Pork Scotch with Fennel and Orange Butter
Powerful flavours and inexpensive! That's my kind of meal. This is one of them: Grilled Pork Scotch with Fennel and Orange Zest Butter, Carrot and Orange Juice Puree, Roasted Fennel, Chia Seed Encrusted Smoked Garlic and Potato cake. Sounds complicated, but its all actually really simple. Read on to find out how to make this taste explosion!
Ingredients (for 4 People)
4 Pork Scotch Fillets
4 Bulbs of Fennel, fine tips removed for the butter
6 Agria Potatoes, peeled and diced
1 Bulb of Garlic, peeled and finely minced
6 Large, Sweet Carrots, peeled and diced
2 Oranges
50g Butter
50g Chia Seeds
2 Teaspoons of Dried Oregano
2 Eggs
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
1 Lime to Serve
Method
Preheat the oven to 170 C.
Take your steaks, dry them with paper towels, salt both sides. Set them aside.
In a saucepan, gently melt 50g of butter (lowest heat). Once melted, zest one orange into the butter. Roughly chop the fine tips of the fennel and put that in too. Stir to integrate and leave on a really low heat, stirring occasionally. After five minutes, pour into a small silicon mould and put in the freezer to set. Pull it out every 2-3 minutes to give it a stir - this will keep the fennel and zest evenly distributed. Once set, move it to the fridge.
Halve the bulbs of fennel. Place cut side up in a roasting dish. Mix a quarter cup olive oil, a quarter of the garlic and half a teaspoon of salt. Brush the mixture on the cut side of the fennel bulbs until it is all used up. Put it in the oven, near the bottom.
Cover the carrots with water in a pot. Bring to a boil. In a separate pot, cover the potatoes with water. Salt well and bring to a boil.
Once the potatoes have boiled, drain and let it cool for a couple of minutes. Then, roughly mash the potatoes with a couple of generous pinches of salt, the oregano and the rest of the garlic. Let it cool down a while longer, until cool enough to handle. Crack the eggs in. Mix well. Form into little cakes, about the size of your palm. Brush with olive oil then roll in the chia seeds. Put them on an oiled baking tray and above the fennel in the oven. While you're there, flip the fennel so they're cut side down.
By now the carrots should be pretty soft. Transfer them to a blender, and blend until a smooth soup. Add the juice of the two oranges then put it back on a medium heat. Simmer until thick.
When the carrot puree is thick and nearly holds peaks, push the heat to low.
Heat up an iron skillet. Dry the steaks one more time. Just before frying, add olive oil to the pan, and fry the steaks. I go to medium, but you can push it further - it's a cut with a decent amount of fat so it'll hold up to a decent amount of frying.
Once done, remove the fennel and potato cakes from the oven and the butter from the freezer. Serve the steak on a swirl of orange puree with two fennel halves, a potato cake and the butter on the steak. Squeeze a little lime over top. Salt and pepper.
Enjoy!
