Pan-Roasted Pork Tenderloin w/Balsamic-Fennel Confit

You know. It's January. We're supposed to be trying to make some lower calorie meals. After the excess of the holidays. But, you know how it is - you get tired of chicken breasts, stir-frys, and salads. So you go to the source - the cookbooks or the files - and find something new. Something more interesting. Something different. It wasn't hard - I have a huge inventory of cookbooks and folders and folders of clipped recipes. I pulled out one of the diet-type files I have - low-fat entrees - and found about 50 recipes in the file. At least half of them were for pork, which appealed to me. A big shopping spree at Costco, and a couple of hours of putting away stuff and re-proportioning the meat I bought, and I was ready to think about dinner.

For Christmas, at my suggestion, my DH gave me a FoodSaver vacuum packaging system (from Costco). I'd been reluctant to get one, even though a few people had recommended it. I went online and read reviews and settled on the FoodSaver 2940, which got better write-ups than others. I finally unpacked it yesterday, watched the DVD with demonstrations of packaging up all kinds of items. So today I bought a big pork roast and 4 tenderloins. I cut up the roast into 3 pieces and pressed the magic button and wh-o-o-o-p it sucks out all the air. It was FUN. (Sometimes I'm easily amused, especially with any new kitchen toy.) I separated the tenderloins and sucked 3 of those into separate packages. The 4th tenderloin became our dinner. The 2940 doesn't look exactly like this, but close.

So, I digress talking about my new toy. Back to dinner. I really like fennel. I like it raw - just to eat like celery, and I like it cooked - when it renders itself into silkiness, almost. I'd clipped the original recipe from one of Williams-Sonoma's catalogs. The recipe resided next to the write-up about "infused" balsamic. A mere 6 ounce bottle for $19.00. I didn't buy it (aren't you proud of me?). But I thought the recipe was intriguing, so I substituted, as we cooks are wont to do. I couldn't find nary a fresh sage leaf in two stores yesterday (I know, they're out of season, but I still thought the grocery store would have them anyway). Wrong. So I used powdered sage. Surely not the same thing, but the closest I could get. And, I didn't have this infused vinegar. But I DID have some wonderful fruit-infused balsamic that I thought might work. Indeed it did.

First you brown the pork tenderloin, remove it, then saute the fennel and shallots. I sliced the fennel in about 1/4 inch slabs. Maybe not the right configuration for this dish - next time I'd do what the recipe said - in 1/4 inch strips. The slices of fennel would work well in a baked dish, but this fennel needed to be tossed in the frying pan. A tad difficult with this large pieces. Awkward is all I can say. But, my own fault. Once the fennel is nearly cooked through, you add the balsamic. Put the pork tenderloin on top of this vegetable mixture and bake in a very hot oven until the pork is just pink through (145 degrees F), remove the fennel, then the pork to a cutting board and cover with foil briefly while you whisk the remaining sauce over high heat. The pork was perfectly cooked (pink in the middle) and the fennel (W-S calls it a confit) was kind of like a vegetable relish in a way. Not exactly like a side vegetable, but it was that too. Whatever it was, it was delicious.

Pan Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Balsamic-Fennel Confit
Recipe: Adapted from a Williams-Sonoma recipe
Servings: 4
24 ounces pork tenderloin -- (two loins)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
3 whole fennel bulbs -- sliced in 1/4 inch slices
2 whole shallots -- sliced
6 tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar with Pomegranate -- or infused balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon fresh sage -- chopped
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
salt and pepper to taste
1. Preheat oven to 450.
2. Season pork with salt and pepper. In a large ovenproof frying pan over medium-high heat, warm the oil and butter. When hot, brown pork for 3-4 minutes on each side until the meat has begun to caramelize. Transfer meat to a platter.
3. To the same frying pan add the slices of fennel and shallots. Saute, stirring, until the fennel is tender and golden, 6-10 minutes. Add 2 T. of the balsamic vinegar and cook, stirring, until nearly evaporated, about 2-3 minutes. Season sauce with salt and pepper to taste. Stir in half the sage leaves.
4. Nestle the pork tenderloin on top of the fennel, sprinkle with the remaining sage. Use a meat probe in the center of the meat. Transfer pan to the oven. Bake until the thermometer reaches 145 degrees, about 15-20 minutes, or until done to your liking.
5. Remove from oven and transfer pork to a cutting board. Loosely cover with foil. Allow to sit while you complete the sauce (about 5 minutes).
6. Set pan over medium-high heat. Add broth and 4 T. of the balsamic vinegar and bring to a boil. Cook until liquid is reduced by half, about 4-6 minutes. Slice the pork to about 1/2 inch medallions. Arrange pork slices of fennel on a heated platter and drizzle the top with the pan sauce. NOTES : If you don't have the Balsamic with Pomegranate, use some other kind fruited balsamic. The original recipe called for "Infused Balsamic Vinegar," available at Williams-Sonoma. It's an intense, reduced syrup almost, in either a rosemary or garlic flavor. Be sure to cook the fennel until it's nearly cooked before adding the vinegar. You want to caramelize the edges of the fennel, which enhances its flavor. And whatever you do, don't overcook the pork - you want it to be just barely pink in the middle.
Per Serving: 337 Calories; 13g Fat (33.3% calories from fat); 39g Protein; 18g Carbohydrate; 5g Dietary Fiber; 118mg Cholesterol; 219mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1/2 Grain(Starch); 5 1/2 Lean Meat; 0 Vegetable; 1 1/2 Fat.

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Pork & Green Chile Stew

My friends sometimes ask me, "how do you possibly come up with all the stories?" Or, "how can you write about every recipe?" Well, it seems that every recipe has its own story to tell. That's what makes cooking unique to each of us. It's how recipes are born. It's how a recipe from a website, or a cookbook, your friend Linda, or your Grandmother, with a slight change here and there, becomes your own. A creation from your intuition (well, sometimes it's just that you didn't have any carrots, so you used butternut squash instead, and it totally changed the dish). That's the start of a story.

"You must spend hours and hours at your computer?" they quiz. Well, yes and no. I do spend many hours a day at my computer, but I'm not always writing my blog. The blog though - it doesn't take that much time really, since I like to write. Writing comes easily to me. I wrote for 20+ years in my career. Writing was a big part of the job - I wrote mostly newspaper and magazine ads for companies wanting to hire people. Those small, medium to huge ads you see in the help wanted section week after week. There are ad agencies out there that do just that. Not product marketing type advertising, but people hunters. Not head hunters, but ads to encourage and entice people to apply for jobs. A client, the advertiser, would give us, the ad agency, some sketchy phrases about the job requirements, and about what this person would do. It was our job to fashion those phrases into cohesive sentences and paragraphs. Make the words logical. And their sequence make sense. Sometimes we'd use some fancy graphics to make the ad stand out. Other times it was a simple 2-inch ad with very small type. There were times when the ads were very hard to compose, I'll admit. Perhaps the client didn't give us much to work with. But usually there was enough.

So, you see, writing doesn't seem like drudgery to me. I always thought, years ago, that I'd find my inner voice - maybe a voice that would write a novel. But the reality is that my mind doesn't dream fiction stories. My head writes food stories. When I began putting all of my recipes into the MasterCook software, in one of the text cells I find that it invites me to explain the recipe. No, it doesn't ask that, but it seemed that with every recipe I entered, I had no difficulty at all writing up something about it. About when I'd served it. How I'd altered the recipe to suit a particular occasion. Or used the leftovers. Many of my recipes have long, evolved stories about their origin. Or who they came from. Like the Cold Green Pea Soup from our friend Pamela in England. Or the Bishop's Bread I just posted early last month from my mother's friend Mary. Or my mother's Apple Crisp.

Spending hours at the computer isn't hard work for me. (Hmmm. Just ask my DH how many hours a day I spend at the keyboard. Oh. No. Scratch that.) When I'm cooking, there are stages in most recipes when it needs to cook. So I flit over to my laptop that resides here in the kitchen and start a new story. Or finish one that's in progress. Or input a new recipe. Or insert a photo. Or even take a photo. I usually have 3-4 stories in progress at any one time. It seems that there is a kind of a schedule we bloggers keep. Gotta write a story. Gotta write a story every day. Almost anyway. I do my best. Perhaps there will come a day when I will look at this screen and tilt my head a bit and say, I have nothing to write about. But so far, that hasn't happened. I still have lots and lots of my own tried and true recipes to post here. It's just that I haven't made them recently, and I don't like posting a recipe and a story without a photo. You know that adage, a picture speaks a thousand words. So true with cooking.

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So, now that I've waxed on for 500 words, it's time to talk about this recipe. This one started when I read a new cookbook I received for Christmas. I think I've mentioned that I constantly update my Amazon wish list with everything from cookbooks to kitchen appliances, etc. So our son and his wife gave me a book I'd requested, Cooking with Cafe Pasqual's, by Katherine Kagel, the owner and mind behind the fairly famous restaurant in Santa Fe, New Mexico. This is Kagel's second book, and it's a nice addition to my library. I read it from cover to cover and put little flags on the pages I wanted to return to. One recipe that intrigued me was her version of Pork & Green Chile Stew.

Saturday, DH offered to go grocery shopping for me (he loves it, aren't I lucky?), so my mind immediately flipped to the stew. I put together a list. Now, in order to make sense of this whole story, you have to know that her recipe calls for 2 pounds of pork butt, corn, potatoes and nothing less than 16 fresh New Mexican or Anaheim chiles. I wanted to double the recipe, so that's 32 chiles. I thought - whew, that's a whole lotta chiles. But oh well. So, off my DH went. At his second stop, 20 minutes later he phoned. They didn't have pork butt. What would I like to do? Also, they had not one single Anaheim (California) chile pepper. He didn't have time to go to yet another store, so I said forget it, I'll make something else tomorrow.

Next chapter: that same afternoon I was doing some catching up on blog reading (I read a LOT of food blogs, which you can see if you look at the list down my right column). And when I've been away for 11 days, the catching up took me a long time. So, I was reading over at CooknKate, one of my favorites, and lo and behold, she was cookin' a Green Chile. Wow. Really? I studied the recipe. It was completely different than the one from Katherine Kagel. She had found the recipe over at Homesick Texan, another blog I read. I printed it out and decided to try THIS recipe instead of the other one. This one calls for 4 pounds of pork butt, poblano peppers (aka pasilla), jalapenos, tomatillos and beer! So today my darling hubby went out on another shopping expedition for me. He's so wonderful. This time he found pork shoulder, poblanos, jalapenos, tomatillos, cilantro and a fresh bag of masa harina. I was off and running (in the kitchen, that is).

The prep on this recipe did take more time than I'd thought. I mean - this is just a STEW for heaven's sake. The chiles had to be roasted, the tomatillos shucked, onion diced, garlic chopped, jalapenos minced, meat cut up in chunks. But the browning of all the meat was the most time consuming, and you wouldn't believe the state of my wood floors when I was done. My rubber-soled shoes slid along. Time out to wipe paper towels all over the floor. Reminder to have that carpet cleaned.

And when Kate mentioned about the heat from this stew making her eyebrows sweat, she was right. She cut down on the chiles from Homesick Texan's version, I decided to do the same. I used all five poblanos, but I used just two very large jalapenos. I shudder to think what this would taste like with more, or with the serranos. Five alarm for sure. More like ten alarm. I like spicy and moderately hot food, but this was too hot still. I've altered my version accordingly, and have upped the masa to thicken the gravy a bit more. We liked putting the mixture IN a flour tortilla, and the stew needs to be thicker for that. And I had a larger bottle of beer, so used all of it (probably 2 cups worth).

So you see, recipes evolve and morph. What's right for Kate, or Homesick Texan, become right for you when you make your own additions (or subtractions as the case may be). In either case, this pork green chile stew is a winner in my book. I'm looking forward to the leftovers. We each had just one cup in our bowls (ample) with a hot flour tortilla. Delish.

Pork & Green Chile Stew
Original recipe by: Homesick Texan blog
Source: CooknKate blog, and yet adapted more by me
Servings: 8
4 pounds pork shoulder, butt -- cut into 1-inch cubes
3 tablespoons flour
1 pound poblano pepper -- about 5, aka pasilla chiles
2 whole jalapeno pepper -- or more or less to suit your taste, minced
1 pound tomatillos -- cut in eighths
1 medium onion -- peeled and diced
6 whole garlic cloves -- minced
6 tablespoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons oregano
2/3 cup fresh cilantro -- or more if desired, chopped
2 cups chicken broth
2 cups beer
1/2 cup masa harina
2/3 cup sour cream
Salt and pepper to taste
1. Cut the poblanos in half, seed (and remove the white ribs) and lay out on a roasting pan, skin sides up. Rub each with a bit of olive oil, then broil until blackened. Remove to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Set aside for 20 minutes, then (using rubber gloves if your skin is sensitive to chile heat) gently remove the skin. It should come right off if you're careful. Dice the chiles and set aside.
2. In a large Dutch oven or heavy-duty soup pot saute the onion in olive oil until just cooked, about 10 minutes. Add minced garlic and cook for a few minutes more. Do not brown the garlic. Turn off the heat and set aside.
3. Sprinkle the meat cubes with salt, pepper and some flour. In a large round skillet (or two, if you have them, because this takes awhile) heat olive oil and brown the pork cubes. Do not crowd the pan or they'll steam rather than brown. The crusty stuff adds lots of flavor to the stew. You may have to do several batches. As the pork is done, add it to the soup pot.
4. Once the meat browning is complete, add the chicken stock, beer, tomatillos, half the cumin, oregano and the jalapenos. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and low simmer, without a lid, for about an hour.
5. Add the remaining cumin, oregano and about half of the cilantro, and salt and pepper to taste, if needed. Continue to simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. If you can see visible fat floating on top, remove with a flattish spoon or ladle.
6. Add the poblano chiles and simmer for another 30-45 minutes until the meat is fork tender. Use a lid if the mixture is getting too thick (or add a little bit of water). 7. Remove a bit of the stew liquid to a small bowl and add the masa harina - with some additional water to get it to smooth out to a thin paste, then slowly stir this into the stew. Continue to cook for another 10-15 minutes until thickened. Serve in bowls with sour cream dollop on top, additional cilantro sprigs and hot flour tortillas on the side.
Per Serving: 689 Calories; 42g Fat (55.9% calories from fat); 50g Protein; 24g Carbohydrate; 4g Dietary Fiber; 136mg Cholesterol; 334mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1/2 Grain(Starch); 6 1/2 Lean Meat; 2 Vegetable; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 4 1/2 Fat.

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Filipino Lumpia

(photo from filipino-cooking.com)

Story telling seems to be the order of the day with this recipe. From the journal of Carolyn's life. I can hardly write up this recipe without explaining how I came to make this dish, let alone how I knew about it. I actually spent about a month in the Philippines in 1965. My first husband was a Navy Officer and just before the start of the Vietnam war, I embarked on a trip around Asia, trying to meet up with the aircraft carrier he was on. But the war intervened. I had the choice to go home, but decided I was up to the challenge of traveling around and finding my way. The air ticket was paid for, and I knew I could stay very economically on the military bases around Asia.

International travel was new to me - very new. I was 24 at the time with the ink barely dry on my passport. And likely I was very naive as well. With hat, gloves, raincoat, high heels (that was simply the way people traveled back then) and suitcase (with no wheels) in hand, I first went to Hawaii and then on to Japan. Stayed there for about 2 months - alone - on a U.S. Navy base. In a family barracks with a bathroom down the hall. But the price was right. A dollar a day it cost me to live there. (There are some nice perks to being part of the U.S. military "family.") Bus service traversed the base and I could shop in the military exchange, use the library, go to the movies for a quarter, attend wives' functions at the officer's club if I cared to, and venture out the gate of the base and explore the town of Yokusaka. I attended free Japanese language classes and befriended the very kind Japanese teacher who invited me to her home one evening. That's when I first ate gyoza, a staple of the Japanese cuisine. Now you can buy it at Trader Joe's, of all things! I could also eat at the two officer's club restaurants on base. I couldn't cook at the barracks where I stayed, so I ate out 3 meals a day. Fortunately, it didn't cost much. And the food was good. I went into Tokyo a couple of times, took a tour, also took a 2-day military-run tour to Mt. Fuji, which I enjoyed very much. But most days and most hours of every day I was alone. To entertain myself. I did a lot of reading and letter-writing to my family at home.

Eventually the ship headed for the Philippines and I flew to Manila. I arrived late in the afternoon, after a very rocky flight on Air France, where the pilots received multiple trays of wine into the cockpit (permitted at the time). I discovered that I'd missed the three-times-a-week flight to the U.S. Navy base I needed to get to. At that point I was standing in the air terminal in Manila. It was hotter than hell. And humid. And I was very, very alone.

I'd gone to an information desk and they had no suggestions. I had no idea what to do. I didn't like the thought of finding a hotel in Manila to stay for 3 days until the next flight went out. I was a little scared and very unsure of myself. But I'd read that if you're in a foreign place and you have a problem, perhaps the American Embassy can help. I could have phoned the Embassy, but no, I took a taxi there. In my high heels, my hat, my gloves, my suitcase and my very sweaty body. Maybe all that dressed-up paraphernalia helped me, since a kind secretary took pity on me and offered to drive me to the bus terminal.

That bus trip, in itself, is another very engrossing story, but it would take another 5 paragraphs to tell it. Let's just say that I sat behind the driver. Passengers of all ages, shapes and sizes piled on, with their cages of live chickens hanging out the windows, luggage stacked on top of the bus, and off we went. It t'was the most frightening bus journey I've ever made in my entire life. And eventually, 3-4 hours later I arrived in the base-side town of Olangapo. It was about midnight.

I was totally unprepared for Olangapo. It's a very un-Filipino-like town with little except bars and houses of prostitution. I count myself lucky that I eventually made it through the town in a taxi, to the gate of the military base. It was a Friday night and raucous American sailors were doing their best to spend their money, get drunk and make merry, I suppose. At one point, stopped at a light, a bunch of them approached the taxi (spotting me, a young blond woman, alone, inside) and rocked the taxi, hitting the windows with their fists. They wanted me to come join their revelry. They hadn't seen an American woman in awhile, I suppose, and they wanted inside the car. I was absolutely scared to DEATH. The taxi driver jumped the light and he drove hell-for-leather through the rest of town. I ducked down in the seat in the blocks to follow so the sailors couldn't see me, and finally the driver delivered me at the bridge. I was shaking like a leaf. Big time. It was now about 12:30 am. Thinking back on it, I should have heavily tipped the taxi driver. I didn't even think of it. So, out I got from the taxi. Still with my suitcase, high heels, raincoat, hat and gloves. Picturing myself just makes me laugh now. I had to drag myself about 150 feet or so across a pedestrian-only bridge to approach the gate. There were no problems crossing the bridge - good thing! Everybody was already in town. Whew.

A couple of other wives I knew were already billeted there, so I tagged along with them. We had very slow days - breakfast at the officer's club, lounge by the pool most of the day, dinner at the officer's club, sleep. Repeat and repeat. I did see my then-husband some, but not much. I stuck like glue to the two other wives who were more worldly than I. Both had been Pan Am stews for some years so were far more well traveled than I. And they had friends everywhere in the world.

So now, we finally get to the focus of the food blog story. The lumpia. Perhaps lumpia are meant to be a main dish, but we had them only as an appetizer at the two officer's clubs. And at the pool. And we wives ordered them every single day for lunch. I just l-o-v-e-d them. They're similar to the Chinese style egg rolls that you know and enjoy, but slightly different. I liked dipping each one into the sauce that accompanied them. I was able, finally, to get somebody to tell me that they put maraschino cherry juice in the sauce. How odd, I thought. But, when you consider the number of maraschino cherries an officer's club bar goes through, they were certainly resourceful coming up with a use for all that brilliant red, highly charged Red Dye cherry juice. No other recipe I've ever seen for them uses that ingredient. Not surprising, I guess.

Eventually, after that 5-month trip (I also went on to Hong Kong, back to Japan for another month's stay, then home) I found a recipe for lumpia. I knew they were made with vegetables, minced up, julienned really, with shrimp, pork and chicken. I haven't made them in many years. But they're awfully darned good. If you don't mind the prep and the fact that they're deep fried.

I actually believe that trip I made gave me the lifetime urge to travel and I haven't stopped since. But think about the maraschino cherry juice when you make this. And one frightened young woman taking a hair-raising bus ride across part of the Philippines, then a taxi ride through Olangapo.

Lumpia (Filipino style egg rolls)
Serving Size : 12
About 60 pieces wonton wrappers
FILLING:
1 pound ground pork
1 cup cooked chicken -- or turkey
1 large garlic clove -- minced
1 cup shrimp -- NOT canned
1 cup bean sprouts
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup onion -- minced
SAUCE:
1/4 cup water
3 tablespoons maraschino cherry juice
1 1/2 tablespoons ketchup
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup vinegar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1. In a medium-sized skillet, cook pork, onion and garlic in a little butter or oil for about 5 minutes. Add shrimp and bean sprouts and cook just a few minutes more. Set aside to cool for 10-15 minutes.
2. Place about a tablespoon of meat mixture in center of a won ton skin, fold in sides about 1/2 inch and roll up into a shape similar to a Tootsie Roll. Moisten last edge with water to seal and set aside while assembling others. Don't let egg rolls touch each other or they'll stick.
3. Deep fry lumpia for about 3-4 minutes until golden brown. Drain on paper towels and allow to cool for about 5 minutes before serving as they're too hot to eat. Serve with special dipping sauce.
4. DIPPING SAUCE: Bring water, juice and ketchup to a boil; add sugar, stirring until dissolved. Add 1/3 cup of vinegar and cook 1 minute longer. Blend cornstarch into remaining vinegar and add to mixture. Do not boil, but heat until thickened and clear. Makes about 1-1/2 cups of sauce. If you don't have maraschino cherry juice, you may substitute pineapple juice, but add some red food coloring to it.
Per Serving: 202 Calories; 9g Fat (40.3% calories from fat); 15g Protein; 15g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 68mg Cholesterol; 454mg Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Grain(Starch); 2 Lean Meat; 1/2 Vegetable; 1 Fat; 1/2 Other Carbohydrates

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A Nice Sunday Pork Roast . . on Friday

Deciding what to serve guests? For me, making decisions about a company meal usually starts out with the decision about the entrée. So, is it beef, fish, chicken, pork or lamb? I'll flip through my big personal cookbook (two large 3-ring binders containing all 405 of my recipes, divided up by categories), and start making a list of the options. I may pull out those recipes (each is in a plastic sleeve) before I decide. Here's what I do:

• make a list of a couple of the meat dishes that sound good to me. Then I'll think about what should go with it;
• vegetables (depends on the season, maybe two vegies and no carb), add to the list;
• another side/carb (does this dinner need a carb, would my guests prefer not to have a carb, is it too many calories already? think about the color on the plate since we like to have some variety); add to the list;
• a salad (green type? or another? special additions like pecans or walnuts, a new dressing? an old favorite?), add to the list;
• dessert (look over the menu so far, think about my timetable, what I can manage with all the other dishes, does it need to be lower calorie? a splurge? chocolate or no?); add to the list;
• and lastly appetizers (do I need to make something homemade? can I make do with chips and salsa? if we're not having carbs with the dinner, maybe hummus would be fine with crackers and vegies?).

So, for this particular dinner I wanted a pork roast using a recipe I've had for some years, after taking a class with Tarla Fallgatter, a local cooking instructor. But, I wanted a simple, but JUICY pork roast. The last few times I've baked a pork roast I've been disappointed and had concluded it was the pork, not the cook (moi, how could it be moi?). I was convinced it's this new, leaner pork, the other white meat, that was just too lean, with not enough fat in the grain to provide any juiciness. So I consulted my local independent butcher. He told me that the pork I bought at Costco was probably the same pork I bought from him, or at least they were from the same or similar pork producers in Iowa as Costco uses (okay, no help there.) But, he did tell me that if I wanted a bit more marbling of fat, I should buy a roast from the rib end (more toward the country ribs part). He just happened to have one (oh good). BUT, he told me, the most important thing I should remember was to not overcook the meat (uh oh, maybe I am the culprit after all?). I asked him (always good to get a second opinion) at what temperature I should remove the pork. He didn't know (hmm, not good, a butcher doesn't know this?). Okay, back to my recipe, which said 145°.

So, once I'd decided on having pork, chosen the recipe (below) I rounded out the meal with the zucchini gratin (my posting on Saturday), a nice green salad, chips and salsa, and I made some strawberry mascarpone ice cream from over at Culinary Concoctions by Peabody. It was a very nice meal with a couple of bottles of red wine. We were all very mellow by 10:00 pm.

As for the pork, I was careful to use my meat thermometer. But, I found out
that the part of the sensor that reveals the oven temperature isn't working, so think I'll have to buy a new one - I dropped it a month or so ago and bent the connector that goes into the little digital box - most likely that's the problem. I'm glad it wasn't the interior meat temp that wasn't working! I removed the roast at exactly 145°, let it sit for about 10 minutes while I prepped the rest of the meal. The pork was perfectly cooked. And JUICY! I have no qualms about spending the money to buy a new meat thermometer. It convinced me once again what an invaluable instrument it is in the kitchen!

The apricot compote is a bit different than some. The addition of a whole vanilla bean - well not the bean itself, but the contents - makes it unusual. Whole vanilla beans have such a fragrance - a perfume, if you will - that could easily

overpower. You carefully slit the bean open, to butterfly it (it's a little like microsurgery - attacking this tiny, narrow little thing - do use a small knife with a very thin and sharp point) and scrape the miniature grains out of the bean. You'll get about 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon total. And you can see the grains in the finished sauce - you may want to tell your guests so they don't think it's sand!

Roast Pork Loin with Apricot Compote
Recipe By: A cooking class with Tarla Fallgatter
Serving Size : 10 Preparation Time 35 minutes

COMPOTE:
1 1/2 cups white wine -- sweeter variety, if available
1 1/2 cups apple cider
2 whole cinnamon sticks
1 whole vanilla bean -- split & scraped
2 tablespoons sugar
12 ounces dried apricot halves -- chopped

ROAST PORK:
4 1/2 pounds pork loin -- chine bone removed
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground pepper
1 1/2 tablespoons oil

1. Compote: In a medium pan combine wine, cider, cinnamon, sugar and vanilla bean scrapings. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and add apricots. Simmer for 20 minutes or until a syrup consistency is achieved. If the syrup has not reduced sufficiently, remove apricots and boil the syrup until it reaches the desired consistency. Remove from heat and set aside or keep warm to serve. Can be made one day ahead.
2. Pork: Preheat oven to 350°. Season meat with salt & pepper. In a large pan heat oil over medium high heat and brown pork on all sides. Place on a rack in a roasting pan and bake for about 30 minutes, turn meat over, then bake an additional 30 minutes, or until an instant-read thermometer inserted in the center registers 145°. Remove pork from oven, cover loosely with foil for 10-15 minutes, then cut into portions, and spoon hot compote over meat.
Start to Finish Time: 1 hour
NOTES : It may be preferable to use two pork tenderloins for this recipe. If so, bake them for about 20 minutes total. You can, if necessary, use vanilla extract in place of the vanilla bean, but the flavor will be significantly reduced. It really is worth the time and trouble to buy the whole bean.
Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 332 Calories; 9g Fat (26.6% calories from fat); 27g Protein; 30g Carbohydrate; 5g Dietary Fiber; 64mg Cholesterol; 379mg Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Grain(Starch); 3 1/2 Lean Meat; 1 1/2 Fruit; 1/2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.

Caramelized Carnitas Tacos

As mentioned in the previous recipe, my friend Cherrie and I attended a cooking class recently, which was a Cinco de Mayo celebration of recipes by Phillis Carey. This is different than any carnitas I've ever had, and it's really tasty. It doesn't take long to simmer the meat, and the steps to make this are relatively simple. With a green salad, this could be dinner if you put out condiments like the salsa and guacamole. Shredded lettuce would probably be a nice addition too. In this version, instead of serving shredded (cold) cheese as a condiment, Monterey jack cheese is melted and baked with the meat and you merely scoop some of this combination into a hot flour tortilla and serve.

Caramelized Carnitas Tacos

CARNITAS:
1 1/2 pounds boneless pork center rib -- or pork shoulder, cut in 1 inch cubes with some fat
2 cloves garlic -- minced
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon tequila
1 tablespoon molasses
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 cup water
1/2 cup green onions -- sliced

QUESO FONDUTA:
1 pound Monterey jack cheese -- grated
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1 tablespoon cilantro -- chopped

TACOS:
8 small flour tortillas
1 1/2 cups salsa -- freshly, not bottled
1 cup guacamole

1. CARNITAS: Place pork cubes in a medium bowl. Toss with garlic, brown sugar, tequila, molasses, salt and pepper. Transfer to a 10-inch skillet, spreading pork out to a single layer. Pour the water on and bring to a boil. Simmer until the pork is tender and the water is cooked out, stirring occasionally. Toward the end of the cooking time watch the pan carefully. You do not want it to scorch. Taste meat for tenderness and add a bit more water if needed to continue cooking. The cook time should be about 45 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cook slightly before adding the green onions.

2. QUESO: Preheat oven to 375°. Place the cooked carnitas in a deep pie plate or casserole dish and top with the grated cheese. Sprinkle with garlic salt and bake for 20-25 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly. During the last 10 minutes of cooking, wrap the tortillas in foil and bake along with the casserole.

3. SERVING: Spoon carnitas and fonduta into the hot tortillas and add some salsa and guacamole on top, fold over and serve.

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 688 Calories; 37g Fat (49.1% calories from fat); 37g Protein; 50g Carbohydrate; 4g Dietary Fiber; 96mg Cholesterol; 1194mg Sodium. Exchanges: 2 1/2 Grain(Starch); 4 Lean Meat; 1/2 Vegetable; 5 Fat; 1/2 Other Carbohydrates.

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