- Joined
- Sep 29, 2022
- Messages
- 809
- Reaction score
- 1,954
Wife left me in charge of dinner. She was nice enough to trim green beans and chunk taters, and season a pork tenderloin earlier today, so I really just had to decide what to do with it all. Kinda bored of basic mashed taters.... so...
Green beans - the usual way 'cause it is how the youngest likes 'em. She actually asks for seconds, which for a vegetable is a near miracle.
Trimmed green beans, dripping wet from the wash into a large coverable frying pan. Few table spoons of olive oil, and 2 oz or so more water. Medium high heat, season how you like (salt, pepper, garlic powder, chili powder, red pepper flakes, sometimes onion powder for us) and cover. There should be enough water to boil just a little bit and steam 'em up some, and leaving it covered should keep it from evaporating too quick. When they are mostly done steaming (to taste, depends on how much crunch you like or not, note you may need to add a bit more water) take the cover off and let the water evaporate, leaving the oil for them to sear up in and get a little color going. Don't be afraid to add an extra table spoon of oil or two if needed and don't be afraid to over cook them until you start seeing charcoal forming
These could actually use a bit more steaming and searing, but wife and daughter won't be home until 845 or so so they are getting reheated in the pan then to finish them
Taters.... while I love my mashies, I do get bored of them and don't like being in a rut of eating the same thing over and over and over... so almost homefries pan 'taters...
Chunked taters just like you'd do for mashies (yukon gold work really well for this and don't necessarily need peeling), boil 'em just like for mashies but just a wee bit under cooked. If you like onions and have one or two, chop 'em up and add them in there for the boiling. Or get your Welsh on and add a leek. Think "these need three more minutes boiling" for right amount of doneness. Drain 'em. Pan with a few table spoons of olive or veg oil over medium heat, lightly season the taters with salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder and maybe some paprika and maybe some red pepper flakes. Dump taters in pan, mix around, season rest of way. Once you've seasoned, give a good mix around and let sit and cook for several minutes - you want to start crisping up the down side. Mix again and cook again, repeat once more. Ideally you'll have some that are totally soft and falling apart, some that are kinda crunchy on one or two sides, if you mixed in a chopped onion it should be nicely carmelized so you have little chunks of sweetness coming thru... yum.
The pork tenderloin. We found this cooking method on a commercial kitchen/catering tips website.... and we love it for pork (loin/tender loin), cuts of beef, and leg of lamb. Why? Quick, consistent, easy and the meat comes out juicy and fork tender. Critical equipment are a heavy pan that can go into the oven at temps over 500 and a good meat thermometer, preferably with a remote read and temp alarm.
Season the meat how you like - for tonight we went spanish style (wife is puerto rican) though bar-b-que is easy to do as well - so lots of crush garlic, salt, black pepper, and some cider vinegar and chillin' in a ziplock for a few hours. (Beef gets just salt and pepper and maybe garlic, lamb gets salt, pepper, rosemary and Grey Poupon djion mustard). Preheat oven to 325 or 350, once it is hot pan onto high side of medium high heat, get a few table spoons of olive or veg oil good and hot, sear the meat on all sides. Off the stove and into the oven with temp probe in. When meat hits 125F internally crank the oven up to 500. When the meat hits desired cooking temp, remove from oven and tent/cover for 10 minutes, then serve. Done temps - Pork goes to 150, if you leave the thermometer in you'll see it climb to 160+, beef for rare is 130, medium is 135 and anything more is a travesty. For lamb some people like the rare side of medium (so 132ish) but I prefer mine on the done side of medium so I'll pull it at like 137. And yes, two degrees of internal meat temp does make a difference.
If you are one of those poor souls who hasn't discovered the joy of cooking meat by temperature, a full pork tenderloin takes about 20 minutes to get to 125 and from there about 10-15 more minutes at 500 to hit 150+
Green beans - the usual way 'cause it is how the youngest likes 'em. She actually asks for seconds, which for a vegetable is a near miracle.
Trimmed green beans, dripping wet from the wash into a large coverable frying pan. Few table spoons of olive oil, and 2 oz or so more water. Medium high heat, season how you like (salt, pepper, garlic powder, chili powder, red pepper flakes, sometimes onion powder for us) and cover. There should be enough water to boil just a little bit and steam 'em up some, and leaving it covered should keep it from evaporating too quick. When they are mostly done steaming (to taste, depends on how much crunch you like or not, note you may need to add a bit more water) take the cover off and let the water evaporate, leaving the oil for them to sear up in and get a little color going. Don't be afraid to add an extra table spoon of oil or two if needed and don't be afraid to over cook them until you start seeing charcoal forming
These could actually use a bit more steaming and searing, but wife and daughter won't be home until 845 or so so they are getting reheated in the pan then to finish themTaters.... while I love my mashies, I do get bored of them and don't like being in a rut of eating the same thing over and over and over... so almost homefries pan 'taters...
Chunked taters just like you'd do for mashies (yukon gold work really well for this and don't necessarily need peeling), boil 'em just like for mashies but just a wee bit under cooked. If you like onions and have one or two, chop 'em up and add them in there for the boiling. Or get your Welsh on and add a leek. Think "these need three more minutes boiling" for right amount of doneness. Drain 'em. Pan with a few table spoons of olive or veg oil over medium heat, lightly season the taters with salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder and maybe some paprika and maybe some red pepper flakes. Dump taters in pan, mix around, season rest of way. Once you've seasoned, give a good mix around and let sit and cook for several minutes - you want to start crisping up the down side. Mix again and cook again, repeat once more. Ideally you'll have some that are totally soft and falling apart, some that are kinda crunchy on one or two sides, if you mixed in a chopped onion it should be nicely carmelized so you have little chunks of sweetness coming thru... yum.
The pork tenderloin. We found this cooking method on a commercial kitchen/catering tips website.... and we love it for pork (loin/tender loin), cuts of beef, and leg of lamb. Why? Quick, consistent, easy and the meat comes out juicy and fork tender. Critical equipment are a heavy pan that can go into the oven at temps over 500 and a good meat thermometer, preferably with a remote read and temp alarm.
Season the meat how you like - for tonight we went spanish style (wife is puerto rican) though bar-b-que is easy to do as well - so lots of crush garlic, salt, black pepper, and some cider vinegar and chillin' in a ziplock for a few hours. (Beef gets just salt and pepper and maybe garlic, lamb gets salt, pepper, rosemary and Grey Poupon djion mustard). Preheat oven to 325 or 350, once it is hot pan onto high side of medium high heat, get a few table spoons of olive or veg oil good and hot, sear the meat on all sides. Off the stove and into the oven with temp probe in. When meat hits 125F internally crank the oven up to 500. When the meat hits desired cooking temp, remove from oven and tent/cover for 10 minutes, then serve. Done temps - Pork goes to 150, if you leave the thermometer in you'll see it climb to 160+, beef for rare is 130, medium is 135 and anything more is a travesty. For lamb some people like the rare side of medium (so 132ish) but I prefer mine on the done side of medium so I'll pull it at like 137. And yes, two degrees of internal meat temp does make a difference.
If you are one of those poor souls who hasn't discovered the joy of cooking meat by temperature, a full pork tenderloin takes about 20 minutes to get to 125 and from there about 10-15 more minutes at 500 to hit 150+
