April 7, 2017
This week I wanted to share a recipe that my partner and I cooked when we had a friend over last week. It was so delicious that I felt that I needed to provide it to you lovely people…you are welcome! Not only was it delicious, but it was also super easy and quick to make!
So we had a friend over and my partner really wanted to take the opportunity to try making something from one of his cookbooks. He’s gotten really into cooking in the last year, but hasn’t really opened a cookbook yet. I tend to do the same thing, and have a lot of cookbooks that I’ve never cooked from, but that I can’t bear getting rid of. So we decided to find a new recipe to try together, and then in true Ella style I went and changed the recipe into something new (my partner doesn’t like it when I do this, but I felt it worked really well).
We decided on a pork recipe because it caught our eye and didn’t seem too difficult. A lot of the cookbooks that my partner has have recipes that tend to require a few hours in the oven, so we really needed something that would be nice and quick. Hopefully we can find some time over a weekend to cook up some of the other recipes, because they sounded delicious!
This pork recipe definitely yields a fancy result, and is quite easy in itself! It does have a few steps, but in the end isn’t too hard. Especially when you have two people! I got my partner on the meat and I organised the zucchini, and we had it all done quite quickly, with a couple of breaks for wine in between of course! It was a good one to cook mid week as it made for a special meal to get us through hump day. It’s also pretty healthy as far as meals go, so you don’t even need to feel guilty about eating it – how good is that? We did offset this healthy meal with wine and ice cream..but hey, you only live once right?
- 400 grams pork medallions or fillet cut into small pieces about 6 pieces
- 40 grams feta cheese
- 3 slices ham
- 8 sage leaves
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 3 large zucchinis sliced into thin slices using a mandolin
- 5 cloves garlic crushed
- 1 fresh red chilli chopped
- 1/2 bunch fresh parsley roughly chopped
- 3 handfuls baby spinach leaves
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Make a slit in each pork medallion. Cut the feta into 6 even pieces and poke into the slit, then sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
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Wrap each pork piece in a half piece of ham so that one side is covered. Flatten each pork piece with your fist.
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Heat 1 teaspoon of olive oil in a pan over a medium heat. Place the pork pieces into the pan, ham side down, and allow to cook, turning evenly until completely cooked through and golden.
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Meanwhile, in a seperate fry pan, heat the remaining olive oil over a medium heat. Add the thinly sliced zucchini, garlic, chilli, baby spinach leaves and parsley, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Cook until soft.
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Remove the pork from the pan and set aside. Keeping the pan on a high heat, add the sage leaves and crisp for about 30 seconds.
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In a serving platter, arrange the zucchini mixture at the bottom. Place the pork in the middle and top with the crispy sage leaves. Serve immediately.
This meal is the perfect option for when you’re having people over during the week and you’re short on time. I think without wine breaks to have something on table in 40 minutes is absolutely achievable after work. A lot of the prep comes from having to chop the zucchinis, but if you have a food processor you could make this even faster!
This dish is packed full of delicious flavour. I think my favourite part was the zucchini as it was full of garlic and chilli, two of my favourite things! I was surprised by how easily this came together as I’ve never thought to fry up zucchini before. This element in itself would make for a great accompaniment to any dish, so if you didn’t want to cook the pork you wouldn’t need to. However, the pork was also delicious as the ham gave it a real kick of flavour, and I loved the hidden feta surprise when you bit into it.
This dish really got me to try something different, which was great as I find I tend to cook similar things. I loved trying a new dish, and it opened my eyes up to new ways of cooking. I will definitely be trying this again – it was so easy to make, and super delicious! Plus, it looks really fancy even though you just sort of whipped it up, so if you are looking for an impressive meal, look no further!
Until next time, happy eating!
Ella xx
