Loved Up Tuesday..........

"The things that we love tell us what we are."
                                      Thomas Aquinas       

     


Bit of a hippy tune to start you off on a Tuesday.

When NASA started sending up astronauts, they quickly discovered that ballpoint pens would not work at zero gravity.

To combat the problem, NASA scientists spent a decade and $12 billion developing a pen that wrote at zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on almost any surface including glass and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to 300 C. The Russians used a pencil.

Knocked this up the other day. I'm partial to a bit of pork and it's in the style of Swiss-German cooking. If you're using pork fillet don't cook it so much. Just make the sauce without the meat first then seal the meat and add to the sauce. A nice dry white washes this down.

Strips of Pork in Mushroom Sauce with Berner Rösti

For 2 persons

3-4 Potatoes (medium sized)

1 Onion

2 Smoked Bacon rashers

150ml Oil

50g Butter

280g Pork, lean

200ml Double Cream

100ml Stock, pork or chicken

100g Mushrooms

1 Garlic clove

Chives

Par-boil the potatoes in their skins, test them after 10 minutes by inserting a cocktail stick. There should be quite a bit of resistance to the stick. Drain the potatoes and leave to cool.

Peel the onion, cut in half and slice. De-rind the bacon and cut the bacon into strips that are 75mm wide.

Peel and grate the potato with a course grater into a bowl.

Cut the pork into thin strips about 3-4 cm long and 1 cm thick. Remove any fat. I got away with using pork shoulder but best would be pork fillet (tenderloin). Cut the mushrooms into quarters.

Heat up the oil in a frying pan and add half the sliced onion and the bacon strips and cook until the bacon and onions start to colour. Remove the bacon and onions with a slotted spoon and mix into the grated potato, season with pepper.

Peel the garlic and finely chop to a paste.

Reheat the pan used to cook the bacon and onion and using the drained oil add the potato. Add it as a clump in the middle of the pan. Leave to cook for five or more minutes then using a palette knife press it down towards the edge of the pan but do not be too heavy handed. Leave a mound in the centre of the pan. Cook for a least, another 5-8 minutes. Flip the rösti over using a flick of the wrist or a spatula. Cook for another five minutes then cut in half and tip onto plates.

Flash fry the pork strips in hot oil, then add the rest of onions and mushrooms. Drain any excess oil add the stock and cook for 10 minutes. Allow to boil up and reduce by half. Mix in the cream and garlic.  Cook for a couple of minutes then taste and season if necessary.

Spoon onto the plates on the rösti and accompany with vegetables.

Always knew cola was no good for you, must be the uric acid.