Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Roast Pork Loin with a Cherry Sauce



Fall is a time for me to roast meats.  A pork loin is a quick and easy way to roast a meat, but the question remains on how to sauce it up.  Many times I make a jus from the pan drippings and bits, but today I am inspired by dried cherries.  The picture above from a Williams-Sonoma recipe shows a cherry-port sauce with roast duck breast, a delicious combination.  But, you can also easily make this for roast pork, an easier and cheaper alternative.  I like to pair roast pork loin with polenta, cutting the pork into medallions and spooning the sauce over both.  Pinot noir is the usual wine pairing, but try to remember to decant in advance of the meal.  Serves 4.

Ingredients:
2 tbsp olive oil
2 pork loins
salt/pepper
2 tbsp herbes de provence
1 shallot, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup port wine
2 cups chicken stock
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup cherries
2 tbsp butter

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450.  Begin cooking the polenta as recommended, which can simmer gently as the pork and sauce is prepared.  Heat the olive oil in a large saute pan over medium heat until smoking.  Meanwhile, season the pork loins with salt and peper and the Herbes de Provence.  Add the loins to the pan and brown on each side, approximately 3-5 minutes per side.  When browned, roast the loins in the oven until a thermometer in the center reads 150 degrees, perhaps 10 minutes.  Remove from the heat to a platter and cover.
Drain the fat from the pan down to 1 tbsp remaining and return to the stove top over medium low heat.  Add the shallot and soften for a few minutes.  Add the garlic and saute for a minute further.  Deglaze the pan with the port, scraping up the bits on the bottom of the pan.  Turn the heat up to medium high to boil down the port by half.  Add the cherries and chicken stock and boil down by half again.  Turn off the heat, add the balsamic vinegar, and swirl in the butter.  Cut the pork loins into 3/4" medallions.  Plate a portion of the polenta first, arrange 1/4 of the medallions on top of the polenta, and spoon the sauce over the pork and polenta.

On rugby, service, and Bloomberg at Bill's Bar & Burger

October 20

Blain Howard played rugby in college.

That explains a lot about Blain, because Americans who play rugby are a little bit weird.

Normal people, mainstream people, play football or baseball or basketball. If they just want some exercise they play soccer or tennis, or they might swim. Hockey's fine in the northern states, Lacrosse is cool if you're a particular breed of white, upper-middle-class future doctor, lawyer or investment banker, or the future spouse of one.

But rugby?

Rugby players have chosen a sport that no one (in the United States) cares about but them, but it requires serious physical conditioning and is an intense, full-contact sport played without the sissy padding of football. Rugby games, I’m told, are played with brutal aggression, followed by pretty much mandatory consumption of alcohol with the other team.

In American Rugby, from what I gather, it’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how much you can drink.

But unlike other niche tribes — the computer geeks, the science fiction nerds, the comic book dorks, Red Sox Nation — rugby players are diverse and have many interests. Sure, they use their bodies as weapons and shields and then drink until they fall down, but then they’re in punk rock bands or lock themselves in their rooms to play with their new computers, or go out and socialize like mainstream people might. I met a rugby player in culinary school, I knew a few in college.

My parents were friends with one who was a special ops military guy in Cambodia in the early 1970s. His wife introduced me to the Maryland crab boil, which is still probably my favorite way to eat anything, ever.

I’ve never met one who was boring or predictable.

Which explains Blain, who used to do mixed martial arts — he's 6'4", slim but solid — and now is a publicist for video games. He thinks he's a nerd because he likes comic books (excuse me, graphic novels) and science fiction and video games. His boss told him he wasn't smart enough to be a geek.

Or maybe he thinks he’s a dork because he’s not smart enough to be a nerd. I forget.

But he’s also friends with the Los Angeles reality TV star set and socializes and dates women and knows how to carry on a conversation at a dinner table.

He’s also smart as a whip, by the way.

And he’s a willing dinner companion, and someone with whom I can have serious discussions about zombie literature (he mentioned Socrates in there at some point — something about mankind's most raw desires and how zombies exemplify them).

Blain and I have broken bread twice in the past week-and-a-half, once at 48 and, last night, at Steve Hanson’s newest restaurant, Bill’s Bar & Burger.

Forty-Eight’s a new lounge on the ground floor of the McGraw Hill Building. That’s 6th Avenue and 48th Street, which is sort of no man's land for nightlife. West of Rockefeller Center, East of Times Square, where tourists fear to tread and locals wouldn’t bother. But many New Yorkers work there, and they could use a place to drink, and 48’s open until 2 a.m. during the week and 4 a.m. on weekends — something to remember if you ever need a nightcap after partying with a bunch of Midtown investment bankers.

Its owners had invited me in to check it out.

We had a terrific waitress — professionally chatty and alert, but she didn’t hover — and then we had all of the owners and management.

Individually, they were lovely, nice people who wanted to make sure we enjoyed ourselves, but as a group it seemed like one of them came by every 45 seconds to ask us something.

“Would you like a drink?”
“I just ordered one."

"Something to eat?”
“Yes, let me take a look at the menu.”

“How’s your drink?”
“I just got it, but it looks great.”

“How's the pizza?”
“I'm in the middle of my first bite right now, but I’ll keep you posted.”

Really, that’s the main theme of this entire blog — isn’t it? — where I eat and how I’m treated differently from the average diner. But it’s usually not quite as intense as that. Usually Blain and I have time to finish our reminiscences about Firefly or to assess the development of the Starbuck character in the last episodes of Battlestar Galactica without being interrupted with questions about how our bourbon is.

So I thought it was just an unusual fluke from overenthusiastic management on a relatively quiet Wednesday night in a lounge in a paradoxically remote part of central Midtown Manhattan.

And then we went to Bill’s Bar & Burger.
Bill's is in a very accessible part of the Meatpacking District and, although it just officially opened last Thursday, has already been the subject of much adulation.

A word about Steve Hanson and the restaurants in his BR Guest group: These are places like Blue Fin and Dos Caminos and Ruby Foo's — places that are good, but you don’t go there for the food (Fiamma, now closed, was an exception). You go because of the service and the drinks and the general vibe of the place. I think it was in one of Steve Hanson’s places that I realized what’s important to most guests in a restaurant. The most important part of a meal is who you eat with, next most important is the Steve Hanson stuff — service, ambience, vibe. Then, as long as the food is good enough, as long as it meets expectations, the customers will have a good time.

That’s not to say that BR Guest food isn’t good — and some of it’s terrific — it’s just not the point of those restaurants. Service and vibe are paramount.

So Blain and I were at a crowded but not packed BR Guest restaurant at 8 p.m. I was there a few minutes earlier and had already decided what I wanted, but the minute Blain sat down we were beset with questions about our drink order, which is, you know, reasonable and even desirable in a restaurant, and Blain, being a grown man and rugby player and thus capable of quickly scanning a beer menu, settled on the Ommegang, and I ordered an IPA.

“Are you ready to order your food?” our server asked.

I suggested that we might take a couple of minutes to do that.

Our server was great, and just like at 48, everyone else was gracious, but we had at least two managers covering for our server, who seemed perfectly capable of doing it himself.

I started to think maybe they just wanted to hang out with Blain, too, or perhaps they wanted to have an intellectual conversation about zombies as well. I mean, who doesn’t?

Or maybe they were particularly attentive because the man, Steve Hanson, was in the restaurant.

I didn’t notice him at first, or maybe he arrived later. But he was pretty low-key. I think I'd only seen him in a sharp business suit before. But he was casual last night, wandering around, fiddling with thermostats and such.

And then Michael Bloomberg walked in.

I’m usually not taken aback when celebrities walk into a restaurant. Well, okay, I’m a little taken aback, but there’s something thrilling and odd about having the mayor of New York come into the burger bar where you’re eating. He and Steve Hanson hugged and sat down to talk, and everyone else, being New Yorkers, went on enjoying their meal.
Although I couldn't help but tweet about it. Nor could this kid.

Blain, being a rugby player, had the good sense to take a picture

The mayor is the gray-haired guy in the window. Steve Hanson's to the left. The people in the foreground are probably perfectly nice people, but not germane to this blog entry.

What we ate and drank:

at 48,
meatballs with honey and pineapple glaze
seared skirt steak skewers with roasted red onion, grilled portobello, romaine lettuce and goat cheese vinaigrette
mini Cuban sandwiches (roasted pork, fontina, cotto ham, pickles, mustard and mayonnaise)
mini grilled cheese sandwiches (fontina and manchego with tomato and roasted tomato mayonnaise on challah)
mini pesto pizza with fresh mozzarella and Roma tomato
Bread pudding with almonds and cranberries
French Forty Eight (Hendrick's Gin, Canton ginger liqueur, lemon juice, sparkling wine, rosewater and strawberries)
St. Zipang (St. Germain elderflower liqueur, sparkling sake and yuzu)
Steve Collins (a sugar-free Tom Collins made with Bombay Sapphire, stevia, lemon juice, lime juice and ginger)
assorted whiskys


At Bill's,
French fries
Disco fries (smothered with gravy and melted cheese)
beer battered onion rings
The Bobcat (Bill's classic burger topped with New Mexico green chile and jack cheese)
The Fat Cat (a hamburger with caramelized onion and American cheese on an English muffin with lettuce, tomato and pickles on the side)
Key Lime Pie
assorted beers
Oreo (a milkshake of vanilla ice cream with Oreos chocolate syrup and a shot of Amaretto)
Peanut Butter Fluff (a milkshake of vanilla ice cream, peanut butter and banana with a shot of Frangelico)

Weight...or height?

Is trying to control our country's height just as plausible as trying to control our country's weight? Maybe so.



Economists estimate that excess weight accounts for 9% of the U.S.'s medical spending. And while there's no similar figure for height, it is clear that both obesity and short stature cause similar economic strain [1].


Whatever the reason as to why, higher weight and lower height are associated with chronic disease, low wages, and poor educational attainment. In the US, the shorter you are the higher risk you're at for developing coronary heart disease, diabetes, and stroke. Women weighing more than 212 pounds at 5'4" tall are paid up to 9% less for their work, for example. According to survey data collected from over 450,000 adults suggests that male college graduates are, on average, more than an inch taller than men who never finished high school [1].

Is the reshaping of America both a war against fatness and shortness? How can one increase stature?

Height is not only genetic, but nurture and nature-related. Exposure to malnutrition, infectious disease, chronic stress, and poverty can abbreviate children's proper growth and height. Promoting foods which are low in calories and high in micronutrients, such as fruits and vegetables, is one feasible option. Increasing and improving education as a means of decreasing poverty and environmental stress is another. And of course, access to quality health care providers to improve prenatal and postnatal care is imperative [1].

This information is simply food for thought...and a topic that peeked my interest. Or maybe we should just throw everyone on growth hormone and run a blow-out sale on bariatric surgery!!

Kidding.

Yesterday checked out like so...

Breakfast:
1 cup steel cut oats, prepared (2 carbs)
1 Tbsp pumpkin butter (1 carb)
1/2 tsp turbinado (0 carbs)
     Total: 3 carbs

Lunch:
1 slice Buffalo Chicken Lasagna (2 1/2 carbs)
1 2% string cheese (0 carbs)
apple (1 carb)

     Total: 3 1/2 carbs

Snack:
6 ounces fat-free yogurt (1 1/2 carbs)

Dinner:
1 serving Chicken Tamale Casserole (2 1/2 carbs)

     Total: 2 1/2 carbs (low)

Snack:
4 peanut butter crackers (1 carb)

10 more days of being a diabetic...I can DO IT!!!!! Though, I am yet to look up the carbohydrate content of the INCREDIBLE pumpkin spice cappuccino I mixed with Dark Roast coffee this morning. It was worth the splurge though, I swear!!



Gina, CandidRD, is having a great give away on her site. Go here for more information!

[1]. Engber, Daniel. The Fat and Short of It. The New York Times. October 15, 2009.

Let them eat... crêpes! ♥

Hi everyone! How was your monday! Mine was really good!

Yesterday was a busy day. Early in the morning I went to the airport to pick up a suitcase that my mother's boyfriend, who is working near Barcelona, get from Algeciras to me.

Then I ran home to get ready, as it had been for lunch with Vanessa, and what is my surprise that when I got to Plaza Catalunya she was with Yayra, what a delusion!

We had lunch at Quicks, a fantastic burger, and then we had coffee ... and to my surprise, Vanessa brought me some gifts! A card game The Macmillan Alice ~ Putumayo; from Japan! And the album and EP from her boyfriend's group, The Last 3 Lines ... are fantastic!





Then I was with a fantastic cafeteria Laia specializing in crêpes, we are looking for a venue for the Tea Party Baby the Stars Shine Bright, and it seems a great place to do it ... well, everything was great!


 
 



Laia eating a gorgeous crêpe!

 Then we were looking at clothes in Blanco, Topshop and vintage shops in the center of Barcelona ... I found a pair of interesting things in a mod shop... they've got Ben Shermans' shirts, great! And there were lovely vintage skirts in other shop... I must investigate that street!

And slightly more for a Monday!

Ant today, Tuesday, I've got a Birthday party... I'll tell you about it tomorrow!

Thanks for reading! I hope you pass a great Tuesday!

PS: My outfit for today!


Cutsaw - Trakabarraka
Skirt - H&M
Tights - Calzedonia
Socks - Oysho
Boots - Offbrand (almost vintage)
Beret - Primark
Brooche - Vintage