Pork loin with garlic, sage and rosemary, apple and black pepper mash & fried apple and asparagus ribbons.

Now that I live in London and away from my family, my mum sometimes feels the need to give me bags of food when I visit home. I am certainly not complaining. These bags of food which then inhabit my cupboards for the next few weeks/months (Well she really only gives me the things she doesn’t like or need. Like Orange flavoured pasta – I’m still yet to use that one.) But this time round she introduced me to the wonder that is a long pork loin. I’ve never cooked it before which means that ANYTHING is on the cards. I sat at the dinner table on Saturday and just stared at it. Thinking through flavour after flavour and wondering what would make this utterly incredible. The thought process really was pretty simple. What goes with Pork; apple. What goes with apple and pork; mash. What goes with mash, apple and pork; pepper. And those four? Mustard. And all that? Fried aspargus and apple. Slightly drooling at this point I managed to pull myself together long enough to make it happen. And then started at my mini canape style treats in delight. Like a roast dinner for borrowers. What a wonderful thought. The individual layers here are what makes it work. The pork is marinated in garlic, sage and rosemary. The mash has stewed apple and black pepper infused within it. There’s a layer of french mustard in there to give it the kick it needs and the asparagus and apple ribbons are fried in oil and salt. It just works. Makes 12 mini canape bites Ingredients Needed: 1 large pork loin 4 cloves crushed garlic Rosemary and Sage Ground black pepper 6 green apples French Mustard 3 large baking potatoes 2 Tbsp butter 1/2 cup of sugar Preheat the oven to 180C. Take the herbs and garlic and mixing them together with a little salt and oil. Rub this on the pork making sure that all areas or covered. Wrap this in clingfilm and leave in the fridge for at least one hour. After the hour is up, take out the meat and, using a sharp knife, cut through the pork and create thick slices. Lay these out on an ovenproof dish and cook for 10 minutes on each side. Meanwhile, make your mash by boiling the potatoes in water with some salt. While the potatoes are cooking, peel the apples, taking care to keep the peelings quite long, and chop them into small chunks. Place these in a pan with half a cup of sugar and half a cup of water, and stew. When both pans are ready and waiting, drain the potatoes and start to mash with the butter. Add the stewed apples and a pinch of the pepper. TASTE. Add more pepper if you need. Take a frying pan and heat some oil and salt (on a low heat) then add the ribboned asaparagus and the apple peel. Fry these until crispy. Drain. Lay out the pork on the plate and add a layer of the mustard. Lay a spoonful of the mash mixture on top of that and then the fried greens. And voila. (You can fit a whole one of these in your mouth at once. I tried. With a few of them.)