I bought beautiful pork rump steaks and concocted a sauce of dried cranberries and cranberry juice with additional flavour interest from mustard, soy and juniper, and served it with grilled slices of lime to finish it off. This recipe pairs well with this column.

Ingredients

2 pork rump steaks, about 400 g each

3 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp canola oil

350 ml cranberry juice

250 ml chicken or vegetable stock

1 Tbsp Hot English Mustard

1 Tbsp dark soy sauce

2 Tbsp dried cranberries

1 Tbsp juniper berries

1 Tbsp Szechuan peppercorns

2 rosemary sprigs

Juice and grated zest of 1 lime

Salt and black pepper to taste

1 lime, sliced

For the cabbage:

1 cup red cabbage, shredded

3 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp olive oil

Juice of ½ a lemon

Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Preheat the oven to 180℃. Melt the butter in a heavy pan and add the oil. Brown the steaks fat-side down first until the fat is well caramelised (hold them with tongs to prevent them toppling over). Then fry both sides until nicely browned. Transfer the steaks to an oven pan and put it in the preheated oven for them to finish cooking. About 20 minutes. 

Meanwhile, make the savoury cranberry sauce. Add the juice and stock to the same pan you browned the steaks in, on the heat. Scrape the bottom with a flat-edged wooden spoon to take advantage of the flavour from the caramelisation.

Whisk in the mustard so that it melds completely into the sauce. Add the juniper berries and Szechuan peppercorns, then the rosemary, soy sauce, lime juice and zest and season with salt and black pepper. Cook rapidly until reduced by half, then strain and discard the peppercorns, rosemary twigs and juniper berries. Add the dried cranberries to the sauce and simmer gently for about five minutes until the sauce thickens and the cranberries plump up. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed.

Slice a lime thinly and brown in butter until caramelised on both sides.

Toss the shredded cabbage in hot butter and oil until just wilted, then squeeze in lemon juice and season with salt and pepper.

Serve the pork steaks on a bed of the cabbage, with the sauce, and garnished with the charred lime. Something green such as green beans stirred in butter with salt and pepper would be good on the side. DM/TGIFood

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