It's been well over two years since my semi-successful attempt at beef olives. I decided it was time I had another go - but this time, it was pork olives (p124), a simple variation on the basic recipe, achieved by substituting pork schnitzel for the original beef.
When I made my beef olives, I had no trouble putting together the olives themselves: the problem was a lumpy, salty gravy. I've had a bit more practice at gravies and similar now, so I was a bit more confident with that. I also thought I'd figured out the saltiness - I'd used dark soy sauce, which is very strong. I figured with a lighter soy, I wouldn't have to reduce the quantity.
I had three pieces of pork schnitzel, which I rolled out slightly between sheets of plastic wrap, so I'd have a larger surface for my stuffing. The stuffing is made of breadcrumbs, onion, prunes, thyme and lemon zest. Instead of chopping these up and combining them, I chucked everything in the food processor, and a short blitz later my stuffing was ready.
I spread the schnitzel with filling - a half-mix of the filling recipe was exactly right for three pork schnitzel pieces - then rolled each piece up and secured it with a skewer. I could probably have made a more dainty job using toothpicks, but I didn't have any.
Next, I browned the olives in a frypan and set them aside in a small casserole dish, then added flour to the frying pan to begin the dreaded gravy. As usual, cooking the flour for the first minute or so resulted in a collection of floury lumps spread around the pan, to which gradually adding stock ought to make a decent gravy... apparently.
I sloshed in the stock in small amounts, whisking furiously between additions. At first I thought it was going quite well, but before long I was contemplating a pan full of watery brown liquid, in which floated - inevitably - a number of lumps.
No amount of whisking/stirring/smushing seemed to have any effect on the lumps. Well, at least I had a familiar solution. Out came the sieve again, and, after reducing a bit and adding the soy sauce, I was able to pour a reasonably smooth gravy over my pork olives before I put them in the oven.
I've become so used to things being cooked well before the given cooking time that I took it for granted the pork olives would be done well before indicated in the recipe. After all, they were quite a lot smaller than the beef ones. I took them out ten minutes early, and it was only when I had a couple on my plate that I cut into one and found it was raw in the middle.
Back in the gravy and back in the oven. My veges sat waiting while my olives cooked for a further ten minutes, and were looking a bit dry and sad by the time the olives were ready. I remedied this by pouring generous amounts of the gravy on the vege as well as the meat.
The pork olives were pretty nice. I'm still a fan of that fruity prune stuffing, and the gravy kept the meat from getting dry. Unfortunately, substituting a lighter soy did not prevent the gravy from being too salty. I don't actually think the addition of soy is necessary at all, but if you feel your gravy needs it, add gradually and taste as you go.
So there you go. A couple of years down the track, and sadly, I still can't make a decent gravy. But that doesn't mean I'm going to give up trying!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Popular posts this week
-
My decision to make a one-and-a-half recipe of the royal icing turned out to be unnecessary. I had quite a lot of icing left over after fin...
-
I had about 300g of food processor pastry left over from my quiche the other day, so when I arrived home last night with no idea what I wa...
-
Since I was going down to Timaru on Saturday to celebrate my brother's birthday, I decided it might be a good idea to make him a birthda...
-
I was horrified when I recently discovered that, of the 33 recipes in the 'sauces and marinades' chapter, I had done precisely zero...
-
Fish pie is a staple in many households around the country. Everyone has their own version, the results of which can vary from quite tasty t...
-
Well, actually my gravy did need sieving. But I'm getting ahead of myself here... This particular journey began - as so many do - wit...
-
It's hard to believe a whole three years have passed since I posted my first entry in this challenge, and even harder to believe I'v...
-
I absolutely love mayonnaise: It must be the Dutch influence in my upbringing (yes, Mum, it's your fault). I use mayonnaise the way oth...
-
I've been on holiday this past week. I don't mean I've been off gallivanting around somewhere exciting, merely that I haven'...
-
I was relaxing comfortably on the couch on Sunday afternoon, trying to motivate myself to get up and do something productive. "One more...
No comments:
Post a Comment