Fig & Blue Cheese Stuffed Pork Tenderloin
Prepping the tenderloin for stuffing.
Kelly making use of her AllClad...in the best possible way.
Travis, the little King (or Superman)of the Hill!!
Wednesday, the 21st (Feb), found us back up the hill in Weimar with Brent, Kelly and Travis - it was good to be back up there with them. I so miss our Saturday afternoons together on their back patio, trying new wines and cheeses or in our kitchen trying new dishes and luring Brent to taste by not telling him what they were till he'd had a bite!
Kelly and I cooked together more this visit than we ever had and what fun. I wish she and Tracie lived closer, the three of us could really tear up a kitchen and produce some damn good food!
Our dinner started out with an appy of sourdough rounds and "scraping of the Raclette" cheese. It is a little strong in the odor dept., especially when cold, but it gets so nice and mellow when warming up. I don't think Brent even tried this one, since he smelled it before he saw it. The rest of us enjoyed it.
We'd planned on having the Raspberry Cream Cheese Jalapenos, but I neglected to read the recipe thru and missed the part that the jalapenos needed time in the freezer (1-2 hours...), so we decided to just add them to dinner - turned out we were able to have them separately as an appy anyway - we were too busy trying wines to hurry dinner. This is a keeper recipe - (thinking this will be right up Sharon & Bob's alley - on Friday or Saturday)
Raspberry Cream Cheese Jalapenos
Jalapeno peppers -- seeded and split lengthwise
8 oz cream cheese -- softened
1/2 c raspberry preserves (we used a mixture of Huckleberry and ??)
2 eggs -- beaten
3/4 ts salt -- divided
1 t vegetable oil
1 c self-rising flour
1 c cornflakes -- crushed
oil for frying
powdered sugar for garnish
1.Bring a medium saucepan of water to boil. Place jalapeno peppers in the water 10 to 15 minutes, until just tender. Drain and cool.
2.Blot interiors of the jalapeno peppers dry with a paper towel.
3.Combine cream cheese and raspberry preserves together; mix until smooth. Fill each jalapeno pepper with some of the cream cheese mixture, but do not overstuff.
4.In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, 1/4 tsp salt and vegetable oil. In another small bowl, mix remaining salt, and flour. Place crushed cornflakes in a third small bowl.
5.One at a time, dip the stuffed peppers into the egg mixture, the flour mixture, the egg mixture again, and finally the cornflakes crumbs. Place coated peppers in a medium dish. Freeze for 1-2 hours.
6.Heat oil in a large, deep skillet over medium high heat (can also use a deep fryer). Fry the frozen peppers 3-4 minutes each, until golden brown. Drain on paper towels and sprinkle with powered sugar. Serve warm.
Jalapeno peppers -- seeded and split lengthwise
8 oz cream cheese -- softened
1/2 c raspberry preserves (we used a mixture of Huckleberry and ??)
2 eggs -- beaten
3/4 ts salt -- divided
1 t vegetable oil
1 c self-rising flour
1 c cornflakes -- crushed
oil for frying
powdered sugar for garnish
1.Bring a medium saucepan of water to boil. Place jalapeno peppers in the water 10 to 15 minutes, until just tender. Drain and cool.
2.Blot interiors of the jalapeno peppers dry with a paper towel.
3.Combine cream cheese and raspberry preserves together; mix until smooth. Fill each jalapeno pepper with some of the cream cheese mixture, but do not overstuff.
4.In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, 1/4 tsp salt and vegetable oil. In another small bowl, mix remaining salt, and flour. Place crushed cornflakes in a third small bowl.
5.One at a time, dip the stuffed peppers into the egg mixture, the flour mixture, the egg mixture again, and finally the cornflakes crumbs. Place coated peppers in a medium dish. Freeze for 1-2 hours.
6.Heat oil in a large, deep skillet over medium high heat (can also use a deep fryer). Fry the frozen peppers 3-4 minutes each, until golden brown. Drain on paper towels and sprinkle with powered sugar. Serve warm.
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On to the entree, what a nice dinner this is - Kelly served the tenderloin with garlic mashed potatoes and steamed green beans - delicious.
Fig and Blue Cheese-Stuffed Pork Tenderloin
An apple glaze and sweet dried figs complement the savory blue cheese in this simple yet refined dish. Serve with wild rice and steamed green beans.
1 (1-pound) pork tenderloin, trimmed
1/2 cup dried figs, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Cooking spray
1 tablespoon apple jelly, melted
Preheat oven to 450°.
Slice the pork in half lengthwise, cutting to, but not through, other side.
Open the halves, laying pork flat. Place pork between 2 sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap; pound to 1/2-inch thickness using a meat mallet or small heavy skillet. Sprinkle figs and blue cheese over pork, leaving a 1/2-inch margin around outside edges. Roll up the pork, jelly-roll fashion, starting with long side. Secure at 2-inch intervals with twine. Sprinkle pork with salt and pepper, and place on a foil-lined jelly-roll pan coated with cooking spray.
Bake at 450° for 20 minutes. Brush jelly over the pork. Bake an additional 5 minutes or until a thermometer registers 160° (slightly pink). Let stand for 10 minutes. Discard twine; cut pork into 12 (1-inch-thick) slices.
Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 3 slices)Cooking Light, JANUARY 2007
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Even tho I'm not a big fig fan, I'll certainly make this at home - the flavors are great together!!
For dessert, we had a Cheesecake Sampler - and of course we (almost all of we's...) had to sample all! Great dinner, thank you so much for all the fun Kelly, Brent and Superman!! But, I still miss the hell out of you guys! Best neighbors, friends and kids we could ever have.
And on to one of my oldest bestest friends in the world - Colleenie and Roger's!
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