Pork Loin with Pears and Onions

From Epicurious, imagine that! Hehe.. Original recipe name: Pork Tenderloin with Pears and Shallots. The recipe looked both delicious and easy, especially with reviewers recommended modifications. No photo because I forgot to photograph the delicious finished product.. Need to get better at that!!

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon dry thyme (real recipe calls for fresh chopped, but dry worked just fine)
• 1 1 1/4-pound pork loin (calls for tenderloin, but I had regular already in freezer)
• 1/2 onion cut into wedges (or 3 large shallots, each cut into 6 wedges through stem end)
• 3 unpeeled small pears, quartered, cored - ours were fairly hard which worked out well
• 2 Tbsp margarine (I'd have used butter but Dan's off dairy)
• 2 Tbsp whole-wheat flour
• 1 12oz can pear nectar
• 1/2 c broth of some kind
• salt and pepper to taste

Preparation
Preheat oven to 425˚ or higher.

Brown pork in cast iron skillet with oil, garlic, onions, thyme. Add some pear nectar to prevent sticking. Add pears once pork is browned, and let cook on cut sides about 1 minute. Place skillet in oven and roast.

Check pork occasionally and add more pear nectar as the juices absorb.

Take out once pork reaches 145˚. I accidentally let it cook to about 160˚. (After about 15 minutes I turned up the oven temperature to 450˚ because I was getting impatient.) You could probably take it out at 140˚ and assume that it will keep heating up as you remove it. Remove pork and pears, place in dish and cover with foil.

Add the remaining nectar, some broth, margarine and flour to skillet and bring to simmer. (You're supposed to make a roux here, but I accidentally did it the wrong way although it turned out perfectly in the end.) Whisk up brown bits from skillet and continue to whisk until it thickens, about 5 minutes total. You could add salt and pepper to taste here, but I found that the pork itself was plenty salty without added salt here. But that's just me.

I served the gravy on the side, but you could just as well put it on the pork and pears to serve. ... And, done!

The Verdict: A Keeper
This recipe was delicious! Sweet, hearty, easy, and all around good. Served it with a salad and brown rice, although I forgot to serve the rice. Ah well..

Dan agrees that it's a keeper, although he's voiced his opinion that he doesn't think the word 'keeper' is valid as I am apparently moving in a forward-only direction with my cooking. And honestly he's right, I don't really like repeating recipes. It bores me. Anyway, that may change with more kids and less time, so it's wise to experiment now, right?

Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches

Dan and I were craving the buffalo chicken sandwiches that we used to eat at Crane Alley in Urbana just about weekly. Mmmmmm.... But on a budget, in Albuquerque, and with strange dietary restrictions it seemed best to give it a go and make our own. So I found this recipe: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Buffalo-Chicken-Strips-with-Celery-and-Watercress-Slaw-237297 ... I didn't bother with the sauce or slaw, nor did I make the chicken into strips:

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup mayonaise
• 1 tablespoon hot pepper sauce
• 4 skinless boneless chicken breast halves
• 1 1/4 cups panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
• Hamburger buns
• Condiments/fixings: Fresh spinach leaves and thinly sliced cucumber

Preparation
Mix 1/2 cup mayonnaise and hot sauce in bowl. Sprinkle chicken with salt. Coat each side with 1 tablespoon mayonnaise-hot sauce mixture, then 2 tablespoons panko. Heat large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Sauté chicken until cooked through, about 7 minutes per side.

I placed each chicken breast (actually, they were filleted, so half breasts), on buns with mayo, fresh spinach leaves and thinly sliced cucumbers. I had mine with bottled Blue Cheese dressing, Dan had his with Ranch and extra hot sauce. We also had celery, carrot, and cucumber sticks on the side.

The Verdict: A Keeper
This recipe was great. I followed a reviewer's advice and touched the chicken as little as possible. My process involved covering only one side of each chicken breast with mayo/panko at a time, and then placing it coating-down in the pan. After it was in the pan, I put the remaining mayo/panko on the other side and found that by doing this the coating didn't get messy and everything seemed to stay exactly where it was supposed to.

Dan and I both agree, to have the 'real' buffalo chicken flavor, you really need more hot sauce. We used Louisiana Red Dot Roasted Pepper flavor hot sauce (what we had in the pantry), and it just didn't seem hot enough. It was almost as if the mayo neutralized the hotness. I will probably double the sauce next time. But make no mistake, there will definitely be a next time. It turned out great!

Also, a quick note: This wouldn't have worked without the nonstick skillet. Oil would have soaked into the panko had I used a regular pan, so the nonstick skillet is key to this recipe.

Umbrian Fish Soup..

Will be dinner tonight: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Umbrian-Fish-Soup-242000

Except that I'm only defrosting 1 lb of perch, because that's what we have, and I'm substituting green bell pepper for celery. Not sure if Dan will love it, but the reviews are surprisingly good. I may add some uncured Polish sausage to balance out the lack of adequate fish.

Verdict: More on the bust side.

It was good but I wasn't able to follow the recipe completely. I used perch, which we found to be a bit too fishy flavor-wise. And since I only used 1 lb of perch, while the recipe called for 2, I added an extra pound of the uncured sausage. Dan and I think the soup would have been great if it was sausage-only, perhaps with potatoes or something else to thicken it up. Another down-side is that I had forgotten that Dan is avoiding all fermented ingredients right now, so the wine got pitched and I replaced it with beef broth. (Couldn't really think of anything else.) That said, the recipe got rave reviews, and even with all of my modifications it was good, it just wasn't great. I imagine it's great if you follow the recipe, but we may never find out.

No repeat.

Apple Chips

I attempted this recipe today: http://weelicious.com/2010/02/22/pear-and-apple-chips/ ... And in anticipation of wax paper not working so well as a replacement for parchment paper, I bought a Silpat. I'm generally against involving plastics (does silicone count at a plastic?) in baking or microwaving of any kind, but considering what a disaster making beet chips on wax paper was, I thought I might as well give it a go. $20 later, I have some pretty wicked-awesome apple chips, but sadly not enough to make it worth the effort. I may need to shell out another $20 for another Silpat, but we are badly in need of a diaper sprayer and I think that may beat out Silpat number two for now. Ah well...