Hello again culinary fans,
Since my first blog, I couldn’t wait to take another WildTree voyage and experiment with some more products. There are some great recipes in the catalog I got from Brenda and I will try some of them soon, but after you get to know me a little better you’ll find that I like to “wing it” and come up with my own ways to make things taste good (is that a little self-serving? I don’t mean it to be). I just like to try new and different things.
In this episode, before we get to the food part, I’d like to touch on cookware (the right tools make the job easier). I use All-Clad most of the time but my favorite sauté pan is an 11” non-stick ScanPan w/glass cover. This puppy is almost indestructible. You can use metal utensils on it, you can put it in the dishwasher (although I don’t… call me anal) and you can bake with it in the oven up to 500 degrees (which is really why it’s my favorite). I say it’s almost indestructible because I was baking pork chops in it once (with a nice mushroom sauce) and I pulled the pan out of the oven and put it on the stovetop. I was multi-tasking at the time, and having many things going at once I (sort of) forgot that I had just pulled the pan from the oven. I picked it up with my bare hand and YIKES…. You know what most of us do when faced with holding something that’s 400 degrees in our bare hand right? Yup… It went flying, chops and all. It hit the floor, made a huge mess (that’s an understatement) but the pan came through the incident with only a very small dent (not so for the contents, which littered the floor and the surrounding cabinetry). Needless to say, I haven’t made that mistake again (the brain remembers pain, not to mention the mess).
OK, now that you know I can be a Klutz at times, here’s what I made next:
I took pork tenderloin (about 1.3 lbs), washed it and patted it dry. I made a marinade with WildTree Garlic Grapeseed Oil and WildTree Opa Greek Seasoning Blend. I must confess that I also added an extra clove of minced fresh garlic because…, well because I like garlic. I also added a couple of tablespoons of juice from a jar of jalapeño peppers (I told you I like to experiment). I marinated the pork in this mixture for about 30 minutes in the fridge.
I seared the pork on all sides in my trusty ScanPan and slid it in the oven at 350 degrees. After 10 minutes, I turned it over and baked it until the internal temperature reached 160 degrees (years ago, cookbooks instructed us to cook pork until it reached a scorching internal temperature of 180 degrees. Back then, the pork that landed on our plates was dry and leathery, and we often used lubricants like applesauce or sauerkraut to help get it down. After more careful research, food scientists now tell us that pork is safe to eat after it reaches an internal temperature of 160 degrees. At that temperature, pork can be juicy, tender, and flavorful). The pork also continues to cook slightly while resting.
While the pork was resting, I made whole green beans with a touch of butter and a teaspoon of the WildTree Opa Greek Seasoning Blend, just to carry the basic flavor to the veggies. That, along with a nice mixed green salad and light raspberry vinaigrette dressing made for a super meal. The pork was tender, juicy and had a tremendous flavor. The extra garlic and the little bit of jalapeño juice kicked it up just a bit. In a word, this meal was AWESOME.
Thanks for visiting, see you next time.
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