Ancho Pork Medallions

Another Cooking Light recipe!

I'm actually trying to be a good boy and maybe even drop a couple of pounds before the wedding.  What I really want to do is lose all of the weight I gained after I quit smoking, but I'm thinking short-term goals are probably more realistic.  A couple of pounds between now and October 14th.

I can do it.

Enter Cooking Light.  Now...  if you've picked up a copy of the magazine recently, you'll notice that some of their recipes really are anything but light.  Lots of sugar, lots of butter...   Granted, they are favorite ingredients of mine, but sometimes sugar and butter are actually unnecessary in a recipe.  (Yes, you read that correctly!)

Just like the one I made tonight.  It calls for a minuscule amount of sugar in the spice rub, but... since the recipe later calls for  pepper jelly, I saw no reason to add it to the spice rub.

That being said, the dish came out stupendous!  It is a definite keeper.  It just rocked.  Vaguely sweet and vaguely spicy, but lots and lots of flavor.  The spices and the jelly really worked well together.

I followed the recipe pretty much as stated - except for the sugar in the spice mixture.

Ancho Pork Medallions

Pepper jelly and aromatic spices give your average pork tenderloin a bold new flavor. Serve with a spinach salad for a complete meal.

Other Time: 20 minutes minutes
Yield:  4 servings (serving size: 2 medallions)

  • 1 (1-pound) pork tenderloin, trimmed
  • 3/4 teaspoon ancho chile powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
  • 2 tablespoons jalapeño pepper jelly
  • 1 teaspoon lime juice
  • 2 teaspoons olive oil

1. Cut pork crosswise into 8 equal pieces. Combine chile powder and next 4 ingredients (through allspice) in a small bowl; rub evenly over both sides of pork. Combine jelly and lime juice; set aside.

2. Heat oil in a large heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork to pan; cook 1 minute on each side. Brush pork with half of jelly mixture; turn and brush with remaining jelly mixture. Cook 1 minute on each side or until desired degree of doneness. Remove pork from pan; let stand 5 minutes before serving.

CALORIES 168 ; FAT 6.1g (sat 1.6g,mono 3.2g,poly 0.6g); CHOLESTEROL 63mg; CALCIUM 7mg; CARBOHYDRATE 4.6g; SODIUM 363mg; PROTEIN 22.5g; FIBER 0.1g; IRON 1.2mg

The side dish was a fun one, too.

It was a bit of a clean out the refrigerator dish that went well with the pork.

Potatoes and Tomatoes with Raspberry Chipotle Sauce

  • 8 oz teeny potatoes
  • 4 green onions, chopped
  • 4 oz mushrooms, sliced
  • 2 tomatoes, diced
  • 1 tbsp cilantro, minced
  • 1 small jar Bronco Bob's Roasted Raspberry Chipotle Sauce

Boil or steam potatoes until tender.

Saute green onions and mushrooms until lightly browned.  Add tomatoes and cook.  Add the chipotle sauce and cilantro.  Add the potatoes and mix well.

Let simmer a few minutes and serve.

We pick up little sample jars of the sauces whenever we hit Cost Plus out west.  It's a fun store with lots of fun products from all over the world.  We've bought a lot of goodies there over the years, from furniture to dishware to Christmas ornaments and more.  I first shopped with them a bazillion years ago when their only store was on Bay Street in San Francisco.  A cavernous place where one could get lost for hours.  Alas, they've become a slick almost-cookie-cutter store and have re-branded themselves as "Cost Plus World Market" but I can still drop a few bucks there, easily.

But back to the veggies...

The sauce is smokey but not spicy-hot so it went well with the vegetables and the pork spices.

I can see more of this in our future...


Mahi Mahi with Smokey Tomatoes

With the gastronomic success of Victor's Pasta Monday I think I'm going to start Seafood Thursday.

I really do want to get more fish into our diet and the only way to do it is to make it part of an actual plan.  My normal cooking style is to open the cupboards and see what's in them.  I generally just buy ingredients without a clear plan for what I'm going to do with them.  It works for me because I usually don't know on Monday what I'm going to want to eat on any other given day of the week and having a well-stocked larder gives me options - or forces me into things because I have produce that needs eating that day!

I think Seafood Thursday will be a fun way to actually plan a recipe every week.

Today's Seafood Thursday Concept came compliments of Cooking Light magazine.

The August issue had a recipe for Mahi Mahi with a Bacon Tomato Butter.  It was intriguing, but it called for brining the fish in a sugar and salt solution.  That just sounded silly to me, so I omitted that first step.  It also called for adding two tablespoons of butter to the finished tomatoes and bacon.  I love butter probably more than the next guy, but I didn't see a need to add butter to something that already had bacon fat in it.  I know...  silly me.

I served it on a bed of fresh spinach sauteed in a drizzle of olive oil, with salt, pepper, and garlic.  I really like plating things atop others.  Besides being very visually appealing - the whole eat with your eyes concept - It just makes things taste good.

My tomatoes were "brown tomatoes" - not plums - and I didn't seed them.  Nor did I add the 2 tablespoons of butter.

There's the Cooking Light recipe.  Play with it as you wish.  I really do recommend the smoked paprika, though.  Go buy some.  It's great in a lot of things!

Mahi Mahi with Bacon-Tomato Butter

Look for American mahimahi that were caught using the pole/troll method, as this fishing practice has the least negative impact on the waters where they're caught, and it yields the freshest fish.

Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients

  • 2  cups  water
  • 1  tablespoon  fine sea salt
  • 2  teaspoons  sugar
  • 4  (6-ounce) mahimahi fillets
  • Cooking spray
  • 1/4  teaspoon  table salt, divided
  • 1  slice center-cut bacon, finely chopped
  • 1  garlic clove, thinly sliced
  • 1/4  teaspoon  hot smoked paprika
  • 2  plum tomatoes, seeded and diced
  • 2  tablespoons  butter

Preparation

1. Combine first 3 ingredients in a shallow dish, stirring until sea salt and sugar dissolve; add fish. Let stand 20 minutes. Drain; pat dry.

2. Prepare charcoal fire in a chimney starter; let coals burn for 15 to 20 minutes or until flames die down. Carefully pour hot coals out of starter, and pile them onto one side of the grill. Coat grill grate with cooking spray; put grate in place over coals.

3. Sprinkle 1/8 teaspoon table salt evenly over fish. Lightly coat fish with cooking spray. Place fish, skin side down, over direct heat on grill rack coated with cooking spray; grill 2 minutes or until well marked. Turn fish over and move to indirect heat; grill 12 minutes or until desired degree of doneness.

4. Heat a small skillet over medium heat; add bacon to pan. Cook 5 minutes or until bacon is almost crisp, stirring occasionally. Add garlic; cook for 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Add paprika, and cook for 20 seconds, stirring constantly. Add tomatoes, and cook for 3 minutes. Stir in butter. Remove from heat; stir in remaining 1/8 teaspoon table salt. Place 1 fillet on each of 4 plates; top each serving with about 2 tablespoons tomato mixture.

I wonder what next Thursday will bring.....


Peaches and Puff Pastry

I had about six peaches that needed using up and a package of puff pastry in the freezer.  Almost-instant dessert!

Just for grins and giggles, I actually peeled the peaches - something I rarely do.  And they were so sweet I didn't even add sugar to them!

I peeled and sliced them and then mixed them with 3 tbsp flour and 2 tbsp melted butter.  Nothing else.

I placed 'em in the baking dish, topped it with the puff pastry, and placed it in a 400° oven for 35 minutes.

Yum.


Pasta Paraphernalia

After years (and years) of rolling gnocchi off the tines of a fork, Victor went out and got a real, live gnocchi board.  Just in time for Monday's Pasta Feast.

He's going to be making Malloreddus con Saliccia.

I can't wait.