Pork Sirloin with Roquefort Sauce & Valencian Cuisine

Posted on Jan 10, 2025 in Hospitality and Tourism

Pork Sirloin with Roquefort Sauce

Ingredients

For the Roquefort Sauce:

  • 300 milliliters of skim milk
  • 100 grams of Roquefort cheese
  • 1 onion
  • 1 spoonful of cornflour
  • 1 spoonful of olive oil, salt, and ground black pepper

For the Pork and Potatoes:

  • 2 pork sirloins
  • 8 medium potatoes
  • 2 onions
  • 1 spoonful of herbs: oregano, thyme, and rosemary

Instructions

  1. Peel the onions and slice them thinly. In a frying pan or pot with a little oil, add the onions with some salt, and sauté over medium heat for 10 minutes, until they are translucent but not browned. Crumble the Roquefort cheese and add it to the onions when they are ready. Stir until the cheese melts.
  2. In a glass, blend some of the milk with the cornflour, and dissolve it with a teaspoon.
  3. Once the Roquefort has melted, add the milk and cornflour mixture, stirring constantly. Gradually add the rest of the milk, stirring continuously. Add a pinch of black pepper to taste.
  4. Remove from heat and let it rest for 5-10 minutes until it thickens slightly. If it becomes too thick, add a little more milk. If it is too liquid, dissolve some more cornflour in milk and add it. Remove from heat when it starts to thicken and let it rest.
  5. Peel the potatoes, wash them, and cut them into small wedges. Place them in a microwave-safe container and add some salt, oil, black pepper, and your preferred herbs: oregano, thyme, or rosemary. Close the container and shake well to coat the potatoes with the mixture.
  6. Leave the container slightly open and microwave for 10 minutes at full power. Check the potatoes: if they can be easily pierced with a fork, they are ready.
  7. In a frying pan over medium heat, sauté the potatoes for 5 minutes. Set aside.
  8. Peel the onions and cut them into thin slices. In the same frying pan, sauté them with a little oil and salt for a few minutes until they are slightly golden. Set aside.
  9. Cut the sirloins into fillets about half an inch thick. Heat a frying pan with a very small amount of oil, and cook the sirloins to your liking.

Traditional Valencian Cuisine

Valencia is, and always will be, linked to paella. The original version contains garrofón (a type of lima bean), green beans, chicken, rabbit, and rice. These ingredients are well-known internationally. However, the gastronomy of the Valencian Community has much more to offer. Fresh fish from the Mediterranean, garden produce, meat, sweets, and the famous horchata are products that make it a rich and varied cuisine.

Among all the ingredients of Valencian gastronomy, rice is prominent. It is popularly said that there are as many ways to prepare it as there are families who cook it. One of the most traditional recipes consists of rice, chicken, rabbit, tomato, and saffron, cooked in a paella pan over an orange tree firewood fire.

Seafood paella is also very popular, as are other varieties of rice dishes: arròs negre (cooked with squid ink), arròs amb crosta, arròs amb fesols i naps (rice with beans and turnips), or vegetable rice. Very similar to paella is fideuà, originally from Gandia, which replaces rice with thin noodles.

Beyond rice, Valencian cuisine has countless tasty and lesser-known dishes. In winter, for example, stews are ideal: l’olla de recapte, typical of Morella, contains vegetables, cured meats, and beef; l’olla de cardets, with thistles, beets, beans, and egg; l’olla barrejada, whose main ingredients are lamb, bacon, and chickpeas.