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Life's a Bitche when your small!
This snapshot will remind Andreea of the days when she was still small! It was taken in a small French town called Bitche last summer. We never discovered what, if any, connection there was here to the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party but we all had a good time there. This summer will be quite different since she and Marius are soon to be parents. In Ottawa for a few days, they came to supper on Tuesday evening and we needed to rustle up something special that was not too much trouble since it was mid-week.
Dorothy suggested that pork tenderloin would fit the bill, since we usually have it on hand, it is fairly quick to cook and is low in fat but high in taste.
Method: This is a typical Un-Chef recipe in that I rarely prepare it EXACTLY the same way twice. I typically slice the tenderloin into slices about one inch thick and if necessary further cut the slices into medaillion-sized pieces. I arrange them in an oven-proof dish, liberally sprinkle them with spices and seasonings of choice. If you are stumped here, Mrs. Dash is always a good choice. Today, I used a Thai blend. I made a glaze of 2 parts PC cranberry-orange sauce, 1 part sweet chili sauce (thai-style not ketchup-based) and 1 part green seasoning. These were mixed and brushed over the top of the arranged meat. Then the dish was baked in the oven for 1 hour at 350F.
If you are in a hurry and you have a microwave-safe dish, you can cut the time dramatically by starting in the microwave for 4-6 mins depending on quantity and finishing for 15 minutes in the oven. We served the pork with wild rice, fresh steamed asparagus and fried plantain.
Marius and Andreea brought along a Jackson-Triggs Malbec Merlot which paired nicely with the meal, even if it was a little warmer than it should have been with the weather here in Ottawa being unseasonably warrm. Many people do not take into account that ‘room temperature’ for red wines is of European origin and translates to about 18C -20C.
Also worthy of note is the sauce I hobbled together to accompany the samosas that we served as an appetizer. I did not make the pastries myself but had been so enamoured of the sauce that accompany those made by The Pearl of India, that I attempted to reproduce their sauce from guesswork. I think I came pretty close by starting with raspberry yogourt, adding some raspberry and white balsamic vinaigrette and a little milk to obtain a pouring consistency in a ratio of approximately (2:1:1)
We finished the meal off with another perennial favourite, this time, one of Dorothy’s popular offerings: Rhubarb Custard Cake. This was prepared using fresh rhubarb from our garden. Sorry, no picture, so you will just have to imagine how good it tasted
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2 comments
Hello Roy,
Thank you for having us over for dinner. I think that the un-chef is about to become a master chef! We are still talking about the dinner we had with you and Dorothy… I particularly liked the meat (you know I am a carnivore). It was tasty, good texture and moist, good choice of seasonings too. And the wild rice tasted so differently than the usual one, I will have to try and cook that myself. The wine was indeed a bit warm as we noticed at the time, but it went well with the main dish. The Rhubarb cake reminded me of the sour cherries cake that my mom makes. You could freeze some Rhubarb and keep it in the freezer. Dorothy said that it becomes too hard when it grows old and it’s not useful anymore, so save some for when we visit you next time.:)
I’ve just noticed that the Malbec bottle is completely empty, what happened to it?:)
Thank you for posting a very delicious a recipe. That would lovely if it would be cooked by your spouse served with a glass of wine.