The Perfect Curve

Ingredients:

• Pork fillet
• Leek
• Celery
• Orzo pasta (or rice)
• White wine
• Calvados (or brandy)
• Stock cube
• Double cream
• Garlic
• Tarragon
• Salt and pepper

Method:

Set your piece of pork fillet cooking the way you like to cook it. Because I'm a bit pretentious and have a sous-vide, I cook mine at 62C for about an hour. If you don't have a sous-vide, either follow the cooking instructions on the packet, or cook it the way you usually like to cook it.

Start your orzo pasta cooking. Although it's small it still takes a bit longer to cook than you'd think, but because it's small you've got to be more careful about stopping it sticking to the pan than than usual pasta. If it's cooked before the sauce is cooked, just turn the heat off.

Chop the celery and the leek as finely as you feel motivated to, and fry in a pan for a few minutes, then add the garlic to fry for a few moments more; add a fair amount of white wine and a bit of calvados and reduce for a bit, then add a big dollop of the cream, the amount of salt and pepper you like, and the tarragon. Let all that bubble nicely for a while; the final consistency you're after for this is creamy, but not too thick nor not too runny - whilst it's cooking if it's getting too thick then thin it down a touch with some milk, but keep it on the thicker side of how you want it. When the orzo has almost finished cooking, pour some of the cooking water into your sauce as well (which is why you don't want to thin the sauce too much whilst it's cooking), and mix the orzo into the sauce for just a minute or two longer.

Assuming the pork has fnished cooking at the same time as the sauce and the orzo, pour the orzo / sauce combination on to your plate, and slice the pork into medallions and place attractively on to the sauce bed. For extra points, scatter some torn up fresh basil leaves or nasturtium flowers into some of the gaps.

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