Tuesday, July 7, 2015

new recipe, improved by being left-over!

My husband had to wait a little while before he got to sit in the barber-chair, when he got his last haircut.  The ladies who do the cutting had Rachael Ray on the boob-tube -- i'm not sure if J has ever seen her before, but that day she was making something that sounded really good to him, so when he got home he did some googling....

He pulled up the pork recipe she had been doing on the show, and another one that sounded good to him;  he discussed the recipes with me, and we decided the second one should be on our week's menu.  We were so right!  It was delicious, and I just finished the leftovers for lunch ... and they were even better today than they were last week!

We made some small changes in the base-recipe, so that I feel entitled to print this as our own ... so here I present:

"DECARBÉE" STUFFED PORK LOIN

Stuffing:
2 T. dried currants, soaked in hot water and drained
1 T. each olive oil and butter
2 cloves garlic, crushed or minced
1/2 c. chopped onion
1/2# ground pork
1 t. fennel seed
1/4 c. dry white wine
3 T. pine nuts, lightly toasted
1 t. thyme (more if fresh)

1# pork tenderloin
~8 slices prosciutto

Heat the oil and butter, and add the onion;  sauté till a bit softened, and stir in the garlic.  Crumble in the ground pork and cook till pink goes, then add salt and pepper to taste.  Add the rest of the ingredients, stir-fry together a bit, and set aside.

Put your tenderloin on a good-sized cutting board, butterfly it, and pound it to a uniform thickness of about 1/4".  Leaving a one-inch border on both short- and one long-side, spread the stuffing on the sheet of meat.  Roll up like a jelly-roll;  lay out your slices of prosciutto, overlapping generously, and place the meat-roll on it, seam-side down.  Roll up again, and tie with string.

Place your meat-roll on a rack in a roasting pan, and bake for ABOUT 40-45 minutes at 400F. 

J tested at 30 minutes and it seemed to have quite a way to go, so he put it back in the oven for 20 minutes and it was a little too done.  The original recipe calls for an internal temperature of 145F, and his ended up at 165 -- it was a little bit drier than it should have been but still delicious.

And it was even more delicious after resting a couple of days in the fridge!  It occurred to me that this would be an outstanding cocktail-party offering, made up in a roll half the diameter of our dinner-size roast, and sliced into bite-sized pieces.  Drizzle it with a tiny bit of low-carb sweet-sour sauce, or better yet a little pomegranate molasses, and I have no doubt that your guests will leave you with NO leftovers to enjoy for lunch the next day.

6 comments:

  1. Tess ... this sounds extremely tasty, and great food.
    I also love the term "DECARBÉE"

    All the best Jan

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    1. :-D thank you, Jan! I hope my coined word isn't giving any language-purists heart attacks....

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  2. Great job, Tess! De-carbing is the way to go. I remember how watching a video with Martha Stuart making different cheese cakes inspired me to merge her ricotta cheese cake and a traditional Spanakopita (Greek Spinach Pie).

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    1. thank you, Galina! :-) ooh, ricotta spanakopita ... sounds great!

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    2. it is the recipe which was published by Franziska

      Here is my Spinach Cheese Cake:I used 6 eggs, 1 lb of ricotta cheese, 1/2 lb of a feta cheese, one pack of a frozen chopped spinach, 6 bacon strips, 3 medium onions, some salt according to taste (approximately one tea spoon).
      Put ricotta cheese in a big bowl, add 5 eggs, shred there a pack of feta cheese, mix with a stick mixer till smooth. Check if it is enough salt for your taste.
      Fry 3 -6 strips of bacon, remove from the skillet when golden brown, add fat to the skillet if necessary, put on the skillet thinly sliced onion, add salt, cook it until light brown or at least completely soft. Thinly cut previously fried bacon, add it to the cooked onion, add spinach (defrost, then remove as much moisture by squeezing in portions as dry you can), one raw egg, salt, 6 Tbs of the cheese mix, then take 2 Tbs of the spinach mix, add to it the cheese mix.
      Take a 8" springform, cut a round piece of parchment to fit the bottom, cut another one as long as the circumference on the form and as wide as the form is tall(2"). Slightly oil the form, place parchment pieces to cover the form inside.
      Pour half of cheese mix into the form
      Spread spinach mix over something flat and the same diameter as the springform, like a flat pot lid, turn quickly over the cheese mix which is in a spring form and shake slightly in order to drop the spinach layer over the cheese, add the rest of cheese.
      Preheat oven to the 375 F, bake one hour or until golden brown. It looks beautiful, tastes even better next day.

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    3. Yes, indeed it DOES sound good! Next time I have a gathering I think i'll make a batch -- thanks! :-D

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