Where's the pork?

I now realize how unfair it was of me to write about my predilection for pork in the previous post and not send along any recipes.  Mea culpa.  And if you're still following me after that faux pas, you can find recipes below.  The first is for a killer good pork loin that is versatile as both an entree (with just the pork and the most incredible au jus) or as a sandwich you can eat like a French Dip, and it feeds a lot of people (if you're willing to share).  My long time Polish soul-sister TxMama passed this recipe along to me from her Cooking Light magazine and I tweaked it a bit with melted Provolone and caramelized onions to do the sandwiches.  My brother, whose secondary occupation is eating, commented when he ate this,  "Wow, Sis, this is seriously restaurant-quality food here.  I gotta have the recipe."  Then, "Can I have another one?"  So you've got at least one solid review.

Wine suggestions here are for dry or off-dry rose, or a red that relies on Grenache to give body and character, such as a Cotes du Rhone, would be a good choice.  I also think that some Argentinian Malbecs and Malbec blends will be a good match for this dish.  Look for the Carlos Basso label, or Diseno Old Vine Malbec.

The second recipe is for a Hungarian pork goulash that can be spiced to your liking and can be served either with or without sour cream.  I suppose the addition of sour cream depends on how close to your New Year's resolutions you decide to make this dish.  You can make homemade spaetzle, or you can take the easy way out and just serve it over store-bought broad noodles.  In Texas, we have access to wonderful Czech cooking, so I often get homemade kluski noodles in a small-town grocery store and prepare them to have with this dish.  I've also made this goulash in a slow cooker with much success.  You could, of course, pair this dish with a good craft beer and that is something I know nothing about--consult your local Spec's.  What I drank when I last made this goulash was Chateau Marouine Rose Cotes du Provence 2005 (France).  This is a slightly off-dry rose with lots of melon and fruit and an earthniness that makes it substantial.  Lush, creamy finish and for me, it stood up perfectly to the richness and spiciness of the goulash.  You could also go with a not too heavy red, such as a lighter Zinfandel or something that relies on the Sangiovese grape.  Again, check with your wine guys at Spec's for help.

The third recipe comes via a link.  Anne Burrell's brined pork chops with fennel pollen are really juicy, toothsome and wonderfully fragrant.  They are worth the extra time and effort, and so is the polenta recipe that accompanies them.  You have to plan ahead for this one to leave yourself time for brining, and you need fennel pollen, which you can get at Pollen Ranch (I mean, where else would pollen come from?) at http://www.fennelpollen.com/. 

Wine recommendations?  My wine guy at Spec's handed me a very affordable bottle of Domaine de Cabasse Cotes du Rhone 2007 (France).  Mostly Grenache, this red is reviewed as having lots of fruit (strawberry and dried apple predominant) that opens and mellows beautifully in the glass and is balanced by a bright, clean acidity and a creamy finish.  Sounds like a dream come true, no?  Laura Ashley and Liberty of London fans, you'll love the label!  P.S., my wine guy told me he was very envious that I was taking that bottle home with me.

And without further ado, the recipes:

Roast Pork Sandwiches with Provolone, Caramelized Onions and au jus

2  teaspoons freshly ground  black pepper

1  teaspoon  dried rosemary

3/4  teaspoon  salt

1  garlic clove, minced

2  tablespoons olive oil, divided

1  (1-pound) pork tenderloin, trimmed

1 large onion, sliced into 1/4 inch rings

1  (14-ounce) can less-sodium beef broth

1/4  cup  dry sherry

1  tablespoon  tomato paste

6  (2-ounce) French bread rolls or hard rolls

6 slices Provolone cheese

Romaine leaves or arugula (optional)

1.  Preheat oven to 400°.

2.  Combine first 4 ingredients in a small bowl; add 1 teaspoon oil.  Rub over pork.  Let stand 15 minutes.

3.  Heat 2 teaspoons of oil in a large oven-proof skillet over medium-high heat.  Add pork; cook 4 minutes, browning on all sides.

4.  Bake at 400° in a deep-sided roasting pan for 10 minutes or until a thermometer registers 160° (slightly pink).  Let stand 5 minutes.

5.  Meanwhile heat remaining 1 tablespoon oil in saute pan.  Saute onion slices until caramelized on medium heat, about 10-12 minutes.  Keep warm.

6.  Remove pork from pan; cut diagonally across grain into 12 slices.

7.  Return pan to medium-high heat, and add broth, scraping pan to loosen browned bits.  Add sherry and tomato paste; stir with a whisk.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat; simmer 5 minutes.

8.  Cut rolls in half horizontally.  Toast, if desired.  Place Provolone cheese on top side of roll and melt briefly in hot oven.  

9.  Place 2 slices pork on bottom half of each roll; top with caramelized onions and romaine or arugula, if desired.  Cover with roll tops.  Serve with au jus.  Makes 6 sandwiches.

Hungarian Pork Goulash
adapted from The New Goodhousekeeping Cookbook, ed. Carter


2 Tbs. oil
2 medium-sized onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 Tbs. paprika (I like to use a mixture of Hungarian sweet with Hangarian sharp)
2 lbs. pork, cubed
1 16 oz. bag or can sauerkraut, drained
1 small tomato, cut up
2 1/2 cups rich chicken broth
2 tsp. caraway seeds
1 tsp. salt
8 oz. sour cream (optional)

1.  In a 5-quart Dutch oven, heat oil over medium heat.  Cook onions, stitting occasionally, until tender; add garlic and cook another minute or so.  
2.  Add paprika and cook and stir for 1 minute.
3.  Add pork and next five ingredients; heat to boiling, then reduce to low heat, cover and simmer 45 minutes to 1 hour, stirring occasionally, until meat is fork-tender.
4.  Skim off extra fat and stir in sour cream, if using.  Heat through gently.  Serve with noodles or homemade spaetzle.  Makes 8 servings.


Anne Burrell's pork chop recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/anne-burrell/brined-pork-chops-with-soft-parmigiano-polenta-recipe/index.html

May your tastebuds dance all night long!

Other people's food

I love it when other people cook for me.  I especially love it when they do it out of love and for the pure pleasure of cooking for others.  Fortunately, I have several friends who cook, and cook well.  A long-time close friend who always makes my large gatherings a success makes several fabulous things, but I mostly enjoy her crab-stuffed mushrooms and her miniature croissant sandwiches with cranberry mayo, sliced turkey, Gruyere, and arugula.  She also makes a killer good remoulade sauce and some entirely delectable sauteed chicken livers.  She makes a lot of great food--and we've made a lot of great food together--but I first fell in love with her because of her mushrooms.

I have another friend who makes the best fried chicken you'll ever put in your mouth, and another who has unfailing instinct for excellent cheeses and even more excellent wines, but what I remember most about what she's cooked for me was a warm spinach salad with toasted walnuts and shallots, perfectly seasoned and perfectly dressed with EVOO and an excellent red wine vinegar. 

I had another friend who loved Diana Kennedy's recipes and produced excellent carnitas and a seriously addictive pumpkinseed dip.  Then there's my Indian friends, who have treated me on early chilly Saturday mornings to freshly made chappatis with fenugreek leaves and the best cups of chai I've ever had, cauliflower pakoras, samosas filled with spicy potatoes and peas, and my hands-down favorite Indian snack, pani puri.  Pani puri, for the uninitiated, are crispy, light little puffs made of semolina flour that you poke a hole in with your finger, then fill with lentil sprouts, cold seasoned potatoes, and a cool mint/coriander water spiked with ginger and chilies. You pop them in your mouth and all the flavors and juices explode into a delirious melange of pure joy.  I literally cannot stop eating them when they're offered.

I know I'm overlooking others' gifts of love and labor to me and will want to acknowledge them as I remember them.  For now, thank you to all of you who have taken such good care of me with your culinary gifts.  Keep it coming!

When I'm in the mood to spend money, and when I'm with a friend who appreciates good food and good wine, I like visiting high-end restaurants and having a leisurely spell to forage through their appetizer menus and wine lists.  I can count on one hand the amount of times I've actually ordered an entree in an upscale restaurant and can easily say that the most memorable experiences I've had have always included a flight of appetizers and wines.  If you want to see what a chef can do, eat strictly from the appetizer menu because that's where creativity lives.  I'll put my money on lots of small plates with a different experience on each every time.

Most well-trained waitstaff are going to have fun with this approach too.  I always let my server know what I'm planning to do.  Sometimes I let the chef choose the order in which the appetizers are served, and sometimes I choose.  I guess it just depends on my whim--and on the wine list.  If the restaurant I'm visiting has a killer wine list, then I let that guide me.  I will at times also depend on the staff and the chef to recommend the wine s/he thinks goes best with the appetizer I've ordered.  I have yet to have a negative reaction from waitstaff when you ask for their suggestions and help with pairings.  A server worth his or her salt in an upscale restaurant will not only know the menu and the wine list, s/he will have tasted most everything offered on the the menu (or knows someone there who has).  So utilize their skills and experience.  They enjoy showing what they know and they like their customers to have fun.

In recent memory, here's what has caught my attention:  A duck confit tamale with a glass of Bodegas Caro Cabernet/Malbec (Argentina) at Casa Vieja in Corrales, NM (I still dream about this tamale on the astral plane), a pecan-smoked beet salad with goat cheese and vanilla-cane vinaigrette and the Creole crabmeat cheesecake at The Palace Cafe in New Orleans.  At Stories at the Hyatt Lost Pines in Bastrop, TX, I'm totally enamoured of their Crab Salad, a cool, creamy tower of hearts of palm, roasted tomato, avocado and herb coulis (the staff chose Erath Vineyards Pinot Gris, Oregon) as well as their Mushrooms and Chive Crepes with local mushrooms and thyme cream (the staff chose Charles Krug Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, California).

One of my favorite places to go for inventive appetizers is Olivia on South Lamar in Austin.  This restaurant has a remarkable and diverse wine list and a menu that's always changing because they depend on locally grown, seasonably available ingredients.  Recently, I had roasted golden beets, ricotta salata, toasted walnuts and an herb salad dressed with black truffle vinaigrette with a lovely glass of E. Guigal Cote du Rhone Blanc 2009 (France) that stunned me.  And here is where I encountered my first RED OLIVE.  I mentioned cerignola olives in a previous post.  They are a wonderfully plump, meaty and buttery fruit, but dyed red, they are eye-popping, gorgeous, totally believably red (in the same sense that hair color could be a believable blond) and not "a color not normally found in nature" red (like marschino cherries).  I thought at first that they might be red from soaking in some kind of bitters (I imagined a faint Campari-like flavor), but it seems they are dyed with E127 when processed in Italy.  E127, I discovered, is erythrosine, a commonly-used food colorant (for things like pistachio shells), which of course has been found to cause cancer in lab rats in large quantities.  Originally, I didn't think my consumption of two of these beauties would put me in much danger, but I'm now thinking of purchasing a 4 lb. jar, which could quite possibly put me in the Geiger counter range.  I'll keep you posted.

Prior to my last Red Olive Day at Olivia, I enjoyed more decadence than any human being ought to at Parkside on E. 6th in Austin.  There's a young chef there really knows how to use and balance acid and can knock your socks off with ingenuity.  The night I literally ate my way through most of the appetizer menu in 3 1/2 hours, I had the fried oyster BLT with avocado and green goddess aioli on romaine, the sweetbreads and veal tongue with cauliflower and cumin crisps, the marrow bones with a kick-butt, perfectly dressed herb salad and the blond pate with strawberry relish.  And that was just for starters, because we decided we couldn't leave untasted the lamb with sunchoke gratin entree.  The most memorable wines that evening were the Laxas Albarino 2009 (Argentina) and the Carlos Basso "Dos Fincas" Cabernet Sauvignon/Malbec 2009 (Argentina), which sent me on an immediate hunt at my local Spec's, where I found them both.

Well, that's probably enough to get you started.  I'll think of more great bites--and will certainly be doing some more research in the near future!

May your tastebuds dance.