Catch up

I'm trying to catch up on the great recipes I've been make the past several weeks. As I usually work two nights a week, I'm always looking for one pan meals for their ease in preparation.  One of the recipes I prepared was sweet and sour pork which appeared in an old issue of Southern Living Magazine. I used pork tenderloin for the dish and it worked out perfectly. In addition to the pork you'll need a clove of fresh garlic, small onion, two green peppers, sherry and pineapple slices. 

Another pork dish I recently made was pork chops with sweet and sour cider glaze, which is from the December 2000 issue of Gourmet Magazine. Items that you'll need in addition to the pork chops are apple cider, which is available year round at Delicious Orchards in Colts Neck NJ and mustard seeds. All other ingredients should be pantry basics.  The recipe took about 30 minutes to prepare. Although I didn't try it, I prepared it for my husband and he thoroughly enjoyed it. 

​This past weekend my daughter and her family spent a few days with us. It was my daughter’s birthday, so I decided to make her favorite birthday cake, Gateau de Crepes. This is a cake made of multi layers of crepes with a rich, vanilla pastry cream filling.  The recipe appeared in the New York Times in May 2005 where Amanda Hesser adapted the crepe batter from Joy of Cooking and the pastry cream came from Pierre Herme and Dorie Greenspan’s book Desserts.
 
The cake takes two days to prepare. The crepe batter and the pastry cream need to be prepared ahead of time. The crepe batter is a luscious combination of butter (which is browned and makes it tasty nutty), milk, eggs, flour, sugar and a pinch of salt. The pastry cream requires a vanilla bean, milk, egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch, heavy cream, butter and Kirsch (clear cherry brandy). Don’t skip the vanilla bean, it makes a world a difference in the cream. Although I purchased mine at Wegmans awhile ago, you can purchase whole vanilla beans from the websites of King Arthur Flour or Beanilla. 

The recipe said to cook the meat for 2-3 hours or until tender. I cooked my for for 2-1/2 hours. When I went to turn the roast after an hour,  the meat was starting to look almost done. I wished that I used my meat thermometer to get a reading as braising for as long as I did was too long. When I finally pulled the roast out, most of the liquid had cooked off. I wish now that I used the full amount of wine or add the difference in beef stock. The roast was a bit overcooked, but it was tender and flavorful. The vegetables were delicious and maintained a bit of chew. I have some bordelaise sauce in my freezer that I will defrost and serve over the leftover roast . Overall, a good meal despite the meat being overcooked.

I still have some backstrap in the freezer. Backstrap is the length of loin on the back of a deer. I’ll use my meat thermometer the next time so as to not over cook the venison.