Thursday, February 14, 2008

Let's Try Something Different

Feeling as though I had gotten into a rut lately, I searched for a way to revamp an old favorite for dinner tonight. I started off by making a bourbon marinade for the pork tenderloin I had planned to serve.



The ingredients for the Bourbon Marinade. Since it is the middle of winter, I substituted 1/2 teaspoon of Herbes De Provence (the no gerbils mix) for the fresh herbs. Also, Kessler's (tm) is an American whisky rather than a bourbon. True bourbon can only come from a certain area of Kentucky and must meet certain legal requirements in order to be called bourbon.


BOURBON MARINADE

Again, I have adapted a recipe from Paula Deen. This is my version of a bourbon marinade. As usual, I tweaked the ingredients and the amounts to come up with something that I liked. If using dried herbs, use only half as much of each herb. This marinade works especially well with beef.

½ cup bourbon
½ cup brown sugar
1/3 cup soy sauce
¼ cup lemon juice
1 ½ tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tbs. Olive oil
½ cup water
½ tsp. Fresh thyme, chopped
½ tsp. Fresh Italian parsley, chopped

Mix all ingredients and pour into a zipper top bag. Place the bag in a dish before adding the meat. Push as much of the air out of the bag as possible and seal the bag. Place the container in the refrigerator and turn every hour or two to ensure that all the meat has been properly covered in the marinade. Marinade for 4 hours or even overnight. If roasting in the oven, pour the marinade over the meat and bake. If grilling, discard the remaining marinade.



The marinade is ready to be poured over the pork loin. Notice that I have put the zip-top bag in a container to ward off any potential refrigerator accidents.





And now we have an action shot of the marinade going into the bag. Do you have ANY idea of how hard this is to do by oneself?


Now, don't be a Sandra Lee by not 'burping' the bag. Burp the bag! The marinade must be in contact with the meat. This can only happen if the excess air is expelled from the bag. This must then go into the refrigerator for a few hours.


In order to make the marinade safe for consumption, I boil it for a few minutes. Do not skip this step, if you care for those who will eat your food, or if you don't want to be sued for food poisoning.


Okay, I forgot to photograph the finished pork loin. I had started it on the stove, and then moved it to the oven to finish. The pork loin came out of the oven when the internal temperature reached 140 degrees. I covered it with aluminum foil for 10 minutes before slicing and serving.


Also, I do not want to condemn my husband and daughter to my low-carb diet (can you hear the cheers of relief?), so I roasted a couple of russet potatoes, with onions for me. I also made my 'patented' Green and Gold Salad as an accompaniment. Oops, sorry, no pictures for this dish. You'll have to trust me: this is easy and good.

GREEN AND GOLD SALAD

This is a favorite recipe for Gary and Kelley. Kelley likes her peas uncooked anyway, and with the additional ingredients, she is in heaven. Frozen peas have been blanched during the processing, so there is no problem with not cooking them first. Oddly, people either love this recipe or hate it. This salad does not hold up well to storage, so the dressing needs to be added to the other ingredients just before serving.

1 pkg. (10 oz.) frozen green peas

1/2 c. shredded natural cheddar cheese
2 tbs. chopped onion

2 tbs. mayonnaise or salad dressing
1 1/2 tsp. prepared mustard

1/4 tsp. salt
crisp salad greens

Optional: fresh mint, finely chopped

Rinse peas with small amount of running cold water to separate the peas and to remove ice crystals; drain. Mix all ingredients except salad greens. Serve salad on greens.

Makes 4 or 5 servings. Marilyn’s note: don’t mix rest of ingredients with peas and cheese until just before serving.


Oh, and by the way? Happy Valentines Day to you and yours.

2 comments:

CarolynA said...

Wh00t. Happy Valentines Day to you too, orchidgal. That pork loin looks tasty.

Kessler's! A forgotten memory from grad school.

Rosie Hawthorne said...

"And now we have an action shot of the marinade going into the bag. Do you have ANY idea of how hard this is to do by oneself?"

YES!