Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Nectarine BBQ Sauce

You know when you make a regular week-night meal and you have really no great expectations other than to feed your family and just get one more meal finished? And then you're pleasantly surprised by how delicious the meal is and your entire family agrees? It's like a gift from the gods. 

My nectarines were ripening away on my counter and I was looking for something to make for dinner. Then I remembered seeing Gwyneth's recipe in Bon Appetie  for Peach BBQ sauce. Nectarines...peaches....really, what's the dif? I don't mean that literally - I do know the difference, but as far as cooking a BBQ sauce, I figured the nectarines would be a good fill-in. I was right! This sauce was delicious - and I'm not usually a fan of BBQ sauce. 

As for the rest of the preparation, I just threw together a random dry rub for the pork tenderloin by looking through my spices. Luckily I always jot down my 'random' concoctions, just in case I want to make it again. We'll definitely be having this meal again - it was loved by all four of us - and I can't tell you how rare that it is.  

Recipe for Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Nectarine BBQ Sauce

1 large pork tenderloin, trimmed and silver skin removed

Dry Rub:

2 tsp. kosher salt

1 1/2 Tbsp. brown sugar

1 tsp. chili powder

1/4 tsp. onion powder

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

Nectarine (or peach) BBQ sauce, recipe below

Clean your tenderloin. Mix all the ingredients for the dry rub. Season the tenderloin by rubbing all of the dry rub into the meat. Allow to sit for 15 - 20 minutes at room temperature. Preheat your BBQ to medium heat. Cook the tenderloin on the BBQ, turning often. Coat it with the BBQ sauce a few times in the last 5 minutes of cooking, allowing the sauce to cook onto the meat. Once the juices run clear and the meat is cooked, allow to rest 10 minutes before cutting.

Nectarine BBQ Sauce

(adapted from Gwyneth Paltrow via Bon Appetit)

1 cup chopped fresh nectarine, peeled (or peaches)

1/2 cup ketchup

1 1/2 tsp. adobo sauce from canned chipotles in adobo sauce

2 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 garlic cloves, minced

Put all ingredients in a small sauce pan and simmer for about 10 minutes until slightly thickened. Allow to cool slightly. Pour into blender or food processor and process until smooth.

Bourbon Glazed Baby Back Ribs

This one gets filed under my new "Weeknight Dinners" category, my long-overdue and very neglected project for the New Year. 

Bear with me. 

So, these ribs are fantastic. IF you like bourbon. Now, you don't have to like bourbon enough to drink it in order to appreciate these ribs. I would never be able to drink a glass of it.  But flavor my dessert with it? Use it in a marinade for chicken or a glaze for ribs? Sign me up - I'm totally in. I don't know what it is about bourbon when it's used with meat, but I'm a fan. Having said that, you could always cut the bourbon in half if you want it to be a little more subtle. Nothing wrong with that - subtle is good too.

Recipe for Bourbon-Glaze

(adapted from Bon Appetit)

-makes enough for 2 to 4 racks of ribs - depending on saucy you like your ribs-

1/2 cup, plus 2 Tbsp. honey

1/4 cup bourbon 

3 Tbsp. hoisin sauce

2 Tbsp. dijon mustard

2 Tbsp. plum sauce

1 Tbsp. molasses

1 Tbsp. soy sauce

1 Tbsp. Worchestershire sauce

1 tsp. sambal oelek (hot chili paste found in Asian isle)

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. kosher salt

1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper to taste

2 to 4 racks of ribs

salt and pepper to taste

1 cup of unsweetened pineapple juice

For the glaze: Whisk the first 13 ingredients together and set aside. Can be made 1 day ahead, cover and refrigerate.

For the ribs: Preheat oven to 275 degrees F. Remove the silver skin from the back of the ribs. Season generously with Hy's seasoning salt and pepper. (Regular kosher salt is fine too.) Place ribs in a shallow roasting. Pour 1 cup of pineapple juice over the ribs. Cover with foil. Bake for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until the meat is tender.

Remove from oven. Generously slather the ribs with the glaze. Finish on the barbeque on medium heat, basting the ribs with the glaze, and allowing the glaze to bake into the ribs, creating a crust (10 to 15 minutes). Serve.

Grilled Shrimp Tacos

I had an idea in my head for weeks. Maybe it was more of a craving. It involved grilled shrimp, fresh tomatoes, avocado, corn, black beans.  A nice sauce would be necessary too. And heck, why not wrap the whole thing in a flour tortilla?


I had the pleasure of experiencing a real fish taco in San Diego years ago. It was sublime. I loved it. And I've been thinking about it ever since. The crispy, deep fried fish with fresh salsa, cabbage and that sauce. What is that sauce? All I know for sure is that it's good. Real good. Eventually I will tackle the feat of trying to replicate it but, truthfully, it's a bit daunting. Having had the real deal I'm know that anything I come up with won't compare. So, instead of disappointing myself, I figured I'd do an entirely different version. Besides, I wasn't in the mood to pull out my deep fryer. So messy, and the smell it leaves behind...no, I'm not ready for that just yet.

If you google fish tacos or shrimp tacos on the internet, you will find a plethora or recipes and ideas that inspire, so narrowing it down is the hard part. 

I started with the 'salsa'. I used two Roma tomatoes, an avocado, fresh corn, the juice of 2 limes, 1/2 cup of black beans, minced garlic and jalapeno, and generous handful of fresh cilantro. Seasoned with salt and pepper to taste and then, on a whim, I threw in a dash of sugar. Happy with my salsa, I moved on to the shrimp.

Using more of what I already had chopped, I tossed the shrimp with some oil, lime juice, garlic, jalapeno, salt and pepper. I left it to sit for about an hour to marinate.

Next up, the sauce. I found a recipe on the Our Best Bites blog that intrigued me. It was called "Creamy Lime Cilantro Dressing" - it used a package of Ranch seasoning, 1 cup of mayo, 1/2 cup of milk, 1/4 cup of green salsa, a clove of garlic, cilantro and a dash of hot sauce. You throw all this in your blender and then chill it. This sounded like the perfect sauce to accompany my shrimp because it needed something to balance out the heat of the jalapenos that I used to flavor both the shrimp and the salsa. 

The final component to this taco: fresh chopped cabbage. While it might not offer much in the way of flavor, its crisp texture complimented the rest of the ingredients.

Since my husband was out for the night, I invited my 'BFF' over for dinner. We brought the circus of kids and dogs out onto the deck while we grilled the shrimp on the BBQ and assembled our dinner.

Never one to shy away from a culinary adventure, she was the perfect guest. There she is, opening the wine. Yes, it's red wine. No, I'm quite certain that it probably isn't the right wine to 'pair' with our dinner. But we didn't care - we don't know our wines. We don't pretend to. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

Once the shrimp were grilled - to perfection I might add - we began assembling. Warmed flour tortilla, handful of shredded cabbage, salsa, shrimp and then sauce. 

It was nothing like the San Diego fish taco, but that was okay. This was an entirely different type of fish taco. Probably much healthier too. It was delicious and perfect for the summer. I will definitely be making these again. And you should too. 

Oatmeal Lace Cookies with Mascarpone Cream & Berries

Oh, Freedom!  School's out for my daughter and I could not be happier. I stayed in bed until almost 9:00 this morning. Don't judge me. You know you'd do the same if you could. I didn't realize how limited my days were with all the driving around I typically do in a day until I woke up this morning and realized we had no where to go and all day to get there. So what did I do with my first day off?  Well, let me tell you. Since the Daring Bakers' challenge left me with an over-abundance of mascarpone cream and fresh berries in my fridge, (yes, I know, poor me, right?) I decided to make something new with it. I couldn't let that delicious sauce go to waste. The obvious choice would be to simply pour the cream over the berries and dive in, but that's too easy. I wanted something different.

I'm a real sucker for different textures and I wanted to add something crispy to the mix. I'd stumbled upon a recipe for Lace Cookies over the weekend and I knew I had to try them. This was the perfect time.

Paper thin, buttery and very crisp, they are more like candy than a cookie. These cookies are ridiculously easy to make - but there is a trick. You really must let them brown to a dark golden color. I tried pulling mine out earlier, when they were just a nice hue of gold but they were under down and impossible to peel off the foil.  So be patient...let them darken slightly beyond your comfort zone and do not attempt to peel them off the foil until they are cooled. They spread a lot during baking so you spoon a scant teaspoon per cookie on the baking sheet, and you only bake six at a time. The batter takes a mere 5 minutes to make, it's baking them off that gets a little tedious. But they're worth it. Trust me. Make these. You won't regret it.

Oatmeal Lace Cookies Recipe

(Source: A Year of the Best Cook Book)
1 cup sugar
3 Tbsp. flour
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 tsp. vanilla
Mix sugar, flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl. In a medium bowl, whisk egg. Add rolled oats, melted butter and vanilla. Blend together. Add sugar mixture and stir.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with foil, shiny side up. Drop only 6 tsp. of batter (1 tsp. per cookie) onto sheet. (They spread a lot during baking giving them the 'lacy' appearance.) Bake 8 to 10 minutes (I did closer to 12) until they are a golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes. Peel off foil.

Yes, I did get a grape out of my fridge to show you an approximation of size. No need to thank me.

Fresh from the oven, cooling down before peeling.

Now the fun began. I scattered strawberries on a cookie...

drizzled some mascarpone cream...

added another cookie and raspberries this time.  I know, it's hard to keep up.

Are you still with me? More cream on the raspberries and yes, you guessed it, another cookie. Then I sprinkled some confectioner's sugar on top, garnished with a strawberry and a sprig of mint and Voila!

Summer heaven on a plate. Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration. But it was good, real good. It is a little tricky to eat, I'll admit, but if you are one of those people who's afraid of using your fingers to pick up a piece of broken cookie well then, we can't be friends. There were a few casualties in the batch, the ones I didn't bake long enough and the ones I tried to peel before they were completely cooled. So...I broke them up and sprinkled them on top of a parfait version.

Nothing wrong with that. Enjoy!

Recipe for Mascarpone Cream:

(Source: Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard)

The first step is to make the base, a creme anglaise. Here's how:

Creme Anglaise:

1 cup whole milk

1 cup heavy cream

1 vanilla bean split

6 large egg yolks

6 Tbsp. sugar

Fill a large bowl with cold water and ice cubes to make an ice water bath. Combine the milk and cream in a saucepan over medium high heat. Scrape the seeds of the vanilla bean into the pot, and add the pod as well. Bring to boil.

In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar until the mixture is a pale yellow. Pour about 1/2 cup of the hot milk/cream mixture into the yolks, whisking constantly to keep the yolks from curdling. Return the yolk mixture to the pan with the remaining milk/cream over medium heat, and stir with a wooden spoon, scraping the bottom and sides of the pan until the mixture thickens enough to lightly coat the back of a spoon, about 3 minutes. (If you drag your finger through the mixture when it coats the spoon, the trace should remain.)

Remove mixture from heat and immediately strain through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl. Place the bowl in the ice bath to cool rapidly.

---You could stop here and just use the creme anglaise. But if you want to make it even more special, proceed with the following instructions to transform your creme anglaise to mascarpone cream.

Mascarpone Cream

1 recipe of creme anglaise (above)

1/2 cup mascarpone cheese

2 T. Bailey's  (optional - recipe actually calls for Sambuca, but that's just gross)

1/2 cup heavy cream

Prepare the creme anglaise as directed above. Slowly whisk in the mascarpone and booze (if you're using it), and let mixture cool. Beat the cream until it holds soft peaks. Gently fold into mascarpone mixture. Chill.

Vanilla Ice Cream & Classic Hot Fudge Sauce

If you've never tried homemade ice cream, you must.  There is a noticeable difference between store-bought and homemade, and let's face it, some of those store-bought brands are pretty darn good.  It's not hard to make, but it is time-consuming.  You want to make it in advance and you need an ice cream maker.  Don't bother with those hand-cranked ones either, even if they save you a few bucks.  The electric kind is not very pricey and easy to find.

With so many different flavors, you can get really creative, however, I went with "plain old vanilla", which in my opinion, doesn't always get the credit it deserves. Yes, it could be perceived as boring, compared to some of the other flavors out there, but it pairs well with almost anything.  When you see the black flecks of vanilla bean, and you can actually smell the vanilla aroma, and it transforms itself in your mouth from a frozen custard to a thick, rich, velvety cream, "plain" is not a word that comes to mind. Besides, if you served homemade vanilla ice cream alongside warm homemade brownies, you'd look like a super-star. Or, you could drizzle some homemade hot fudge sauce on top and your kids will forgive you for making them eat their vegetables.

David Lebovitz is the ice cream guru.  His book "The Perfect Scoop" is almost as important as the ice cream machine should you decide to try making your own ice cream.

Recipe for Vanilla Ice Cream

(Source: David Lebovitz "The Perfect Scoop")

1 c. whole milk

3/4 c. sugar

2 c. heavy cream

pinch of salt

1 vanilla bean, split in half lengthwise

6 large egg yolks

3/4 t. vanilla

Warm the milk, sugar, 1 cup of the cream and salt in a medium saucepan until the sugar dissolves.  Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the warm milk and add the bean as well. Cover, remove from heat, and let steep at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Pour the remaining 1 cup of cream into a large bowl and set a mesh strainer on top.

In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks.  Slowly pour the warm mixture in the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan. Stir mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula.  Pour the custard through the strainer and stir into the cream. Put the vanilla bean into the custard, add the vanilla extract, and stir until cool over an ice bath. Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator.  When ready to churn, remove the vanilla bean, then freeze the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Recipe for Classic Hot Fudge Sauce

(Source: David Lebovitz "The Perfect Scoop")

3/4 c. heavy cream

1/4 c. packed dark brown sugar

1/4 c. cocoa powder

1/2 c. light corn syrup

6 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped

1 T. salted butter

1/2 t. vanilla extract

Mix the cream, brown sugar, cocoa powder and corn syrup in a large saucepan.  Bring to a boil and cook, stirring frequently, for 30 seconds.  Remove from heat and add the chocolate and butter, stirring until melted and smooth.  Add the vanilla.  Serve warm.

Green Goddess Dressing

Last year when I hosted my family's Easter dinner, I made a Green Goddess dressing for one of my salads. It was great. Even I really enjoyed it, and that's saying something because, unfortunately, I'm not a big fan of salads.  I wish I was but I view salad as nothing more than a vehicle for dressing.  Unless, of course, the salad is studded with goodies like toasted almonds, bacon bits, cheese and croutons.  Now that's a salad I can get excited about but it's not exactly healthy. 

I don't remember what magazine I found last year's Green Goddess dressing in (geez, I wish I was blogging back then) and so, when I decided to make it again, I had to settle for a recipe I found on Epicurious.  It was not the same, I knew this because the list of ingredients was much shorter than I recalled and the end result was good, but not as good as last year's. I would make this one again, I may just make a few adjustments, unless of course, I found the 'lost recipe'. 

For the salad, I really wanted a simple affair, fresh and crisp iceberg lettuce, radishes, carrots and, of course, yummy bacon bits...

and toasted almonds...

It's for Easter dinner, afterall, so flavor trumped health.  All the herbs in the dressing, of course, have to be fresh not dried.  Flat leaf parsley...

chives...

and tarragon...

When I ran the ingredients through my food processor, it wasn't very green.  It was more of a light yellow color with specks of green.  (This was not a problem with my 'lost recipe').  So I pulled out my neglected and under-used VitaMix blender, which I should have used in the first place and Voila!  A beautiful pale green creamy dressing in less than 5 seconds.  I will definitely be making better use of that piece of equipment in the future.  So, if you're interested in trying this close second, here's the recipe. 

Green Goddess Dressing

(Source: Epicurious - Gourmet Magazine)

1 cup mayo

3 anchovie fillets, minced

1 chopped scallion (I used a shallot)

2 T. chopped parsley

2 T. chopped chives

1 T. tarragon vinegar (I used white Balsamic)

1 t. chopped tarragon

salt and pepper to taste

Throw all the ingredients in your food processor and blend.  Add salt and pepper at the end to taste.

Tomato Sauce (Kim, this one's just for you!)

My homemade tomato sauce isn't something I would have typically chosen to blog about, however, I have decided to do this for my very, very good friend.  Kim, you asked for my recipe some time ago, and because I don't actually work from a recipe, I thought it would be harder to put it on paper.  Turns out it was actually very easy.  I'm not including all these details and pictures because I think you need them (necessarily ha ha!), but because it makes the post more interesting.  As usual, I went WAY over board with my camera, but practice makes perfect and taking pictures is the funnest part for me.  So, here you go.

Ingredients for Tomato Sauce:

1 T. olive oil

One medium sized onion (finely chopped)

2 stalks of celery (finely chopped)

3 medium carrots (super finely chopped)

2 cups of chicken stock

4 cloves of garlic (pressed)

4 x 28 ounce cans of Italian tomatoes 

kosher salt and pepper to taste

fresh basil, coarsely chopped (optional)

I STRONGLY recommend using a food processor for this.  Do you have a regular sized one or are you still using that little mini one I gave you?  If you're still using that one...this will take some time, as you will have to chop everything in little batches, but that's okay. 

Directions:

Coarsely chop your onion and then spin it through your food processor a few times until you get a fine chop.  Be careful not to over process, or you will wind up with onion slime and that's just yucky.

Heat the olive oil in a large stock pot, over medium heat.  Add onion.  While onion is cooking, process the carrots and celery in the processor, you want these slightly finer than the onion.

Add the carrots and celery to the onion.  Season lightly with kosher salt and pepper and cook until vegetables are softened.  Be careful not to carmelize the onions (if they are cooking too fast while you're chopping the carrots and onion, lower your heat).

Once the vegetables look soft, (it won't take long when they're diced so small), add the chicken stock and garlic to the pot.

Mixture will look very soupy at this point, boil it softly until the liquid reduces by about 2/3's.  While cooking, start processing the whole tomatoes and their liquid into a sauce. You can leave them slightly chunky if you prefer a chunkier sauce. When the vegetables have reduced enough, add the tomato sauce.

 

Simmer on low for 2 to 3 hours.  Taste a couple of times to adjust your seasonings.  Once you've got the consistency you like, (personally, I don't like a really thick sauce, I prefer it to be slightly 'loose'), you can add the chopped basil, if using.  Turn off burner and cool.

As you may have noticed, I completely forgot to add my fresh basil, but the tomatoes that I use have whole basil leaves in the can so I wasn't too upset about it.  Because I pureed the tomatoes, you can't see the flecks of green basil, so I really urge you to add fresh basil when you do it. 

I special order my tomatoes through my good friend, Rob, who has "connections". These tomatoes are amazing, but since not everyone has a friend like Rob, I've notice large cans similar to this at Costco.  I use just the one can, but if you can't get a hold of a large can, the 4 28 ounce cans are fine.

Final words of advice:  invest in a dozen mason jars from your local grocery store.  It makes it so much easier to freeze your sauce in small portions.  Don't fill the jars too high, the sauce expands slightly when frozen and you will either warp the lid or crack the jar.  (I've done both.)

Once you have your sauce in jars, just leave it on the counter until it's reached room temperature before freezing.  The jars will crack if put in freezer when warm.  Yes, this is also from experience. 

My cooking tutorial is complete.  Let me know how this works out for you.  

Enjoy!