Monthly Archives: May 2014

May19

Pork Tenderloin, Margot’s Easy Way

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Pork Tenderloin Margot’s Easy Way

Serves 6

 

This is a fun and easy dish to prepare: fun because I decided to do some colorful accompaniments for my presentation and certainly easy because there was so little prep work. But best of all, the roast was even better the next day— sliced and served cold. So I am thinking that this might be a good dish to make the day before and then slice and serve it at a picnic or for a cold buffet for your family or guests. Even the veggies were delicious cold. Think ahead to our wonderful SVSS picnics and other summer events as well.

 

Ingredients:

  1. One 2 lb. pork tenderloin
  2. 2 C. Italian seasoned bread crumbs
  3. 1/2 C. olive oil or more if you need it
  4. Some mini sized mixed bell peppers
  5. Some whole mushrooms
  6. Use your imagination for more veggies
  7. Parsley and some large leaves of some sort of lettuce for décor

 

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
  2. Place the pork roast on an aluminum foil covered baking sheet that has some sides to it. (You don’t have to use aluminum foil but I find it easy with which to wrap the roast for later refrigerator storage and also for the cleaning of the baking sheet.)
  3. In a bowl, mix the bread crumbs and olive oil so that he makes a nice consistency to pat all over the roast and so that it sticks to it.
  4. Bake the roast for at least 35-45 minutes or until there is no rare pink showing when you poke it a bit or/and if a meat thermometer reads 165 degrees. Frankly, a little pink does not scare me in this day and age.
  5. Let the roast rest for at least 10 minutes and then slice it into 1/2 inch slices if you wish to serve it the same day. If you are planning on serving it the next day, wrap it in the foil and slice it then.
  6. For the veggies (mushrooms and mini peppers)—you can roast them along with the roast or if you wish, sauté them in some olive oil in a frying pan; then surround the roast on a platter (lately I favor white dishes) with your colorful veggies. By the way, with the peppers, I actually left them whole—stem, seeds and all. Roasted they were delicious and it was fun to pick up the pepper and discard the stem (not for the feint of heart I guess—) As well as I mentioned previously, this is a dish that is almost more excellent the next day—served cold.
  7. Please see my blog for multiple vegetable oven roasting directions: http://blog.tempinnkeeper.com P.S. I like my roasted veggies to have a little “burnt” character to them–but you don’t have to do this.

 

May11

Braised Chicken Thighs with Collards & Mushrooms

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Braised Chicken Thighs with Collards and Mushrooms

Serves 4

This could easily be a very economical company dish—but it’s good for your lonesome as well as for your family. Chicken thighs really are very economical to buy and frankly, though I know they are dark meat and have skin, I feel are much better tasting than your almost tasteless skinless chicken breasts—which by the way have become terribly pricey. Collards are so good for you but if you insist, you can use kale, spinach or some other kind of green. You can also introduce carrots in this dish to give it some color jazz. I really like this served over rice or some pasta, however the scales were not kind to me this morning and our fresh corn is in, so that’s the way I had it—sided with an ear of corn. I used my large cast iron skillet for this and it was perfect for the cooking of this dish.

Ingredients:

  1. 8 chicken thighs with skin
  2. 1-8-oz basket of mushrooms
  3. 4 or 5 garlic cloves—cut in half
  4. 1/4 C. balsamic vinegar or red wine but I like the vinegar and save the wine for the drinking
  5. 1 Tblsp. butter
  6. 3 cups chicken broth
  7. S&P to taste
  8. 1 bunch of collards (or some sort of similar greens) washed well, rough chopped and include the better part of the stems also rough chopped.

 

Directions:

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 400.
  2. After having rinsed and pat dried the chicken thighs, brown them over medium high heat in the skillet. When they are nice, crisp and brown, remove them to a platter.
  3. Add 1 Tblsp. butter to the skillet and over medium heat brown the mushrooms until they become moist and glistened; add the garlic and keep on stirring. Then add the vinegar or wine and keep simmering till the liquid is reduced by half. S&P to taste.
  4. Place the chicken thighs back in the skillet and add the chicken broth. The broth should ALMOST reach the top of the thighs, but it should NOT cover the thighs. You want them to remain crispy.
  5. Place the skillet in the oven and bake uncovered for 45 minutes to 60 minutes (depending on the size of the thighs). At 45 minutes, test the thighs to see if they are done because you don’t want them to dry out.
  6. When the thighs are done, take the skillet out of the oven, remove the thighs to a warm platter. Place the skillet on the stove top over medium heat and add the greens. The collards will take longer to cook than spinach. The collards take about 10 minutes of cooking where as if you use spinach, that should take just a couple of minutes. Just to make sure everything is equally heated, you can add at the last minute the thighs back to your pan and finally after the thighs are really warm, place the mushrooms and greens on top of each thigh and keep on a low heat for several minutes more.
May11

Ham and Cannellini Soup-the quick and easy way

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Ham and Cannellini Soup—the quick and easy way

It’s still cool in these parts and I had taken out from the freezer a ham with bone, left over from Easter. The ham was so tasty but I was in a mood for something hot and easy. So, here is what I did and it really turned out good. I did top it with some shaved Parmesan and croutons and that made it even more delicious but I am sure not very non-caloric. Oh well———

 

Ingredients:

  1. 2 carrots, peeled and sliced
  2. 1 celery stalk, sliced
  3. Several bits of parsley
  4. 2 garlic cloves, rough chopped
  5. 6 cups chicken broth (I use Better Than Bouillon which I really like)
  6. 1 Tsp. mustard powder
  7. 1 large bay leaf
  8. 1 ½ to 2 C. chopped ham
  9. 1- 15-oz. can Cannellini beans well rinsed
  10. Optional: Croutons and shaved Parmesan for the topping

 

Directions:

  1. Add the first 6 ingredients in a medium sized pot and bring these ingredients to a slow boil; then reduce to a simmer. Simmer for about 30 minutes.
  2. Then add your two last ingredients and simmer for another 30 minutes.
  3. Voila—easy and yummy
  4. Variations: you could use different kinds of beans; you could add different and more veggies; and you could also use different kinds of seasonings.   Versatility and imagination is always the fun in creating a good dish.