Pork steak with apple sauce is an amazingly delicious yet very easy and quick dish to prepare. Pork shoulder steak is just heavenly when cooked this way as it will be juicy and just bursting with flavor. It truly is a simply yet delightful treat for the palate. The sauce has plenty of apples in it and the fennel gives it that hint of aniseed flavor.

The real secret of this recipe is that by using a decent amount of vinegar in the sauce you can whisk in a bit of cold butter as the very last step. The small particles of butter will emulsify readily throughout the sauce, giving it a nice reflective finish and scrumptious flavor.

Ingredients

• 2 Pound of Pork Steaks
• 1 Knob of Butter
• Salt, Pepper and Ground Cinnamon to Taste (I will leave this up to you this time as I tend to get a little heavy-handed with the spices when it comes to big juicy shoulder pork steaks)

Dijon Apple Sauce

• 3 Apples
• 5 Cloves Garlic
• 1 Shallot
• ¼ Cup each of Cider Vinegar and White Wine (more as needed)
• 2 Tablespoons of Dijon
• 1 Tablespoon of Butter
• Ground Cloves, Cardamom and Thyme
• Some Fennel Fronds

Method

1. Finely mince the shallot and garlic (use a garlic press is easiest)
2. Peel and dice the apples
3. Season the pork steaks with salt, pepper, and a light dusting of cinnamon
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
5. While oven is warming melt a knob of butter in a fry pan (I prefer the cast iron variety)
6. Once the butter has melted add the pork steaks and brown on all sides for about 3 minutes
7. Now transfer the pork steaks to an oven rack and place into oven to finish cooking. If you are unsure of judging when the pork is done, use a cooking thermometer to measure the inside temperature of the pork steaks. When they reach about 170 degrees F they will be done.

Sauce

Make the sauce while the pork steaks are in the oven finishing. Use the same pan you browned the pork in leaving all juices in the pan.

1. First of all sauté the shallots for about 2 minutes
2. Then add the apples and cook for another 5 minutes
3. Finally add the garlic and continue cooking for another 2 minutes with the occasional stir
4. Now it is time to deglaze the pan with the white wine
5. Once deglazed add the vinegar, Dijon, fennel fronds and other spices to the pan and simmer while gently stirring for another 3 minutes
6. You can now leave the sauce to simmer for about another 4 to 8 minutes and stir occasionally as you check to make sure that it is simmering and not boiling
7. Now empty sauce into food processor and puree it. Wipe the cast iron fry pan with a paper towel to remove lumps. Once the sauce has been pureed pour it through a strainer back into your cast iron pan.
8. Return pan and strained pureed sauce to a medium heat and reduce until the texture and consistency is how you like it
9. Once the sauce is done remove it from the heat and quickly whisk in a knob of cold butter. Speed is critical here. Don’t let the sauce cool before whisking in the cold butter or the final sheen effect will be lost.

Serve

Place pork steaks onto serving plates with side servings of vegetables. Add a dollop of butter to the vegetables and spoon the sauce liberally over the pork steaks. Finally trickle some sauce over the buttered vegetables.

Eat immediately and enjoy!