Archive | September, 2011

Red Wine Glazed Pork Loin with Roasted Brussels Sprouts

12 Sep

It’s almost that time of year. You know what I’m talking about.

Fall.

Oh, and crock-pot season.

I have to admit that I’m not crock-pot crazy like some other people I know. I’d much prefer to slow cook something in the oven for 8 hours in a beautiful Le Creuset dutch oven, but let’s be honest — that’s not practical. At all. And for the times where you just don’t have time, the crock-pot is a pretty good stand-in.

I tend to use my crock-pot much more in the fall than any other season. Probably because I spend most of my Sunday’s outside watching my crazy husband do this.

Cyclocross. And yes, it’s as ridiculous as it looks. But as someone who tried it last year, trust me — it’s freakin’ hard. My efforts are much better spent heckling from the sidelines. (If you’re feeling extra ambitious in your video watching, you can see my hubs do a header into a sandpit at the 7:18 mark — makes me laugh every time.)

Anyway, back to this recipe. What impressed me the most was that the pork loin stayed sliceable (aka, didn’t completely fall apart like most other meats that are cooked in a crock-pot) and was very moist. A great Sunday dinner — especially after a day of cyclocross.

Red Wine Glazed Pork Loin

Slightly adapted from C+C Marriage Factory

What you need:

For the pork:

  • 1 2-pound boneless pork loin
  • 1 teaspoon ground sage
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon pepper
  • 1 clove garlic, crushed
  • 1/2 cup water
For the glaze:
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch
  • 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
  • 1/2 cup red wine
  • 2 tablespoons soy sauce

How you do it:

  1. Combine sage, salt, pepper and garlic. Rub over roast. Place in slow cooker with 1/2 cup water. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.
  2. About an hour before roast is done, combine ingredients for glaze in small sauce pan. Heat and stir until mixture thickens. Brush roast with glaze a few times during the last hour of cooking. Slice the pork and serve with the remaining glaze drizzled over the pork.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

What you need:

  • 8 ounces of Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • Salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste

How you do it:

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Toss Brussels sprouts with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast on a baking sheet until tender and lightly browned, approximately 15 to 18 minutes depending on the size of your Brussels sprouts.

Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Lamb and Mint

9 Sep

I eat a lot of pasta. Probably more than I’d like to admit. But in my defense, on nights where I don’t get home until 8:30 (which happens more often than not), it’s an understandable go-to — the easiest and quickest option after a 12-hour work day when I’m starving and have little patience for anything else. Let’s just say I’m thankful for whole wheat pasta — it makes me feel a smidge less guilty about all my late night pasta binges.

Unfortunately, I also tend to get bored pretty quickly, which means I’m always looking for ways to mix up my pasta recipes. So when I saw this recipe on Leek Soup (who, by the way, has a beautiful blog — you should check it out), I immediately bookmarked it. The Moroccan flavor combinations really appealed to me, especially the lamb and olives. Better yet, it’s incredibly easy to make and packs some serious, serious flavor. An absolute treat after a long night at work…or any other night.

It’s definitely one of my new favorites.

Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Lamb and Mint

From Leek Soup

What you need:

  • Olive oil
  • 1 shallot, thinly sliced
  • 3 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 2 leeks, washed, halved lengthwise and sliced, white and tender green parts
  • 1 pound ground lamb
  • 1 tablespoon ground cumin
  • 1 can chopped tomatoes, drained
  • 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 2 teaspoons sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground
  • 1 pound whole-wheat spaghetti
  • 1/2 cup chopped fresh mint
  • 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
  • A handful of oil cured black olives
How you do it:
  1. In a large pan or skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add shallot and leeks and cook until softened. Add garlic and cook for a minute, stirring to prevent burning.
  2. Add the lamb and cumin and cook until the meat is no longer pink.
  3. Add the diced tomatoes, tomato paste, salt and pepper. Stir to combine, then cover and simmer for about 15 minutes.
  4. Meanwhile, cook pasta in boiling salted water until just al dente.
  5. Using tongs, carefully fold cooked spaghetti one batch at a time into the skillet with the sauce, making sure each batch is well coated before adding the next.
  6. Serve topped with chopped mint, feta and olives.

Foodie Around Town: NEXT Thai and the Aviary

5 Sep

Every now and then, if you’re lucky enough, you’ll enjoy a meal so memorable, so unexpected, and so amazing that it becomes much more than just food. It becomes an experience. Something that sticks with you for a long, long time.

And that’s just what NEXT is.

If there’s anyone out there who still hasn’t heard of NEXT, it’s a revolutionary concept restaurant from world-renowned chef Grant Achatz (Alinea) with a rotating set menu. The only way to get a table is to get tickets — not reservations — and they’re not easy to come by. The entire batch of tables is made available at once (per menu) via an online scheduling site, and it’s first come, first serve. Undoubtedly the hottest ticket in town, NEXT themselves reported that for the Thai menu, over 16,000 people tried to reserve 2,000 tables. And as anyone who feverishly clicked their way through multiple server crashes, site freezes, and virtual tables being  reserved out from under them knows, the process is far from easy. But way more than worth it.

NEXT is a fine dining experience without the stuffy pretension. Thai newspaper covers the tables, the servers deliver sarcasm with a level of flair that’s practically textbook, and it’s clear that everyone’s excited about what they’ve managed to create — food that’s authentic, fun and exciting.

My favorite dishes of the night were the hot and sour pork belly soup (pictured two above) and the beef cheek curry (pictured one below). I also loved the fermented sausage that came as part of the first course, as well as the salted duck egg salad and dried anchovy tamarind that came as condiments (yes, condiments) for the rice course. As far as the drinks go, it was nice to see local favorite Half Acre represented with a special hibiscus beer called Horizon that was brewed specifically for the NEXT Thai menu, but I especially enjoyed the Italian dessert wine, which we were told wasn’t usually part of the menu.

Come to find out, Alison happened to know NEXT’s General Manager, who so kindly offered to give us a tour of the kitchen where we met Executive Chef Dave Beran. As you’d expect, the kitchen is beautiful and everyone moves with the precision of a perfectly timed ballet. It’s amazing to watch.

And you can’t go to NEXT without a trip to Aviary, the innovative cocktail lounge next door. Also concepted by Achatz, the cocktails are made with the same attention to detail as the food. The whole set-up could best be described as a cocktail kitchen with a staff of about eight cocktail chefs (in chef’s whites) creating the drinks. My favorite was the Manhattan, where the whiskey was contained in a large sphere of ice, only to be released by cracking it open via a metal washer attached to a rubber band that’s mounted to the glass.

NEXT not only changes the way you think about food, but makes you second guess what’s culinarily possible. As any food-lover knows, there’s a sort of euphoria that comes from eating a meal that’s so good, it changes the course for any meal that comes after it.

I have a feeling I’ll be riding the NEXT wave for a long time. I can’t wait to see what the future holds.

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