Trial and Error: The Kitchen Chronicles

Pork Waldorf

So…I don’t exactly know what a “Waldorf” is, but the original picture I saw was just a stuffed tenderloin, and I said to myself, I wanna eat that! So here were are.

After a short hunt for the definition of waldorf on google, I sort of figured out what is it.  It’s a traditional salad made with apples, celery and walnuts, so adding it to pork as a stuffing is a brilliant idea.  Pork and apples, come on now! I don’t want to meet the person who’s never had apple sauce on their pork chops before! (If I already know, you, then I guess it’s ok)

+2 pork tenderloins (about 1 1/2 lbs)
+3/4 cup BAMA apple jelly (I couldn’t find this at Safeway, so I used apricot jelly)
+1/4 cup lemon juice
+1/4 cup soy sauce
+1/4 cup vegetable oil
+1 T finely chopped fresh ginger (I used 1/2 T powdered ginger)
+1 cup chopped apple
+1 cup fresh bread crumbs
+1/4 cup finely chopped celery
+1/4 cup chopped pecans (I used 1/2 cup)
—recipe compliments of The Great American Brand Name Cookbook, Collectors Edition

1.  Partially slit tenderloins lengthwise, being careful to not cut all the way through; arrange in a shallow dish (I butterflied it twice, to make sure it was a thin sheet for me to get a nice roll on it).

2.  In a small saucepan, combine the jelly, lemon juice, soy sauce, oil and ginger, cook until the jelly melts.

3.  Reserving 3 T of jelly mixture, pour remainder over the meat, cover and marinate at least 4 hours or overnight.

4.  Place meat in a shallow baking pan.  Combine apple, crumbs, celery, nuts and reserved jelly.

5.  Spread open the slits, fill with apple mixture.

6.  Bake 30 minutes in preheated 375DF oven, loosely cover meat and cook additional 10 minutes (I did it at 350 for about an hour and a half, thermometer read 137 when I pulled it out).

How it turned out:

Good, not great.  I was hoping the marinade would make the pork juicier, but not really, it actually didn’t even add a whole lot of taste to it either! The soy sauce was the most noticeable on my palette, not so much anything else.  It marinaded for about 11 hours, so I don’t think time was an issue. 

I had the same problem with the stuffing, good, but bland.  The recipe didn’t call for salt or pepper, so I added it anyways, and point Robert!  Other seasonings wouldn’t have hurt it either, maybe a little bit of broth, or even more of the marinade.  Three tablespoons reserved for the stuffing wasn’t very much. 

It was also a little dry :( -1 point for Robert! After I pulled it out, I kept it covered to ensure it would go up in temperature, I know it would have raised to 145 on its own without the foil around it, but it was stuff, and stuffed meats are supposed to be cooked a little higher…oops.

What I would do next time:

I wouldn’t use pecans (or walnuts), I want something crunchier, like toasted almonds! A pinch of sage wouldn’t have hurt the stuffing either, it was good, but not great.  And if I’m paranoid again about getting a high enough temperature to kill the bacteria, maybe I should try brining the meat…hmmm….

Looks like meat’s back on the menu, boys!

29 days as a vegetarian wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be.  The first week was the most difficult just because I’ve never had to limit my diet to only certain things, but then after that, I was surprised how easy it was! It’s a little mind boggling that after a while I just stopped craving meat.  All temptation for flesh was just gone, and the even stranger part was that I didn’t really miss it…the only thing I really missed was the variety of foods I could eat.  Being a vegetarian closes the doors on soooo many things to eat, especially when you’re dining out.

Depending where you choose to dine out, it can be quite troublesome finding something for you to eat.  Early in the month I went to a Thai restaurant and had no trouble at all finding something vegetarian friendly, because meat can always be substituted with tofu.  But then towards the end of the month I went to Applebees with my brother and it was a little bit of a chore finding something appropriate for me.  Every dish included some sort of meat.  I wanted to get a pasta, but they were all cream based sauces (not that I don’t love cream sauces, but I’m trying to stay away), and the only tomato based dish was made with shell fish.  So to stay true to my vegetarianism, I was forced to choose a salad, hold the meat! And of course they brought it to me with the chicken still on it :( This marks the second time I’ve had to send something back at a restaurant…You’d think a huge chain like Applebees would have a small section on the menu dedicated to vegetarians! But then again you need to consider the demographic…

Now that meat’s back on the menu for me, I’m hoping my little test will help me lead a healthier lifestyle.  Seeing how I had fried chicken the moment I got off the vegetarian diet…things aren’t looking good…Either way I’m calling this a win for me.  I wanted to see if I could be a vegetarian for a month, and I succeeded! (with the exception a couple slips, 1 mistake on the restaurants part, and 2 times because of work).  So it’s good to know I have the strength to do what I set out to do!

Rice Croquettes

As vegetarian month was finally coming to an end, I thought I’d shoot for the stars and do something amazing for the finale! But then I got a little lazy and settled for these rice croquettes….

After taking a gander at the recipe, I noticed that this is esentially taking risotto, clumping it into little balls and deep frying them.  How can you go wrong!? What do I love more than risotto? Deep fried foods! I will always be a fat kid at heart :)

+1 cup chicken broth
+2 T butter
+1 small onion chopped
+1/2 cup uncooked rice
+1/4 cup dry white wine
+1/4 t salt
+pinch pepper
+pinch saffron threads
+1/4 cup grated parm
+1 large egg
+1 1/2 oz mozarella cut into 1/2” cubes
+veggie oil
+1/2 cup fine dry unseasoned bread crumbs (I used panko)
—Recipe compliments of the Italian Cooking Class Cookbook

1.  heat broth and keep at a simmer

2.  heat butter and saute onion until soft, 3-4 minutes, stir in rice and cook for 2 minutes

3.  stir in half the broth, the wine, salt and pepper, cook uncovered while stirring frequently until liquid is absorbed, 5-8 minutes.  Meanwhile crush the saffron with a mortar and pestle to a powder (I skipped this since I don’t actually have a mortar and pestle); stir into remaining broth, add the remaining saffron broth to the rice and continue to cook stirring frequently until liquid is absorbed about 5 minutes longer, remove from heat add parm, let stand at room temp for 45 minutes

4.  lightly beat egg in a small bowl; stir into cooled rice mixture

5.  place a scant tablespoon of the mixture in your hand and top with 1 cube of cheese and cover it with another tablespoon of the mixture, press together to form a ball, place on wax paper

6.  spread bread crumbs in a shallow bowl, roll croquettes in it and coat evenly, deep fry in oil for about 3 minutes, to keep warm, heat oven to 200DF and place cooked croquettes in there

How it turned out:

All was going well until step 4.  Adding the egg to the rice mixture made it SUPER wet, thus hard to form a ball.  It needs to be sticky for it to mold around the mozzarella and for it to hold it’s spherical shape.  This also didn’t help with the frying, if I wasn’t careful, they fell apart while frying, since the rice balls were so frail…I’m not actually sure if adding the egg is completely necessary, but if I was to do this dish again, I’d probably try it without the egg…

However, I’m not sure if I will be doing this dish again…it was a definite eye opener about the things you can do with leftovers.  This dish is just like mac n cheese wedges, where you just take your left over mac n cheese, coat it with bread crumbs and deep fry.  So it would seem that you could essentially do this with all foods! So I’m going to keep this method on the back burner. 

The reason why I wouldn’t want to do this particular dish again is that after eating only one of these croquettes, I felt like I was going to have a heart attack!  Risotto is already a fairly rich dish, and adding bread crumbs and frying it doesn’t do you any favors…