Pork and Sauerkraut for New Years

Elegant Tenderloin Pinwheels

I grew up with my Mom's traditional pork chops and sauerkraut as our New Year's Day dinner. I just never thought much about it until I started getting objections to this menu. And so it is that although I have tried to just go ahead with making it on a couple of occasions, it was not well received (my husband would just pick off every tiny shred of sauerkraut that clung to the pork or the potatoes), I enjoyed it thoroughly. 

Mom would bake her pork chops in the oven, adding quartered, peeled potatoes to the pan, covered with foil. Once all this was cooked (in the case of the pork chops, way overcooked), she would empty a jar of sauerkraut into a colander, rinse it well, then scatter it over the pork and potatoes, then top with a little brown sugar, cover again and bake. 

So, while my husband has never been keen on the idea of sauerkraut, I know my son and his fiancé do love it. Hence my idea of creating a really stellar pork dish, one that wasn't overcooked, and then making the sauerkraut as a stand-alone dish, so those who do not love it (ahem!) could just skip it, while the rest of us enjoyed. 

My husband's teeth need some work at the moment, so I was looking for something soft; pork tenderloin would be the meat. Then, I recalled a recipe I had made a very long time ago, where the pork was butterflied out flat and filled with a mixture that included prunes (dried plums). I recalled that it was very good, but I wanted to jazz it up some. Recalling another recipe, one for a rolled and stuffed flank steak, where the filling was so amazingly flavorful (from my very old Creme de Colorado cookbook), I got out both these recipes to compare and see what parts of each stuffing recipe I liked best. 

Ingredients I absolutely wanted to include from between the two recipes were: prunes, bacon, spinach, parsley, Romano cheese and mushrooms. White bread crumbs were a part of both recipes, but I had some pumpernickel I wanted to use instead. Nut meal sounded good, and I opted for hazelnut meal. Somewhere I read lemon zest as a possibility for flavor with a pork stuffing. Caramelized onion and garlic were also good additions. For fresh herbs, thyme and sage were added to the list.

Elegant Tenderloin Pinwheels

I wanted to have the pork look pretty in a spiral when sliced, so it would be best to have both of (a package of) two pork tenderloins cut open and slightly overlapped to fill, roll, then tie them in place. There are different ways of cutting open pork tenderloins. One is to simply cut most of the way into the center, lengthwise, open flat and pound the heck out of them until of an even thickness. I hate this. It makes so very much noise, splatters meat, blood and bits everywhere and takes forever to truly get the meat flat. Somewhere online, someone butterflied this way but instead of pounding, cut into each thick section to create an unfolded piece of tenderloin. I don't see that as any easier. My preferred method is to use small cuts with a very sharp knife parallel to the cutting board, continuing parallel until the meat is mostly all one thickness and laid out flat. There are many, many places online showing this and the other methods in excruciating detail, so I do not believe it is needed to reproduce all that here. Whatever method is used, it is good to have the thickness small, about 1/4 to 5/8-inch thick. 

While this seems an extraordinarily long recipe, if broken up into the do ahead parts and finalized on the day of serving, it is very doable. The final result of this experiment was a chorus of groans of pleasure at the table, so I accomplshed my goal. Here is what I did:

Elegant Tenderloin Pinwheels for Dinner

Elegant Tenderloin Pinwheels

Served 8 - 10

STUFFING:
5 ounces bacon, cut small and fried crisp
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1 medium onion, chopped
½ teaspoon salt, divided
1 - 2 tablespoons olive oil or bacon fat
3 tablespoons dry Sherry or Bourbon
6 cloves garlic, minced
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¾ pound fresh mushrooms (I used 'Baby Bella'), sliced
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 - 3 tablespoons Sherry
½ tablespoon fresh thyme leaves½½
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¾ cup finely shredded Romano cheese
½ cup chopped Italian (flat-leaf) parsley
1½ cups fresh baby spinach, in fine chiffonade
7 - 8 soft, pitted prunes, cut in small pieces
¾ cup fresh pumpernickel crumbs (or other bread crumbs as preferred)
½ cup hazelnut meal
- zest of one lemon

MEAT:
2 pork tenderloins (about 2.5 lbs. total)
½ teaspoon salt
chicken or beef stock for pan
1 medium onion, sliced

PAN SAUCE:
4 tablespoons Bourbon (or Sherry)
1 clove garlic, finely minced
½ cup red currant jelly
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
½ cup sour cream

Make ahead (1 to 3 days in advance if needed): Begin the stuffing by frying the bacon and draining on paper toweling. Once cooled, place into a medium sized container with lid. Set aside. If using bacon grease, leave a tablespoon worth in the skillet and add in 1 tablespoon olive oil. Add the chopped onion and sauté on medium to medium high, stirring often until the liquid has mostly gone, then add in 1/4 teaspoon of the salt and the minced garlic and stir constantly, lowering the heat if needed so as not to burn, until the onions are nicely browned. Add in the Sherry or Bourbon and cook quickly until completely evaporated. Pour the contents into a bowl to cool, then add to the container with the bacon.

Add to the same skillet the butter and olive oil and add the mushrooms, sautéing until all the liquid has cooked out and evaporated. Add in the remaining quarter teaspoon salt and continue cooking, stirring, until the mushrooms are browned. Do not stop cooking the mushrooms as soon as their liquid evaporates or they will be flabby and still leach liquid into the stuffing mixture.  Add in the thyme leaves and the Sherry and cook until the Sherry is completely evaporated. Add the mushrooms to the same plate where the onions cooled; once cool, add to the bacon and onion mixture and refrigerate.

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Grate the Romano cheese and place in another container with lid. Add to the cheese the chopped parsley, spinach chiffonade, prunes, pumpernickel crumbs, hazelnut meal and lemon zest. Toss to combine, cover and refrigerate if needed for up to 2 days.

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ON THE DAY:

Remove any silver skin from the tenderloins. Taking one tenderloin at a time, using a very sharp knife with the blade set parallel to the cutting board and about a quarter to a half-inch from the board, begin slicing into the length of the meat.  As it opens, continue to slice in at the same height along the length, using small cuts if needed, until the tenderloin is completely opened flat. Set the tenderloin aside and repeat with the other tenderloin. (Some ideas, with video or pictures, on how to open and flatten the pork tenderloins are here, and here.)

Combine together all of the two containers of prepared stuffing ingredients into one bowl and toss repeatedly until all the ingredients are well and evenly distributed. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 x 13-inch pan with cooking spray. Measure out 7 or 8 lengths of cotton kitchen twine, long enough to go around the rolled tenderloin and tie, and set them nearby. 

Place the two tenderloins spread out, slightly overlapping, with one narrow end pointing the opposite direction from the other. This offsets the fact that each sort of come to a point, and makes the whole a more uniform shape to roll. Place the stuffing mixture onto the meat, spreading and patting evenly, leaving about an inch bare all around the perimeter. Neatly roll the meat, carefully lifting while rolling to keep the stuffing from oozing out. Once rolled, slide one piece of cotton twine under the roll and tie at the center, tightly. Repeat this about every 2 to 3 inches. Trin the ends of the twine to no more than a half inch long. 

Place a large skillet over medium high heat and add some olive oil to the an. Carefully brown the meat on all sides. Once browned, set the meat into the prepared 9 x 13 pan. (Leave the skillet as is, to deglaze and make a sauce, later.) Pour some stock around the meat, to no more than a third of the way up the sides of the meat. Add in some of the onion, then cover with foil and bake the meat for 50 to 70 minutes, or until a meat thermometer registers 155 to 160 degrees. Remove from oven and leave covered. 

Meanwhile, with the skillet on a burner, deglaze the pan with Bourbon or Sherry, stirring with a plastic spoon or spatula until all the browned bits are mixed in. Add in the garlic and jelly, stirring until dissolved. Stir in the butter until emulsified, then add in the sour cream and mix, off heat, until combined. 

Slice the meat across the roll, into 3/4 to 1-inch thick slices. Leave the twine in place to keep the rolls from unraveling (it is easy to remove at table). Set the slices slightly overlapping on a platter and pour the pan sauce down the center of the meat.

My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, trying new things weekly. I would love to hear from you, to help me continue my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.

An Old Cake Recipe to Love

I have a recipe from a long time ago, more than 25 years ago in fact. I cannot say where it came from. Back then I copied down a recipe if it sounded good, with no concern for where it came from. This cake called my attention because it used pureed prunes in the recipe. I love prunes. It is a spice cake, which is also something I love, so this was a pure match made in heaven. 
 

Prune Spice Cake

It had been a really long time since last I made this cake. I was working on a cookbook for my daughter in law and this recipe was one going into the book for her. I now much prefer to take my own photos of foods I make, but back long ago that was the farthest from my mind. In fact, the recipe had no photo with it when I found it so long ago. I felt it might just be time to remedy these things: making the cake again, and getting photos for the first time.

The cake is a marvel of moistness, from the pureed prunes and ground nuts (a sure bet right there) to the extra sour cream I added in to the recipe. It is rich and dark and moist and spicy. I stopped right where I was with working on the cookbook and went downstairs to make the cake.  

When I thought about what kind of icing to use on this cake, I was just not in the mood for the traditional confectioners' sugar kind. I opted instead for the remake I made of my Grandma's icing recipe, which uses a cooked cornstarch & milk pudding as the base. For the cake I was making when I reworked Grandma's recipe, I called it Honey Butter Icing, and it can be found by clicking on that title. It was the perfect icing for a perfect spice cake. Decadently creamy and smooth, it doesn't seem so sweet as some, though it has plenty of sweetness.

Prune Spice Cake

Prune Spice Cake

Makes one (2-layer) 8 or 9-inch cake,
or one 9 x 13-inch cake

1 cup melted butter
1½ cups sugar
3 eggs
2 cups sifted flour
1 teaspoon baking Powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 cup cooked prunes, pureed
½ cup buttermilk
1 cup pecans, chopped
1 cup sour cream

Prepare pan(s): use either a 9 x 13-inch, sprayed with cooking spray, or two 8 or 9-inch round pans, sprayed with cooking spray, then lined with parchment and sprayed again. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat together melted butter and sugar in bowl of electric mixer until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the prune puree.

Sift together flour, baking powder, soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice. Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk, beating well after each addition. Stir in pecans and the sour cream. Pour into prepared pan(s).

Bake for about 35 minutes or until cake tests done.  



My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.

Great Side Dish for Wild Fowl

Our dear friend Rich left this morning. He was here for 10 days to get in some pheasant hunting. On his second day out with another hunter here, Rich brought home 3 pheasants, and my last two blog posts were of the recipes I used for these birds. Yesterday Rich went out again, coming back with 2 more pheasants, but these he brined to take home with him. We so enjoy having Rich here to visit, but all visits come to an end, no matter how wonderful.

Fall Fruit Compote

When thinking up recipes for the last birds, Rich's idea is always to brine them first, then possibly follow the brining with another soak of some kind. Last year he soaked the pheasant pieces in buttermilk all day following the brine. This year, one of the birds was used after just having been brined, while the second spent time in a wine marinade. No matter how one treats these wild birds, they are rather dry. Luckily I like the drier meat, though my husband is less keen on it, in general. To me, the breast portion of these wild birds tastes like dry dark meat. I don't care for the dark meat of turkey or chicken, because it is generally fatty and moist. Somehow, the flavor and fattiness are objectionable to me. Others just love it. For me, dry pheasant breast meat makes a darker meat palatable. 


No matter how you choose to go about preparing a wild bird, there will come the need for a side dish or other condiment to pair with it. While marinating the second half of the birds in wine, I originally had in mind to bake the bird in a wine sauce with a lot of dried fruits. Since that just wasn't coming together in my mind, Rich suggested making the fruits as a side dish. Aha! 

Dried Mission Figs from www.Nuts.com

Last year I had so many apples to freeze, I eventually went to dehydration instead of just freezing. Since I have all these dehydrated apple slices, I have looked for uses for the dried fruit. I had added some of them to the wine marinade for the birds, but wanted to use some in the final dish - which now switched to a side dish. Dried fruit retains a lot of sweetness. In thinking about cranberry relish to go with a roast turkey, and gauging the sweetness factor there, I opted to use Port as the main cooking liquid for the dried fruit. 

The Port Dilemma

Fresh Quinces

We like Port wine on occasion, so I have various types in our wine cellar. We have some 10-year-old late bottled ports, some Warre's Otima Tawny Port, some Ruby Ports, some Warre's Warrior and Fonseca Bin 27s, as well as a few vintage ports. Looking at the attributes of each type, I certainly didn't want to use a pricy vintage port to cook dried fruit. I also thought that Tawny would not give the rich color I wanted, plus it is less sweet than some of the red ports. Still, some of the fruits were very dark, like the figs and prunes (excuse me - ahem - "dried plums!"), so did I want a really dark wine like the Warre's Warrior or Fonseca Bin 27? Probably not, so ultimately I chose the Ruby Port. Ruby Port is exactly as it sounds: ruby red colored. It is quite sweet and pretty to look at, but generally less viscous than a deep red port. It is enjoyable to drink, in the manner of a more simple-to-enjoy dessert quaff. 

My Quince Still life

For other liquids I used some dry red wine and some water. Sweetener? I chose honey. Spices? That took some thought. I didn't want to use all the regular sweet spices, though cinnamon was still in the running. I left out cloves or allspice. I did use a half teaspoon of black peppercorns. Since I use only Tellicherry peppercorns, their fruity scent would help perfume the compote yet add a little bite. I meant to put them into a tea ball to easily pick out later, but just that fast I dropped them into the pot - oops! We had to fish them out later. Last minute I added one whole (small) star anise. Orange was another flavor I wanted to incorporate, but not to make any statement of its own. To this end, using a peeler, I peeled off a long strip of orange peel while leaving the white pith behind; removing the peel from the compote later is a snap. Another option would have been to either grate the rind or chop the peeled section and leave it in the mixture.

All that was left was to determine which fruits to use. The main idea was to use dried fruits, but there were two exceptions. I really wanted quince, if there were any available. Quince is a tart fruit that looks somewhat like a misshapen yellow apple. It needs to be cooked to make it edible. Quince has even more pectin than apples, and makes a wonderful jam. I felt they would also lend great flavor as well as thickening power to this compote. I was very glad to find that quinces were available. The other fruit not already dried were fresh cranberries, another great Fall flavor. Other fruits that were handy were dried cherries, apricots, figs and plums. With this in mind, here is what I did:

Fall Fruit Compote

Fall Fruit Compote

Makes about 6 or more servings

1½ cups Ruby Port
1 cup dry red wine 
½ cup water
½ cup honey
1 (4-inch) cassia cinnamon stick
1 whole star anise, optional 
½ teaspoon whole peppercorns, preferably Tellicherry
1 orange
2 quince
¾ cup (.75 ounce) dried apple slices  
½ cup (3 ounces) dried apricots, halved or quartered 
½ cup (3 ounces) dried plums (prunes), halved 
½ cup (3 ounces) dried Mission figs, halved 
½ cup (2 ounces) dried tart cherries
boiling water
¾ cup (2.5 ounces) whole fresh cranberries

fresh Cranberries

In a large saucepan, combine the first 4 ingredients. If desired, set the cinnamon stick, star anise and peppercorns in a piece of cheesecloth for ease of removal later, then add this to the pan. Peel a strip or two of orange peel, avoiding the white pith. Add to the pan, along with the juice squeezed from the orange. Peel, quarter and core the quince and slice them as with apples; add to the pan. Bring the mixture in the pan to boil, then set the temperature to just maintain a low boil. Reduce the liquid in the pan by about ⅓, about 20 to 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, set the dried apple slices, apricots, prunes, figs and cherries in a large measuring cup or medium bowl. Add boiling water to just not quite cover the fruit and allow the fruit to plump, covered, while the liquid in the saucepan is reducing.

Once the wine mixture is reduced, add in the dried fruits along with the soaking water and the fresh cranberries. Cook this mixture at a low boil for another 20 to 25 minutes, until reduced and slightly thickened. Remove the spices before serving.

This compote was absolutely perfect with the decadently rich Pheasant Alfredo. It had enough flavor and just enough "bite" to cut through the fattiness of the sauce and make a wonderful counterpoint to the flavors. I cannot recommend this mixture highly enough, and plan to make it again soon, possibly for Thanksgiving, to taste with turkey or chicken. 

My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.