Prune Sauce For Meat Or Game Recipes

Steps:

• Pat chicken thouroughly dry with paper towel and sprinkle sides with salt and pepper In a 10 to 12-inch skillet melt two tablespoons of butter and two tablespoons of oil over high heat.
• Add chicken skin-side down and reduce heat to moderate.
• Fry until sides are golden brown.
• (Don't worry if the inside is pink, we will be cooking the chicken more later) Transfer the chicken to a plate.
• Add the celery, carrot, and onion to the fat remaining in pan, stirring occasionally, and cook until the vegetables are soft but NOT brown.
• Return the chicken to the pan and lay the parsley and bay leaf on top.
• Pour in 1/2 cup of chicken broth.
• Bring to a boil over high heat.
• Lower the heat and simmer for thirty minutes, basting it from time to time with the juices in the pan Meanwhile, in a saucepan, combine 1 1/2 cups of water, the 1 1/2 cups of prunes, the lemon juice, and the sugar.
• Place on high heat.
• Bring prunes to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes or until prunes are tender.
• Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F.
• Remove the chicken from the skillet and arrange attractively on an ovenproof platter.
• Scatter the cooked prunes over the top.
• Cover the platter loosely with foil and put it into the oven.
• Press hard on the vegetables with a spoonback releasing the juices.
• Discard vegetables.
• Set juices aside.
• Melt two tablespoons of butter in the skillet and add the flour.
• Cook on high heat until flour is golden brown.
• Pour in the 1/2 cup of reserved prune juice and the 1/2 cup of reserved pan juices (if there is less then 1/2 cup, make up for it by augmenting it with the chicken broth) Boil until sauce is smooth and thickened.
• Serve at once.

Steps:

• Place a deep skillet or casserole that can be covered over medium-high heat, and add oil. Brown meat well on all sides, seasoning with salt and pepper, for 10 minutes; remove with a slotted spoon.
• In same pot over medium-high heat, sauté onion and tomatoes with a large pinch of salt and some pepper. When they soften, about 5 minutes, stir in paprika, cinnamon, and bay leaf. Return meat to pan, and add stock and wine; bring to a boil, then lower heat, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes. If mixture starts to dry, add a little water or stock.
• Remove cinnamon and bay leaf, and stir in sugar and prunes. Simmer until prunes and meat are soft, another 30 to 45 minutes. (Dish can be made in advance to this point; let sit for a few hours, or cover and refrigerate for up to a day before reheating and proceeding.) When meat is very tender, uncover pot and add vinegar; if necessary, raise heat so sauce thickens and becomes glossy. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and serve hot, garnished with parsley.

Steps:

• Put oven rack in lower third of oven and preheat oven to 375°F.
• Halve pork loin crosswise, then pat dry and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt and 3/4 teaspoon pepper (total). Heat oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then brown pork, 1 piece at a time, turning occasionally, 6 to 8 minutes per piece. Transfer to a small flameproof roasting pan as browned (do not clean skillet) and roast pork until thermometer inserted diagonally at least 2 inches into meat registers 150°F, 40 to 50 minutes.
• While pork roasts, peel, quarter, and core apples, then cut into 1/4-inch-thick wedges. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon fat from skillet, then cook onion in skillet over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, 3 to 5 minutes. Add apples, prunes, broth, and water and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until apples are tender, 10 to 12 minutes. Stir in cream and mustard and simmer until sauce is slightly thickened, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat and keep sauce warm, partially covered.
• Transfer pork to a cutting board and let stand 10 minutes. Add wine to roasting pan and boil over high heat, stirring and scraping up brown bits, until reduced to about 1/4 cup, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir pan juices into cream sauce along with remaining 3/4 teaspoon salt and remaining 3/4 teaspoon pepper and heat sauce over moderate heat, stirring, until hot.
• Discard string from pork and cut each half crosswise into 4 slices. Serve pork with sauce.

Steps:

• Cut meat into 4 serving-size pieces. Spread both sides of meat with the mustard; sprinkle with peppercorns.
• In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Cook meat 3 to 4 minutes per side or until desired doneness. Remove from skillet; keep meat warm. Carefully add broth and vinegar to skillet, stirring to scrape up browned bits. Add sugar and prunes. Boil gently 3 to 5 minutes or until liquid is reduced by half. Whisk in butter to melt. Pour sauce over meat.