Pork fillet medallions in leek sauce

With spoon-drop dumplings, too 🙂 Here’s a quick recipe to go with a quick update on what’s happening at Prymitywna Kuchnia. Quite a bit is happening, so time is short and this post will be brief. Not everyone follows the Facebook page, so you may not know about the poll asking, “Should Prymitywna Kuchnia open its own place?” The poll has finished, and a grand total of 25 people took part. Not exactly a crowd, I’d say, but at least everyone agreed. 100% said yes.

And you’re probably wondering whether Prymitywna Kuchnia was having a laugh again. Well, not entirely. There comes a moment in a person’s life — I think it’s called a midlife crisis — when they decide to open their own place. And as there are currently three of us going through a midlife crisis together, we hope to turn it into something that’s at least fun. Fun for us, probably in different ways. Obviously it would be best if it made money (at least enough to keep itself going :), but fun is relative, so perhaps it could simply be about being able to say, “I’ve got my own place.”

All of this has brought us to Praga (a district I hadn’t spent much time in before), and we’ll probably become food-service operators later this week. Or, for the time being, kitchen operators, really. Once we get it all up and running, and perhaps even thriving, I’ll gladly write more about how it began, who let us down along the way (because we were supposed to have another, bigger place), and how it’s all taking shape — or, by then, hopefully will have taken shape. Today, though, we’ll keep it short and quick, just like these pork fillet medallions in leek sauce with blue cheese.

This recipe came to mind for one very ordinary reason: yesterday we spent quite a late evening working on our food-business concept, and when I got home I was rather hungry (for something hot, the sort of meal that does for both lunch and dinner), but I didn’t want to eat too late. Remember the post about my plans for turning forty? As I write this, remember that I’m not forty yet, so take the crisis with a pinch of salt 😉 Anyway, you’re not supposed to eat after 20, and certainly not after 21 🙂

So pork fillet it was, and I highly recommend it. That’s also why we went for premises that we can take over almost immediately. If everything works out (fingers crossed), in 2 weeks you’ll be able to pick up the first meal from a place somewhat connected with Prymitywna Kuchnia in Warsaw’s Praga district (this is probably where I should insert a picture of a bridge in Prague, right? 😉 ). Admittedly, probably still under our own brand — we’re working on that — but it’s a start 🙂

For now, let’s cook this simple, quick and, all things considered, rather elegant dish (despite those dreadful photos, which I took even faster than I wanted to eat, or simply because I was so desperate to eat) of pork fillet in a velvety leek sauce. Highly recommended!

At a glance:

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Serves: two people

Calories: I’ve never associated pork fillet with calories. Have you?

Ingredients for pork fillet in leek sauce:

• 1 fairly large leek
• 1 pork fillet (roughly medium-sized, 230 – 260 grams)
• 1 small tub of 18% soured cream
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon Kielecka mustard
• 3 – 4 small pieces (20 – 30 grams) of blue cheese (a soft blue-veined cheese, something like Cambozola, or simply the blue cheese you can get at Lidl, for instance)
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• olive oil for frying
• salt
• freshly ground black pepper

Recipe for tender pork fillet medallions in sauce:

Cooking pork fillet is the easiest thing in the world. That’s exactly the case here too, and the result is always very good. Let’s get started.

I washed the pork fillet and removed the sinew, membranes and any unappealing bits. I cut it into centimetre-thick slices to make little medallions. I put them in a bowl, seasoned with salt and freshly ground pepper, then added a tablespoon of soy sauce. I mixed it with my hands and put it in the fridge so the flavours could mingle a little.

Meanwhile, I started making the spoon-drop dumplings (click for the recipe).

Then I heated some olive oil in a frying pan and added the prepared pork medallions. While they were frying, I finely chopped the leek I’d washed earlier, using the white and light green parts. I fried the medallions for about 2 minutes on each side. Then I transferred them to a plate and started frying the chopped leek in the oil left in the pan. After about 4 – 5 minutes, I added the pieces of cheese. I stirred and carried on cooking.

I put the soured cream in a bowl and added a little freshly ground black pepper, plus a teaspoon each — heaped ones — of Dijon and Kielecka mustard. I mixed it thoroughly and poured it into the pan with the leeks and cheese. I turned down the “flame” on my induction hob a little and stirred. After about 2 – 3 minutes of constantly stirring the sauce, I returned the pork medallions to the pan, along with any juices that had run out onto the plate, and stirred again. I covered the pan with a lid and simmered it over a low “flame” for another 2 – 3 minutes or so.

After that, just give it a stir and it’s ready. Serve it with anything you like; as you know, I went for spoon-drop dumplings. Tuck in 🙂 Enjoy.