Medallions on asparagus and mushroom ragout

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 12 pork medallions from fillet, or tournedos
• Black pepper, freshly ground
• Salt
• 500 g white asparagus
• 500 g asparagus, green
• 500 g mushrooms, brown
• 30 g butter
• Sugar
• cognac
• 1 bunch dill, fresh, chopped
• 400 ml vegetable stock (or veal stock)
• 200 ml cream
• 200 ml crème fraîche
• Black pepper, freshly ground

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour; Total time approx. 1 hour

Melt the butter in a large, shallow saucepan, then add the salt and sugar. Sauté the mushrooms and then remove them. First, fry the white asparagus, then add the green asparagus a little later. Toss everything together and add the mushrooms again. Add the stock and cream and cook until the asparagus is cooked but still crunchy. If desired, lightly thicken with a little cornstarch. Stir in the chopped dill and crème fraîche and season to taste. Fry the medallions (or tournedos) to taste and season with salt and pepper, then arrange on top of the ragù. New potatoes go well with this. Without the mushrooms and with a squeeze of lemon, the ragù also goes well with salmon. In this case, however, use vegetable or fish stock instead of veal stock. Either fry the salmon fillet and arrange it on top of the ragù, or cut the fish into small pieces and add it at the end of the ragù’s cooking time. It doesn’t need to be cooked any further, as the salmon cooks in 1-2 minutes and stays moist. In this case, I serve the ragout in a crust of rice.