Friday 2 March 2012

Schwartz Review #12 : Creamy Pan-Fried Pork with Apple & Sage


I blogged earlier about the new range of Recipe Inspirations Kits from Schwartz - a blogpost that you can read here. Well, we tried out the Creamy Pan-Fried Pork with Apple & Sage for lunch yesterday, hastily assembling ingredients that we already had in the fridge and cupboard : some pork, flour, salt and pepper, crème fraîche, mushrooms, onion and an apple. Oh, and the Recipe Inspirations Kit with the all important herbs and spices and recipe card.


First, you need to combine the first bubble - paprika - with the flour and use it to coat the pork. This is a stage that I wouldn't normally bother with, preferring to sprinkle the paprika straight on to the meat in the pan, but having seen the results, I'll definitely do it again.


After a few minutes in the pan, the paprika/flour-covered pork had a lovely even orangey-red colour and looked really appetising.


In a separate pan, I gently browned off the onion, mushrooms and apples - which struck me as a strange combination but it really worked. All of the other spices - Garlic Granules, Sage, Rosemary, Thyme and Oregano - need to go in at this stage. It looked a lot but don't worry, it's cleverly dosed, they know what they're doing !


Time to warm up the pork again in one pan and add some cream and apple juice (which I didn't have in so I used - wait for it ! - Eisberg alcohol-free white wine, which I'll be telling you about in another review ! It may sound strange but it was delicious !)


I poured the creamy vegetable and fruit mixture over the pork and was amazed to see how close it was to the picture on the recipe card !


OK, if I was on Masterchef, they'd be complaining about my presentation but, served on a bed of rice, it was absolutely delicious and the whole family - even the kids - ate every mouthful.

I loved smelling each individual spice before adding it to the dish, letting Sophie - who is really starting to take an interest in proper cooking as well as baking - try to recognise the different flavours and smells too. I did find the little bubbles difficult to open though, which could be catastrophic if it makes you jerk the bubble as you peel off the plastic and throw the spices all over the worktop instead of in the dish. Maybe they could replace the plastic film with a foil cover, which would be easier to pull off while retaining the freshness.



That's my only niggle though. I love the recipe, the flavours, the convenience and the fact that in just twenty minutes, I had a dish on the table that looked and tasted like I'd spent a lot longer on it !

star rating : 5/5 (for the contents - I almost docked a point for the difficult to open bubbles !)

RRP : £1.99


Other blogposts you may be interested in :


5 comments:

  1. Me and my husband are always stuck on ideas for meals. this looks very yummy and something we will have to try x

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  2. looks like a good idea to make tea time more interesting.

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  3. Will def try these as looks yummy! even with the non masterchef presentation :-)

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  4. this looks very yummy and something we will have to try

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  5. mmm love the sound of the apples and sage together with the pork, yum!

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