A Snowy Day in the Kitchen

Okay, it wasn't snowing in the kitchen, but it was snowy outside. Get it? Okay, good. Anyway, I wanted to try to recreate the pork loin dish that I had at the Scottish Rite this week. Realizing that I would not be able to "Go directly to Go, collect $200", I opted to travel the scenic route to recreating this recipe.

All right, Uncle. I admit it. It is very pretty outside today. Even if I am somewhat less than enthusiastic about the white stuff.

I love this barn. And I really hate the idea that this lovely barn might one day be torn down.

One of the wonderful things about snow is its ability to turn anything into a thing of beauty.

Looks like some wiseacre got to my daughter's car. Who did this?
*The blogger whistles innocently*

Now, back to the recipe. I first had to make a demi-glace:

I found this recipe to start off with.

Here I have Port wine, canola oil, homemade beef consomme, green onion, shallot, unsalted butter, bay leaf and kosher salt.

I grated some shallot and minced the green onion (to replace the leeks from the recipe) and sauteed them in the canola oil.

The port wine was added to the pan and this mixture reduced, and reduced, and reduced.

Okay, I'm bored. Let's round up the ingredients for the second part of this Frankensteinian recipe.

Assembled are ground black pepper (yes, I do keep this on hand for certain recipes), ground cinnamon, ground allspice, balsamic vinegar, homemade turkey consomme, kosher salt and garlic.

Ooh, the port sauce is finally doing something. When the sauce coats the back of a spoon, it is ready. You can check this by drawing a line across the spoon. If the line remains, the sauce is at the nappe stage.

The beef consomme is added at this point, and we can go back to sleep, er...

The sauce reduces down to 1/2 to 2/3 cups.

Now, this is a good reason to start with unsalted or very lightly salted stocks, as the salt would just become very concentrated at this point.

The reduction is strained.

And now the butter is whisked in to the sauce.

Carefully...

Until the sauce takes on a velvety, glossy sheen. Now, wasn't this worth all the trouble? (And yes, I do go into the kitchen and start cooking when I am bored. Wanna make something of it?)

But, wait... We're not finished yet.

The spices are ready for the pork. I decided to substitute garlic powder for the garlic clove, since there were so many other things going on with the meat and the sauce.

And back to the demi-glace. This is rich and thick and delicious.

Now, if I had really been thinking ahead, I would have combined steps and recipes and added the turkey consomme and the balsamic vinegar to the beef consomme before whisking in the butter. But I wasn't, so I didn't. Oh well, and yet, somehow life goes on.

Well, what do you know? The universe didn't implode and life as we know it didn't cease to exist.

And now we have the test meat for this food experiment. I decided that boneless pork loin would sub nicely for the pork tenderloin.

The spice mixture has been rubbed on the meat. And don't look at me that way. I'm talking about cooking here.

The pork loin chops are first seared in a hot pan.

Before the cold port demi-glace is added to the pan. This then went into a 350 degree oven until the internal temperature reached 140 degrees.

This looks good.

Pass the knife and fork, please.

The dear daughter made her famous mac and cheese to compliment the pork chops.

Well, I'm getting there, albeit by the scenic route. Just give me some time. Oh, and can you pass me some seconds while you are at it?