Pork Fillet With Mandarin

Preamble

"Once upon a time it was always a roast dinner served for special occasions and for guests - this meant much last minute work carving and serving.

Now we take the easy way by serving the smaller cuts of meat in a convenient way.

For informal entertaining there's nothing like a fondue pan, placed right there on the table for the help-your-self type meal such as the pork fillet mandarin.

Alternatively the pork fillet, which is sold in some stores as pork leans, can be cooked and served in a casserole.

This recipe has the added advantage in that it can be prepared during the day with the pork fillet browned and stored in the refrigerator.

When entertaining, the last minute cooking of crumbed cutlets can be a hazard, and evn for family meals they present last minute work. You'll find them much easier if you wrap each cutlet in greaseproof paper, which has been liberally greased with butter, and cook on an oven tray in a moderate oven for 50 minutes at 375 deg.

For economy measures, pork sausage meat can be used in the pork-filled apples in place of the minced pork - it's just as tasty. I like to use jonathan apples for this recipe because they hold their shape so well during the cooking time and the red skins add just a touch of colour with the green gherkin."

Ingredients
1 lb Pork Fillet or leans
1/2 pint Orange Juice
11 oz can Mandarin segments
1 dessertspoon Soya Sauce
2 tablespoons Arrowroot
Grated rind one Orange
1/2 cup Claret

Method

Cut the pork into wafer thin slices and pound them flat, cook in a little hot oil or butter for a few minutes to brown them. Arrange on the serving dish or around a fondue pan at the table. Heat together the orange juice, the juice from the can of mandarin segments, soya sauce, orange rind and claret, bring to the boil and thicken with the arrowroot blended with a little water.

Add half the mandarin segments to the sauce and pour into a fondue pan to heat through at the table. Use the remaining mandarin segments to garnish the slices of pork. When ready to serve, heat the sauce in the fondue pan and invite guest to heat the slices of meat on the forks, by putting in the sauce for 2-3 minutes.

As an alternative method to the serve-at-table fondue dish the pork fillets can be arranged in an ovenproof casserole and the sauce added ready to reheat for 30 minutes.

Remarks
Appears, although is a very much up market form, on an autumn menu sometime in 1978-79: "Pork Fillet and Mandarins - Sauce Bigarade $9.20 medallions of pork fillet sauteed in butter, flamed with brandy and cointreau, and finished with a sauce of demi glace, oranges, lemons, red wine vinegar and fresh mandarins. Served with fresh green vegetables and a puree of celeriac and potatoes"