I was doing some "Summer Cleaning" yesterday (LOOONG overdue!!!) and part of it included getting rid of some magazines that had been piling up next to our bed. I don't purchase many magazines except for the New Yorker; I otherwise rely on my appointments here and there to catch up with past news... or to the free subscriptions I somehow receive. My husband only subscribes to professional magazines, which titles are only relevant if you are into veterinary ophthalmology research (anyone?).
One exception are cooking magazines from France which my husband is really fond of.... He used to subscribe to one in particular when he was living in France (that was 14 years ago!) but kept an on-and-off subscription to that magazine since he moved to the US. While he has not had a subscription lately whoever comes from France knows to bring along the latest issue....
What I noticed over the years though, is that the amount of magazines piling up/the amount of recipes indeed made is really high... "No time, not the right ingredients, difficulty finding a recipe in all the magazines... ", any excuse is good for me to hear. We tried to find a solution to the "recipe access" issue, sorting out some of the recipes he would most likely make and putting them in dedicated binders.... Despite all this nice filing and despite dozens of magazines later, he has made only 4 recipes (the Charlotte aux Fruits Rouges, the Creme Renversee à l'orange, a Soupe aux Fruits Rouges et à la Mascarpone and this recipe.) 4.
My business hat tells me that 1) The magazine must be really excited about having such a loyal customer... 2) We should forget purchasing this magazine because it's a real waste of money, especially now that everything is a click-away... My supportive spouse heart actually loves having him dream in front of these recipes... but my practical head knows that I will most likely be cooking the next meals anyway (with or without a recipe from that magazine (because honestly, I am not a big fan of that cooking magazine myself)).
He would argue that this is the same with me and the Elle à Table that I ask visitors to bring (or that I purchase while in France)... and this would be true except that I never purchase the magazines to make something; I only get them to get ideas and then improvise around because yes, I don't have time to make elaborated dishes anymore and I do lack some of the ingredients (or if they are available, what should be an affordable meal becomes very expensive....)... and despite that, my magazines/recipes made ratio is much higher!
One of the recipes he likes to make is this Pork Roast with Grapes and Cumin. I have come to making it myself as well (??!!) with generally great success - it passes our children' "can-we-have-it-in-our-lunch-box-tomorrow? " test (i.e., a close to perfect score!))... and it's a relatively easy dish to make even the the night before... so I would highly encourage you to try it out!
In the meantime, I'll see whether we'll come back with new cooking magazines from our vacation in France! Stay tune, you never know what could be cooking soon in our family! Bon Appétit!
Ingredients:
- 2 pork tenderloin
- 500 gr (1 pound) of white or red grapes
- 200 gr (about 1/2 pound) of small pearl onions
- 1 tbs honey
- 30 gr (1 oz) butter
- 1 tbs cumin seeds
- Olive oil, salt and pepper
- Peal the onions and reserve in a bowl
- Wash the grapes and cut them in half. Blend about 1/3 to make a heavy juice. Reserve.
- Salt and pepper the meat and roll it in cumin seeds (you can keep the tenderloin whole or cut them in chunks depending on the size of your cocotte)
- In a cocotte, heat the oil and brown the meat. Once all pieces are done, add the honey and the grape juice. Cook for another 15mns.
- In the same time, cook the onions in butter in a pan. Once they are cooked, take them out of the pan and drop the remaing grapes into it. Sautee the grapes for 5 minutes.
- Once the meat is fully cooked, take them out of the cocotte, and deglacez the cooking juice (scrapping the bottom of the cocotte very well) and let it cook for another 5 minutes to thicken.
- Put the meat on a serving plate, laying the sauce over it and the onions & grapes around.
My personal comments:
- I generally cook the onions wih the meat and add the grapes a few minutes before serving so that they are cooked but not mushy.
- I like to blend white & red grapes as well as white/yellow/red pearl onions.
- I serve it with mashed carrots and/or rice.
- You could make it with a pork roast - allow more time for cooking.
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