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Pork loin tournedos with cream, Calvados and prunes.

Pork & charcuterie-based cooking

Pork Loin Tournedos with Cream and Calvados

By Jacques Pépin

Jacques Pépin serves browned pork loin chops with plump prunes and a generous coating of Calvados cream. The apple brandy brings fragrance to the savoury pan juices; the prunes add a dark, mellow sweetness. A little lemon rind gives the sauce a fresh aromatic finish. Rich enough for a special lunch, the dish keeps a pleasing simplicity: substantial pieces of pork, soft fruit and a smooth sauce brought together in the pan.

Prep
Not stated
Cook
Not stated
Total
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Serves6
Jump to recipe ↓KQED / Essential Pépin ↗

Ingredients

Pork and Calvados cream

Method

  1. Put the prunes in a saucepan, cover with cold water and bring to a boil. Remove from heat, cover and allow to cool in their liquid.
  2. Preheat the oven to 150°F / about 66°C for holding the pork warm.
  3. Heat the oil in a large heavy skillet. Season the chops with salt and pepper and cook over medium-high heat for 5 minutes per side. Transfer to a platter and keep warm in the oven.
  4. Cook shallots or spring onions in the pan for 1 minute. Add Calvados or applejack and stock and bring to a boil. Add cream, bring back to a boil and cook 1 minute. Stir in potato starch dissolved in the tablespoon of water and bring to a boil. Thin with extra stock or reduce further if needed; taste for seasoning. Stir in the minced fresh lemon rind. Strain through a fine sieve.
  5. Place a chop on each of six plates and top each with two prunes. Arrange the remaining prunes around the meat and coat generously with sauce.

Equipment

Saucepan with lid; Large heavy skillet; Fine sieve; Ovenproof platter

Notes

  • Use Calvados or applejack. Chopped spring onions are an alternative to shallots.
  • Start the prunes with enough time for them to cool, covered, in their cooking liquid. No cooling duration or complete elapsed time is given.
  • Dissolve the potato starch in cold liquid before adding it to the hot sauce. Arrowroot is another starch Pépin discusses; cornflour is a fallback with a more gelatinous result.
  • If the sauce needs loosening, add a little chicken stock. If it is thin, reduce it further, then check the seasoning.
  • Finely mince the fresh lemon rind for the finishing stage. Follow the Method’s final straining step before coating the pork with sauce.
  • Keep the cooked chops warm at 150°F, approximately 66°C, while making the sauce. This is a holding oven, rather than a further roasting stage.

Photos

1 photo
Pork loin tournedos with cream and CalvadosServingPork tournedos with Calvados cream and prunes

Pork Loin Tournedos with Cream and Calvados

Recipe photos

About this dish

Apple brandy and cream give these pork tournedos a Norman accent. Normandy’s orchards and dairy produce have made apples, Calvados and cream central to the region’s cooking. Pépin brings that flavour combination into a dish of boneless loin chops and prunes, published with the Family Favorites episode of Essential Pépin.

The sauce begins with what the meat leaves in the pan. Shallots soften in those juices before apple brandy and chicken stock are added, followed by cream. The prunes are prepared separately, plumped in water and left to cool, so their sweetness stays distinct beside the savoury pork.

A little potato starch gives the sauce body. Pépin prefers the light texture it produces and warns that cornflour can make a sauce more gelatinous. Adjusting the thickness and passing it through a fine sieve gives this familiar pan-cooked meal its carefully finished character.

Recipe and cooking notes adapted from KQED / Essential Pépin.