Hiding from Sandy, and a Recipe: Autumn Roast Pork Medallions with Asparagus and Butter Apples

As you all have probably heard, there kind of was, like, a hurricane or something here in New York.

I'm being absolutely facetious. Sandy was one of the most devastating natural disasters New York City - and the surrounding areas - have witnessed in a century. One of my close friends X and his girlfriend lost their apartment in Red Hook when it flooded from floor to ceiling. They got out okay, and they've already found a new place to stay, but they still lost everything they owned. Here's a website they've set up accepting donations if you're interested in checking it out and possibly donating: http://www.giveforward.com/EricaXavier Anything helps, honestly.

On top of it all, NYC just got hit by a HUGE Nor'Easter yesterday, and there is currently anywhere from 3 to 6 inches of snow on the ground. I can't imagine how the disaster areas are coping with this, and I feel undeservingly lucky to have circumvented it all. That having been said, I escaped to Elmira in mid/upstate New York at the invitation of a good friend of mine, Karianna.

Everyone? Meet Karianna. Karianna? If you're reading this, just know that I love you. Yeah, I said it.

My college, which is located on Staten Island, issued a mandatory evacuation order the weekend before Sandy was scheduled to hit. Students who could leave campus were strongly recommended to leave, those who could not were evacuated to the gymnasium for a massive sleepover in the gymnasium. Needless to say, I took Karianna up on her offer and we hauled ass off of this godforsaken island at noon on Sunday.

Upon arrival, I was immediately set up on a cot in the study, where a full top-to-bottom cleaning was immediately mandated to clear the room of animal remnants. Oh yes, by the way, I am quite allergic to animal fur, and Karianna's house is home to three cats and one very, very, very large dog. The cleaning was a nice effort, but only did so much good. Over the course of the next week I popped Zertec as if my life depended upon it. Oh wait, it did. I didn't let the allergies deter me, however. Karianna's house boasts one of the loveliest kitchens I had ever set foot in, and I was determined to take as much advantage as I could of the opportunity.

First, however, I need to provide you with a little context for the house. It is a gorgeous 2-story Victorian home owned by Karianna's parents, Anna and Eric. The three cats are Barack, Chanel, and Blackie (originally "Chat noir"); the very, very, very large dog is Sir George, a 4 year-old, 150-pound Bernese Mountain Dog. Yeah. I know. Very, very, very large. See the picture below? That couch can very comfortably seat three, quite reasonably seat four, and definitely fit five. George takes up half when he naps. Did I mention he was large?

Over the course of the week when I wasn't busy cooking and scarfing down Zertec (at 24-hour intervals), I was eating, grocery shopping, shopping, taking pictures, and learning the Norwegian ways being imparted upon me by Karianna and her inspiring mother, Anna.

Also, the Saturday after we arrived was the birthday of Karianna's father, and somewhere along the way I had the extreme honor of witnessing, and helping to a certain degree, the building process of a Norwegian birthday bløtkake, and then I had the even greater honor of eating it.

There will be two more blogposts coming after this, both tributes to my stay in the glorious house of Karianna. One will be dedicated to the entire building process of bløtkakes and the other one will be dedicated to the lavish full-spread eating experience of a Norwegian breakfast. Yes, these two things are indeed so glorious that they deserve their own blog post.

Not, however, that anything else I had written was so glorious that it merited anything.

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[Recipe: Autumn Roast Pork Tenderloin with Asparagus and Butter Apples]
Serves 6

Ingredients:

The Pork

• 2 strips of pork tenderloin, about 1 lb. each

• Extra virgin olive oil, to marinate
• 1 cup of light ale

• 4 cloves garlic, finely minced

• 1 sprig green onion, finely diced

• 4 juniper berries
• 2 tsp. oregano
• 2 tsp. thyme
• 1 tsp. nutmeg
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. pepper

The Gravy
• 1/2 lbs. baby portobello mushrooms, sliced
• 1 cup cream

The Apples
• 3 tart apples, skinned and cut into wedges
• 3 Tbsp. of butter
• 4 Tbsp. of sugar
• 1/4 cup cider

The Asparagus
• 1 bunch of asparagus, roughly 25 shoots, woody ends removed then lightly shaven
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Lemon Pepper

Throw the juniper berries and all the herbs and spices into a mortar and grind them down with a pestle until rendered into a fine powder. Pat dry the tenderloin strips and rub in the spice mixture as evenly as you can muster. Once the tenderloins are coated with the dry rub, then rub on the minced garlic and scallions. Drizzle over one good dose of olive oil, give the tenderloins another massage through, then wrap up the meat in saran wrap and throw it in the fridge the marinate for a couple of hours.

Prep the asparagus in this time if you want to be super zelous and ready for later. If you've been following my blog, then at this point you should know how to prep asparagus. If not, then just refer back to any of my other recipes containing asparagus. Sorry, lazy saturday.

When you're ready to work on the meat, remove it from the fridge so it can come to room temperature, about half an hour to an hour.

While the meat is warming up, preheat the oven to 300 degrees and begin sauteing the apples. Melt the butter and then throw in the apples. Once they've started tenderizing a little bit, evenly coat the apples in sugar, and continue turning them until some of the juices start rendering out. This process could take anywhere from half an hour to 50 minutes, depending on your apples. I think. I'm not sure. This is not a scientifically proven fact I'm stating, so don't quote me. I will not be held responsible for this inaccurate knowledge.

When the sugar has all melted, add in the cider and let everything bubble away, stirring constantly, but not too violently, at a low heat. The meat of the fruit will - at some point - get very tender, and you will break it if you're not careful. Remove from heat once you deem them soft enough.

Once the meat is at room temperature, heat up a large oven proof griddle or dutch oven, and pour in a good dose of oil with a high smoke point, like grapeseed or sunflower seed oil. Once the oil is well hot, put the pork in the pan.

Sear the pork on all sides so that the surface is nice and golden brown. Once all the pork is seared, you'll maybe notice that a bit of the meat has burnt and began to cling to the bottom, browning the pot. Solution? Pour 1/2 cup of beer or ale or cider - anything with alcohol really - into the pan, and scrape away the browned bits with a wooden spoon, and let it simmer for a good minute.

Pop it in the oven on the top rack and let it cook for 20 minutes.

If you're cooking the asparagus, as per dictated by this recipe, coat the asparagus well in olive oil, sprinkle over salt and lemon pepper, spread out on a cookie sheet, and pop into the bottom rack and let cook for about 10 minutes.

If you have a meat thermometer, then this would be a really good time to get it out (haha...) because pork, unlike beef, lamb, duck, or even chicken, truly needs to be meticulously cooked. Stick the thermometer in or through the thickest part of the meat, and if it's reached 140 degrees, then remove it from the oven and let it sit for about 15 minutes.

At this point, the asparagus should be done too, so test whether or not they're tender enough by piercing the stalk with a fork. Remove from the oven and set aside for plating later on.

Remember the gravy? I hope you haven't washed out the pan yet. Which pan? Why, the pan in which the pork was seared and then roasted, of course! All that beautiful brown stuff on the bottom is delicious flavor, and not using it would be a waste.

Throw in the baby bella mushrooms and saute them in the good delicious leftover beer, juices, and spices. Once the mushrooms are soft enough, pour in the cream and stir everything around until the color has become a nice light, creamy, wooden brown. Pour into a gravy boat, if in possession of one, or a bowl for serving.

Once you've gotten to this point, then the pork is probably done resting, so slice into half-inch rounds - straight down or at an angle, your call - and plate, and serve!

Happy eating.