Friday, April 5, 2013

April 4, 2013 Fried Avocados, Roasted Pork with Apples and Onions and Asparagus

April 4, 2013 Fried Avocados, Roasted Pork with Apples and Onions and Asparagus

Some meals are better than others because of availability of time, energy and ingredients.  This was one of them.  The meals last week, due to the energy being put into writing my brief, were not.
I had bought a package of two pork tenders on Tuesday at Costco ($3.29/lb.).  We also had a lot of avocados and apples that were getting really ripe. 

I first thought about grilling the tender and making a port and dark cherry sauce, but we lacked the required fresh shallots (I will need to go to Ta Lin to replenish them), so I decided on an old favorite recipe for pork tender instead Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Apples (p.236) in José Andrés’ Tapas a Taste of Spain in America, which is the equivalent of Mastering the Art of French Cooking but shorter and for tapas.
Suzette wanted to see if we had any greens in the garden we could use as a garnish for the plate with the avocados, so we went to the garden and rolled back the plastic covering the beds we planted several weeks ago and found lots of lovely growth.  We picked enough Mbuna, beet and arugula leaves to garnish three small plates.  

Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Apples

1 pork Tenderloin (1/2 lb.)
1 Tbsp. unsalted butter

2 Tbsp. Spanish olive oil
1 golden delicious apple, peeled, cored and sliced into 8 or more slices

1 white onion peeled and thinly sliced
5 sprigs of fresh oregano

¼ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. black pepper

2 Tbsp. Spanish brandy (We used Calvados, tonight)
½ cup of chicken stock

Each tenderloin weighed 1 lb. so we decided to double the recipe. I sliced 2 onions and 2 apples and put them into a French sauté pan.
 Then following the recipe I preheated the oven to 300˚F and then heated the butter and olive oil in the large ovenproof sauté pan with the apples and onions over a medium flame on the top of the stove.

After fifteen minutes they took on color and we added 5 or six sprigs of fresh oregano, a couple of sage leaves, and one chopped garlic stalk from our garden.
Suzette seasoned the pork tenderloins with the salt and no pepper because of my sensitivity to black pepper and placed the meat on top of the apple and onion slices in the pan and scooped the cooking liquid from the pan on top of the meat and placed the pan in the 300˚ oven and set the timer for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes the meat reached the prescribed internal temperature of 140˚F, so we removed it from the oven and covered it with aluminum foil and we ate our avocado appetizers.
Fried Avocados

While I was sautéing the onions and apples, Suzette made fried avocados.  She sliced and peeled one avocado per person, put panko and salt and pepper in a bag and crushed the panko with a rolling pin and put each avocado half into the bag and coated each avocado half with crushed seasoned panko.
I heated a skillet filled to about ¾ inch with canola oil and then cut 1 large mango into cubes.  Suzette made a sauce of crema con sal ($1.79/lb. at Pro’s Ranch market) flavored with Cholulu hot sauce and powdered ancho chili and then fried the avocados in the oil and drained them on paper towels.  She then placed a bed of leaves of the greens on each plate and placed two avocados on leaves and filled the hole in the middle with mango cubes.  Then Suzette made a pastry bag and nozzle by putting the crema sauce into a plastic bag and cutting a hole in one end of the bag to make a nozzle and then decorated each avocado with a thin ribbon of sauce.  The avocados were soft and melted in one's mouth.  The combination of citrusy mango and slightly zippy sauce gave the rather soft and neutral flavor of the avocado a lovely edginess.  Beautiful.

Wine

I wanted to try a new wine, so I opened a bottle of 2010 Giesta Dão (given to us as a gift last year by an unidentified attendee at our Christmas Eve buffet) and poured it and we enjoyed it immensely with the avocados.  While we were eating our dinner I looked at the bottle and discovered that the wine was from Portugal.  After dinner I read the back label which stated:

GIESTA

2010

Dão

Denominacão de origem controlada

Touriga-Nacional (32%), -Tinta–Roriz (45%) – Jaen (23%)

My family has been making wine for four generations.  Thanks to their passion and to the sense of responsibility they engendered, I inherited a love of Dão wines and became a winemaker. I selected our very best traditional grape varieties for this wine: Touriga-Nacional from our Estate chosen for its ripe floral character and Tinta–Roriz and Jaen for their fruit and spice.  This wine has a wonderful natural freshness, with floral highlights and a succulent ripe fruit palate. Elegant tannins make this wine very easy to drink and help to provide a long, fruity finish to the wine.
Here are the WSJ ratings from individuals who have tried the 2010 Giesta Dão:

Ratings-Only Reviews for Giesta Dão 2010

Based on the average of (6) ratings-only reviews

Overall Rating: 

4.2 out of 5

4.2 out of 5

Would recommend? Yes 4 out of 6

Enjoyment: 

4.3 out of 5

4.3 out of 5

Value: 

4.3 out of 5

4.3 out of 5

Buy Again: 

4 out of 5

4 out of 5

The wine was deeply purple and fruity with velvety delicate tannins like a good pinot noir.
After eating our lovely appetizer we returned to the kitchen and steamed the asparagus until they were tender, about 7 or 8 minutes, then turned off the heat and let them sit on the stove.

I fetched the bottle of calvados and Suzette placed the pan on two burners with medium heat, added the brandy and another ¾ Tbsp. of butter and cooked the onions and apple mixture until it reduced by half, about 2 to 3 minutes, then added ½ cup of chicken stock and reduced the sauce until it thickened slightly, about 4 to 5 minutes.  I sliced the tenderloin. It was still too red for Suzette and she suggested placing slices of it into the sauce on the stove to cook and flavor the edges of the pork, which we did and then we plated it with the asparagus. 
Voila.  What a meal!  Bites of tender pork with pieces of flavorful onions and apples with sips of the light fruity wine were fabulous.

Bon Appétit

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