Ribs, French Style

Ok.  I lied.  This recipe came not from France, but from my open, semi-perverted, so-called mind.  But, I timidly admit, it is delicious and just the thing to slap in the oven at noon, or before you go to work and yank out to cheers and salutations when you get home.

I’m a big believer in simple is good, effortless is better.  Two caveats:  the food must be tasty and it must be nutritious.  Also healthy?  Well, that’s a moving target, depending on the expert and the latest fads science.

This recipe does have a bit of a French background, somewhat resembling cassoulet, which I wrote about earlier.  How do they differ?  This rib dish is meatier and spicier.

The Recipe

6-9 Country-style ribs  (ribs with half a pork chop attached)

Salt (lightly), pepper, white pepper, smoked paprika for the ribs

6-8 Strips lean bacon, chopped (see photo)

6-8 Inch piece of smoked sausage, sliced in rounds (see photo)

1 large onion, halved and sliced thinly (see photo)

3 Gloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced

3 Small, or 1 large tomato, peeled, seeded and chopped (see note on how to peel tomatoes)

3 Tablespoons minced parsley (2 for the dish and 1 for the breadcrumb topping)

3 Cans Cannellini Beans (or sub Great Northern Beans, or use a combo)

2 Cups (or more if needed) chicken broth, plus an extra spoonful of granulated or condensed broth.  I suggest LOW sodium as this dish can get too salty in a hurry.

1 Heaping cup of breadcrumbs

4 Tablespoons softened butter

Heat the oven to 225ºF.  (This is for the casserole. You will need a grill for the ribs.  I use a gas-fired grill, for simplicity)

First step is to put the seasoned ribs on the grill.  The idea is to brown them, not cook them through.  I like a little crust on mine. When they are crusty, take them off and set them aside.

Slice the onion, garlic and the smoked sausage.  Chop the bacon and mince the parsley. Peel, seed and chop the tomato.  Note on Peeling Tomatoes:  Put the tomatoes in the sink and slowly pour boiling water over them.  The peel will come off easily.

Sauté the onions and garlic until they are translucent.  In a separate pan, fry the bacon until the fat is rendered and the bacon is beginning to crisp.   With a slotted spoon, remove the bacon and add it to the onion mixture.  Cook for 3-4 minutes longer.

Realize that nothing needs to be fully cooked.  It will stay in the oven for hours!

Add the smoked sausage and chopped tomato to the onion mixture and stir.  Now add two cans of beans, drained, and one can of beans un-drained.  Stir.  

Add the parsley and stir.

Add the chicken broth and taste.  You want a strong broth flavor and you want the broth to be slightly soupy, so the dish does not dry out.

Place the ribs in a large ovenproof pan.  Ladle the bean mixture over the ribs, then cover and place in the oven. On such a low heat you may leave the dish in the oven as long as you want.  I left mine for over six hours.

Half an hour before serving, mix a heaping cup of breadcrumbs with softened butter and a tablespoon of chopped parsley. Stir well.

Take the casserole out of the oven, remove the lid, and sprinkle the buttered breadcrumbs over the casserole.

Return the uncovered casserole to the oven, and increase the oven temp to 350ºF.

Cook until the breadcrumbs have browned.

This will feed as many people as you have ribs.

Heirloom BBQ - in Hotlanta!

The outside ain't nothin' special, but inside....oh, man!

When you talk about barbeque, you’re talking about old jeans, standing outside, and moving around to keep the smoke outta your face. Anything else is only make believe barbeque for folks who would rather be at Starbucks and think mayo is spicy.

The word itself is strange.  Some end it with que and some with cue.  Some just write it as BBQ or Q.  The word has a dimly lit past, but probably comes from an Indian word meaning 'no sex until the meat is cooked.'  Hence the need for slow cooking. I made that up.  It really means sacred pit of fire.  Which I suppose could also apply to sex.

You’ll find the good stuff all over the southeast United States, from the lapping waters of the Atlanta on the east coast and west through the blazing sun of Texas.  But, the type of barbeque changes. A few geographic hints tell you what to expect.  The further west you go, the more likely you’ll be eatin’ beef and red sauce.  Come east from Texas and you get more and more pork. North Carolina and north, you’ll have pork with vinegar-based sauce.  Cross the line into South Carolina and Georgia, and it’s pork, with a mustard based sauce.

In this day of cultural homogenization, you’ll likely find bits and pieces of each, but it’s rare to find a Q-Joint that does all of it well.

I found one, at 2243 Akers Mill Rd. Atlanta, GA.  It’s just off Hwy 285 and no matter where you are, make the trip!  Heirloom Bar B Que.  This is old-fashioned style Q, which only comes from hours and hours of smoking slabs of meat over a wood fire, with nothing hurried.  When you're doing barbeque, there's no substitute for low temps and lots of time.

At Heirloom, you’ll get smoky Q at it’s very best, whether you’re talkin’ fall-apart beef brisket, or pulled pork.  Have a particular style sauce you like?  They’ve got it.  Best of all, everything’s made in-house. 

Have you noticed a trend in the kinds of food I like?  First off, it’s fresh with a CAPITAL F!  Secondly, the chef (or in this case Chefs) have got to be passionate about what they do and how they do it.

Chef Jiyeon Lee is a South Korean native.  Taylor Cody is a Texan, transplanted.  Both labored through their apprenticeships at a list of places that would grab any knowledgeable foodie’s attention. You can read all about both chefs on the Heirloom web page.

http://heirloommarketbbq.com/Home_Page.php

What makes a great Q joint?  First off, it’s got to be so understated and unpretentious that the food is the only reason, outside of a flat tire, or medical emergency you’d give the place a second thought.  If it’s a chain, forget it. Packaged sauces? Climb back in your car.  But, if you don’t see a barbeque pit and smell the smoke, RUN.

In Heirloom’s case, you pull into a partially overgrown parking lot, and soon figure out you don’t have to go through an old convenience store to get to the food.  It’s next door. Walk in, belly up, and before the screen door flaps closed behind you, a smiling face will take your order.  While you wait on your grub, grab a white, plastic spoon and taste some of the sauces in a rack on the wall behind you. Take your time.  They’re all wonderful.

Heirloom is tiny, with an eclectic interior, and sensationally efficient service.  Grab your paper-wrapped bag of goodies, follow the crowd outside, and stand at an elbow-high table to savor the smoky flavors of a barbeque paradise. The sacred fire pit is right next to you.

I had the brisket and thought I’d been transported to Texas.  Brisket has got to be tender.  These savory slices fell apart.  Another in our party ate succulent pulled pork and said not one word until every scrap of the sandwich disappeared. Our fairest member dug into a half rack of fall-off-the-bone pork ribs.  She didn’t offer to share.

Specials and sides change by the day or the week, or whenever.  I had Korean style sweet potatoes, thinly sliced, fried, doused with a sweet soy sauce, and sprinkled with white sesame seeds.  A perfect accompaniment to the spicy, smoky tang of the brisket.

How do I find these places?  I often wonder that myself.  We’d driven four hours, and passed through on our way to somewhere else.  Just happened to read Heirloom had been named the Best Barbeque in Atlanta.  Never heard of the place. Culinary luck on a grand scale.

Now Heirloom's barbeque fills my dreams and as Ah-nuld says, Ah’ll be bock!

Pozole By Any Other Name

Don't cook the meat too long.  Let the juices collect.

 

Let’s gird our loincloths and travel on a culinary field trip, back through time to Mesoamerica, when men were warriors and virgins got stuffed into active volcanoes.  Think about that.  If you were a virgin, could you think of a way to quickly and pleasantly disqualify yourself for the volcano event in the Mesoamerican Olympics?

Ah, but time to get my mind out of the volcano and back on the pebble-strewn mountain trail to culinary adventure.  Let’s go to Pozole-ville.

Chili ain’t the only meal-in-a-bowl to come roaring out of Mesoamerican culture.  But, if you haven’t heard of pozole (po-zoll-ay), sit down, and pull up a spoon.  You might also want to pull out a pencil, pen, quill, or sharpened stick to jot this down:  pozole is frequently spelled posole,  posolii, or pozolé.  But, anyway you want to scratch it, it’s a combo of corn and meat.

Pozole possibly began (historians can be so circumspect) as a religious holiday dish, with human flesh as the meat ingredient.  Ground corn, in the eyes of the Aztecs, formed the dough from which God made humans, so human flesh and ground corn made an ancient ‘happy-meal’ combo.  The heart was torn out of the victim, with the rest of the meat chopped and mixed with corn and water. It was then served as a communal (communion) feast.  Kinda makes you want to stick with the work-week and skip the holidays, doesn’t it.

Don’t know about you folks, but when people speak about the innocence of the tribes that tomahawked up and down North and South America, call me skeptical.

Eventually, as the Conquistadores brought Catholicism to the tribes and put a stop to profiling virgins, and consuming your loved ones in pots of boiling corn, the ingredients of pozole changed.  Now it’s a nice little dish, easily made, that your family can enjoy without looking around suspiciously, wondering why Aunt Rosy is missing.

I told you the two main ingredients are corn and meat.  There are three varieties of corn, red corn (popcorn), sweet corn, and field corn.  In pozole, we use hominy, which is field corn soaked in slaked lye (lye cut with water) until the hulls come off.  Hominy, by the way is taken from the Powhatan tribe’s word for maize.  Maize, on the other hand, etc, etc.

Making Pozole

1 1/2 pounds ( .75 kilo) pork cut in 1 inch (about 3 cm) cubes.

6 Cups chicken stock  (1.5 litre)

1 Can tomatoes (about 15 oz or 430 gr) undrained

1 Can pinto beans with jalapeños, undrained

2 Cans hominy (drained, but not rinsed)

2 dried California (or similar) chilies

1 onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped

2 heaping Tablespoons cumin

1 heaping Tablespoon of marjoram (or substitute oregano)

1 heaping Tablespoon smoked paprika

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

salt

Pepper

Chopped onion, chopped fresh cilantro, and shredded cheese for garnish.

Flour tortillas to accompany.

Preparing the meat:

Mix the pork with 1/2 chopped onion, 3 cloves chopped garlic, cumin, red pepper, paprika, marjoram, salt, pepper.  Fry in a large pan (or fry in small batches) with a little bit of olive oil.  Do not overcook the meat.  It will continue cooking in the broth. After it lightly browns, take the pan off the heat and set it aside.  Juices will collect in the pan and will be added to the broth later.

Preparing the broth:

Step 1: Heat two cups of chicken broth in a small pot, then set aside.   Scorch the dried chilies in a hot frying pan.  Use no oil.  Don’t let the chilies burn, but a few black spots are ok.  Take them out of the pan; snap off the stems, shake out the seeds and let the chilies soak in the hot chicken broth until they are soft, about ten minutes.

Step 2:  Put the soaked chilies and their chicken broth in a blender.  Add the can of tomatoes and blend well.  Meanwhile, heat the remaining four cups of chicken broth in a large pot and add the contents of the blender to it.  Add the remaining 1/2 chopped onion and the cans of pinto beans and hominy.

Putting it all together:  As the broth mixture comes to a boil, add the meat and meat juices that have collected.  Turn down the heat and let the dish simmer for about 30 minutes.

I’ve found it’s better to let the dish simmer for 30 minutes, let it cool and then reheat it.  That further allows the flavors to blend.

Garnish the individual bowls of pozole with chopped onions, chopped cilantro, and shredded cheese.

Makes you feel like a real Mesoamerican warrior, don’t it, or at least want to start your own religion involving pozole and virgins.

Delicious antiquity in a bowl

Latest Addiction

The season is changing, the clocks are turned back, and my mood disorder is rearing its ugly head. One of the things this means is that I'm craving crazy foods. Most recently, apart from wanting to inhale chocolate, pizza, and ice cream (ironic, given that it's cold out), I have been on a deviled ham & ramen noodle kick.

It's odd.

And it's not cheap! The ramen is cheap, but canned ham is not. At LOGS, it's $2.99/can. At Safeway, I got a can on sale for $2.49. During my cross border shopping excursion the other week, I found canned ham for about $1.80/can. WTF? That's highway robbery for frickin' ham IMHO!

Anyway, the deviled ham sandwich is such a throwback to church teas and church potlucks, and I was inspired to make a batch of deviled ham after my work put on a tea for the seniors. And I have been hooked ever since.

For those of you not familiar with the bliss that is deviled ham, it's very simple: a can of ham, flaked; some mayo; some sweet pickle relish. That's it. I spread my bread or bun with cream cheese and have a nice dill pickle with my sandwich. It's awesome.

Ramen is ramen. Rarely do I crave this stuff because it's so bad for you, but I seem to be unable to do without it nowadays.

None of this is good for my weight loss goals!

Magazine Monday #71 (Yes, a day late): Asian Pork Burgers with Hoisin Mayo

I really am enjoying the subscription to Food Network Magazine my mom got me for my birthday. I've been craving a burgers lately, and a recipe in the most recent issue of FNM caught my eye. It's actually a recipe for Asian meatball subs, but because I'm not in the mood these days to putz around making finicky things like meatballs (or at least making meatballs seems like a rather finicky activity to me right now) I decided to turn these into burgers. I think ground pork makes such excellent burgers - moist, juicy, and the flavour of the meat is mild & neutral enough to add all kinds of flavourings to it that work very well. You might recall the Curried Pork Burgers I made a while back; they have become a favourite of my brother & SIL. They might like this pork burger, too, as might you!

The recipe is here.

Frakking fantastic! Now, I made some adjustments. I didn't use any bread or milk or eggs as filler in my burger meat; I have moved away from doing that after reading Bobby Flay's burger book, and quite frankly, I think the burgers are better without all that stuff in them. I've never had a burger fall apart or crumble during cooking so I don't think it's necessary to add eggs & bread crumbs etc. I also didn't use the Asian chili sauce, and I broiled my burgers instead of frying them.

I loved these burgers so much I totally indulged and ate two! The Asian flavourings were wonderful, and I loved the crunch of the chopped chestnuts in them. I loved the bean sprout topping, too - also crunchy and tasty. As for the hoisin mayo...OMG...AMAZING! It was one incredible burger for sure, and that mayo was the cherry on the proverbial sundae.

Definitely give these a try if you're looking for a change in your same old, same old burger repertoire!

Magazine Monday (yes, on a Saturday!) #67: Pulled Pork

Long have I wanted to make pulled pork, but alas, the availability of the proper cut of pork - the butt, which is the shoulder - and the cost of said cut, has always put me off. Enter cross border shopping! On a recent trip across the border to get some good deals on all kinds of things, I found a 1.5lb pork picnic roast for a few bucks. Perfect size for one person!

The recipe I used came from Canadian Living's December 2005 issue, found here. It's a slow cooker recipe, which was perfect because this past week was seriously busy for me and I needed a no-brainer kind of meal.

Unfortunately, I was disappointed, which rarely happens with Canadian Living recipes. I didn't care for the sauce at all; it was not zippy or tangy, and it was way too thick for my liking. Also, I found the pork difficult to shred. The roast came with one of those handy-dandy blue dot devices that pops out when the meat is done, and so I took the roast out when I saw that happen. Apparently, according to my SIL, I needed to overcook the roast in order to facilitate easy shredding. I didn't know that; the recipe only said cook until pork is tender.

Anyway, I am eating this still - it's provided me with at least four meals. I served it with a tomato-y rice and black bean side dish and some nice creamy coleslaw.

Next time, I'll be trying a different recipe, though.

Cooking with Kylie: Pork Fried Rice

Yes, two Kylie recipes in a row! This is because I made two Kylie recipes this week!

There is just something so comforting about fried rice, and I have tried Kylie's Chicken Fried Rice and her Prawn Fried Rice. I'm not a huge fan of pork, but I was feeling like I wanted to try something new, so I got some nice pork loin for a decent price and made this dish.

Hoisin sauce and pork are just made for each other, I think. And again, malt vinegar makes an appearance! I actually think this sauce would make a nice glaze for BBQ pork loin, which I might try over the summer since I'll be babysitting my brother's BBQ for a while.

Pork Fried Rice, from Kylie Kwong's Simple Chinese Cooking, page 260

400g pork fillets (I used pork tenderloin)
1/2 cup vegetable oil (OK, I never use the amount of oil Kylie calls for! I used about 2 tbsp in total for this recipe)
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 small red onion, finely sliced
1 tbsp chopped ginger (I never remember to buy this so, um, I used dried)
2 tsp white sugar
2 tbsp hoisin sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp malt vinegar
1/4 tsp sesame oil
4 cups steamed rice
a few finely sliced green onions

1. Slice pork into strips and set aside.

2. Heat half the oil in wok until the surface begins to shimmer slightly. Pour eggs in and scramble; remove.

3. Heat remaining oil in wok and stirfry onion & ginger for 30 seconds. Add sugar and stirfry for 30 seconds. Add pork and stirfry for another 30 seconds. Stir in hoisin sauce, soy sauce, vinegar, and sesame oil, stirring for one minute. Toss in rice and reserved eggs and stirfry, using a spatula to break up egg & any rice clumps. Lastly, add spring onions and stirfry another 30 seconds until well-combined and rice is heated through. Serve.

I loved this! I chose well with the pork, too, because it was so nice & tender. Another great recipe from Kylie!

Magazine Monday #60: Curried Pork Burgers

Canadian Living strikes again! When I got the new issue last week, I knew I had to make this recipe. I really like using ground pork for burgers because the burgers are always so nice and juicy, and the mean it a neutral enough flavour that you can do what you want with it seasoning-wise.

I made these last night for my family and they were a huge hit! The grilled red onions were a perfect accompaniment. I will definitely make these again!

The recipe is not up on the site yet, but I'll post it for you here.

Curried Pork Burgers

1lb lean ground pork
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese
2 tbsp curry paste (I used Patak's mild curry paste, which I always have on hand)
2 tsp minced gingerroot (I used about 1 tsp dried ground ginger)
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded & minced (which I skipped because I don't like them)
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp each salt & pepper

1 red onion sliced, drizzled in some vegetable oil

buns, lettuce, etc.

Simple instructions: mix all the meat, the feta, and all the seasonings together & form burgers. Grill. Grill onions until nice & soft. Serve on buns. Bob's your uncle.

Delicious!

Solstice Dinner 2009 - Part One

Simply put, last night was fabulous. I was worried I wouldn't have enough food, but that was ridiculous because I came home with a crapload of leftovers. I'll be feeding myself this meal for the rest of the week! There were 8 of us altogether, and the company was great.

My organization paid off and cooking the actual meal went very smoothly and almost seemed too easy.

So, let's start off with the main star of the show, the spiral cut, sausage-stuffed, bacon latticed pork loin roast.

I had made the stuffing the night before, and here is what I used:

6 mild Italian sausages, casings removed (it payed to ask the butcher at LOGS exactly what was in the sausage as flavouring, and it turned out that it was just salt, pepper, and garlic - perfect)
1 onion, finely diced
about a cup of whole cranberries
about a cup of maple pecans (thanks to Jodi's parcel!)

I boiled the sausage meat and drained off all the liquid in a colander. Then I sauteed the onion, added the sausage to brown it, then added the nuts & cranberries.

I have a TON of this left over. I made way too much and only used about 1/3 of the amount for my one pork loin roast. Not sure what I'm going to do with the rest. I'll freeze it for sure, and I thought of stuffing a whole chicken with it...

The next morning, I assembled the pork loin roast. Spiral cutting this sucker wasn't fun, mainly because of the odd shape of the roast: it was kind of oblong. Dave's blog said to keep the knife parallel with the counter and slice as if you were peeling an apple. This seemed simple enough in my mind, but the reality was a bit different. It was quite tricky and I think I really bungled it up. You can see the result in the upper right photo in the collage. At one point, I even cut through the roast to the outside, and I though that would be disastrous when it came to stuffing that sucker, but the cut was in the right place and wound up on top in the end. So, once it was as flat as I could get it, I put the stuffing at one end and topped that with sliced mozzarella cheese.

The trickiness wasn't over yet! Now I had to roll this up and that wasn't easy as the stuffing kept falling out. I eventually just folded the flap of mean over the filling and tucking it under. That worked fine, and then it was time to truss, truss baby.

This was also tricky. I am not an expert trusser by any stretch of the imagination. The roast was too big for my silicone trussing thingies, so I had to use butcher's twine.After that, I seasoned the roast with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

Next came the really fun stuff: the bacon lattice! This was fiddly, but luckily not too difficult as I've made lattice top pies. Same principle applies when making a bacon lattice. This took one and a half pounds of bacon and wasn't big enough to cover the entire roast. The spots that remained uncovered I just wound with bacon, not doing more lattice work, and decided that that wouldn't be my presentation side. But the top of the roast looked quite impressive when I was done. I secured the lattice at both ends with toothpicks. Then I wrapped the whole shabang in plastic wrap, put it in a pan, and threw it in the fridge until I was ready to take it to Jem & Shan's to roast for dinner (the dinner was at their place; I don't have enough room to entertain a group of 8).

So, at Jem & Shan's, I got out a roasting pan, oiled it, and threw the roast into it, then into a 350F oven. Shan & I estimated it would take at least an hour and a half. After an hour it was looking and smelling really good, at that point, I put in my electronic probe thermometer with alert on to dingle when it reached an internal temperature of 170F. I let it rest for 20 minutes while I finished up other things that were on the go at the same time.

Here it is - finished!
And here it is on a platter, after I sliced it:
The meat was tender and juicy and perfectly cooked. It was well seasoned and the flavours were excellent. Everyone was thrilled with the results. The previous night, Jem & Shan had had a friend come over and cook a meal for them, too, and coincidentally enough, this friend had also made a stuffed pork loin roast. He had made a really nice sauce for it that was pan drippings, white wine, pureed shallots and pureed apples...It was so good. We just added my pan drippings to that and a bit more wine and served it my pork loin! It was perfect. Incredible, actually.

Thanks to both Dave and Chris for inspiring this dish! You guys are awesome! While I couldn't BBQ this, I will have to try that when BBQ season is back, because that would definitely have taken this to the next level!

Here is the entire meal on my plate:Tomorrow, I'll post about my side dishes and dessert!

Full Flickr set here.

Pork Tenderloin, Starring....Huckleberries!

So this is my first kick at the can using my lovely huckleberry bounty, locally picked by yours truly. I wanted to do something different; muffins are so pedestrian! I whipped this pork tenderloin idea up on my own...divine inspiration out in the berry patch or something... My dad donated the tenderloins, of which there were two, and initially four were supposed to partake in the meal, but then plans fell apart, as they do once in a while. So, I knew there would be a ton of leftovers, I just didn't yet know if that was a good thing or not. Here's how it went.

For the rub:

1/3 cup brown sugar
ginger, cinnamon, allspice, garlic powder, salt & pepper - all to taste (I didn't measure)

For the filling:

1 package (140g) unripened goat's cheese (i.e. not feta), softened
a whole bunch of huckleberries
4 cups of spinach
3 cloves garlic
1tsp or so of the rub mixture

I was going to just put the spinach in raw, but decided against it. In fact, I wasn't going to put any spinach in at all, but I had so much left over from a salad I made that I decided what the hell. When my SIL does pork loin, she usually puts spinach in the stuffing and it's always awesome. Anyhoo, I sauteed the spinach because I wanted to cook the water out of it first. It was worth it to spend the extra few minutes to do this, I think. I sauteed the spinach in olive oil and the garlic.After the spinach was wilted, I added it to the goat's cheese & huckleberries. What I got was not particularly appetizing...But this was an experiment after all, right?Yeah, great colour, eh? At this point I was thinking, Hmmm...was this a good idea? But I soldiered on, and stuffed the tenderloins, after making a cut along the length in order to flatten them out and create a pocket for the filling.After that came the rub...I realized too late I should have rubbed first and filled second, but we live and learn, don't we?

Then, truss truss baby. You can see my blue silicone trussing thingies in this picture. Very cool gadget.Then into a 375F oven, covered with foil for about half an hour, then off with the foil and continue baking until an internal temperature of 180F was reached. And voila...While my meat rested (it took about an hour to cook, and I set my fancy-wancy thermometer with probe 180F so it would beep when the temp was reached) I made a sauce, using, what else? Well, yes, huckleberries, but also POM! The last of my POM (I have one coupon left). This was the one with blueberry juice in it as well.

Pomegranate Huckleberry Sauce

juices from the roasted pork loin
about 1/2 cup POM juice
2 tsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 cup brown sugar
a whole bunch of huckleberries

I dissolved the cornstarch in the POM as the drippings, brown sugar, and ginger came to a boil in a small saucepan. Once the drippings boiled, I added the huckleberries and the POM. I simmered for a few minutes... And forgot to take a pic of the sauce. Sorry. It looked like...blueberry syrup. Use your imagination.

Slicing the tenderloin proved difficult - it was very delicate and the filling so soft that it squished out the sides. This is what I got:Yeah...presentation-wise, I don't think this is a winner.The overall verdict, however: a hit! I loved it right away. Everything went really well together, from the rub on down. The sauce was great. The spinach, however, I could have lived without. It didn't really add any flavour and made the presentation less than stellar. I'd leave it out next time. Additionally, I would use feta cheese the next time, for a couple of reasons. A) I think the flavour contrast between saltiness of the feta and tart-sweet of the berries would be killer. B) It's a firmer cheese and would probably slice & present better than this goat's cheese.

My dad took a bit more convincing. He's not used to having sweet things mixed with his otherwise savoury dishes, and I get that. It's not everyone's cup of tea. He did, however, have seconds, and by the end of the meal, he was converted! He has half of the second loin we didn't even touch for leftovers, as do I. (I served this meal, by the way, with a barley & bean salad that will be the subject of an upcoming Magazine Monday post.)

Definitely a successful experiment! With a bit of tweaking, I might just make this my signature dish! And - I still have a ton of huckleberries frozen for future kitchen experiments!

Enjoy!

Stuffed Pork Loin

It's great when we make enough food ourselves to have as leftovers, but it's even better when you get someone else's leftovers - especially when those leftovers come from your SIL's catering gigs. Last Friday, my SIL and her mom, C, catered a curling event and served this terrific pork loin dish at it. There was enough leftover that my SIL gave me about half of a whole roast! They do a lot of stuffed meats for their jobs, and this one is really great. The recipe comes from C's cookbook, Tried and True, previously blogged about here.

Stuffed Pork Loin

one 5 - 6lb pork loin roast

For the rub:
1 tsp each: cumin, coriander, oregano, brown sugar
1/2 tsp each: garlic powder, salt, pepper
1/4 tsp ground ginger

For the stuffing:
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp oil
1/2 cup sliced onion
1 small red pepper
3 cloves garlic
1 cup fresh spinach
1/4 cup each feta & ricotta cheese
1/2 tsp oregano
salt & pepper to taste

Method.

1. For the rub, mix all spices together & set aside.

2. Butterfly the pork loin by cutting it half way through lenght-wise, then cut from the bottom of the incision sideways almost to the outside of the loin.

3. For the stuffing, cut the top off the pepper and clean out the seeds. Peel the garlic. Coat the outside of the pepper and garlic with 1 tbsp oil. Place the pepper skin side on a baking pan with the garlic, and bake for about 20 minutes at 375F or until skin is lifting off pepper and has black areas. Remove. Peel skin from the pepper. Dice garlic & pepper & set aside.

4. Caramelize the onion with 1 tbsp oil , sugar, and the vinegar.

5. Combine all stuffing ingredients in a bowl and season with salt & pepper to taste.

6. Stuff the pork, fold it closed and truss with string to keep it closed during cooking process. Rub the pork with spice mixture. Place the roast in an open roaster and bake for about 2 1/2 hours or until done.

7. Remove string, slice, and serve.

I served mine with roasted potatoes and some roasted asparagus. Yum! Thanks for the leftovers, Shan!

Aromatic Pork Burgers

I dreamed this recipe up after being inspired by two things: a burger feature in an issue of Canadian Living last summer that had a nice-looking pork burger in it, and the recipe for Aromatic Lemongrass Patties from the Hot Sour Salty Sweet meal I made for my family last month. Those patties were fantastic and at the time I thought they'd make great burgers. So, I created these. They were delish! I served them with Monday's failed Hush Puppies and a lemon garlic mayonnaise I made by mixing some low fat mayo with a few drops of lemon juice and half a clove of garlic, grated.

Aromatic Pork Burgers

1/2 lb ground pork
1 1/2 tsp lemon grass powder
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
2 green onions, finely chopped
1 tsp soy sauce

Combine all ingredients well, form into two patties, and grill. It's not quite BBQ season here, but until it arrives I made do with my roommate's mini George Foreman grill. It works.

Lemongrass powder is my new favourite thing. As I wrote in the HSSS post, our local overpriced grocery store sells it in the bulk bins, and though I'm sure it's not as punchy as real lemongrass, it's still very tasty - and it's much easier to work with.

These burgers were lovely, as I said, and the flavoured mayo was an excellent accompaniment.

Enjoy!