Pork tenderloin stuffed with feta and artichokes

I really like pork tenderloin it cooks quickly and it is low in fat, so really it is like a chicken breast.  And like a chicken breast it needs a little help in the flavour and moisture area.  I came up with this recipe the other night when I had a pork tenderloin in the fridge and a large container of feta cheese to use.

My husband loves feta cheese, artichoke hearts and mushrooms, so 2 out of 3 aren't bad!

To feed 2 big eaters or 3 or 4 light eaters. (This fed us 2 for dinner and one for lunch the next day.

1 pork tenderloin
1 cup of crumbled feta cheese
1 small jar of artichoke hearts quartered
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 cup of white wine

Butterfly the tenderloin which I described in pork tenderloin stuffed with mushrooms. Sprinkle the feta over the pork and top with the artichoke hearts.

Roll up and either tie with twine or pin closed with bamboo skewers, which is what I did this time. Cut off the long ends of the skewers.

Add the olive oil to a preheated ovenproof frying pan and brown the pork all over.

Easy mediteranean Pork chops

Saturday night I was looking for something easy to make and since we have such cold weather right now, I wanted a dish that would cook long and slow in the oven.  I used the oven because I was at home, but in fact this would have been good in the slow cooker too.  I did not get inspiration from anything but what I found in my fridge and freezer, as I did not want to go shopping.  What I had was 4 pork chops, a can of crushed tomatoes from the summer, and some olives, so for a very cold mid winter evening I came up with a dish with a taste of summer.

This made enough for 4 or 2 for dinner and 2 lunches to pack to work!

4 pork chops
1 quart of home canned tomatoes or Italian jar of tomato puree
1 large garlic clove sliced
8 pitted olives cut in half
the zest of one lemon taken off with a potato peeler

Place the pork chops in a casserole and top with the remaining ingredients and a little salt and pepper.

Cover with a tight fitting lid and place in a 350 oven for 2 hours, during which time you can busy yourself with quilting, and preparing for Christmas.

slow cooked pork with apples and garlic

Fall is here with full monsoon rains.  Gone are the long evenings eating on the deck, summer dresses and sandals, time for comfort food, sweaters and boots.  I am trying to embrace this change, though this year for some reason I am finding it harder than ever.  The only way is to cook some really good comforting food and buy some new warm weather clothes.

I made this last weekend up at Pender Harbour where it was pouring rain, and we had spent the afternoon in front of a roaring fire playing quidler and drinking a full bodied red wine. It was so simple and cooked away all afternoon filling the house with the most glorious smells. Bring on winter.

1 pork butt roast, this one was fairly small and fed 4 with some left over
3 apples peeled and chopped
1 onion chopped
1 whole head of garlic cut in half
1 tablespoon of fennel seeds
1 1/2 cups of white wine.

Add all the ingredients except only add 1/2 cup of wine, with a little salt and pepper to a large cast iron pot.

Put on a tight fitting lid and place in a 300 oven.  You could also do the same thing but place in a slow cooker. Cook for at least 3 hours, but 4 or more is really better.

Roast belly pork

I picked up a beautiful slab of meaty belly pork at The Ginger pig at Greensmiths, belly pork is one my favourite cuts of meat.  There is a fair amount of fat and would probably not be a wise choice on regular basis, but I was on holiday after all.

I made a rub with malden salt and fresh time, by mixing together in a pestle and mortar.

I rubbed that in to the skin, which the butcher had scored for me.

Stuffed pork tenderloin nuggets

I struggled with what to name this dish, as stuffed pork tenderloin sounds like a whole tenderloin stuffed, but nuggets does sound like you would buy it at MacDonalds! Anyway since I can not remember what Jamie Oliver called it, that is what I am calling it.  This is another dish from the sleepless night with Jamie and it would make a really good weeknight dinner, but we had it for dinner on a girls weekend in Whistler.

This made enough for 6

2 large pork tenderloins
About 1 cup of goat feta cheese
125 grams prosciutto
2 tablespoon olive oil
About 4 tablespoons of balsamic reduction

Cut the pork tenderloin in to 2 inch slices.

Quick and easy jerk style pork tenderloin

The other night I was suffering from insomia, this happens about once a month or so, and when it does, I get up and find something to watch on the tv or utube, or perhaps a season of Downton abbey on the ipad.  Well this evening I started watching 15 minute meals by Jamie Oliver.  I watched many episodes, I really like the way he cooks, we have similar styles, fast and furious and when we are finished the kitchen is a disaster.  In these shows he talks a lot about getting dinner on the table in under 15 minutes, but he does not discuss how long it takes to clean up afterwards.

This recipe comes from that night of Jamie Oliver, he was using some interesting techniques to speed up cooking processes and this sauce was one of them.  The ingredients are based on what I remember and what I had in my fridge. This made enough for 2 of us for dinner and 3 lunches for me.  I am lucky in that I am quite happy to eat the same thing for lunch several days in a row as long as it is something I like.

2 pork tenderloin
2 tablespoons of ground coriander
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tomatoes
1/2 red onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 inch piece of ginger
1 small red chili pepper
handful of mint
handful of cilantro
1 teaspoon of honey
Juice of one lemon
1 tablespoon of vinegar

This sounds like a long list of ingredients but it comes together really quickly.  Cut the pork tenderloin into 1 inch slices.

Roast pork tenderloin with roast vegetables

I really like pork tenderloin, it is pork and I love pork, but it also low fat and tender, and therefore fits in with my healthy eating plan right now.  I picked up a couple of pork tenderloin's from Hopcott's and though there was only two of us for dinner, I decided to cook them both, so that I had left overs for dinner or lunch during the week.

This is a one dish meal (less washing up) and with an addition of a green salad is healthy and very tasty. I used potatoes, carrots and fennel, because that is what I had in the fridge, but winter squash, eggplant or red peppers would have been great too.

Enough for 4

2 pork tenderloins
grated zest of one lemon
1 tablespoon of cumin
1 teaspoon of smoked paprika
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of chili powder
4 medium potatoes
4 large carrots
1 bulb of fennel
1 sprig of rosemary
2 cloves of garlic
3 tablespoons of olive oil.

Toss the vegetables with the garlic, 2 tablespoons of olive oil  and rosemary and place in a roasting tin.

Put this in a pre heated 400 oven for about 15 minutes.  While this is cooking prepare the pork tenderloin, by rolling it in the spices and lemon zest.

Asian pulled pork

It is no secret that pulled pork is one of my all time favourite things to eat, and since it was my birthday too, along with 3 others this weekend, this was my vision. Not only is pulled pork delicious but a great choice for feeding a crowd, the cut of pork is cheap and really you can not overcook it so there are no timing issues. This weekend with 12 ladies for three days both these considerations were key.  Unfortunately I forgot my camera and I was relying on others to take pictures so I do not have a picture of the finished dish, but here is a picture of the view I was enjoying in the kitchen each day.

Nancy picked up a large pork butt roast at Hopcotts with the vision of pulled pork in mind. I decided to change the flavours up a bit. I have made it with Indian flavours and Southwest or Mexican flavours, but this time I decided to use Asian flavours.

Pork butt roast
1/4 cup of rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup of low sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons of fish sauce
Thumb size piece of ginger thinly sliced
2 large garlic cloves thinly sliced.

Rosemary crusted pork tenderloin

I was watching Jamie Oliver videos on my Ipad a couple of days ago and came across the idea for this recipe.  It was originally for a pork loin and I think that there were other spices in the crust.  But time was tight and so without checking any further I came up with this.

Using pork loin keeps it low fat and quick to cook.  What I found quite a revelation, was the way the pork was crusted, this worked very well and a technique I will use again.

2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 pork tenderloin
1 tablespoon of course salt
2 tablespoons of chopped rosemary
1 tablespoon of ground black pepper

Put the olive oil in to a small roasting tin or oven proof pan and place in a 400 oven to heat up.  While that is heating up spread the salt, rosemary and pepper on a clean chopping board or even the counter top.

Place the pork tenderloin on top and roll it around.

Day of the dead

We arrived back in Quito on November 2nd, which is the Day of the Dead which is public holiday and a big family celebration. Everyone goes to visit their departed family in the graveyard and decorate the graves, perhaps have a picnic and leave some food for them.  We went to a grave yard in a small town on the outskirts of Quito, the atmosphere was very festive and we appeared to be the only tourists.

Some of our group were a little uncomfortable about appearing like looky loos, but actually it was not a sombre occasion quite the reverse it was positively festive.  There was even a rock band playing in the cemetery. The square in front of the church was full of vendors selling flowers and other things with which to decorate your family gravesite.

Our guide told us we had to try the traditional drink and bread that are only served on this day in Ecuador. The drink was colada morada made from blueberry, blackberry and other fruit in blue corn flour base.

My husband and I shared this, I was worried that it would be too sweet, but in fact it was not bad and served warm and full of fruit. What was served with this was guaguas de pan which is a bread in the shape of a baby. At least this is how the guide described it, I had trouble eating "babies" so I prefer to think of it as in the shape of a doll.

A salad for fall with pear dressing and pecans

Though the temperatures belie it, fall is well and truly in full swing, and even if it is still warm and sunny somehow I still feel like fall flavours and want to be wearing boots and wool skirts.  So when I was making a salad on Saturday night I was inspired by the beautiful pears sitting in the warm autumn sunshine on the counter.

Several years ago I saw Jamie Oliver make a salad dressing by grating pears and so I though I would give it a go.

Pear salad dressing

• 1 Pear grated (with out the peel)
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• Juice of one lemon
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• 2 tablespoons of white wine vinegar

Pulled pork and asian style slaw to go

On Friday night we had a mission to deliver dinner to 3 boats full of weary sailers who had been battling against the wind all day.  Nearly everyone one of them had been sea sick at some point during this oddesey, and no one felt like preparing dinner.  We got the call early enough to be able to cook a pork roast long and slow, so that it was falling apart in the way that only pork butt roast can. we were delivering this dinner to Gibsons Landing Marina about an hours drive away at the southern tip of the Sunshine Coast.

When we arrived it was calm, hot and hard to believe the stories that we heard of the rolling seas, high winds and all the throwing up over the side.  Any way who are we to judge, and we did feel like  we were on a mission of mercy.

I made a rub to rub all over the pork roast as follows.

1 tablespoon of ground coriander

1 tablespoon of ground cumin

1 teaspoon of smoked paprika

1 teaspoon of sweet paprika

1 tablespoon of chili powder

1 tablespoon of salt.

I rubbed this all over the pork butt roast, then wrapped it in foil and placed on a barbecue with the lid down for about 3 hours.  I turned the heat down to low on one side and placed the roast on the other.  The barbecue was at about 300.  Obviously you could do this in an oven as well, but it was very hot and the oven was playing up.  

After 3 hours I unwrapped the pork and cooked it for a further 1/2 hour uncovered at about 400.

The pork was getting crusty on the outside and meltingly soft and falling apart in the centre. Just before we left to drive down to Gibsons, I wrapped the pork in foil and then in a large beach towel to keep warm.

Barbecued pork tenderloin with herb butter

After a wonderful week at Naramata in the heart of the wine country in the Okanagan, we were lucky enough to prolong our vacation by one more night staying at my friends house in Summerland.  This is always an excuse to cook up a feast to enjoy sitting outside on a warm Okanagan evening enjoying old friends and wine picked up at the surrounding wineries.

This evening there was going to be 9 of us and I was picking up the food.  I chose pork tenderloin as they are lean and tasty and feed a crowd with out spending too much money.  The only drawback of pork tenderloin is that like chicken breasts it can be a little dry, so I decided to butterfly the tenderloins and smear with herb butter, to help keep them moist.

Jubilee Dinner

After arriving back from watching the Flotilla on Sunday we changed into some dry clothes and set about making dinner.  Jacky had a couple of chicken breasts and a pork tenderloin in the fridge, so we used both in order to feed 6 of us.  She cut the chicken breast into 6 pieces and wrapped each one in a slice of bacon.  We then tossed these with the pork and some potatoes, leeks, garlic and a lemon cut up.

We drizzled over some olive oil and some ras hanout (morrocan spice) and roasted in a 400 oven for about ¾ of an hour, until everything was crispy and cooked through.  

We also had an amazing care package brought from Belgium of white asparagus.  

Diamond Jubilee Celebration in Chipperfield

Day 3 of the Jubilee Celebration dawned cool and wet again, and I realized that I had packed totally the wrong footwear for jubilee celebrations in England. So when we popped out for some provisions I picked up something more suitable.

Suitable footwear for summer in England (wellies)

Luckily the clouds slowly cleared as we walked up through the woods to Chipperfield Common.  Along the way, there was a spectacular old sweet chestnut tree which has been there since Henry the VIII used to ride pass when he hunted in the area.

Howard took us on a circuitous route and eventually we came out of the woods on to Chipperfield common.  What greeted us was an old fashioned village fair which reminded me very much of the Ioco ghost town days in port moody

There were some obvious differences, there was a bar serving beer and Pimms so that you could enjoy a beverage while going around the grounds.

My personal favourite was Would Jubileve it real ale, though not being a beer drinker I ordered a Pimms.  we then moved on to the Hog roast, this is something I think we should include in the Ioco Day celebrations.

satay with peanut sauce

I love satay with peanut sauce, but most sauce recipes call for using peanut butter, I am sure that they do not use peanut butter in Thailand.  Any way I searched on the Internet and combining several different recipes I came up with this, which though it was delicious, was really an accompaniment rather than a sauce.  But this could have been because I made it in my mini chopper which is not very powerful and therefore did not pulverise the peanuts in to a paste.

1/2 onion finely chopped
1 garlic clove sliced
1 inch of ginger grated
1 tablespoon of oil
1 red Thai chili pepper chopped
1 cup of roasted peanuts
juice of one lime
2 tablespoons of fish sauce
1 tablespoon of brown sugar
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
handful of cilantro
2 tablespoons of water.

Cook the onion garlic ginger and chili pepper in the oil until softened.

Add this along with the remaining ingredients into a food processor or mini chopper.

Carnitas - Mexican pork

Saturday evening was May 5, or Cinco de Mayo, a big celebration in Mexico, so there was nothing for it but to have Mexican food for dinner.  I wanted to try something new, and I have visions of the carnitas that I had in Sausalito over 20 years ago. This was one of those meals that stands out in your mind as being perfect. It was beautiful sunny warm day, and we were sitting out on a deck over looking San Francisco bay, drinking margaritas and eating an enormous platter of long cooked pork with corn tortillas.

I could not replicate the sunny warm day in this cold damp spring that we are living through, and the view from my house though actually very nice, is not quite up to the standards of San Francisco Bay, but I could try to replicate the pork.

I stole ideas from several different recipes and this is what I came up with. This served 8 people with a little left over for fridge picking.

4lb pork shoulder roast
1 lemon halved
1/2 cup of orange juice
1 onion chopped
6 cloves of garlic peeled

If you are lucky enough to have skin on your pork remove it for later, then place the pork in a large pot with the remaining ingredients and almost cover with water.

Roast rack of pork with apples

We had a friend and her husband coming over for dinner on Saturday evening, but I was taking a ferry home that afternoon, speed was of the essence.  I really had lamb in mind when I headed to the store, but when I got to there this rack of pork was speaking to me. I love this cut of pork, it is fairly lean, but keeping it on the bone seems to add flavour as we well as keep it moist.

Also this is the perfect size to roast for four.

1 apple peeled and cut in to large chunks (I used granny smith)
1/2 onion sliced thickly
2 or 3 sprigs of fresh sage
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 rack of pork
1 cup of chicken stock.
1 glug of white wine (optional)

Place the apples onion and sage on the base of a small roasting tin sprinkle with the olive oil.

Mushroom stuffed pork tenderloin with roasted tomatoes

I was talking to a friend yesterday and she was mulling over what to cook for a dinner party, she wanted to cook fish, but she said the fish alone was going to cost over $40.00.  I said I entertain a lot and most of the time I make chicken or pork, one reason being that you can feed quite a few people very reasonably.  Actually I like chicken and pork as well though.

Any way we were have a couple of neighbours over for dinner and I went to an old standby pork tenderloin.  This is not only relatively cheap, but it is low fat, tasty and very versatile.  Since it is a long weekend and I have a little more time than usual, I decided to do something a little fancier than normal.
Which involves "butterflying" the tenderloin to make it much larger and flatter, therefore making it easier to stuff.  I took pictures, so I am hoping it makes sense.

First take the pork tenderloin and cut it length ways 1/3 down and do not cut all the way through, so that you can open it up making the meat already twice as wide with one side being twice the thickness of the other side.

Now turn over the tenderloin.

On the thicker side (that would be on the side closest to my camera, cut length ways again from the middle and again not all the way through so that you can open it up again.