Sweet Little Piggies

Fettine die Maiale con Una Glassa die Miele & Senape, con Cavolo Rosso e Mela
Honey-Mustard Glazed Pork Cutlets with Apple and Blue Cabbage

How do you transform a simple pork cutlet into a juicy and delicious treat in less than 15 minutes? The answer is- very, very easily! A honey and mustard glaze will do the trick and paired with apple and blue cabbage, you will have a flavorful meal pulled together in very little time and for very little money.

I was kind-of in a fix, as is so often the case and not really sure of what to do with these dainty little cutlets of pork- I hardly had anything else in the house! But I had frozen a batch of blue cabbage a while back and had a nice, tart Granny Smith apple just begging to be sliced up... so that was what I did! And the two of them turned out to be the best of friends in the end!

I decided to keep things simple with the cabbage, which was already finely chopped, and just dropped it into my steamer, along with a couple of slices of ginger and a sprinkle of salt, sugar and pepper. On went the lid and on I went to my apple...

I peeled and sliced the apple and sautéed it in a little butter, with a light sprinkle of coriander powder and cinnamon. It took 4-5 minutes and a little patience on my part, but soon enough the apple became lightly golden... and that was the point in time that I added a sprinkle of sugar, some salt and pepper. Sure enough, that sugar melted and caramelized the salt and pepper into the apple and finished it off wonderfully. I set the rich and tasty apple slices to one side and popped a small pat of clarified butter into the same frying pan for the pork.

As soon as the butter began to sizzle, I started to sautée the pork cutlets, sprinkling them with salt and pepper, some caraway seeds and some fresh marjoram. After 2-3 minutes on each side, I squeezed the juice of 1 lime onto the pork, sprinkled the cutlets with a little sugar and added a couple of tablespoons of mustard. The lime juice, mustard and sugar soon blended together into a wonderful golden glaze, which soon began to bubble and brown very rapidly. I added a little water, just to loosen all of the good flavors from the bottom of the pan and made sure the meat was nicely coated from both sides... and then grabbed myself and served it up as you can see in the pictures,

The finishing touch were some tiny young leaves of marjoram and a few flakes of Fleur de Sel- a last grind of fresh pepper and dinner was indeed served! And very nice it was too!