd layer cake here.

The prune and chocolate mini muffins are here.

The little raspberry cakes are here.

The egg mayonnaise recipe is here.

PRUNE AND APPLE LAYER CAKE

A few weeks ago, I was reading this post in one of my favourite blogs over breakfast and an idea for the forthcoming Loire Valley CCC meeting sprang to mind.

Karen used cooked apple and home made lemon curd as the filling for her cake but whilst I was reading the post I was busy spreading something called “crème de pruneaux” on my toast.  Anyone who is not a fan of prunes should stop reading now! 

We love prunes in our house, possibly due to having been fed so many of them as a child in the 50’s.  In fact I love any kind of prunes, even the much derided tinned ones that we got for “afters” for school dinner, or at home served up cold with warm custard or rice pudding (delicious).  Apart from this cake, other baking triumphs using prunes include chocolate prune cake, a clafoutis of prunes soaked in rum and a prune and apple crumble, all delicious. 

Anyway, the French must eat a lot of apple compôte as there is a huge amount of supermarket shelf space dedicated to it in France, whilst you would be hard pressed to find more than a jar or two in the UK.  We love it.  I especially like the one that has lumps or “morceau” of apple in it which is very handy for rustling up a quick cheat’s apple crumble. 

As for the “crème de pruneaux”, I can’t say I have ever seen anything like it for sale in the UK.  It’s almost like a cross between a compôte and a confiture, more runny than a jam but stickier than a compôte.

The theme for the cake club was “Saints or Sinners”.  In other words, a cake that would be vaguely good for you or one that was no holds barred, don’t give a damn, sinful in every slice.  This cake is essentially a Victoria sponge sandwiched together with the prune jam and apple compôte, with a little lemon icing drizzled over the top.

Thinking that “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” and we all know how good for you prunes are, I felt my cake qualified unquestionably as a saintly cake!

I even polished my halo and made the sponge properly, using the “weigh the eggs” and creaming method – as opposed to my usual chuck it all in and cross fingers all-in-one method.  Double brownie points in saintly terms for that I think!

Anyhow, it was very nice and I will definitely be making it again.

Ingredients

4 eggs, weighed in their shells

The same weight in:

Softened butter, Flora Buttery, Lurpak Spreadable, or baking spread

Caster sugar

Self raising flour

A tablespoon of milk (if needed)

For the filling and icing:

1 jar of Crème de Pruneau

1 jar of apple compôte “avec morceau”

4 tbsp. icing sugar

Juice of ½ lemon

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C / 160°fan / gas mk 4. Butter two 20cm sponge tins and line the bases with circles of baking paper.

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy (using a stand mixer, hand held mixer or by hand). Beat the eggs and add them gradually to the mixture, beating well with each addition. Sift the flour into the bowl and fold in by hand. Add the milk if the mixture seems too stiff.

Divide the mixture evenly between the cake tins and level the top. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown and springy. Cool in the tins for a couple of minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. When cool, slice each cake into two horizontally using a bread knife so you now have four layers.

Taking the bottom half of one sponge, spoon about 4 dessertspoons of crème de pruneaux onto the cake and spread out evenly. Do the same with 2-3 spoons of apple compôte, spreading out carefully in an even layer. Put the top half of that sponge on top and spread with prune and apple in the same way. Then add the bottom layer of the second sponge and do the same.

Finally, put the remaining top layer of the second sponge on top. Make a thin icing using the sifted icing sugar and lemon juice mixed to a paste. Drizzle over the cake, encouraging it to drip down the sides. Decorate with your choice of decoration or fresh flowers.

Serves 8-12.

CHOCOLATE PRUNE CAKE

This cake was made for Dom’s birthday.  Well actually for the second birthday of his blog, Bellau Kitchen, and his Random Recipe Challenge for April, which was to pile up all your baking books and choose one at random.

My random selection turned up this book by Annie Bell, yet another one that I bought because I had seen it in other blogs. 

The book is stuffed full of – as the title suggests – gorgeous looking cakes.  The book plopped open at a page that had two recipes so I chose to bake the chocolate prune cake for my Random Recipe.  I have made chocolate cakes with beetroot or courgettes before, but never prunes, so Dom, I hope you like prunes !!

I packed the book and took it with me when we went to France for our Easter holiday, knowing I would have more time to enjoy baking while we were there.

This is one of those gloriously gooey chocolate cakes made mainly with ground almonds but also including a generous amount of rum and a whole packet of prunes.  The method is easy enough to follow but requires a lot of different processes in separate bowls, not to mention two different electric machines, producing a lot of washing up.

You have to beat the butter, sugar and eggs in a food processor, then transfer the mixture to a large bowl.  You melt the chocolate in another bowl, toss the sliced prunes in flour in a bowl and whisk the egg whites in yet another bowl.  This is on top of any other bowls you have used to measure out the ingredients and separate the eggs.

Speaking of food processors, Nick bought me a lovely new Magimix for my 60th birthday last December.  I know, I know, we did talk diamonds or fur but I thought I would have more fun with a Magimix.  So we took my 1980’s Braun processor, almost on its last legs, to France where it is proving to be most useful and may well last another twenty years for all I know.  That’s if I don’t drop the lid again and knock the last two remaining locking pegs off !!

Anyway, I came slightly unstuck with the baking tin.  The recipe said a deep 20cm tin but I only had an ordinary shallow 20cm tin in my little French kitchen.  This is the problem with pursuing my passion for baking in France.  That is where I found I had the time to do it and how much I enjoyed it, but the kitchen simply isn’t big enough to house a vast collection of baking tins like I have collected at home in the UK so I have to make do.  Quel dommage !!

Once I got going I realised I was going to end up with a huge quantity of mixture which would be way too much for my tin so at the last minute I changed my mind and greased and lined my biggest tin instead – a shallow 23cm tin. (Thereby creating extra washing up with my unused but greased small tin !!)

The cake cracked alarmingly and even after the full 70 minutes I couldn’t make my mind up if it was cooked or not, but the edges were beginning to look a little brown so I decided to risk it and take it out of the oven.

Once it had cooled for a while, and subsided a bit, the cracks looked less alarming and were hardly noticeable at all once I had dusted it with icing sugar and piled some chocolate raisins on top, as per the picture in the book.

It was delicious and went down very well with coffee in the spring sunshine.

It was gooey on the inside with a slightly crunchy crust.  It also went well with a glass of rosé later on – well we were on holiday, even if it was only a Thursday afternoon !!

Definitely a recipe I will do again.  And very adaptable to a gluten free recipe considering there was only one tablespoon of flour for coating the prunes, which could be replaced, I imagine, with cornflour or rice flour.

And it was so good, I really didn’t mind the huge amount of washing up !!

This is what I used.

150g dark chocolate, min 50% cocoa solids

225g unsalted butter

225g light muscovado sugar

4 eggs, separated

100ml rum

200g ground almonds

1tsp baking powder

250g ready to eat, stoned prunes, roughly chopped or sliced

1 tblsp plain flour

icing sugar and chocolate raisins for decoration

This is what you do.

Preheat the oven to 190°C/170°fan/gas mk 5.  Butter and base line a 23cm springform cake tin.

Break the chocolate into squares and melt in a bowl over a pan of gently simmering water.  Stir and put on one side to cool.

Cut the butter into cubes and put into a food processor with the sugar.  Beat until pale and creamy. 

Add the egg yolks, one at a time and beat again to combine.

Add the rum and melted chocolate and beat again.  Beat in the ground almonds and baking powder.  Transfer the mixture to a large bowl.

In another separate bowl, whisk the egg whites with an electric whisk until the stiff peak stage.  Fold into the mixture in two halves.

Put the chopped prunes into yet another bowl with the flour and toss with your hands so the fruit is well coated with flour. Fold into the chocolate cake mixture.

Tip the mixture into the prepared tin and level the top.  Bake for 60-70 minutes until “a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean”, which in my case it never did, because it is a very gooey cake.

Loosen the cake from the tin by running a knife around the edge and leave in the tin to cool.

Dust with icing sugar and pile some chocolate raisins artistically on top for decoration – these are optional.

Cuts into approx 12 slices.