Cider baked pork with apple & fennel

Looking for a lighter dish now the seasons are changing…This cider baked pork with baked apple and fennel is perfect for a mid week family meal.

Serves 4

Effort: Easy

Prep: 15 mins

Cook: 35 mins

Gluten Free

Ingredients

• 1 fennel bulb, trimmed and cut into wedges. Keep the fronds for serving.

• 2 red apple, quartered and cored.

• 2 red onion, peeled and cut into quarters

• 1 lemon

• 2 garlic cloves

• 3 tbsp olive oil

• 400g pork steaks - see notes

• 1/3 cup southern mustard sauce - Grunds

• 1/2 cup cider - see notes

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 180°C/fan160°C/gas 4. Thickly slice the fennel bulb lengthways through the root, then cut the apple, onion and lemon into wedges. Put the sliced fruit and veg in a 3 large baking dish along with the garlic. Drizzle over 2 tbsp of the olive oil, season and toss to coat, then roast for 30 minutes or until just tender.

2. Meanwhile, heat the remaining oil in a large frying pan over a medium-high heat. Season the pork and fry for 2 minutes on each side or until golden brown.

3. Mix the mustard and cider with a fork in a jug, then pour over the pork in the pan. Bubble for 2 minutes or until slightly reduced. Remove the pork to the baking dish with the vegetables, pour over the cider sauce, then return to the oven.

4. Bake for 5 minutes or until the pork is cooked through and the veg are tender. Pick the fennel fronds (the green fluffy bits), then sprinkle over to serve.

Hints & tips

Pork - You can use any type of pork you have on hand - pork cutlets, pork chops, loin steaks, pork sizzle steaks, pork medallions or even pork rashers. If they are thicker than 1 cm then fry for 3-4 mins on each side instead. When eating pork it can be slightly pink BUT not bleeding.

It is pork sizzle steaks in this photo.

Meat alternatives - You can use chicken or beef steak in this recipe.

Chicken - slice chicken breasts in half lengthways before frying. Follow recipe as above.

Steak - Fry steak to preferred doneness then remove from the pan to rest. Add the cider sauce to the pan and reduce before adding the veggies and cooking as per step 4 (just without the steak). Serve steak along side the baked cider veggies.

Cider - No cider to hand. Use the same amount of apple juice with 2 tsp of apple cider vinegar instead.

Portion size - Double or half this recipe easily.

Storage - This recipe will keep in the fridge up to 3 days. Not suitable for freezing. Great for lunches the next day as a salad or in a wrap.