To my delight, Mom and Grandma decided to entrust me with cooking dinner and we all agreed pork tenderloin sounded good. Between the three of us, we had very different methods. I marinate, Grandma pan fries with a dijon mustard topping, and Mom pounds it thin, covers it in panko, and fries.
I won (even though from the sounds of it everyone got the short end of the stick - their methods sound delicious) and they let me marinate the pork.
Before we jump into how I cooked the tenderloin, you should be aware I am pretty sure what I always thought was tenderloin was actually just loin. There is a difference!
Grandma cut the tenderloin into little medallions for me. Tip - freeze the meat for a while and it will be much easier to cut. I prepared the marinade around 11:00 am, which meant we let the meat sit for about 6 hours.
Pork Tenderloin Marinade:
Ingredients
1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup lemon juice (about 1.5 lemons)
1/3 cup low sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons ginger (I use the stuff in a jar that is already in a paste)
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
1 tablespoon thyme (separate leaves from 6 fresh sprigs)
Mix together the marinade ingredients and marinate the meat for at least 1 hour and up to one day.
When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 400*.
Place paper towels on the bottom of a plate, place the medallions on top, then place another paper towel on top. Pat so the medallions are not as wet, just damp. Season with salt and pepper.
Pour 2 tablespoons of olive oil into a pan and heat over medium high until sizzling. Sear your pork medallions - about one minute on each side. If you have more than a pan full of medallions, only sear in one layer at a time.
When all the medallions are done, place on a cookie sheet and into the oven. Cook approximately 15 minutes and then devour!
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As a side dish, we had sweet potatoes. We got four from the grocery store and they were HUGE. With the three of us, we only managed to eat one and a half. To prepare, we poked holes all over them, then just set them straight on the rack in the oven, heated to 400*. I let them cook for a little over an hour, until they were soft to the touch.
Sweet potatoes are pretty hard to mess up and they make a delicious side dish with pork. Leftover sweet potatoes are even better.
Showing posts with label lemon juice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lemon juice. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Brussel Sprouts
My apologies for being such a negligent little blogger lately! I have been so busy with work, and with the drizzly (which I love!) weather and the fantastic fall television, I come home from work, cuddle up on the couch, and veg out on the best shows ever.
While I work on a super amazing French toast recipe for you, here is what you need to eat when cuddling up while it rains outside: Braised Brussel Sprouts (courtesy of Orangette.blogspot.com with a few changes).
1) Chop up your brussel sprouts into quarter wedges - cut lengthwise in half, then cut those halves in half. Hit up your Costco for delicious big brussels for a good price -- I used 2 pounds.
2) Heat up olive oil in a big pan over medium high heat. When hot, add your brussels and cook for at least five minutes. I thought mine were burning but realized the tastiest parts were the brown spots, so keep that in mind. Also, I eyeballed the olive oil -- added enough to get things cookin'
3) Pour in one cup of heavy cream, turn the heat to medium low, and cover and cook for 35 minutes.
4) Add the juice of one lemon and cook for two more minutes.
5) Realize you never knew vegetables, let alone brussel sprouts, could taste so fantastic. Cuddle up on the couch and watch fall TV!!
PS - I thought this would be a cream sauce, but the brussel sprouts somehow soak it up. I think this is 3482093 times better than the hashed brussels with poppyseed I made and so much easier. It is about par with my roasted brussel sprouts (and I think the roasted way is still my favorite).
In other news:
Go buy your bread and apples so you can be prepared to make french toasts with me. I rarely even buy bread, but french toast I can never say no to. That should be my next post!
While I work on a super amazing French toast recipe for you, here is what you need to eat when cuddling up while it rains outside: Braised Brussel Sprouts (courtesy of Orangette.blogspot.com with a few changes).
1) Chop up your brussel sprouts into quarter wedges - cut lengthwise in half, then cut those halves in half. Hit up your Costco for delicious big brussels for a good price -- I used 2 pounds.
2) Heat up olive oil in a big pan over medium high heat. When hot, add your brussels and cook for at least five minutes. I thought mine were burning but realized the tastiest parts were the brown spots, so keep that in mind. Also, I eyeballed the olive oil -- added enough to get things cookin'
3) Pour in one cup of heavy cream, turn the heat to medium low, and cover and cook for 35 minutes.
4) Add the juice of one lemon and cook for two more minutes.
5) Realize you never knew vegetables, let alone brussel sprouts, could taste so fantastic. Cuddle up on the couch and watch fall TV!!
PS - I thought this would be a cream sauce, but the brussel sprouts somehow soak it up. I think this is 3482093 times better than the hashed brussels with poppyseed I made and so much easier. It is about par with my roasted brussel sprouts (and I think the roasted way is still my favorite).
In other news:
Go buy your bread and apples so you can be prepared to make french toasts with me. I rarely even buy bread, but french toast I can never say no to. That should be my next post!
Monday, August 22, 2011
Braised Winter Greens with Chickpeas
I have been trying to experiment even more with food lately, because I got to thinking the other day...My boyfriend got me a cookbook with 1,000 recipes in it. Even if I made something EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. it would take me almost three years to make it through the cookbook! I then started thinking there really aren't that many meals in a year (365 dinners doesn't really sound like THAT much) and each one is an opportunity to eat something new, tasty, and delicious.
With that running through my head, I wanted to try a new vegetable but I also didn't want anything too extravagant to make because I am trying to save up some money for new clothes. I settled on "Braised Winter Greens with Chickpeas, Onions and Garlic" from Orangette.
The recipe is clearly spelled out on the website, so I'll just take you through what I made...
I settled on kale as my winter green of choice and bought one and a half pounds of it at the grocery store. In fact, I bought it about two weeks ago and it was still in decent condition -- kale lasts a very long time in the fridge!
I separated the kale leaves from the ribs by running my knife along the inseam of each piece. After that, I rinsed the kale and left it in a colander to dry a bit. The recipe says you actually want a bit of water to stick to the leaves, so don't worry about drying it too much. Then, lay the leaves on top of each other, a few at a time, and slice them into quarter inch pieces. I didn't worry about precision too much here. Just cut it up however you prefer.
Next it was time to dice an onion. I used yellow, as that is my go-to onion (and usually the cheapest at the store). The recipe calls for half an onion minced, but I used the whole thing and left bigger pieces.
I heated up three tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan (pick a big pan and it will be easier) over medium heat. Once it was sizzling, I added the onion and a teaspoon of minced garlic. The recipe says to saute for 10 minutes...Around five minutes I realized mine was BURNING so I would recommend lowering your temperature significantly.
I was really bummed I burned the onions and garlic, and I got distracted and left it to sit for a bit. When I came back, I tasted it to see how burnt it was and WOW! It was fantastic. The garlic and onion had carmelized and was soooo delicious. I am sad to say I ended up eating ALL of the onion and garlic prior to cooking the kale :) Whoops.
Once the onion and garlic was devoured, I drained a can of chickpeas and added it to a new pot of sizzlin' olive oil (obviously if you didn't eat your food prematurely, add the chickpeas to your oil/garlic/onion mixture). I then added the kale in bits and pieces. It doesn't shrink like normal lettuce does, which is why I think it is important to use a big frying pan. However, it does lose a little of it's bulk, so you can add it in chunks and let it settle before you add more. The recipe says to season with salt, but I didn't add any.
Then, lower the heat (I went all the way to low) and cover, cooking for fifteen minutes. I stirred my occasionally. After that, remove from heat and add 1 and a half teaspoons of lemon juice. I went a bit overboard and used an ENTIRE lemon, but I love lemon juice and I think the tangy taste is what made it so good.
I don't know what it was about this dish, but I found it seriously tasty. I made four servings and they are all gone now! I think it got better after sitting for about six hours because the leaves soaked up my lemon juice and had a nice tang to them.
Whether you try this out or not, hopefully this can be inspiration to try out a new vegetable or food at the super market. I have never tried kale before and it was great -- it cooks much better than spinach or other lettuces because it doesn't get all wilty and limp. It retained its shape but still had that great earthy flavor. Mmmmmmm.
With that running through my head, I wanted to try a new vegetable but I also didn't want anything too extravagant to make because I am trying to save up some money for new clothes. I settled on "Braised Winter Greens with Chickpeas, Onions and Garlic" from Orangette.
I settled on kale as my winter green of choice and bought one and a half pounds of it at the grocery store. In fact, I bought it about two weeks ago and it was still in decent condition -- kale lasts a very long time in the fridge!
I separated the kale leaves from the ribs by running my knife along the inseam of each piece. After that, I rinsed the kale and left it in a colander to dry a bit. The recipe says you actually want a bit of water to stick to the leaves, so don't worry about drying it too much. Then, lay the leaves on top of each other, a few at a time, and slice them into quarter inch pieces. I didn't worry about precision too much here. Just cut it up however you prefer.
Next it was time to dice an onion. I used yellow, as that is my go-to onion (and usually the cheapest at the store). The recipe calls for half an onion minced, but I used the whole thing and left bigger pieces.
I heated up three tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan (pick a big pan and it will be easier) over medium heat. Once it was sizzling, I added the onion and a teaspoon of minced garlic. The recipe says to saute for 10 minutes...Around five minutes I realized mine was BURNING so I would recommend lowering your temperature significantly.
I was really bummed I burned the onions and garlic, and I got distracted and left it to sit for a bit. When I came back, I tasted it to see how burnt it was and WOW! It was fantastic. The garlic and onion had carmelized and was soooo delicious. I am sad to say I ended up eating ALL of the onion and garlic prior to cooking the kale :) Whoops.
Once the onion and garlic was devoured, I drained a can of chickpeas and added it to a new pot of sizzlin' olive oil (obviously if you didn't eat your food prematurely, add the chickpeas to your oil/garlic/onion mixture). I then added the kale in bits and pieces. It doesn't shrink like normal lettuce does, which is why I think it is important to use a big frying pan. However, it does lose a little of it's bulk, so you can add it in chunks and let it settle before you add more. The recipe says to season with salt, but I didn't add any.
Then, lower the heat (I went all the way to low) and cover, cooking for fifteen minutes. I stirred my occasionally. After that, remove from heat and add 1 and a half teaspoons of lemon juice. I went a bit overboard and used an ENTIRE lemon, but I love lemon juice and I think the tangy taste is what made it so good.
I don't know what it was about this dish, but I found it seriously tasty. I made four servings and they are all gone now! I think it got better after sitting for about six hours because the leaves soaked up my lemon juice and had a nice tang to them.
Whether you try this out or not, hopefully this can be inspiration to try out a new vegetable or food at the super market. I have never tried kale before and it was great -- it cooks much better than spinach or other lettuces because it doesn't get all wilty and limp. It retained its shape but still had that great earthy flavor. Mmmmmmm.
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