New Pork Roast
Tonight's dinner was a product of happenstance. I had decided to make a roasted pork tenderloin, but I wanted something other than the two ways I usually make it. I was hoping to get a recipe from Carol that she made for us in Montana, but she was nowhere to be found. But, as luck would have it, the newest issue of Everyday Food arrived today, so just as I was contemplating the fate of dinner, a new plan fell into my hands. I decided to make Pork Tenderloin with Roasted Apples and Onions with Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes and Wilted Spinach and Cherry Tomatoes. If that laundry list of dishes doesn't inspire you, let me offer a picture of the finished product...
This was our dinner:
Everyone agreed this was really good. Each element was flavorful and delicious and all the dishes went well together. The pork tenderloin came out perfectly cooked, full of flavor, and quite moist. My only complaint was the issue of the glaze. The glaze went on top in the beginning but it was supposed to be brushed on, and that was virtually impossible due to the consistency of the stuff. I drizzled it on instead and then set some aside as directed to drizzle on at the end. By the time the meat was done cooking the glaze had gone completely hard, so I reheated it and then drizzled. The result was pleasing to the eye, but the drizzles hardened and were nearly impossible to eat, so they were mostly discarded. This could have been my fault and I could have somehow made the glaze incorrectly, but in the future I would just use the glaze for the cooking and leave it off on the end unless the consistency somehow changed so it was more cooperative to work with. This is what the pork looked like when it came out of the oven:
This spinach was simple, fast, and a nice contrast in color and texture. The balsamic vinegar and olive oil matched nicely with those ingredients in the roast. I left the heat on a extra minute or two to warm the tomatoes after they were added to the spinach.
The roasted apple and onions were one of my favorite parts of the whole meal. Technically they are part of the pork recipe, but they don't touch the pork during the cooking process, so I thought of them separately. They came out soft and tasting almost buttery (despite having no butter on them). The olive oil, salt, and pepper bring out the natural qualities of the apples and red onion, and it's very good. I used Braeburn apples, they worked perfectly.
The final side was the buttermilk mashed potatoes. They were a big hit. The thing I loved when I was making them was that they got really creamy with just a potato masher. Usually in my family mashed potatoes are actually whipped potatoes, and these were still good and creamy, but completely different from the whipped variety.
This was our dinner:
Everyone agreed this was really good. Each element was flavorful and delicious and all the dishes went well together. The pork tenderloin came out perfectly cooked, full of flavor, and quite moist. My only complaint was the issue of the glaze. The glaze went on top in the beginning but it was supposed to be brushed on, and that was virtually impossible due to the consistency of the stuff. I drizzled it on instead and then set some aside as directed to drizzle on at the end. By the time the meat was done cooking the glaze had gone completely hard, so I reheated it and then drizzled. The result was pleasing to the eye, but the drizzles hardened and were nearly impossible to eat, so they were mostly discarded. This could have been my fault and I could have somehow made the glaze incorrectly, but in the future I would just use the glaze for the cooking and leave it off on the end unless the consistency somehow changed so it was more cooperative to work with. This is what the pork looked like when it came out of the oven:
This spinach was simple, fast, and a nice contrast in color and texture. The balsamic vinegar and olive oil matched nicely with those ingredients in the roast. I left the heat on a extra minute or two to warm the tomatoes after they were added to the spinach.
The roasted apple and onions were one of my favorite parts of the whole meal. Technically they are part of the pork recipe, but they don't touch the pork during the cooking process, so I thought of them separately. They came out soft and tasting almost buttery (despite having no butter on them). The olive oil, salt, and pepper bring out the natural qualities of the apples and red onion, and it's very good. I used Braeburn apples, they worked perfectly.
The final side was the buttermilk mashed potatoes. They were a big hit. The thing I loved when I was making them was that they got really creamy with just a potato masher. Usually in my family mashed potatoes are actually whipped potatoes, and these were still good and creamy, but completely different from the whipped variety.
posted by Erin at 11:54 PM
1 Comments:
Mother Putnam likes your blog ;)
She says, "I want to come eat!"
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