I’m prepared to bet this is a amalgamation of tastes totally new to your palate. Gin isn’t a usual addition to food, unless it’s in a glass. In this recipe, it replaces the more usual dop of rum or brandy, both major contributors to meat-related sauces. The meat we’re using here is pork steaks, trimmed lean. You can grill them on the braai, over a slow fire, or do them on a hob indoors. The sauce is easy to make and the end result is delicious to eat.
To make braaied pork steaks with gin and mango sauce on noodles for four, you will need:
1kg pork steaks
1 big mango
1 shot of good gin
1 cup brown sugar
1½ cups water
75mm fresh root ginger
Red Tabasco
4 tablespoons freshly ground cumin seeds (jeera)
Extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and coarsely ground black pepper to taste
500g Chinese noodles or Italian pasta
This recipe has three procedures – the sauce, the noodles, and the meat. Sauce first. Select a 1â„“ or 2â„“ stainless steel saucepan. Peel and cut the flesh of a big super-ripe mango into chunks and add it to the saucepan. Peel the 75mm length of fresh ginger root, cut it into five or six pieces and add these to the pot. Pour in one-and-a-half cups of tap water and one cup of brown sugar. The stickier and browner the sugar, the better it is for the final flavour. Add a dash or two or three or four of red Tabasco plus a single shot of good gin. Seagram’s seems to have the right balance of botanicals for this sauce.
Heat up the saucepan and its contents for two minutes or so. Don’t boil or simmer – what we want here is just enough heat to help the sugar dissolve totally. Pour all the contents into a food processor and rev it to the red line, reducing the contents to a smooth paste. Decant, cover and reserve for later in the proceedings.
Noodle time! Here you have the choice of Italian pasta or Chinese noodles. In my view, just one humble opinion amongst many, Italian noodles suit this meal better since they seem to suck up the sauce like a sponge.
Boil them in 2â„“ of lightly salted water for 10 minutes or so. Drain through a colander and reserve under cover.
Now for the pork. Lightly coat the steaks in freshly ground coriander. Pork, it seems, must always be well done. This is a hard instruction to obey for this dude, who likes his beef and lamb seriously rare. If you’re braaiing, use a well-established slow fire.
I cooked this meal on a hob in a little extra-virgin olive oil on medium heat for five minutes a side, turning the steaks once. They were cooked right through, yet retained a welcome degree of moisture.
Serving, or as the restaurant industry likes to call it, plating, is a cinch. Put the pork steaks on a bed of noodles, then add a couple of tablespoons of the mango sauce over the meat. Provide a jug of the wonderful stuff for those diners who can’t get enough of it.
And oh yes, before I forget, salt and lightly pepper the meal to taste. – David Basckin |fw
