Pork Cutlets with Stuffed Apples and Cider Cream Sauce

Pork Cutlets

Sometimes I think that if ever anything were ever to happen to my Thermomix, and I had to revert to non-Thermomix-assisted cooking,  I might physically melt down.  It would be that painful.  (Okay, now I'm just being dramatic, but you get my point!) 

I use the Thermomix a lot.  It gets used at least (in all honesty) at a minimum of 4 and 6 times a day.  The somewhat annoying and possibly only detracting element of the machine that I've ever been able to think of birdsong of the Thermomix beeps 3 times before we're even done with breakfast:  porridge or cada, smoothies and juice.  It is almost always used at dinner time, whether it be that the main is getting cooked in it or that I'm just using it for a side dish.  Basically, if there's a way I can shortcut a recipe by using the Thermomix instead, I'll find it.

Which brings me to this recipe.  It's an old favourite of ours, from before we had a Thermomix and dinner prep used to take a lot longer.  I wanted to share it with you as an example of how the Thermomix can help, even when it's not being used to prepare the main meal, as such.  (It's also super yummy, which is always a good reason to share a recipe!).

Pork Cutlet with Stuffed Apples and Cider Cream Sauce

(from a very old, but well loved, Women's Weekly Clipping)

Ingredients:-

*  25g butter

*  1 brown onion - halved

*  1 clove garlic - peeled

*  70g bacon - roughly chopped

*  15g breadcrumbs

*  20g prunes

*  2 tbsp chives

*  10g butter - melted

*  2 large granny smith apples - cored

*  4 pork cutlets

*  125g sparkling apple cider

*  1 tsp vegetable stock concentrate

*  100g pure cream

*  1kg sebago potatoes - peeled and roughly chopped

*  250g full cream milk

*  1 tsp salt

*  30g butter

Method:-

1.  Preheat the oven to 160° (fan-forced).

2.  Add onion, garlic and bacon to TM bowl.  Chop for 2 seconds on speed 7.

3.  Add butter and saute for 3 minutes at 100° on speed 1.

4.  Add prunes, breadcrumbs and chives.  Chop for 10 seconds on speed 7.

5.  Pierce the apples a couple of times with a fork and then stuff them with the breadcrumb mixture.  Unless you're using the largest apples known to man, you'll have mixture leftover - I usually shape it with damp hands into dumplings and place the dumplings next to the apples in a large baking dish.

6.  Brush the apples with the melted butter.  Cook, uncovered, for about 30 minutes.

7.  While the apples are cooking, start the mashed potatoes cooking.  Place the potatoes, salt and milk into the TM bowl and cook for 20 minutes at 100° on speed 1.

8.  Once the mash has started, brown the pork cutlets for about 2 minutes on each side in a hot pan.  Once all the cutlets are cooked, place the pork in the same dish as the apples for about 15 minutes further cooking time.

9.  When the mash finishes cooking, add the butter and insert the butterfly.  Mash for 20-30 seconds on speed 4.  Place into Thermoserver to keep warm.  (At this point you can wash your bowl out if you want to, but as long as you scrape the majority of the potato out, you don't need to.)

10.  Remove pork and apples from the baking dish.  Strain the juices into the TM bowl and then return pork and apples to the dish and keep warm in the oven while you make the cider cream sauce.

11.  To the juices already in the TM bowl, add cider and stock.  Cook for 2 minutes at 100° on speed 1.

12.  Add cream and cook for 5 minutes at 100° on speed 1.

Serve the mash with the pork, apple, sauce and vegetables.

Tips:

Even though the potatoes are only cooking at 100, I steam my greens for about 10 minutes in the Varoma above them while the potatoes are cooking.  I usually only do beans or snow peas, and so the temperature is enough to cook them through.