Pork Normandy

Normandy Pork

Normandy is a northern region of France known especially for the Allied beach landings on D-Day, on June 6th 1944, but also, as one would expect from any region of France, for its gastronomy. This post will show you how to make my version of pork Normandy, a dish inspired by the local ingredients available in this beautiful part of France.

Normandy

Normandy is a wonderful region of France. I have visited Normandy several times over the years. School trips to see the Bayeux tapestry and Mont Saint-Michel, and passing through on family holidays on the way to Brittany.

 

I once visited all five Normandy WWII beaches together with my sons and a good friend of mine, in one long day, starting at Carentan and ending up at Pegasus beach near Ouistreham. We ended up eating early in an amazing restaurant, but my kids were so filthy from climbing through the bunkers at Pointe du Hoc, that the restaurant owner did his best to get us out of the restaurant before his main guests arrived!

Apart from the incredibly moving D-day sights, Normandy is known for its dairy cattle and apples. From this comes such divine dairy foods like Camembert, Neufchâtel and Boursin cheese, amongst others. Also, cider and calvados (apple brandy) are local specialities, as well as cream, all of which I use in this recipe.

Pork Normandy

There are quite a few ways to make a Pork Normandy dish, but really it should contain apples, cider, calvados and cream to get the most of the Normandy ingredients. You may find it in different forms served with pork chops or even as a slow-cooked casserole, but the apple flavour will be in there somewhere.

 

I have used some pork tenderloin as it is easy to obtain here locally, and I think also very easy to cook in the oven, rather than watching it constantly on the stovetop.

You can serve this dish with some fresh vegetables. Here I served up with some new potatoes and some boiled sugar snaps. Super tasty!

I hope you enjoy making this dish. If you do, please let me know how you get on in the comments section below!

Enjoy!

How to make Pork Normandy

Pork Normandy

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This tasty Pork Normandy dish gets its inspiration from ingredients produced in the northern region of France known as Normandy. Cider, apples, Calvados and cream. Delicious!

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 35 minutes

Total Time 40 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 pork tenderloin
• 1 knob butter
• 300ml apple cider
• 100ml calvados (Apple brandy)
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 spring onions. finely chopped
• 1 small shallot, finely chopped
• 2 apples, peeled (I used Pink Lady apples)
• 100ml cream
• 1 tsp grain mustard
• Salt and black pepper

Instructions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C.
2. Season the pork tenderloin with salt and freshly ground pepper. Then seal the pork in a skillet by frying on all sides for about 5 minutes in the butter (I cut my tenderloin in two to fit in the pan).
3. Then place in a baking tray, cover with tin foil, and cook in the oven at 180C for 30-35 minutes, or until you reach your preferred level of doneness. This will depend on your oven and the thickness of the pork. [We do not like our pork underdone or pink.] I always cut a slice to check, before leaving to rest outside the oven for 5 minutes before carving and serving.
4. In the meantime make some apple purée with the apples. After peeling the apples, and chopping them into blocks, cook them on a low heat in a saucepan, adding 100ml of cider, the lemon juice and some water if necessary. Slowly reduce to a purée, using a potato masher to mash when the apples have softened. It should take about 25 minutes to get a nice smooth apple purée.

To make the sauce

1. Lightly fry the chopped shallots and spring onions in a skillet. Then add the calvados and 200ml cider and cook on a low heat allow to reduce.
2. Then whisk in the apple purée and add the mustard. Finally, add the cream slowly, stirring as you go, to finish off the sauce.
   

Notes

Serve the pork sliced with the creamy apple sauce next to it. Serve up with some fresh vegetables.

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