Paper Palate

Thrift is the by-word at the moment; that credit crunch/rising food and energy prices thang that everyone is talking about but doesn’t really seem to have much effect on those that I know. Still this month’s Delicious supplement - A month of Family Meals for Under a £5 - is certainly handy for when it does strike!

I’ve already prepared and enjoyed one dish. The Normandy Pork and Apples recipe, with just a couple of changes, graced the Barrow table last Sunday. Detesting parsnips, these were omitted. I also used Bramley cooking apples, for added tartness, and increased the stock component with half-as-much again of some Perry I had in the fridge.

Served with rice it is a jolly decent meal and at £4.61 a head under their £5 (that’s US$10) limit. I do have to ask how they come up with the figures though. Perhaps they assume you already have bay leaves, mustard, cornflour, and oil available (which I had) so don’t include these in the calculation. It matters not; this is a fine dish, for which I picked a decent Loire Vouvray as an accompaniment.

Normandy Pork and Apples

From a Delicious magazine supplement

2 tbsp oil

500g lean pork cut into bite-sized pieces

1 large onion diced

1 large carrot thickly sliced

1 parsnip thickly sliced

1 leek washed and sliced into 3cm  lengths

250ml chicken stock

1 bay leaf

1/2 tsp Dijon mustard

1 heaped tsp cornflour

100g creme fraiche

1 Cox’s apple

Fry the pork, in batches, until lightly browned. Place in casserole dish. Add the veg while the onion is frying to a nice softness. Add to the casserole too. Top up with the stock (and the perry if doing my variation) and simmer for 1 hour.

Stir the mustard and cornflour into the creme fraiche, then stir into the casserole. Add the apple (cored and sliced) and simmer for a few minutes until the apple is tender and the sauce thickened.