Pork Tenderloin with Sprouts and Hasselbäck Potatoes

... yet more of those damn sprouts to use up!

Thankfully, this is the last of the Christmas sprouts - they are gorgeous, but you can have too much of a good thing. We'll give it a break for a while.

That's the sprouts, what are Hasselbäck potatoes? Simple - they're just roast potatoes done a little differently, Hasselbäckspotatis in Swedish, from the Hasselbäcken restaurant in Stockholm.

Let's put this together ...

First, the potatoes and the onion since these are going to take the longest to roast - set aside an hour for the cooking.

The onion is easy - simply cut in half, sandwich a good slice of butter in the middle, wrap tightly in tin foil and bung it in the oven set to 200C for the hour.

Toss in a dish of goose fat as well, to warm through.

Meanwhile, prepare the potatoes. Peel and half a number of medium sides potatoes. Lay a couple of spoons, chopsticks or whatever you have to have down on the chopping board and place each potato in turn  between the sticks. This is so that when the cut through the potato it does not cut all the way through.

Slice each potato through, down to the chopsticks, about a millimetre or so apart. As they bake, they will open up. For a neat twist on this, cut also longways to make a hedgehog!

Retrieve the dish of goose fat from the oven and place the potatoes in, spooning over the fat to get the cooking started. In they go, 50 minutes will do fine.

So, about half an hour from the end, get the pork started.

I had a loin about a foot in length, so cut in half and browned off in a skillet on the hob for maybe 10 minutes in total, turning when necessary. Place a good few sage leaves between the two pieces and put the skillet into the oven ... we've 20 minutes to go, but we'll want to get the pork out in 10-15 minutes. After 10-15 minutes, retrieve the skillet with the pork. Careful! Hot! Cover with foil and set aside to rest.

Meanwhile, the sprouts. Cut the bottoms off the sprouts and remove some of the more bitter outer leaves. There is no need to mark an X in the bottom of each - this serves no purpose in my mind, if anything leaving the sprouts too cooked. We want crunch! Boil for 5-10 minutes.

Now, the jus - take the pork out of the skillet and place the skillet back on the hob. Add butter and whisk like the clappers with a little white wine. Get all those pork and sage flavours released and into the liquid. Set to reduce, then strain. That's your jus.

Ready to serve?

Cut the pork into slices just shy of an inch each, arrange around the plate, likewise, the potatoes and the sprouts. Place the onion alongside and spoon the jus over.

Cod, Chorizo, Sprouts & Chestnuts

Christmas, certainly here in the UK, seems more a celebration of Brussels sprouts than it does the birth of Our Lord!

We go crazy for these things ... overbuying, and often having to throw out the surplus when they get past their best.

There are more than a few things that you can do with a glut of food - the first, and most obvious, is soup; the second, simply celebrate the glut by making up a huge plate of them!

To work ...

Starting with the Brussels sprouts, let's just have a think around what goes well with strong green vegetables. Well, they like something meaty and salty: Chorizo is perfect! Cod goes well with chorizo, so we've got our protein and fat sorted.

Anything else? Well, black pepper, some herbs: chives, in this case, chestnuts, simply because we only have them at Christmas to eat with sprouts and again, buy too many, some mashed potato to bulk out the meal and finally, some chilli over the top because chilli makes everything better.

Method?

Begin by peeling and boiling a couple of large potatoes, one per person.

While they're boiling, cut off the bottoms of the sprouts and remove some of the more bitter outer leaves. There is no need to mark an X in the bottom of each - this serves no purpose in my mind, if anything leaving the sprouts too cooked. We want crunch!

Over the sprouts, steam some cod.

In a large skillet, begin with some goose fat (which is also something which seems to be bought only at Christmas, but I will be continuing with this as my primary cooking fat since it is both delicious and seriously healthy) ... where was I? Fry off some cubes of chorizo, chopped onion and garlic.

Drop the chestnuts into the skillet and continue to fry the mixture.

Drain the sprouts and add to the skillet.

Drain the potatoes, mash with butter and place a mound in the middle of each bowl.

Flake the fish into the skillet and give the whole lot a good toss through, finally adding in the black pepper and shredded chilli.

Serve out around the mashed potato, garnishing with herbs: chives, here, parsley or coriander would also work very nicely.

What do YOU want?

Happy New Year!

Happy new year to all my readers, followers, fans and friends ... actually, you're all friends.

It's a new year and I'd like to make the best of the opportunity by asking you guys what you'd like to see, what you'd like to read and which way you'd like to see things progressing.

We all know that paleo is quite a loose description, some of us have one view, others, quite another, but we all hang together with something in the middle in mind.

Living in the Ice Age is an ancestral focussed food blog. I prepare, eat and enjoy real food, made from real ingredients.

I'd like this to be an open post ...

In the comments, pop up an idea, a request, a challenge ... I'll do my best to work it in and show you how I'd do it.

Also, if you're having difficulties, post up a question ... I'll do my best to help you out.