Grilled Marinated Pork Tenderloin with Dijon Mustard Sauce by Tom

Moist and juicy, flavored with soy sauce, ginger, mustard, honey and garlic

This is a recipe that we got from my mother, who got it from my sister Gretchen after she made it when her son graduated from high school many, many years ago.  But Gretchen clarified that she got it originally from my other sister Susi, so it has actually been in the family for a long time.  We had made many marinated pork tenderloins over the years, but never this one exactly.

We pulled the recipe card out of the recipe card box and had planned to make it for our friend Cindy, who was coming over for dinner.  Because we wanted leftovers for later in the week, I actually bought a Family Pack of pork tenderloins at Wegman's, which contained four tenderloins. However Cindy got sick and had to cancel her plans.  So I now had four tenderloins marinating, which was about three too many.

So here is what we did.  I grilled one, and we individually froze the other three along with a little bit of the marinade added to each freezer bag.  This was an experiment to see how frozen marinated pork tenderloins would work and taste.  Bottom line, it worked out just fine.  The thawed tenderloins tasted as good as the originally unfrozen tenderloin.

---Tom

Grilled Marinated Pork Tenderloin

(from Tom's mother who got it from Gretchen who got it from Susi)

Serves 12

Ingredients:
4 pork tenderloins

Marinade

1 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup oil
1 tbsp. ginger
3 tbsp. honey
1 tbsp. Dijon mustard
1-2 cloves garlic, crushed

Dijon Mustard Sauce
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tbsp. Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp Worcestershire sauce 

Mix all of the marinade ingredients in a small bowl.  Do the same for the Dijon mustard sauce in a separate small bowl.  Refrigerate until ready to use as a sauce with the grilled meat.

Place the pork tenderloins in a glass dish and pour the marinade over them.  Cover and refrigerate over night.  Turn the pork tenderloins over about midway through the marinating to insure they are completely marinated.

If you are not going to cook all of the pork tenderloins, place the pork tenderloin in a freezer bag.  Add 1/2 cup of the marinade, or enough to coat it very well.  Squeeze out as much of the air in the freezer bag as you can as you are sealing the bag.  The best way to do this is to roll the tenderloin in the bag and seal the bag at the end after rolling it.  Place in the freezer.

When you want to cook the frozen pork tenderloin, remove from the freezer and place in the refrigerator so that you are defrosting it slowly.  This will take most of the day.

To grill, heat your grill on high heat.  Place the pork tenderloin on the hot grill and do one side for 7 minutes.  Then turn over and grill the other side for 6 minutes.  Now turn off the grill and cook with no heat for another 5 minutes.  

Remove to a cutting board and let it rest for 10 minutes before slicing.

When the grill was off under the pork tenderloin, I grilled asparagus to complement our meal.

Put a dollop of the Dijon mustard sauce on the plate, and add to your meat as you wish.  This pork tenderloin is good with or without the dipping sauce.

---Tom

Sour Cream Pound Cake with Rum Glaze

A Nice Variation of the Classic Pound Cake.  The rum doesn't dominate.   Tastes sort of like a lemon pound cake.

We made this dessert for our spring Sunday dinners with family and friends.  Served it with vanilla ice cream but it will be good with fresh berries in the summer, too.  

Divided the recipe into one large loaf and one small, so we could also have it with coffee in the morning.  

---Barbara

Sour Cream Pound Cake with Rum Glaze
(adapted from Cooking Light)

Makes 1 large loaf or 16 servings

Cake:
cooking spray and flour for dusting
3 cups cake flour (about 12 ounces)
1 t. baking powder
1/4 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
3/4 cup (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1/4 cup milk, 2 % or less
1 T. dark rum
2 t. vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream

Glaze:
1/2 cup cane sugar or brown sugar
2 T. dark rum
2 T. water
1.5 T. unsalted butter

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Coat an extra large loaf pan* or a tube cake pan with cooking spray and dust lightly with flour.  Set aside.  (I put mine in the freezer until time to bake.)

In a medium sized bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, mixing well with a whisk.

In a large bowl, combine butter and sugar, and beat on medium-high until light and fluffy.  Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.  Add milk, 1 T. rum, and vanilla, and beat until combined.

On low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and the sour cream, beginning and ending with the flour mixture and beat until just combined.

Spoon batter into prepared pan.  Smooth top with a small spatula.

Bake at 350 degrees until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 55 minutes to 1 hour.

Cool in pan 10 minutes, then remove and invert onto the serving plate or wire rack.

Pierce liberally with a wooden pick, so that the glaze will sink in.

While the cake bakes, prepare the glaze.  Combine the brown sugar and 2 T. rum and water in a small saucepan, bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves.  Add 1.5 T of butter, stirring until the butter melts.

Using a basting brush, paint all sides of the loaf with the glaze, including the bottom, ends and sides.  Then keep painting the top with the remaining glaze until it is all gone.

Cool cake completely.

* I made 1 large and one small loaf, and just adjusted the time accordingly.  Small took 35- 40 minutes.  And large 50- 55 minutes.  Compared to X large which will take an hour as the recipes states.  Just check periodically to see if done by inserting a wooden pick in the center until it comes out clean, i.e., not wet and no crumbs attached.

Kladdkaka (Swedish Sticky Cake)

Everyday ingredients become something special in this little cake...

This was our first kladdkaka but won't be our last.  

There are many, many variations of the Swedish sticky cake, but this one came from Cook Real Food magazine. 

It's intentionally underbaked so that the center is gooey, like a sophisticated brownie.  It can be served with ice cream, whipped cream or just as it is.

Very easy to make.  Tom says its tastes great.

---Barbara

Kladdkaka (Swedish Sticky Cake)

Makes 1 8-inch cake

2 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 t. vanilla extract
1/2 t. kosher salt, or 1/4 t. regular salt
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
more cocoa powder for garnish

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Spray an 8-inch round cake pan (I used a springform pan) with baking spray with flour, then line the pan with a circle of parchment paper cut to size.

Using a stand mixer or a high powered hand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the eggs, sugar, vanilla and salt on medium speed until fluffy and pale, 2 to 3 minutes.

In a separate bowl, measure out the flour and cocoa and combine, then sift the flour and cocoa over the egg mixture.

Carefully, fold into batter.

Fold in the melted butter, until well combined.

Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake until just set, 12 to 14 minutes.  (I went to 14)  A perfect kladdkaka is very soft in the middle but not runny once cooled.

Let cool completely in the pan.

Remove from the pan, dust with cocoa if desired.

Pecan-Crusted Baked Chicken

Soaking the chicken in buttermilk keeps the meat moist, and the spiced pecans provide added crunch.  This is a good way to dress up everyday chicken for dinner, and creates nice leftovers for lunch.
---Barbara

Pecan-crusted Baked Chicken

Serves 4

Spiced Pecans:
2 cups pecans
sea salt
1/8 t. cayenne pepper
1/4 t. ground cinnamon
olive oil or butter spray

Buttermilk Soaked Chicken:
8 boneless chicken tenders or 4 boneless chicken thighs
salt and pepper
buttermilk, about 2 cups

Batter Dip:
1 egg, whisked well
salt and pepper
1 heaping teaspoon Dijon mustard

Line a small baking sheet with aluminum foil, spray it lightly with oil.  Then, place the pecans in a single layer. Spray them with oil.  Sprinkle them generously with sea salt.  Then, sprinkle them with cinnamon, and cayenne.  Use more than you might think.

Toast them until golden brown, stirring midway through, about 4 minutes if you are using a toaster oven.  In a conventional oven, it might take longer.  Watch them carefully so that they don't burn.

Let them cool completely.

In a small, heavy duty plastic bag, place the pecans, then use a heavy object, like a rolling pin to crush the pecans, until they are the size of coarse bread crumbs.  Adjust the contents of the bag so that you crush all of the pecans evenly.

This mixture smells great!  Set aside until you will be baking the chicken.

In a glass container, add the chicken (mine was frozen), season it with salt on both sides, then cover with buttermilk, and add a few grinds of pepper on top.  Cover and refrigerate, overnight preferably or at least 6 hours, turning the chicken over a few times.  (Use a spoon or a fork, not your fingers to do this.)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

45 minutes to an hour before serving dinner, set up a battering station.  In a suitable dipping bowl or plate, combine the egg, mustard, salt and pepper.  In another bowl, add the pecans.

Place a non-stick cooking rack over a baking sheet.  If you don't have a non-stick rack, then spray it with oil.

Pull a piece of chicken from the buttermilk, and drain well, then add it to the egg mixture and lift it up and let it drain, then add it to the pecans, coat one side, then flip and coat the other side.  Then, place it carefully on the rack over the baking sheet.

Do this for all of the chicken pieces.  If you run out of egg mixture you can just coat the chicken with the pecans. 

If you run out of pecans like I did (because I was making a double batch), then I quickly crushed up some Chex cereal, spiced it with garlic powder and sea salt, and continued.

Bake for 30-35 minutes.  The chicken will become firm to the touch and the pecans will brown.