I’m amazed at what butchers can do, both good and bad. Years ago I’d be sent three miles down the road to what amounted to a convenience store and there would be an entire deer lying on the table waiting to be broken down. Hopefully the hunter field-dressed it, and had a license and was in season.
A lot of cooking ideas are going on right now. My husband usually “mans” the grill and was inaugurating a new grill brush that does not leave metal shards in our food.
Pork tenderloins looked good so I got two. I also asked the beer/wine guy about a hard apple or pear cider. I arrived home with one bottle of local French-style apple cider. From the cupboard came a 2 qt. Pyrex cooker with lid. I salted and peppered the pork, arranged it, added fresh sage and rosemary and a bit of dried thyme then submerged it in the cider for a couple of hours on the counter, turning it once.
It was then patted dry, coated it with olive oil, a bit more seasoning and my husband placed it on his clean grill.
Now is the fun part. I bought a nest of Saturn (flat, funky) peaches yesterday, rinsed two of them and took them off the stone, skin went into the “recipe.” Into the food processor with 1/4 medium red onion and a couple tbsp. amber honey. Salt and pepper. Then I tasted it and finished with enough sriracha to give it a bit of heat. Perhaps some ancho chili powder at first but that wasn’t enough. Buzz it up and it was not a glaze, it was a sauce. It looks kind of like applesauce but thinner, which is also great with pork. Marinated in apple, finished with peach. Dad never liked fruit with meat. We do. If our butchers read this, I just made up this recipe yesterday, on the fly. I’m sure they can enhance it.
Dinner was served with a simple potato salad and a green salad. I’ve enough pork left over for lunch, and give a couple of slices to my butchers. Sauce will need to be made for them, but if they give me good protein, I can do great things with it. What better way to thank a provider than to provide, to bring cooked food into the grocery store to thank those who provided the inspiration. Dee
ps I forgot to thank the new grill brush for its inaugural efforts on our behalf. Bobby Flay would be proud.
Cooking with Dee 