“A French politician representing a somewhat backward district in Africa was some time ago found to have been eaten by his constituents. The journalist who discovered this used the phrase: ‘Je crois qu’il a passé par la casserole’ (I think he ended up in a casserole.) Clearly, the Africans knew what they were about. For making a delicious meal out of tough and intractable material, the casserole has no rival; and though, traditionally, most casseroles are oven dishes, all but the ones needing a crusty top can very well be done on a gas-ring over a low heat.”

Katharine Whitehorn, Cooking In A Bedsitter

This is a favourite. You can rely on the meat to be good because it’s fillet. You can get plums all through the year (but if you can’t find any use prunes). It’s a sort of British take on sweet and sour pork, with, as the Chief Taster comments, “a good, strong, rich taste”.

It couldn’t be simpler, it will take about five minutes to prepare, but you do need to allow time for it to cook.

If you happen to have bought all the ingredients the day before, stone and halve the plums and soak them in the port overnight.

It goes particularly well with garlicky mashed potatoes or Greco-Italian potatoes with greens. There’s lots of juice, so whatever you serve it with needs to be able to soak it all up.

This dish freezes well, and it’s also one of those that tastes better a couple of days after you’ve made it.

Recipe for ludicrously simple pork with plums

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 700g/1½ lbs pork fillet
• 6 fresh ripe plums (if you can’t find any, use prunes) – you can also substitute a couple of the plums for ten or so pitted cherries
• 240g/8 oz bottle plum sauce
• 60 ml/¼cup/4 tbsps port or marsala, or madeira
• salt and pepper
• a little butter for browning

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 150°C.
2. Cut the pork into medallions about 1 cm/½” thick, and brown them on the hob in a smallish ovenproof casserole.
3. Halve and stone the plums and add to the casserole. Pour over the port, or whatever hooch you are using.
4. Pour over the plum sauce. Get it all to a gentle simmer.
5. Cover the dish with foil (or a lid), and put in the oven for about an hour and a half. Then take off the foil, raise the temperature to about 180ºC, and continue to cook for another twenty minutes or so, to get the juices good and syrupy. Season to taste.
6. Ta Da!