Comfort

Like everyone else, I was horrified and shaken by the news coming out of Virginia Tech today. I had spent the morning complaining to various people (basically, anyone who would listen) about the seemingly interminable cold, gray, and rainy weather we've been having. It's hackneyed, I suppose, but even listening to the news on a "slow day" really puts these gripes in context.

It felt good to come home and go on "autopilot" with busywork for a bit - chopping, stirring. Still, I listened all the while to NPR's coverage of today's tragedy, becoming more and more sick over the chilling events.

I feel almost irreverent posting a recipe on a day like today, when such horrific events occupy all our minds and make us feel guilty for our mundane complaints - make us feel lucky or anxious or scared - make us stop and ask, for the trillionth time: why must these things happen in our world?

Still, one of the wonderful things about a homecooked meal is the ability to comfort, like mom's backrub or clean sheets. For that reason, I'll post the recipe that brought a little bit of warmth to our apartment this evening.

Cooking Light's Barbecue-Rubbed Pork Chops
1 T. brown sugar
1 t. salt
1 t. paprika
1 t. chili powder
3/4 t. garlic powder
3/4 t. ground cumin
1/4 t. dry mustard
1/8 t. allspice
1/8-1/4 t. cayenne pepper
4 (6-0z) bone-in center-cut loin pork chops, trimmed

Combine all spices in a small bowl. Rub onto pork chops. Heat a grill pan over medium-high. Cook chops 2-3 minutes per side. Reduce heat to medium. Cook 8 more minutes, or until done, turning occasionally.

Cheddar Grits
Adapted from Cooking Light
2 cups skim milk
1 1/4 cups water
1 cup polenta meal, coarse-grind
1 cup low-fat sharp cheddar cheese (I like Cabot's 50% Light)
1 T. unsalted butter
Salt and ground pepper

Bring milk and water to a boil over medium-high heat. Whisk in polenta, cover and simmer 20 minutes or until cooked through, stirring occasionally with whisk. Remove from heat and stir in cheddar, butter, and salt and pepper. Add more milk or water if needed to reach desired consistency.

I served this meal with roasted cauliflower.

Back and Refreshed

Back from a needed visit with A and little F in PrettyLittleTown, USA. Thank goodness for them both. And thank goodness for tapas.

I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with the backlog of recipes to be posted, but I'm trying not to let it get me down! Things were quite busy in the week preceding my trip. Work, errands, a myriad of doctor's appointments (the old injury), and Our Hero's monopolization of the computer (for good reason) kept me from updating.

But here I am! I head back to work tomorrow, so spent much of today at various doctor's appointments, seeing our new apartment (which will have a dishwasher!), and stopping by the grocery and post office. I am resisting the impulse to check my email, which is likely full of work-related queries.

While in PrettyLittleTown, A and I cooked dinner in her well-equipped kitchen. A's request was for a pork recipe, as she's as new to the "other" white meat as I. We made an extraordinarily flavorful recipe from Eating Well (to which I now subscribe, having just cancelled my subscription to Everyday Food), pairing tender pork medallions with rich port, sweet figs, fresh thyme, and onions. I continue to be surprised with the flavor and texture of pork tenderloin, an incredibly lean cut of meat. Maybe that's why I can't stop posting pork recipes! A and I had a very civilised dinner of pork; double-baked sweet potatoes; and green salad with pears, pecans, and roquefort. Additionally, we enjoyed some criminally stinky muenster throughout the visit. She is my sweetie. Grab your best friend and enjoy this dinner with lots of leftovers!

Pork Medallions with Fig and Port Wine Sauce
16 small dried black Mission figs, stemmed
1 cup tawny (not ruby) port
2 t. plus 1 T. extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 cup thinly sliced onion
1 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth or stock
1-2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
Kosher salt

Ground pepper
1 pork tenderloin, about 1 lb., trimmed and sliced into 1-inch rounds.

1/4 cup flour (we used oat flour, as it was around)

Place figs in a small microwavable bowl and cover with port. Cover the bowl and microwave on High for 3 minutes. (We approximated this on the stovetop.) Heat 2 t. oil in small saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring, until soft and translucent, 4-6 minutes. Add broth, thyme, bay leaf and the fig-port mixture. Bring to a boil and reduce by half, 10-12 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle pork with salt and pepper. Dredge lightly in flour, shaking to remove excess.

Heat remaining T. olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high. Add medallions and cook until browned, 2-3 minutes per side. Add the reserved fig-port sauce; bring to a simmer and cook until the pork is done, but still a little pink in the center, about 2 minutes. The sauce should be syrupy. If not, remove the medallions with a slotted spoon to a platter and keep warm. Boil the sauce until syrupy. Discard the thyme and bay leaf. Serve.

Exhale

It hasn't been the best of times for me, these past couple of weeks. Things have been highly stressful at work, due to a situation mostly out of my control. I have been operating in and out of sanity for a while, coping with an injury that just isn't healing. Suffice it to say that though things could be worse, they didn't really feel like they've been getting better.

And no, this post isn't going to end with a miraculous cure for my malady or my troubles at work, but Our Hero got some great news today, and after a few days of moping, I seem to be (hopefully) on an upswing. I had plans to cook dinner on Monday and Tuesday night, but just couldn't bring myself to do it. We ended up with delicious (albeit impromptu) California club sandwiches on Monday (turkey, uncured bacon, and avocado) and take-out (an awfully rare occurance in the Hero-Understood household) last night. It was a good excuse for sushi.

But tonight, after a reasonable day's work and a good workout at the gym, I was ready to get my skillet dirty. This recipe is so delicious and healthy. I highly recommend using butter as indicated; it gives the meal needed richness and flavor. I roasted the garlic and shallots a few days earlier, which made this recipe quite easy to prepare for a weeknight. This is also from this month's Cooking Light.

Herb-Crusted Pork Tenderloin
1 whole garlic head
6 medium shallots, quartered
2 T. butter (always unsalted), divided
1 1-lb. pork tenderloin, trimmed
1 1/4 t. chopped fresh thyme, divided (I used dried with great success)
3/4 t. salt, divided
1/2 t. freshly ground black pepper, divided
2 cups (1/2-inch) cubed peeled sweet potato
1 1/4 cups sliced cremini mushrooms
1/2 cup chicken broth or stock
1/3 cup dry white wine
6 cups baby spinach or arugula

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove white papery skin from garlic head (don't peel or separate cloves). Wrap garlic head and each shallot in foil separately. Bake for 1 hour; cool 10 minutes. Separate cloves; squeeze to extract garlic pulp.

Place 1 T. butter in a bowl, microwave until melted (about 15-30 seconds). Brush butter over pork and sprinkle with some of the thyme, salt, and pepper. Heat a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork; cook 5 minutes or until browned on all sides. Slide into oven and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes (slightly pink). Remove pork from pan, tent with foil, and let sit 10 minutes.

While pork is cooking, melt remaining butter in pan over medium-high heat. Add shallots and garlic; saute 2 minutes. Stir in potato; saute 2 minutes. Stir in mushrooms, salt, and pepper; saute 2 minutes. Stir in broth and wine; bring to a boil, cover and simmer until potatoes are tender (6-10 minutes). Stir in greens and thyme; cook until greens are lightly wilted. Slice pork crosswise. Serve pork over potato mixture.

A Few of My Favorite Things

. . . those favorite things being figs and blue cheese. When I came across the recipe for pork tenderloin stuffed with sweet figs and tangy, creamy blue cheese in this month's Cooking Light, I couldn't resist but to give it a whirl. It seemed a perfect choice for a low-key Valentine dinner, paired with orange-chili mashed sweet potatoes, sauteed spinach, and a glass of Sauvingnon Blanc.

I've stuffed chicken breasts in the past, but never a whole pork tenderloin. It was not at all difficult, and I shouldn't have been intimidated by it at all (I was a little anxious about how it would turn out).

Fig and Blue Cheese-Stuffed Pork Tenderloin

1 (1-pound) pork tenderloin, trimmed
1/2 cup dried figs, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. freshly ground black pepper
Cooking spray or olive oil
1 T. apple or apricot jelly, melted

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Slice the pork in half lengthwise, cutting to, but not through, other side. Open the halves, laying pork flat. Place pork between two sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap, pound to 1/2-inch thickness using a meat mallet or small heavy skillet. Sprinkle figs and blue cheese over pork, leaving a 1/2-inch margin around outside edges. Roll up the pork, jelly-roll fashion, starting with the long side. Secure with twine every two inches. Sprinkle roll with salt and pepper, and place on a foil-lined jelly-roll pan coated with cooking spray or olive oil.

Bake at 450 degrees for 20 minutes. Brush jelly over pork. Bake an additional 5 minutes or until a thermometer registers 160 degrees (slightly pink). Let stand for 10 minutes. Discard twine; cut pork into 12 (1-inch thick) slices.

Monochromatic Meal

I am a fan of brightly-colored food, and in terms of visual appeal, I suppose this dish is a bit lacking. It makes up for that in flavor and texture. In my neverending quest to conquer foods with which I am uncomfortable or unfamiliar, I took on the pork loin chop. If you recall, I am still able to count the number of times I've cooked pork on one hand.

In search of a healthy, flavorful pork option, I ran across a recipe I'd clipped from a Cooking Light Idon'tknowhowlongago. Chicken breasts could easily be substituted for the pork. I think the pears sauteed in butter are by far the best part of this dish. I served it on a bed of braised savoy cabbage flavored with a little white wine vinegar.

Peppered Pork and Pears
1 t. olive oil
4 (4-0z) boneless center-cut loin pork chops (pound to about 1/2 inch thick)
2 t. coarsely ground mixed peppercorns or black pepper
1/2 t. salt, divided
1 t. butter
1 cup thinly sliced leek (about 1-2 large, white part only)
2 firm Bartlett or Bosc pears, cored and cut lengthwise into 1/2 inch-thick slices
1/3 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup white wine
1/2 t. rubbed sage

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle pork with pepper and 1/4 t. salt. Add pork to pan; cook 4 minutes on each side or until browned. Remove pork from pan; cover and keep warm.

Add butter and leek to pan; saute 2 minutes or until tender. Add pears. Reduce heat to medium; cook about 2 minutes, stirring gently. Add broth, wine, sage, and remaining salt; bring to a boil. Cook until sauce is slightly thickened, a couple minutes. Spoon sauce over pork.

comfort food

our power didn’t conk out until last sunday morning, so we had just enough time last weekend to believe we were through the woods, buy a fridge full of groceries, and have powerless friends over for dinner saturday night. i thought comfort food would fit the bill considering the snowy, dark, cold circumstances, so i tried cooking a roast. this was my second-ever experiment with pork. you may remember the first time. the food was a huge hit, and even i had to admit it was delicious. i served the roast with a side of sautéed swiss chard with garlic.

a friend with no power had come over to work on a presentation for school (and plug in his laptop), and he walked into the kitchen as i was preparing dinner. i was listening to the classic melancholy sinatra album “in the wee small hours of the morning”, tears STREAMING down my cheeks from the shallots. A bit of an awkward moment until he made the connection between the shallots and my teary eyes . . .

CL’s Pork Roast with White Beans and Cranberries

1 lb. dried navy beans (about 2 cups)
1 5-lb. pork shoulder blade roast, trimmed of fat
1 ½ t. kosher salt, divided
¼ t. ground black pepper
2 t. minced fresh sage, divided (I used dried)
1 ½ cups sliced shallots (about 8 medium)
5 cups water
3 fresh sage sprigs (dried)
½ cups dried cranberries

Sort and wash beans, place in a large dutch oven. Cover with water to 2 inches above beans, cover and let stand 8 hours. Drain.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sprinkle pork roast with salt and pepper. Rub surface of roast with dried sage. Heat a dutch oven over medium-high heat. Lightly coat bottom of pan with cooking spray or oil. Add roast to pan, cooking for 15 minutes, turning to brown on all sides. Remove roast from pan. Add shallots to pan, saute 3 minutes or until tender. Return rast to pan. Add salt, beans, water, and sage to pan, bring to a simmer. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 2 hours. Add dried cranberries to pan; bake an additional 30 minutes or until roast is tender. Remove roast from pan, shred pork with 2 forks.

Serve roast with bean mixture.

the leftover shredded pork, mixed in with the leftover beans and a little water made a great next-day stew!

first day of fall

sorry for the lack of recent posts; i was out of town from this past monday through thursday for work. unfortunately, no food of note on the trip out of town. having very little non-work time to explore denver, more meals than i’d like to admit were provided by the hotel where i stayed. hence, the food was boring, criminally overpriced, and the “healthful” alternatives included a yawn-inducing salad bar and $9 fruit plate with a container of yoplait strawberry yogurt. ech.

thursday night, after a buddy picked me up from the airport, was spent at a rehearsal dinner for two dear friends’ wedding. friday, of course, was the wedding itself. it was a whirlwind week, and last night i was thrilled to prepare and eat my own cooking for the first time since monday lunch (leftover black beans and rice).

though it’s still comfortably warm here in mytown, fall is certainly in the air and in the market. to celebrate the first day of autumn, i decided to cook a quintessential early fall meal. i didn’t grow up eating pork. in fact, believe it or not, i can probably count the numbers of times i’ve eaten pork chops, roasts, or loins on one hand. after many encouraging remarks from fellow “foodies” regarding the beauty of the pork tenderloin, i decided to take a chance on it (for t’s sake). i prepared a lovely dinner of pork tenderloin with roasted apples and onions (thanks Everyday Food) and mashed sweet potatoes (my own recipe). i must admit it was tasty.

Pork Tenderloin with Roasted Apples and Onions
(From Everyday Food)

¼ cup balsamic vinegar
2 T. maple syrup
3 medium red apples, halved, cored, and cut into 8 wedges
1 large red onion, halved and sliced into ½ inch-thick pieces
1 T. olive oil
Coarse salt and ground pepper
2 pork tenderloins (12 oz. each)

Place one oven rack in the top third of oven, and another rack in bottom third. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Make glaze: in a small saucepan, bring vinegar and maple syrup to a boil over high heat; cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture has reduced to ¼ cup, 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat; transfer 1 T. to a small bowl for drizzling and set aside. Reserve the rest of the glaze in saucepan.

On a large rimmed baking sheet (or roasting pan) toss apples and onion and oil. Season with salt and pepper; arrange in a single layer, and roast until golden, about 15 minutes. Remove from oven and toss.

Meanwhile, line another rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil. Place pork on foil. Season generously with salt and pepper; brush with glaze from saucepan. Return apples and onions to oven, on bottom rack. Place pork on top rack; roast 10 minutes. Remove pork from oven; brush with remaining glaze in saucepan. Roast until pork registers 150 degrees internal temperature, and apples and onions are tender, about 10 minutes more.

Transfer pork to a cutting board and let rest 10 minutes. Slice ¼ inch thick; drizzle with reserved T. glaze. Serve with apples and onion.

Wellunderstood's Best Sweet Potato Mash
(you can make this ahead and reheat – it’s actually better)

3 large sweet potatoes
½ cup lowfat buttermilk
2 T. light sour cream
1 T. butter or trans-fat free margarine
Salt and pepper
3 T. chopped fresh chives

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Scrub potatoes and place on foil-lined baking sheet. Bake one hour and let sit until cool enough to handle. Remove skin and discard. Combine potato flesh, buttermilk, sour cream, margarine, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Mash together with a fork or puree with an immersion blender if desired. Stir in chives.