Indonesian Pork Tenderloin

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Indonesian Pork Tenderloin

Last week it was in the 60’s here, all week long (albeit raining). Then, on Thursday it got cold enough to get a little bit of snow. Enough for Andrew to have a little bit of fun in at least! And now, it’s REALLY cold. So, when I came across a recipe for this pork tenderloin I thought it looked great, something to transport me to a warm tropical beach – and away from the freezing tundras of coastal Maryland.

Super duper easy too. I just threw together a marinade, let the pork do it’s thing – and then used the method that I’ve used for pork tenderloins in the past; seared it off on the stove first, then finished cooking in the oven. Since I didn’t want to let all that delicious flavor in the marinade go to waste, I went ahead and brought it to a boil on the stove then served it as a sauce alongside the sliced tenderloin.

I love the flavor that the peanut butter and soy sauce lend, as well as the little kick of heat from the crushed red pepper. The original recipe called for mango chutney, which I didn’t have, so I just used some peach-hot pepper jelly that I’d gotten from TS Smith & Sons last year – and it turned out beautifully. But, orange marmalade or apricot preserves would be good too; just something that’s sweet, with a little bit of chunkiness to it.

I served it with garlic rice pilaf (recipe coming tomorrow) and sauteed snow peas – and everyone cleaned their plates. If you’re looking for a change of pace, or to bring some exotic new flavors to the dinner table – definitely mark this one down on your menu soon!

Indonesian Pork Tenderloin

1 pork tenderloin (about 1 pound)
1/4 cup apricot preserves
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 Tbsp creamy peanut butter
1 lime, juiced
1/4 cup orange juice
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 Tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped

Combine preserves, garlic, coriander, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, peanut butter, lime juice, orange juice, crushed red pepper and black pepper in a small bowl. Whisk well to combine, paying attention to break up the peanut butter.  Place pork tenderloin in gallon sized Ziploc bag and pour the marinade on top. Squeeze out the air, and seal, using your hands to squish bag and distribute marinade evenly. Place in refrigerator and let marinade for at least 30 minutes, or up to 8 hours.

Preheat oven to 425. Heat  the vegetable oil in large oven-proof skillet (I like cast iron) over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add the pork tenderloin, and sear on all sides, until it’s nicely browned – about 7 minutes or so. Place the entire skillet into the preheated oven, and cook until a meat thermometer registers 160 degrees – about 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let sit for 10 minutes before slicing.

While the pork is in the oven, pour the marinade into a small saucepan. If it seems too thick, add a splash or orange juice or water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Boil for 1 minute, then turn off heat. Pour sauce over the sliced tenderloin and sprinkle with chopped cilantro for garnish.

Source: adapted from Kitchen Confidante

Navy Bean Soup

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Navy Bean Soup

For a good chunk of my life, I was completely turned off by bean soup. Come to think of it, I was pretty much disgusted by all beans. Silly little girl. I’m happy to report that in the past couple years, beans have become a staple in my kitchen. I like to keep bagged dried beans on hand for meals like this, but also canned beans for a quick meal or side dish.

This navy bean soup is the first instance in which I “saw the light” in regards to how awesome beans can be. We were on a cruise, enjoying lunch in the dining room, and navy bean soup was one of the starter courses for the day. I tried it, and loved it. The flavor and texture just won me over completely. Not to mention how hearty and filling it is. Isn’t it funny with all the fancier things on the menu that day, I remember the humble bean soup? It definitely left an impression.

Anyways, I finally “borrowed” the Carnival cookbook from my mom (she’ll probably never see it on her bookshelf again), which has their navy bean soup recipe. After Christmas we were all kind of burnt out on ham leftovers, so I threw the bone into the freezer and took it out last week to make this soup. But, if you don’t have a ham bone laying around, then a smoked ham hock would work just fine. It doesn’t get much more filling, heartier, or economical than a big bubbling pot of bean soup folks!

Navy Bean Soup

1 lb. dried navy beans
1/4 cup bacon, chopped
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1/2 cup carrot, chopped
1/2 cup celery, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb. ham bone or ham hocks
8 cups water
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp paprika
2 bay leaves
1 Tbsp parsley, chopped

Place beans in 5-quart Dutch oven; cover with cold water. Soak overnight; drain.

Heat the Dutch oven over medium-high heat, and cook the bacon until crisp. Remove to a paper-towel lined plate to drain.

Add the onion, carrots, and celery to the hot bacon grease and cook for a few minutes, until starting to soften. Add the garlic and cook for an additional minute.

Slowly pour in the water. Add the ham bone, oregano, paprika, bay leaves, bacon, and drained beans. Bring mixture to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to low, and cook for 3 hours until beans are tender.Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Remove ham bone and bay leaves. If there’s any meat left on the bone, I’ll chop it up and throw it back in the soup. Sprinkle with chopped parsley before serving.

Source: Carnival Creations, cruise cuisine from Carnival chefs

Bacon Stout Chocolate Cheesecake

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Bacon Stout Chocolate Cheesecake

Okay, okay – hear me out. I know what you must be thinking – bacon on a cheesecake? What the what? But just trust me, it works, especially since its beer-candied bacon. I first got this idea for a cheesecake at my favorite place for inspiration, Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats. In the spring months here on Delmarva, they have a restaurant week. If you are a restaurant in the area and would like to participate, you can offer a 3-course meal to your patrons for $30 a person.

We’ve been to a few places, as it’s always fun to try something new, but we always end up back at Dogfish. There’s the amazing beer, obviously. But, the food is always awesome – as well as the service. It’s a great place to go with the kids, with fun activity menus to keep them busy. They even make their own homemade birch beer! They source as many local ingredients as much as possible, displaying the farms proudly on a chalkboard. Sam and his wife Mariah (founders of Dogfish Head) are the nicest people in the world. We’ve seen them in there many evenings where their family was enjoying dinner with friends, or just hanging out – and Sam chatted with Jon about homebrew for a while. They also host our local homebrew chapter, Delmarva United Homebrewers, at the brewpub in the winter months. Which, is just another notch on their lipstick case of coolness in my book.  Okay, I digress…let’s just say that I love them, and everything that they stand for.

The cheesecake was on their prix fixe menu that night as a dessert choice. Of course I couldn’t resist, and I’m eternally grateful that I didn’t. They used their Chicory Stout in the batter, which led to a  denser cheesecake than I was accustomed to. It definitely stuck in my mind, and I always wanted to recreate it at home. Enter Jackie, who posted a chocolate stout cheesecake on her beer blog a while back. I knew it was  going to be the perfect base for this monster. And, it was. I added a bit of the beer-candied bacon to the batter, as well as to the top (along with some hot fudge sauce to make it easier to adhere). Just enough to make you think – Oh, bacon! And the pretzel crust? Insanely good, and seemed to retain a better crunch than your standard graham cracker variety.

Desserts are often overlooked at Super Bowl parties – but this is one that is most definitely notable. Make this, and you’re sure to be the talk of the party. Or with it in hand, will get you into any party you like! Who’s going to turn down a bacon stout chocolate cheesecake with a pretzel crust? #nobody

Bacon Stout Chocolate Cheesecake

For the Crust:
4 standard sized graham crackers
1 cup pretzel rods
2 Tbsp granulated sugar
6 Tbsp butter, melted

For the filling:
7 oz dark chocolate (60%)
1 cup stout (a chocolate stout or coffee stout is lovely)
3 (8 oz) packages of cream cheese, softened
1 1/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
2 tbs flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 tbs espresso powder
3/4 cup beer-candied bacon, finely chopped

For the topping:
2/3 cup hot fudge sauce
1/2 cup beer-candied bacon, finely chopped
1 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp granulated sugar

Place one oven rack in the middle position, with one rack below. Preheat oven to 350.

In a food processor add the graham crackers, sugar and the pretzels and process until it’s the consistency of crumbs. Turn the food processor on, and slowly stream in the butter and process until it resembles wet sand.

Spray the inside of a 9-inch spring form pan with non-stick cooking spray. Pour the processed crumbs into the spring form pan. Using the bottom of a heavy, flat bottom glass, press the crust very well into the bottom of the pan until well compacted.

In a pot over medium high heat, add the beer and the chocolate, stir until melted and remove from heat. Allow to cool.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, add the cream cheese and the sugar and mix until smooth. One at a time, add the eggs, scraping the bottom of the bowl between additions. Pour the cooled chocolate into the mixer and beat until well combined. Lift the head of the mixer and add flour, cocoa powder, espresso powder, and bacon over the batter, stir on low speed until just combined.

Pour the batter into the pan over the crust.

Place the pan in the oven in the middle position. Place a baking dish on the rack below the cheesecake, fill with water.

Bake the cheesecake until the center no longer jiggles when you shake the rack, about 45-50 minutes. This isn’t a situation where a tooth pick inserted in the middle should come out clean, you just need the center to set and it will continue to set as it cools. Remove from oven.

For the topping, warm your hot fudge sauce so that it is pourable. Pour onto the center of the cheescake carefully, and allow to sit and solidify for 15 minutes. Top the chocolate with the chopped bacon. In a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whip the whipping cream until soft peaks form. Add the sugar, and continue whipping on high until stiff peaks form. Place in piping bag fitted with a decorative tip (I used Wilton 2D) and pipe border of whipped cream around the edge.

Source: inspired by Dogfish Head Brewings and Eats, base cheesecake recipe from The Beeroness

Penne with Sausage & Olive Sauce

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Olive Sauce

It’s no secret that I love those dear Housewives of New Jersey. When my favorite matriarch of the Manzo family, Caroline, talked about an olive tomato sauce that her family always had on Christmas Eve – I immediately put that on my “to-do” list in the kitchen. Her recipe is top-secret of course, but in the scene it showed her slicing up fennel so I knew that went into the mix. So, I started there and just kind of winged it.

I added some sliced up Italian sausage, two kinds of olives, and fennel – as well as all the other standard tomato sauce fare. The brininess of the olives add such a different twist from a standard tomato sauce. Also, a greater depth of flavor. And, as most pasta dishes go, it didn’t take long to throw together. If you wanted to make this a vegetarian dish, it would be just as delicious without the sausage.

If you’re like me, and find yourself in a rut when it comes to new pasta dishes – give this one a try!

Penne with Sausage & Olive Sauce

1 lb Italian sausage links (I used hot)
1 can black olives, drained and roughly chopped
1 can green olives, drained and roughly chopped
2 (28) oz cans whole tomatoes, lightly crushed with clean hands
1 onion, diced
1 fennel bulb, thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb. penne pasta
olive oil
kosher salt
fresh chopped parsley, for garnish
Parmesan cheese, for garnish

Add 1 tbsp olive oil to a large, heavy bottomoed saucepan (I used a dutch oven) and place over medium-high heat. Add the sausage links, and brown well on all sides. Don’t worry if they’re not cooked all the way through, they’ll finish cooking in the sauce. Remove from pan to a plate, and set aside.

Add the onion and the fennel, and saute until starting to soften, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, and cook for an additional minute. Add in the tomatoes, and olives and stir to combine. Season to taste with salt, I add about 1 tsp.

Slice the sausage into 1-inch pieces and add slices to the sauce. Reduce heat to low, cover, and let simmer for 40 minutes – stirring occasionally.

Cook pasta according to package directions, reserving 1/2 cup of the pasta water before draining. Add the drained pasta to olive sauce, stirring to combine. If it seems dry, add a splash of the pasta water to help loosen up the sauce a bit.

Garnish with chopped parsley and grated Parmesan cheese before serving.

Source: inspired by The Real Housewives of New Jersey’s Caroline Manzo