One-Pan Pork Tenderloin With Mushrooms

Pork, Mushrooms, what's not to love? This was a great recipe. One thing I especially like about Pork Tenderloin is that there is no waste. It is all edible. Because there isn't a lot of fat it takes on the flavors of what it is cooked with. In this case the richness and earthiness of the Mushrooms.

With the Pork we made Brown-Butter Orzo with Butternut Squash. This is a wonderful winter recipe. The Orzo Pasta makes a perfect foil for the Squash. If you don't eat a lot of Squash this would be a great recipe to start with. You can get the recipe for the Brown-Butter Orzo with Butternut Squash on our blog of: Feb. 19, 2024. Click the date to get the recipe.

One-Pan Pork Tenderloin With Mushrooms
New York Times
 
When pork tenderloin roasts with mushrooms in the same skillet, the results are deeply delicious. The pork’s garlic, rosemary and fennel coating mingles with the crisping mushrooms, which grow rich and savory cooking in a knob of butter — exactly what the lean meat needs. Tearing a variety of mushrooms into ragged pieces creates a mix of textures with little effort. To double the recipe, sear the tenderloins and mushrooms in batches in a skillet, then transfer everything to a sheet pan to roast. Serve with couscous and a green salad.
 
INGREDIENTS
Yield:2 to 3 servings
 
2       rosemary sprigs
4       garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
½      teaspoon fennel seeds (optional)
Salt and pepper
1       pork tenderloin (1 to 1¼ pounds), silver skin removed (see Tip), meat halved crosswise and patted dry
3       tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
8       ounces mixed mushrooms, torn into 1-inch pieces
2       tablespoons unsalted butter, sliced
2       teaspoons red or white wine vinegar
 
PREPARATION
 
1. Heat the oven to 425 degrees. Pluck 1 tablespoon leaves from the rosemary sprigs (reserve the rest). Using a mortar and pestle or knife and cutting board, combine the rosemary leaves, 3 garlic cloves, the fennel seeds (if using) and a pinch of salt and pepper. Pound or chop until a coarse paste forms. Season the pork with salt, then coat with the garlic-rosemary mixture. (You can season and refrigerate the pork up to 8 hours ahead.)

2. Heat the oil in a large, oven-proof skillet over medium-high. Add the pork and scatter the mushrooms around (skillet might be snug). Sear until browned underneath, 4 to 5 minutes. Season the mushrooms with salt and pepper and add the butter, remaining garlic clove and the reserved rosemary sprigs. Flip the pork, stir the mushrooms and spread them to fill the skillet. Roast, stirring the mushrooms halfway through, until a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the pork registers between 140 and 145 degrees, 10 to 12 minutes.

3. Transfer the pork to a cutting board to rest at least 5 minutes. Stir the vinegar into the mushrooms and scrape up any browned bits stuck to the bottom of the skillet. Thinly slice the pork and serve with the mushrooms, spooning the pan drippings over top.
 
TIP
To remove the silver skin, a tough connective tissue, without cutting off too much meat, locate the white, shiny membrane and insert your knife at one edge of the silver skin to cut between the skin and the meat, creating a flap to hold onto. Pulling the flap of silver skin tight with your nondominant hand, continue to slice along the length of the skin until you’ve removed and released all the silver skin.

 

Char Siu Pork Lo Mein

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We had delicious leftover Roast Pork. What better than to make Char Siu Pork Lo Mein. It is a perfect use of the Pork. Highly recommend it! You can find the recipe on our blog of January 28, 2020. Click the date to get the recipe. 

Miso-Marinated Pork Roast

Miso-Marinated Pork Roast was a new recipe for us. We will definitely make it again! It was both sweet and crispy. This is an excellent recipe. Highly recommend it! The Miso creates a rich Umami flavored Pork.

Miso-Marinated Pork Roast

New York Times

 

Total Time:     4¾ hours, plus 4 hours' marinating

Prep Time:     15 minutes

Cook Time:    4½ hours, plus 4 hours' marinating

 

This pork roast tastes and smells like the holidays, savory with the scent of rosemary, cozy with a caramelized crust and warming with black pepper. Even though the marinade has only four ingredients, the finished roast has the wow factor of a restaurant dish. The best part about this centerpiece? You can’t mess it up. And though the accompanying cranberry sauce is optional, it brings a welcome fruity tang and pop of red to the table. The sauce can be made up to a week ahead of time and the pork can be marinated the morning you plan to roast it.

 

INGREDIENTS

Yield:12 to 16 servings

 

FOR THE ROAST

 

½      cup red miso (see Tip)

⅓      cup granulated or light brown sugar

2       tablespoons minced fresh rosemary, plus 2 sprigs

1       tablespoon freshly ground black pepper

One 4- to 5-pound bone-in or boneless pork shoulder roast

1       large onion, cut into wedges

 

FOR THE SAUCE (OPTIONAL)

 

24     ounces fresh or frozen cranberries (6 cups)

1⅓    cups light brown sugar

2       ripe but firm pears, diced

8       slices fresh ginger, smashed

Juice of 2 oranges

1       cup dry white wine, such as vinho verde

Pinch of salt

 

PREPARATION

 

1.    Prepare the roast: Mix the miso, sugar, minced rosemary and black pepper until well combined. Unfurl the pork if it’s boneless and cut along its natural breaks to butterfly the meat without cutting all the way through. Rub the marinade all over the meat in an even layer.

2.    If needed, roll the pork back into a somewhat cylindrical shape. Use kitchen twine to tie it in 1-inch intervals. Refrigerate in an airtight container for 4 to 8 hours.

3.    If you’re making the sauce, bring all of the ingredients to a boil in a large pot, stirring occasionally. Reduce the heat to medium-high and continue boiling, skimming off and discarding any pink foam that rises to the surface, for 10 to 12 minutes. The liquid should be syrupy and the pears tender. The sauce can be refrigerated in jars or airtight containers for up for up 1 week. You’ll have about 6 cups.

4.    Remove the pork from the refrigerator an hour before you want to start cooking (about 4½ hours before you want to serve it). If the sauce has been refrigerated, let it sit at room temperature as well.

5.    Heat oven to 325 degrees. Wipe off any thick patches of marinade from the pork and place on a roasting pan or sheet pan. Scatter the onion and rosemary sprigs around the meat and pour in ¼ cup water (or wine or stock).

6.    Cook for 1 hour, then baste with the pan juices. Continue cooking, basting every 30 minutes, until an instant read thermometer registers 165 degrees in the thickest part, about 2 hours longer. Tent with parchment paper when the pork is dark brown.

7.    Let rest on a cutting board for at least 30 minutes. Slice and serve, with the sauce, if you’d like.

 

TIPS

 

·      Red miso, generally made with a higher proportion of soybeans and fermented for a longer period, is strong and savory, making it ideal for meat. If you can find only milder white or yellow miso, which is also sweeter, you can use it instead and reduce the sugar to ¼ cup. 

·      Pork shoulder, which comes from the upper portion of a pig’s foreleg, is usually split into the fattier top, known as Boston butt, pork butt or just butt, and the lower portion, called the picnic shoulder, blade roast or picnic roast. They all can be labeled pork shoulder and they all work in this recipe.

Persimmon Salad

In the fall we make many Persimmon Salads. Arugula, Persimmons, Salt, Pepper, Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar. We usually arrange Prosciutto on the plate. It is a great seasonal salad.

Annual Holiday Cake

Every year in December we make this Holiday Cake. We bake the cake and let it sit for a couple of weeks in the refrigerator. I know Fruit Cake gets a well deserved bad rap, but I can guarantee you this one is great. Everyone loves it, it freezes well, it can be toasted or eaten at room temp. It is a winner! Try it. It is called Mary Ann's Fruit Cake from a recipe by Craig Claiborne of The New York Times. You can find the recipe on our blog of January 1, 2011. Click the date to get the recipe. Trust me it is delicious.

Pasta With Spicy Italian Sausage and Jimmy Nardello Peppers

Jimmy Nardello Peppers are a wonderful fall treat. The peppers are sweet and not very spicy. They are only available in the fall. This delicious Pasta made full use of them. If you have never had Jimmy Nardello Peppers, and your local grocery store has them definitely buy them!

Pasta With Spicy Italian Sausage and Jimmy Nardello Peppers
Kendall Andronico
 
Saturday is my favorite day of the week because it means a trip to the Ferry Building Farmer’s Market. I get so inspired during my market visits – seeing all of the beautiful in-season produce and chatting with the farmers about their favorite ways to cook with the ingredients from their stands is the best.
At my most recent trip to the market, I picked up some Jimmy Nardello peppers (among a ton of other stuff!). They’re a long, waxy, red Italian pepper with a mild, slightly sweet, but very fruity flavor. They’re delicious pickled or, my personal favorite, melted down in a pan with olive oil and served on toast with burrata or whipped ricotta with a drizzle of honey on top. This time, I wanted to try something different and when my friend from cooking school, Nora, mentioned she loves Nardellos with sausage in pasta, I was sold!

I came up with this easy, incredibly flavorful pasta dish that comes together so quickly and is SUCH a crowd-pleaser. My boyfriend even said he’d pay $30 in a restaurant for it…LOL. Hope you enjoy it as much as he did!
Serves 4-5
 
INGREDIENTS
 
½      lb sweet Italian sausage
½      lb spicy Italian sausage
1       large yellow onion, thinly sliced
Kosher salt
1.5    cups thinly sliced jimmy nardello peppers (from about 3 large handfuls of peppers)
2       cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1       cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus more to finish
1       lb any short, tubilar dried pasta (rigatoni, penne, etc.)
Basil
Ricotta (optional)
 
METHOD
 
1. Bring a large pot of water up to a boil. While that’s happening, brown your sausage. Add the sausage to a large skillet or cast iron pan. Turn on the heat to medium after the sausage is in the pan (this allows the fat to render out slowly – this way you don’t need to add any additional oil to get it started!). Once the sausage has started to release its fat, turn up the heat to medium-high and cook for 5-7 minutes until brown on the outside and just cooked through. As it’s cooking, use a wooden spoon to break it up into bite-sized pieces.

2. Remove the sausage from the pan and transfer to a plate but leave the fat behind. This is what we’ll cook our veggies in.

3. With the pan on medium heat, add the sliced onions and a big pinch of salt to the fat. Cook the onions until they begin to soften but not brown, about 2 minutes. Add the sliced peppers and garlic along with another pinch of salt. Cook the vegetables for 5-7 minutes, until everything is soft and melted down.

4. At this point, your pasta water should be boiling. Salt the boiling water generously and add in the pasta.

5. While your pasta cooks, add the browned sausage into the pan with the melted down onions, pepper and garlic. Take 1 cup of the pasta water out (you can do this while the pasta cooks!) and add to the sausage and veggie mixture. Stir in the Parmesan cheese and allow the mixture to simmer for 1-2 minutes, until the sauce reduce.

6. Add the pasta to the pan with the sauce once it has been cooking to 1 minute UNDER al dente – we will finish cooking it in the sauce.

7. With the heat on medium, toss the pasta continually to coat it with the sauce. Allow the pasta to simmer in the sauce while you stir it for about 1 minute until it’s thick and coated. Stirring the pasta constantly will agitate the gluten and help to thicken and emulsify the sauce. If the sauce becomes too thick, add more pasta cooking water to help thin it out.

8. Serve in bowls topped with more freshly grated Parmesan cheese, fresh basil leaves and a dollop of ricotta, if desired.

NOTES
If you don’t have a farmer’s market nearby and/or can’t find Jimmy Nardello peppers, you can use any mild pepper – I’d recommend Gypsey or Padrone peppers but if you can’t find those either, a mixture of green and red bell pepper will work here!
If you don’t like spice, just use 1 full pound of sweet Italian sausage and skip the spicy stuff.

One-Pot Chicken and Rice With Caramelized Lemon

One-Pot Chicken and Rice With Caramelized Lemon was a bit of a letdown. I think if we make it again we try to make sure the Lemons were even more Caramelized. I would also use several lemons rather than just 1. I think that would improve it.

One-Pot Chicken and Rice With Caramelized Lemon
New York Times
 
This simple one-pot chicken and rice dish is topped with caramelized lemon slices that add sweet flavor and texture. Thin slices of lemon are cooked in chicken fat and oil until their pulp dissolves, their pith sweetens and their rind softens to the point of being edible. Briny Castelvetrano olives and herby dried oregano are wrapped up in creamy rice and topped with juicy chicken thighs. Fresh parsley and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice on top before serving add brightness and crunch. 
 
INGREDIENTS
Yield:4 servings
 
4       bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 1½ pounds)
Salt and black pepper
2       teaspoons dried oregano
Crushed red pepper
2       tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2       lemons
1       cup pitted Castelvetrano or kalamata olives, smashed and roughly chopped
6       garlic cloves, minced
1       medium shallot or ½ medium onion, minced
2       cups long-grain white rice, rinsed
4       cups (32 ounces) chicken broth
¼      cup roughly chopped fresh parsley, for serving
 
 
PREPARATION
 
1. Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Use paper towels to pat the chicken thighs until dry on all sides. Season the chicken with 1 teaspoon each salt, pepper and dried oregano and a pinch of crushed red pepper.

2. Place a large Dutch oven or other heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat and add oil. Let oil heat up for a few minutes. Add thighs to the pot, skin side down, and let cook undisturbed until they self-release from the bottom of the pot, about 5 minutes. Remove from the pot and set aside.

3. Cut 1 lemon into ¼-inch-thick slices. Add to the pot and cook until caramelized and softened, about 2 minutes. Remove from the pot and set aside.

4. Add the olives, garlic, shallot and 1 teaspoon each salt, pepper and dried oregano to the pot. Cook over medium-low heat, scraping browned bits from the bottom of the pan, until garlic is fragrant, 2 to 3 minutes. Turn the heat up to high, add the rice and broth to the pot, stir to combine and cover until it comes to a boil, about 5 minutes.

5. Remove the pot from heat, add the browned chicken thighs on top of the rice, skin side up, then cover the chicken thighs with the lemon slices. Place the pot, covered, into the oven and bake until the rice and chicken are fully cooked, 25 to 30 minutes. Serve topped with fresh parsley and a squeeze of lemon juice.

 

Green Curry Coconut Cod

Green Curry Coconut Cod is a new favorite! I really liked this dish. The sauce is rich and tasty. You don't have to skin the fish. Can't wait to make this again! We served it with Rice.

Green Curry Coconut Cod

Bon Appetit
 
This green curry coconut cod features one of my favorite techniques for cooking a protein: poaching in a vibrant sauce, this time one made from curry paste, spinach, and coconut milk. It’s a gentle cooking method that keeps the fish tender and flaky, and it dirties just one skillet (plus a blender) in the process.
 
Green curry paste is a time-tested shortcut to complex flavor. In dishes like this one where it plays such a central role, you’ll want to make sure to pick a good brand. I like Maesri, which has a nice level of balanced heat. If you’re using a milder curry paste, you might consider upping the quantity or serving the finished dish with a few extra chile slices scattered on top. Arrange cod with plenty of sauce over some rice and you’ve got an ideal meal to tuck into on a busy weeknight.
 
INGREDIENTS
1       Tbsp. vegetable oil
1       shallot, coarsely chopped
1       1" piece ginger, peeled, coarsely chopped
2       (heaping) Tbsp. green curry paste (preferably Maesri)
1       13.5-oz. can unsweetened coconut milk
5       oz. baby spinach
1       tsp. dark or light brown sugar
¼      tsp. Diamond Crystal or Morton kosher salt, plus more
4       5–6 oz. skinless cod fillets, patted dry
Freshly ground pepper
1       Tbsp. fish sauce
1       lime
Steamed rice (for serving)
1       red chile (such as Thai or Fresno), thinly sliced
Cilantro leaves with tender stems (for serving)
 
 
PREPARATION
 
1. Heat 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil in a medium skillet over medium. Add 1 shallot, coarsely chopped, and one 1" piece ginger, peeled, coarsely chopped, and cook, stirring often, until softened slightly, about 2 minutes. Add 2 (heaping) Tbsp. green curry paste and cook, stirring, until fragrant and slightly darkened in color, about 2 minutes. Transfer mixture to a blender; reserve pan. Add one 13.5-oz. can unsweetened coconut milk, 5 oz. baby spinach, 1 tsp. dark or light brown sugar, and ¼ tsp. Diamond Crystal or Morton kosher salt to blender and blend until smooth.

2. Scrape sauce into reserved pan and bring to a simmer over over medium-low. Cook until slightly reduced, about 5 minutes. 

3. Lightly season four 5–6 oz. skinless cod fillets, patted dry, with salt and freshly ground pepperand nestle into sauce. Cover and cook at a bare simmer until fish is opaque and beginning to flake, 8–10 minutes.

4. Uncover pan and drizzle 1 Tbsp. fish sauce over fish. Cut 1 lime in half; squeeze juice from 1 half over fish. Cut remaining half into wedges for serving.

5. Divide steamed rice among shallow bowls. Place a fillet in each bowl and spoon some sauce over. Top with 1 red chile (such as Thai or Fresno), thinly sliced, and some cilantro leaves with tender stems. Serve with lime wedges for squeezing over.

Stir-Fried Green Beans With Pork and Chiles

Stir-Fried Green Beans With Pork and Chiles is a favorite of ours, we make it often. The key is to purchase really good fatty Pork! Highly recommend this dish if for some reason you haven't made it yet! You can find the recipe on our blog of: Feb. 9, 2018. Click the date to get the recipe.