Pork Medallions with Pasta

This is yet another way to fix pork tenderloin, a cut that is really easy to work with and nearly failure proof.

I sliced a single tenderloin (they usually come in twos) across the grain into approx 1-inch slices. I turned them cut side up and salted and peppered, then sprinkled very lightly with flour.

In a pan that used to be nonstick ... it's wearing out ... I put some olive oil, just enough to shimmer the surface, and heated it just a bit. Then, I cooked some sliced garlic - about three cloves - until the pieces were translucent. At that point, I pulled the garlic out and turned up the heat to start searing the medallions. This never takes very long, and you're not looking to cook the meat through anyway, just to put some nice color on it. It took two batches to do this, and I put the finished meat on a plate to rest while I browned the rest. Then, I put just a bit more oil in the pan (maybe a tablespoon), put the garlic back in, and then added about a tablespoon of champagne wine vinegar, a scant teaspoon of sugar, about a quarter cup of water, and about 2 tablespoons of whole grain mustard into the pan. When that was all combined, I put the browned meat into the sauce, cut the heat back to low, put a lid on, and let it simmer until the meat was cooked all the way through. That probably took 6 or 7 minutes.

Meanwhile, I boiled water for pasta, angelhair of course. That only takes about three minutes to cook. When the angelhair was done, I put it on a platter, drizzled a little olive oil over, then placed each pork medallion on top of the pasta, poured the rest of the pan sauce over everything, and then sprinkled some fresh-cut chives over the top.

Served with some fresh asparagus, steamed, and some leftover veggie casserole.

The Casserole - Spinach & Artichoke

I wasn't too crazy about the casserole (see here), but it wasn't awful either. It's pretty much what every spinach-artichoke dip has in it, but maybe tastes a little lighter (I get tired of eating those very heavy, greasy dips, even though I like them).

So here is what I fixed to go with the steak & potatoes.

Spinach Artichoke Casserole

1 10-oz package frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed
1.25 cups frozen artichoke hearts, thawed
1 – 1.5 cups sourdough croutons
1.5 cups plain non fat yogurt
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1.5 cups shredded cheese (I used marble cheddar shreds)
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
Pepper to taste

Beat the eggs, add the yogurt and milk. Stir everything else in to combine well.

Bake in oiled casserole dish at 350 degrees until bubbly and browned, about 25 minutes.

And of course, you can vary the amounts of cheese, onion, artichokes as you see fit. Be cautious about changing the amounts of milk, egg, yogurt, and croutons, though, because the custardy part may not cook up right if the proportions are off.

Flatiron steak & potatoes

I really have come to love flatiron steak. They say it's a new type of cut. (See Wikipedia.)

Sometimes I use a wet marinade for it, and sometimes dry. Tonight, I just used some Mrs Dash-style seasoning, a little salt, and then a little olive oil. I let it stand for about a half hour, sometimes longer.

Then, I heat up the broiler on Hi. When it's nice and hot, I slide that steak under for about 7 min on the first side, flip, and then about 5 or 6 on the "B" side (you youngsters won't even know what a B side is!).

I put the hot steak on a cutting board for at least 10 minutes, and put some foil over it loosely to keep the heat in. After it's stood for that long, I slice it thinly against the grain for serving. I like to put a spoon next to the meat (I serve buffet-style off the cutting board) so people can put the meat juices over the top of their serving.

The potatoes I like to do are roasted small potatoes. They used to call them "new" potatoes, but really I guess they don't have to be new, just small. I just slice in half, put in a pan with olive oil, cut side down, and then put in a preheated 375 oven (I often use convection for this) until they're nice and brown. Takes roughly 15-18 minutes. Tonight I also chopped up some fresh garlic and sprinkled that over the top. A little salt when they come out, and that's it.

Tonight I also made a casserole with spinach and artichoke hearts, but I really winged it. So I'll only post that one if it turns out nice.

Beef with Pineapple - my fave

This is one of my favorites from way back.

I adapted the recipe from here:
http://www.razzledazzlerecipes.com/chinese-recipes/cantonese-beef-pineapple.htm

I used a flank steak, which usually come out at around a pound to a pound and a half of meat. For stir-fries I like to slice the steak lengthwise in half, then thinly slice each of the long strips, ACROSS THE GRAIN (this is important). Slicing across the grain keeps the meat tender. Nothing like it for stir-fries (ignore everything you've ever heard about top round being good - flank steak is the gold standard).

I put the sliced strips of beef into a big bowl and sprinkled with about a tablespoon of bottled teriyaki sauce. That's because I'm running out of soy sauce (I know, I know), so I knew the sugar and other seasonings in the teriyaki would work just as well, maybe better. Then I sprinkled about a half tablespoon of cornstarch over all that, and mixed well. You let that stand while everything else gets sliced.

I like to add to the pineapple, because while that tastes really good, you want some contrast of flavor. So I decided to slice up a half of a Vidalia onion and about a quarter of this huge green pepper I had. I don't chop the veggies up - I really just slice them into strips about three inches long or so, about a half an inch wide. Set all that aside, and then you tackle the pineapple. Now, canned pineapple is just fine to use, but for this, I really really like the taste of fresh. So I took a half a pineapple and turned it into chunks that were about a half an inch thick. And set that aside too.

Then, you mix up the thickener. I used about a tablespoon of cornstarch, a tablespoon of dry sherry, a teaspoon of white sugar (could use brown too), a half teaspoon of salt, and a splash of teriyaki sauce. I also added a scant 1/4 cup of water. Mix until smooth and set aside.

After that, I just followed the normal stir fry routine. You put a little oil in the pan and stir fry the veggies first. These should stay pretty crisp - you don't want them all limp, so it only takes maybe five minutes or so. I added a little salt while I was stir-frying. I put the veggies on a platter to wait, then quickly ran the pineapple into the pan, no longer than a minute or so, and put it back into its bowl. Then, you stir-fry the meat with about a teaspoon or two of oil, and this usually takes two batches to make the meat brown up a little. You can never get your pan as hot as the Chinese restaurant, so your meat will never look as pretty, but you do want to get it fairly cooked through, although you still have a little more cooking time to put on it at this stage.

After the first batch, I put it next to the veggies on the platter while the second batch cooked. After that batch is done, I put all the veggies, plus the set-aside meat into the pan and stirred to combine. At that point, I put in the thickening mixture and stirred it around so it would do its thing. Finally, I tossed in the pineapple, stirred it again, and then sprinkled some dark sesame oil over the top before plating on the platter.

That's it! As with all Chinese food, the prep work takes like 20-25 minutes (depending on your knife skills), and the coming-together part takes like 8. And then it's eaten in 5.

I served this with white rice, and put some stir-fried green beans with oyster sauce and garlic on the side.