Pork tenderloin roasted in rosemary salt with fingerling potatoes

You definitely can’t tell from my latest forays in the kitchen but I love pork. Pork chops, ribs, bacon, tenderloin, it doesn’t matter. The other days Loblaws had pork tenderloin on sale for some ridiculous price so I bought a 2-pack for about $3.50! A few months earlier I was reading the La Times food section and came upon this recipe for a tenderloin baked in salt. I have seen salt-baked food in a lot of recipes and restaurants recently so I sent the recipe to myself and figured I’d make it (or not) eventually.

This is another easy one… just set it and forget. The only really active part is searing the meat at first but other than that, that’s pretty much it. The potatoes go in whole and the recipe doesn’t really call for too muck knifework.

I followed the recipe almost exactly except that I was worried that the meat wouldn’t have enough flavour so I added some garlic cloves (cut in half) to the salt mixture and made sure they were evenly distributed. No problems with that addition at all but after tasting it I think it was unnecessary — the rosemary flavour really came through.

Now the question everyone always asks is if the meat ends up being salty. Not at all! The only pain the a** part is making sure to brush off every morsel of salt off of the potatoes and meat. Seriously, it wasn’t fun. AND it’s hard to keep the salt off once you start brushing because it goes EVERYWHERE. Besides that the meat ends up delicious and moist. Perfectly cooked. The potatoes on the side were kind of amazing. I used mini yukon golds instead of fingerlings and they turned out so creamy and soft. It may be my new fave way to make potatoes. And the shallot butter is totally yum.

The LA Times cooking section is pretty new to me. I’ve NEVER made anything from there and rarely find things that I think I want to make. This recipe was a total hit and for sure in my new rotation.

Pork tenderloin roasted in rosemary salt with fingerling potatoes

Note: The pork may be seared in advance.2 tablespoons snipped rosemary leaves
6 cups coarse salt
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 (1 1/4 -pound) pork tenderloin
1 pound fingerling potatoes, scrubbed but unpeeled
1 tablespoon butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon minced shallots1. Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Combine the rosemary and the salt in a large mixing bowl and stir in 1 cup of water until the texture is that of gritty snow.2. In a large skillet, heat the oil until the surface ripples. Pat the pork tenderloin dry with paper towels and sear it in the hot oil until it is browned on all sides, about 8 minutes.3. While the pork is browning, spoon a layer of salt about one-fourth-inch thick in the bottom of a gratin or baking dish just big enough to hold the pork and the potatoes in a single layer.

4. When the pork is browned, pat it dry with a paper towel to remove any excess oil and place it in the gratin dish, laying it down the center. Arrange the potatoes around the outside and cover everything with the remaining salt.

5. Roast until the pork reaches an internal temperature of 145 degrees, about 20 to 25 minutes. At this point, the pork will be quite moist but still a little pink. If you prefer the pork to be more cooked, push the temperature to 150, about 5 more minutes. Remove the baking dish from the oven and set aside 5 minutes to finish cooking.

6. With a sturdy metal spoon or chef’s knife, chip a crack around the base of the salt crust and carefully lift off the top. Use a dry pastry brush to brush away any salt on the surface of the potatoes or the pork, turning the pork over to brush all sides. Transfer the pork to a carving board. Slice the pork into medallions one-fourth-inch thick and arrange on a serving platter. Place the potatoes in a medium bowl and toss with the shallots and butter just until coated, discarding any excess butter. Arrange the potatoes around the outside of the pork and serve immediately.

(From the LA Times)

Orecchiette with Turkey Sausage and Broccoli Rabe

I made something with broccoli rabe a few nights ago and wanted a way to finish the bunch without resorting to just steaming it or sauteeing it with olive oil and garlic. One pasta dish that I tend to gravitate towards at an Italian restaurant is Orecchitte with sausage and broccoli rabe… so I decided to take it there.

I had an idea that it was a pretty simple dish without a sauce but I wasn’t quite sure how it was all supposed to come together and not just be a dry lump of pasta, sausage and broccoli rabe. This is where Giada comes in.

On the food network website (and I’m sure in one of her cookbooks) Giada has a recipe for the dish that looked pretty easy. And of course it was.  Maybe too simple.  I thought the dish lacked something.  I added extra pepper and parmesan but it didn’t quite do it for me.  Would I make it again?  Maybe.  But I’d have to think of a way to kick it up a notch.  I’d maybe try using pork sausage instead of turkey.  I bought turkey sausage from Whole Foods, they were OK but not wonderful

For the record I used fusilli as my pasta.  It wasn’t a political decision.  None of the supermarkets nearby had orecchiette except for whole foods — but they were charging almost $4 a box and that was NOT cool.

ORECCHIETTE WITH TURKEY SAUSAGE AND BROCCOLI RABE

2 bunches broccoli rabe, stems trimmed
1 pound orecchiette pasta
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound turkey Italian-style sausage, casings removed
3 garlic cloves, minced
Pinch dried crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 cup grated Parmesan

Cook the broccoli rabe in a large pot of boiling salted water until crisp tender, about 1 minute. Transfer the broccoli rabe to a large bowl of ice water to cool, saving the cooking water. Bring the reserved cooking water back to a boil.

Heat the oil in a heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add the sausage and cook, breaking it up into pieces with a spoon, until browned and juices form, about 12 minutes.Add the garlic and red pepper flakes, and saute until fragrant, about 2 minutes.

Meanwhile, when the reserved cooking water is boiling, add the orecchiette and cook until al dente, tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes.

Strain the broccoli rabe and add it to the pan with the sausage mixture and toss to coat with the juices. Add the pasta to the skillet. Stir in the Parmesan and serve immediately.

Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentiis

Martha Stewart’s Gingerbread Cake (sans Chocolate Ganache)

 

I have a slight obsession with Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook. I don’t actually use it that often but I LOVE to read it. I’ll seriously just pick it up and flip through it like a magazine… and pretty much drool over the photos.

The other day I found myself wanting to bake something. I also had a container of molasses that I never use. I thought why not do something with gingerbread. I wanted to make gingerbread men but didn’t have cooking cutters OR a rolling pin (craziness if you ask me!) so I went for the gingerbread.

I found a fairly easy recipe in the baking handbook for Gingerbread with Chocolate Ganache. I wasn’t in the mood for the ganache so I just made the bread. The recipe is actually for cute individual little cakes but I didn’t feel like going the muffin tin route so I made one big loaf.

The taste was good BUT my main issue was the texture. It was WAY too soft and crumbly. Not sure what to attribute that to. But I did appreciate the moistness of the cake, just not the crumbliness. My butter was rock hard so I nuked it for a few seconds but then it was TOO soft… not sure if that had any impact. There was also too much of a molasses taste to the cake.

Would I make this again? Maybe. I’d probably want to figure out the texture issue and do a frosting on top (Starbuck has an OK gingerbread cake that I’d like to replicate with modifications) but I’m not writing it off entirely.

Gingerbread cakes

- 5 Tbsp (60 g) butter, at room temperature, plus more for pan
- 1 ½ cup (215 g) flour, plus more for pan.
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2/3 cup (157 ml) boiling water
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ cup (150 g) packed brown castor sugar
- 1 egg
- 2/3 cup (230 g) unsulfured molasses
- 1 ½ tsp finely grated peeled fresh ginger
- 2 pieces crystallized ginger, thinly sliced lengthwise, for garnish.

1. Preheat the oven to 350 ˚F. (175˚C) Generously butter and flour a standard 12-cup muffin pan, tapping out excess flour. Se aside.

2. In a small bowl, stir together the baking soda and boiling water; set aside.

3. In a medium bowl; sift together the flour, baking powder, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and salt. Set aside.

4. In the bowl of an electric mixer; beat the butter and brown sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the egg, and beat until well combined. Add molasses, fresh ginger, and the baking soda mixture; beat until combined. The batter will look soggy but will come together once the flour is added. Add the flour mixture, and beat until well combined.

5. Divide batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups, filling each about halfway. Bake for about 20 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Transfer to wire rack to cool for 15 minutes. Invert cakes onto rack to cool completely.

(From Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook)

SALMON WITH FENNEL AND PERNOD

I know I ALWAYS say this but this recipe is my new favourite! A great choice for a dinner party…. not that I have those these days given that I’m living Chez La Mere but a girl can dream.

This recipe was in Bon Appetit this month. Here is the link to the page on Epicurious.

The ingredients for the most part are pretty simple.  If you weren’t up for using shallots you could easily substitute part onion and part garlic for the amount.  I used shallots.  What I didn’t buy was the Pernod which is an anise-flavoured liquer.  I went to the LCBO to investigate but didn’t want to spend $26 on a bottle of Pernod.  I checked on the internet for other anise-flavoured liquors and came up with Pastis, Sambuca, Anisette, Ouzo etc but the cheapest bottle and the liquor store was about $14.  Considering I only needed 2 tablespoons and that I have few uses for Pernod or anything of the sort I opted out.  INSTEAD I used anise extract which you can pretty much get at any decent supermarket (it’s in the aisle where you’ll find vanilla extract, spices etc).

I was going to serve this with Orzo but I’m cutting down on my pasta/potato/carb intake so instead I mashed steamed carrots and parsnips and garlic.  DELICIOUS and highly recommended.

If you enjoy the fennel, which I definitely do, try this recipe and be wowed  It’s simple and delicious.

SALMON WITH FENNEL AND PERNOD
1 1/2 teaspoons fennel seeds, crushed
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, room temperature
2 tablespoons minced shallots
1 large fennel bulb with fronds; bulb quartered, then cut lengthwise into 1/4-inch-thick slices; 2 tablespoons fronds chopped, divided

2 6- to 7-ounce salmon fillets
2 tablespoons Pernod or other anise-flavored liqueur
Stir fennel seeds in large nonstick skillet over medium heat until fragrant, about 1 1/2 minutes. Transfer seeds to small bowl; cool. Mix in butter, shallots, and 1 tablespoon fennel fronds; season butter mixture with salt and pepper.

Melt 1 tablespoon butter mixture in same large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add sliced fennel bulb and 1/4 cup water to skillet; cover and cook until fennel is crisp-tender, about 8 minutes. Uncover skillet and sauté until fennel begins to brown, about 2 minutes. Transfer fennel to plate.

Sprinkle salmon with salt and pepper. Add 1 tablespoon butter mixture to same skillet and melt over medium heat. Add salmon; cover and cook 5 minutes. Turn salmon over; add 1/4 cup water to skillet. Cover and continue cooking until salmon is just opaque in center, about 5 minutes longer. Slide salmon to 1 side of skillet; return fennel to skillet. Add Pernod, 2 teaspoons butter mixture, and remaining 1 tablespoon chopped fennel fronds; stir to heat through.

Divide fennel mixture between 2 plates. Top with salmon; spoon remaining butter mixture over salmon.
Bon Appétit
December 2007
The Bon Appétit Test Kitchen

Crusty White Beans with Kale

Again, another delicious recipe from Super Natural Cook by the delightful and beautifully photographed Heidi Swanson.

I had never had Kale before making this recipe but now I’m loving the kale.  In general I like hearty, heavy greens and of course beans so I knew this recipe would be great.  It’s super simple and has sort of a Mediterrean vibe to it.

The most annoying part of the recipe for me is getting the beans to be “crusty”.  I never get them crusty.  Usually my pan is too small so I can’t do the beans in one layer and I’m always too lazy to cook them in multiple batches.  If you have the patience totally do the batches because I think the crustiness would really enhance the dish.

I also wouldn’t use canned beans… I think they might get mushy with the sauteeing.  Canned beans are one of the best canned foods BUT I’m on this kick where I’m all about cooking beans from scratch which can be a long process.  I usually soak them overnight in hot water so the next day they aren’t too bad.  But even with my hot soak I still had to cook these beans for about two hours!  I think these might have been an old batch or something.

To finish the dish definitely top with some good olive oil, freshly grated Parmesan and black pepper.

Recipe below!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb. dried white beans freshly cooked (I cook them with onion and garlic in the water)
• 3 T. olive oil
• salt
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1/2 – 1c. kale, thinly sliced in ribbons

1. Drain the beans and set aside.
2. In a large skillet over med-high, warm the olive oil. Add the beans to the pan in a single layer (do this in batches if they are not all in one layer). Stir to coat them olive oil then let them brown on one side, 3-5 minutes. Turn and allow to brown on the second side.
3. Add a bit of salt to taste, then stir in the onion and garlic. Cook about 1-2 minutes.
4. Stir in the kale and cook until it begins to wilt.
5. If desired drizzle with a touch of olive oil prior to serving.

Caramelized Brown Butter Rice Krispies Treats

For some reason, the NY Times did a little piece about rice krispie treats. But these were no other treats… these were caramelized brown butter rice krispies treats! Don’t they just SOUND magical? They had me at caramelized but really won me over with brown butter. So I filed the recipe away for a rainy day.

WELL it just so happened that I had a ton of Rice Krispies leftover from those power bars I made a little while ago so I went ahead and made them.

They didn’t turn out well BUT I accept full responsibility. What TOTALLY grossed me out about the recipe is that it called for TWO sticks of butter. Seriously. There is nothing good about that. Delicious, yes, but not good for you at all. So I cut back to one stick. Also, the measurements were wonky because the recipe only writes about the ingredients in terms of box sizes but I didn’t have the right sized boxes so I had to go through and convert ounces to cups. Everything was all out of whack!

SO I ended up with a pan of very crunchy and hard rice krispies. They were DELICIOUS but hard to eat. But in my house no treat goes uneaten so we did some experimenting and realized that if you microwave your treat for 20 seconds it gets gooey, soft and warm. Best.Treat.Ever.

Here is a link to the recipe from the NY Times. And here it is below as well. Enjoy and use 2 sticks of butter!

Published: October 31, 2007

Adapted from Colin Alevras

Time: 15 minutes, plus 1 hour cooling

8 ounces butter, salted or unsalted, preferably cultured, plus extra for pan

1 10.5-ounce bag marshmallows

1 12-ounce box Rice Krispies cereal.

1. Line rimmed sheet pan with parchment paper or wax paper, or butter it well.

2. In a large pot, melt butter over medium-low heat. It will melt, then foam, then turn clear golden and finally start to turn brown and smell nutty. Watch closely and stir often.

3. When butter is evenly browned, stir in marshmallows. (If using unsalted butter, stir in 1/8 teaspoon salt.) Melt and cook, stirring often, until mixture turns pale brown, then stir constantly until lightly browned but not dark, 3 to 5 minutes.

4. Turn off heat, add cereal, and mix well, preferably with a silicone spoon or a spatula. Scrape into prepared pan and press down lightly. If necessary, butter hands to press mixture flat. Let cool, and cut into squares or bars.

Yield: 30 to 50 treats.

Shrimp-Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

 

 Honestly, this was one of the yummiest and best dishes I’ve made in a while.  It MAY very well be my new favourite food.

The other day I read something about stuffed mushrooms and I thought to myself I haven’t made those in a while.  So I wrote “Stuffed Portobello” in my handy dandy notebook and continued on with my day.

A few days ago I was flipping through said notebook and saw my note and thought to myself, the time has come.  I usually stuff mushrooms with orzo, couscous, sausage or something else but this time I wanted something different.  So I logged onto Epicurious and did a search and surprisingly didn’t come up with that many options.  BUT I didn’t need options once I saw the recipe for mushrooms stuffed with shrimp.

A note about mushrooms… along with squash they are among my fave foods.  I’ve ALWAYS loved mushrooms like no other.  And if you’ve read this blog before you may have noticed my dependency on shrimp.  So clearly this recipe sounded like heaven.

I’ll paste the recipe below so you too can sample the goodness.

I made a few changes.  For the breadcrumbs I used whole wheat crumbs from my most recent Lahey No-Knead loaf.   I didn’t have fresh basil so I slummed it and used dried.  Believe me, it was just fine.

I served the mushrooms with rapini/ broccoli rabe sauteed with garlic and egg noodles tossed with olive oil and Parmesan.  I made the mistake of serving one per person — definitely serve two.  They are just THAT good.

Enjoy!

SHRIMP-STUFFED PORTOBELLO MUSHROOMS
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
3 large garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
6 ounces cooked bay shrimp
2/3 cup fresh breadcrumbs made from crustless French bread
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup mayonnaise
8 2- to 2 1/2-inch portobello mushrooms, dark gills removed
Heat oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, basil, garlic, and rosemary. Sauté until onion softens, about 5 minutes. Transfer to medium bowl; mix in shrimp, breadcrumbs, cheese, and mayonnaise. Season filling to taste with salt and pepper. Arrange mushrooms, rounded side down, on oiled baking sheet. Mound shrimp filling in mushrooms, pressing filling to compact slightly. (Can be made 6 hours ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake mushrooms until tender and filling begins to brown, about 35 minutes. Serve hot.

Bon Appétit
April 2001

Lahey’s No-Knead Bread — Revisited

Okay, so I know that I wrote about the no-knead bread before BUT I kind of want to chronicle my success/ failure with the bread. So you get other post.

This time around I did about 2/3 whole wheat and 1/3 white. I also decided to kick up the health factor and added ground flax seed to the mix as well. I didn’t measure but it was probably about a 1/4 cup.

For the original recipe from the NY Times either click on the link above or just click here to go directly there.

I did my first rise for about 16 hours and the second rise for a bit over 2 hours.  My dough didn’t rise that great.  It rose a lot during the first rise but not so much in the second.  The dough was also stickier than I could deal with.  I completely massacred the folding over which I think contributes to a weak second rise… but who knows.

Here’s a look at the whole loaf.  I decided to sprinkle with oats instead of wheat germ for no reason other than for kicks.  I like the look of the oats.  And I love that they didn’t scorch at all.

I’m still obsessed with this bread.  And now that it’s winter I want to make it all the time because you have to turn up the oven SO high and so it keeps the house warm and toasty.

Next time I think I’m going to make an all white loaf, mainly to see how much it rises.  I really want my bread to come out looking like a lovely boule.  I think I’m missing that gene.

An Indian Feast! Chicken Saag, Yellow Rice with Peas and Chapatis

Every once in a while I get a wacky idea for an elaborate meal. Just the other day, for instance I wanted to make an Indian feast. My intention was to start it after my 530 yoga class but of course on that particular day I missed the class and had to go to 630 yoga.

Now maybe your ordinary person would think that starting an Indian feast at almost 8PM would be a bad idea. Not me! I forged ahead with confidence, enthusiasm and a hungry belly.

The plan of course was to use my fave Madhur Jaffrey cookbook to prepare Chicken Saag, Yellow Rice with peas and Chapatis… ALL FROM SCRATCH. Oh, and for the record we didn’t have boneless chicken so I had to de-bone chicken legs and thighs too.

I somehow managed to pull this off and have dinner on the table in about an hour and a half. And it was delicious!

All of the recipes came from this Madhur Jaffrey cookbook . I love this book.  You kind of have to get over the fact that Indian cooking requires a bajillion spices and realize that once you have the core stable of them you can make pretty much any dish.

I won’t go on about the whole meal but I do have to say that making chapati is the easiest and best thing I’ve attempted.  The dough is literally a cup of flour (half whole wheat, half white) and 1/2 cup water.  Need the dough for about 10 minutes.  Then you divide it into six, flatten each round on a floured surface.  heat a cast iron pan (I used my crepe pan).  And cook the rounds one at a time on the hot surface for 10 seconds flipping over 2 times for a total of 30 seconds.  then you nuke it for 30 seconds and you have a perfect puffy chapati!  Who knew.  Seriously, whip that out for your next dinner party.