Pork Medallions with Dried Cranberry Sauce

Well, finally! A recipe that's not for chicken!!

I made this for dinner last night. I really like cutting a pork tenderloin into medallions, because it's a better use of a tenderloin for the two of us. While I love pork tenderloin and have several recipes for preparing it, it's more than Matt and I can eat in one meal. This technique solves the problem.

This particular recipe takes a bit of time, primarily to reduce the sauce. It's definitely worth the trouble, and I'll share some quicker medallion recipes in the future. This recipe is easily reduced for half of a tenderloin.

Pork Medallions with Port and Dried Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1 cup water

1 teaspoon vegetable oil

1 pound pork medallions

salt and pepper to taste

2 tablespoons minced shallots

1/2 cup tawny port wine or cooking sherry

1/4 cup distilled white vinegar

1 cup chicken broth

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon cornstarch

1 tablespoon water

Directions

Place cranberries in a small saucepan over medium low heat. Add water and stir together. Bring to a simmer and let simmer for 3 minutes. Drain, reserving both cranberries and cooking liquid. Set aside.

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Season pork medallions with salt and pepper and add to skillet. Sauté on both sides until browned and no longer pink inside, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer to a platter, cover loosely, and keep warm.

In the same skillet, add chopped shallot and cook for 30 seconds. Pour in port and vinegar and bring to a boil, stirring to scrape up any brown bits on the bottom of the skillet. Boil until liquid is reduced by half, 3 to 5 minutes. Add chicken stock, thyme and reserved cranberry liquid; boil all together until reduced by half, 5 to 7 minutes.

In a small bowl dissolve cornstarch in 1 tablespoon water and mix together. Whisk mixture into saucepan and let simmer, stirring, until sauce is slightly thickened and glossy. Stir in reserved cranberries and season with salt and pepper to taste. Spoon sauce over pork and serve.

Chicken with Artichokes

This is rapidly becoming embarrassing. No, we haven't had chicken three nights in a row. I have a stack of recipes to put on the blog, and many of them happen to be chicken. 

This one takes a bit more effort than others, but it's really delicious. The recipe is from my friend, Jeanne Luchtel's, family cookbook. I've made several dishes contributed by Steve Woods, one of the Beyer Family members, and they've all been wonderful. This is another one.


Chicken with Artichokes

Serves 6

 6 chicken breast halves, skinned and boned
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
4 tablespoons butter or margarine, divided
14 ounces artichoke hearts, drained and halved
2 green onions, chopped
2/3 cup water
1/4 cup sherry
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon chicken bouillon granules

1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary

Sprinkle chicken with paprika, salt and pepper.

Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high
heat. Add chicken and cook for 5 minutes on each side or until lightly
browned. Remove chicken and set aside.

Melt remaining butter in same skillet over medium heat. Add artichoke hearts and green onions. Sauté 1 minute.

In a small bowl, stir together water and next 4 ingredients. Add to
artichoke mixture.

Return chicken to skillet. Bring to a boil and cook, stirring constantly,

1 minute.


DONNA'S NOTES: You can probably write these, yourself. I don't use a non-stick skillet, and I don't use medium-high heat. I do use a stainless steel sauté pan over what is "low" heat on my cooktop, and that's always hot enough for me. I don't like our food to cook too fast.

Blueberry Fool

This is one of my favorite hot-weather desserts. A little advance planning makes it easy to throw together, and it's delicious! A "fool" is simply a dessert with fruit and whipped cream.

Blueberry Fool

½ pint fresh blueberries, washed and picked over (8 ounces)

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon sugar or to taste

¾ cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons confectioner's sugar or honey

1 teaspoon vanilla

In a small, nonreactive saucepan, combine blueberries, lemon juice, sugar, and 2 tablespoons of water. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until blueberries begin to break down and juices boil and thicken - about 5 minutes.

Remove from heat and transfer to a small bowl. Place small bowl in a larger bowl of ice water and stir mixture occasionally until cold. Or make this mixture in advance and refrigerate.

In a separate bowl, combine cream, confectioner's sugar (or honey), and vanilla. Beat until stiff peaks form. Fold in 1/3 cup blueberry sauce.

Divide among 4 dessert dishes and spoon remaining sauce over tops.

DONNA'S NOTES: I try to make the sauce well ahead of time and just stick it in the refrigerator to chill. I think ice-water baths are a pain in the neck! I'll fix the blueberries in the morning, when I'm fixing breakfast, and the sauce will be plenty cool by the time I want to serve it.

Chicken with Tarragon Sauce

<sigh> Another recipe for chicken. I do make a lot of chicken dishes, don't I? It's been so hot here lately that I've really concentrated on stove-top cooking, and this one popped up. It's very, very easy, quick, and totally delicious. This serves two, so it's perfect for us! You can easily increase it, if you need to.


Chicken with Tarragon Sauce

3/4 cup Chablis or other dry white wine
1/2 teaspoon dried whole tarragon
2 (4-ounce) boned, skinned chicken breast halves
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/4 cup evaporated skimmed milk


Combine wine and tarragon in a small skillet; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and add chicken; cover and simmer 8 minutes or until chicken is done. Remove chicken from skillet; set aside and keep warm.

Cook wine mixture over medium heat until reduced to 1 tablespoon. Add mustard; stir, using a wire whisk, until well blended. Reduce heat and add milk; cook until thoroughly heated, stirring constantly. Serve sauce over chicken.



DONNA'S NOTES: I usually substitute chicken broth for the wine, with no change in the deliciousness! And, I usually use chicken thighs, either bone-in, skin-on or boneless and skinless. You'll need to adjust your cooking time accordingly. I've successfully substituted half-and-half for the evaporated milk, too; I always have half-and-half, and it's such a small amount.

Pan-Seared Steak with Mushrooms

This was last night's dinner, with steamed broccoli and homemade potato salad. 

This dish has a wonderful flavor, and it's amazingly easy to put together. I used Spencer steak to make it, because we really like that cut. Spencer steaks are generally much smaller than ribeye, which is perfect for the two of us, but they retain the good flavor of ribeye.

This recipe is from Cooking Light magazine.

Pan-Seared Steak with Mushrooms

 Ingredients

   

4 (4-ounce) beef tenderloin steaks, trimmed (1 inch thick)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 garlic clove, minced

1 tablespoon butter

1/2 cup finely chopped shallots

1 pound large button mushrooms, quartered

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 cup dry white wine

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley

Preparation

To prepare steaks, sprinkle beef evenly with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Rub 1 minced garlic clove over both sides of steaks. Melt butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add steaks; cook 3 minutes on each side until browned or until desired degree of doneness. Remove steaks from pan; keep warm.

To prepare mushrooms, add shallots and mushrooms to pan; sauté 4 minutes or until lightly browned. Add 2 garlic cloves; sauté 30 seconds. Add wine, Worcestershire, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and 1/8 teaspoon salt; cook 3 minutes or until liquid is nearly evaporated. Remove pan from heat, and stir in parsley. Serve mushroom mixture with steak.

DONNA'S NOTES: I've used sliced mushrooms for this recipe, as well as quartered, whole mushrooms. I think the slices are a bit easier to work with.

Lamb Chops with Cauliflower and Raisins

Well, I tried posting this from my pdf file, but it didn't work. So, no picture, unless I can figure out another approach.

We love good lamb chops, and I'm always looking for a new way to prepare them. This is delicious and easy.



Lamb Chops with Cauliflower and Raisins

1 tablespoon olive oil
8 small lamb loin chops (about 1 inch thick)
Kosher salt and black pepper
1 head cauliflower, cored and cut into small florets
1/2 cup golden raisins
2 scallions, chopped
1 tablespoon capers, roughly chopped

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season the lamb with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper; cook to the desired doneness: 4 to 5 minutes per side for medium-rare. Transfer to individual plates.

Return the skillet to medium-high heat. Add the cauliflower and cook, tossing frequently, until golden, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the raisins and 1/2 cup water and cook, covered, until the cauliflower is just tender and the water has evaporated - 2 to 3 minutes.

Stir in the scallions and capers. Serve with the lamb.

DONNA'S NOTES: I probably don't have to tell you that I don't cook anything over medium-high heat. On my stove, the cauliflower would be burned to a crisp. Obviously, you can scale this recipe to any number of servings you need.