Maple Pork Medallions

Simple, quick and easy - those are our kind of meals and this is our kind of recipe. Simple enough to cook on a week night, but special enough to serve friends and family. With only six ingredients and a cooking time of less than 15 minute and a prep time under 10 this recipe is tough to beat. 

Maple Pork Medallions

 adapted from Cooks Illustrated

2lbs pork tenderloin cut into 1 ½” rounds

12-14 slices of bacon cooked for approximately 5 minutes (fat removed but neither brown nor crisp)

2 tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion chopped

1 cup apple cider (or chicken broth or water)

1/3 cup maple syrup

3 tbsp cider vinegar

3 tbsp maple mustard

Wrap a slice of bacon around the pork and fasten with a  toothpick. Place the oil in pan on medium high heat. Add pork cut side down. Cook for 3-5 minutes, making sure top not move the pork while it is cooking. Flip pork and cook for another 3 to 5 minutes. Finally, place pork on edge turning as necessary to cook the bacon. Total cooking time should be between 8 and 15 minutes for the meat. Place pork pieces on plate and cover with tin foil. 

While the pork is resting, remove most of the any excess oil/grease from  the pan.Decrease pan temperature to medium and add onions. Cook onions for 3-5 minutes until softened and browned.

Add the liquid to the pan and deglaze. Making sure to loosen cooked on pieces. Cook the liquid until it  is reduced by half  to two-thirds, or about 5 minutes. Then, add maple syrup, vinegar, mustard and any juices from resting meat. Cook until the sauce is thick, an additional 3 -5 minutes (there will be about a cup of sauce). If the sauce gets thicker than desired add slightly more liquid.

Place meat on plate, drizzle sauce over each medallion, and serve

Rustic Quiche with Maple Apple Chicken Sausage

For more than a year now we've been a part of a wonderful CSA. They provide us with great vegetables and local products year round. We don't grow much wheat for flour in Vermont, but we do grow some other grains and as a result we've a pantry full of mixed grains, oats, barley, etc from the CSA. Figuring out what to do with them has been a challenge. They aren't really foods we've cooked much.

So, over the weekend when I was wondering what to make...feeling like we had a house full of food and nothing to cook...I decide to venture out and make what I'll call a "rustic quiche." - mixed grains, whole wheat flour and a little maple sugar to sweeten the crust, leftovers from the fridge for a filling  (maple apple chicken sausage, broccoli, potatoes from breakfast and a few onions), topping it all off some good Vermont cheddar cheese. The results were, well, the kind of meal that makes you feel good, full and warm.

Multi-grain Crust
Mixed Grains
Water
Whole Wheat Flour
Maple Sugar


Cook the mixed grains on simmer. One part grains to two parts water. Cook until the grains are soft and the liquid has mostly evaporated or been absorbed. You'll need to stir occasionally to prevent the grains from sticking and burning to the bottom of the pan. Remove from heat and add flour. I'd say about equal parts mixed grain and flour, but start slowly it may not actually be that much - continue to add flour and mix until the mixture holds a shape. Add maple sugar (I used about 1/4 cup - translates probably to roughly a quarter part). Place the mixture into a pie or desired baking dish and press until evenly distributed along the bottom and sides - about a half inch thick.

The Filling
The filling could really be anything you desire. I imagine ham and leek would be wonderful or bacon, swiss chard, and onion.The opportunities are endless. 
Eggs
Milk
Broccoli
Chicken Sausage
Potatoes
Cheddar Cheese
For this particular version it was chicken sausage, potatoes and broccoli. I mixed 8 eggs with about a cup of milk (remember I really just cook and don't measure much - so go by what feels right). Seasoned the mixture with salt and pepper and set aside.


Sliced two links of maple apple chicken sausage and lined the bottom of the crust with these. I then add some frozen broccoli. Again maybe a cup. I then poured the egg mixture over the the broccoli and sausage. I then added the pre-cooked potatoes. Distributing them evenly over the top. Finally, I topped it all with a generous amount of cheddar cheese.

The quiche cooked in 375 degrees. I pulled it out when the crust was golden and the eggs had set about 40 minutes. Served with a small side salad and a glass of red wine.

Autumn Harvest Stew

Autumn harvest stew is rich and sweet with the flavors of fall - apple, maple, cranberries and root vegetables. It's a wonderful meal for a cold and rainy day, which we've had a lot of here. It's perfect for simmering on the stove, in fact, it's adapted for doing just that.

My mother is an avid wood stove cook - cooking nearly every meal from September to June on the wood cook stove. She always has something simmering or baking, and who wouldn't with the stove running day and night. She carefully manages the fire - selecting the right type of wood (maple wood burns hot and long, birch quick and fast, ash and apple somewhere in between), positioning the stoves damper just so to further manage the fire (with damper wide open she gets the fire 'cranking", with it closed down she can hold the heat steady). Failure to pay care with the wood cook stove usually results in an under cooked dinner or burned dessert.

As a result, my mother has perfected several recipes as wood stove fail-safes - recipes that simmer for long periods of time with rich aromas, but need relatively little attention and are forgiving when it comes to cooking temperatures. Autumn Harvest Stew is one of those recipes.

Autumn Harvest Stew
Adapted From Rachael Ray
2.5lbs Pork Roast or Tenderloin cut into 1-2 in. cubes
1/2 Cup Whole Wheat or White Flour
1/4 Cup Olive Oil
3 Small Onions cut into quarters
3 Leeks sliced
1 Bulb of Kohlrabi cut into 1" pieces
5 Potatoes cut into 1" pieces
2 Bay Leaves
1 Tsp Allspice
2-4 Springs of Thyme
3 Tbsp Maple Sugar or 1/4 Cup Grade B Pure Maple Syrup
2 Cups Apple Cider
3 Cups Chicken Broth
1 Cup Fresh Cranberries or 
1/2 Cup Dried Cranberries 
4 Unpeeled Apples cut into 1-2" chunks

Heat a heavy bottomed pan on high heat with the olive oil (1/2 the olive oil). Place the cut pieces of pork in a resealable plastic bag (1 gallon zippered works well) along with 1/2 cup of flour. Shake bag until pork is evenly coated. Once the pan is hot add a third to half of the pork  and brown on all sides. It will take 5 to 8 minutes depending on how large your pieces are. Remove from the pan and set aside. Repeat with remaining meat until all is cooked. Set aside the pork.

Place the remaining olive oil in the pan and add onions and leeks saute until soft 3 to 5 minutes. Add potatoes and kohlrabi and cook an additional 3 to 5 minutes. Add bay leaves, thyme, all spice, maple sugar, apple cider and chicken broth. Make sure to scrape the bottom of the pan to incorporate all the bits from the browning of the meat and the cooking of the veggies. Add the pork back into the pot.

Simmer the stew for at least 1 to 2 hours. 10 to 30 minutes before serving add the apples and cranberries. Serve when the apples and cranberries are soft - making sure to remember to remove the sprigs of thyme and bay leaves before serving.