Vietnamese Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Cold Asian Noodle Salad

Recipe: Grilled Pork Tenderloin w/ Cold Asian Noodles

Wine: A crisp, refreshing Viognier like the one from the Viognier Queen, Morgan Clendenen, of Cold Heaven Cellars. You can’t go wrong with the 2008 Le Bon Climat Viognier| $30 bottle with flavors of peach, pear, apricot and vanilla. On the nose and in the mouth there is wet stone and stone fruit pit. The structure is completely natural and is the product of Santa Maria’s long cool growing season.

Recipe compliments of Jennifer Cox, head chef at Occasions By Jennifer.

This culinary trip found me visiting the far off land of Vietnam, which is actually the birthplace of my husband, who was adopted by an American family at the age of 6 month – right at the very end of the war.  Having been integrated into all things American, my husband had never so much as tasted foods from his native culture until I made this dish for the first time a few years back.

To his delight, the flavor profile was not as foreign as he had imagined it and he enjoyed the meal immensely.  Well, there was one thing.  The fish sauce.  Of that ingredient he was not a fan.  I tried to explain to him that it added depth to the marinade – a complexity that you couldn’t get from anything else – but it didn’t matter.  From that point forward it was requested that any Asian dish I cooked be “fish sauce free”.

Well, what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.  I snuck it in there, but just to the point where if there were one more drop he’d pick it out.  Sneaky, I know – but so worth the outcome.  My personal ingredient confusion was with the combining of cilantro, mint and basil.  I couldn’t figure out how those three could possibly marry and make sense.  I think you’ll agree with me once you’ve tried it that it is one of the most surprisingly amazing trio of tastes your tongue has ever met!

This dish is the perfect summertime meal as it utilizes the ease of outdoor cooking (no hot kitchen!) with clean and bright ingredients that come together beautifully.  The contrast of the sweet and spicy pork with the light, cool flavors of the noodle salad is just right, especially with the combination of the fresh cilantro, mint and basil.  Pair with a Gewurztraminer to keep the whole thing harmoniously refreshing.

Cheers!
Jennifer

(Side note:  Make sure you make enough for leftovers as this dish is even better the next day – and you will want more – trust me . . .)

Vietnamese Grilled Pork Tenderloin

Marinade

• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon peeled and grated fresh ginger
• 1 tablespoon shallot, minced
• 1 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 jalapeno, seeded and finely minced or 1 teaspoon hot chili oil
• Asian fish sauce, to taste
• 2 teaspoons toasted or black sesame seeds, optional

Place pork tenderloin in heavy duty zip-top storage bag.  Mix together all nine marinade ingredients and pour over tenderloin.  Seal bag and refrigerate for at least an hour.  Remove bag from refrigerator and let pork come up to room temperature before grilling.

Heat grill to 400.  Remove pork from bag* and place on grill grate.  Grill for approximately 4 minutes on each side or until desired doneness is reached.  Remove from grill and let rest for approximately 5-10 minutes before slicing.

*You can either discard the remaining marinade or you can bring it to a boil in a sauce pan until it reduces by about ½ and then you can use it to glaze pork as it cooks on the grill.

Cold Asian Noodle Salad

• 1 package rice noodles (vermicelli)
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon hot chili oil, optional
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 carrot, thinly sliced or julienned
• 2 green onions, greens and whites, thinly sliced
• 1/2 red bell pepper, thinly sliced or julienned
• 3/4 cup julienned English cucumber
• 1 cup bean sprouts, optional
• 3 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro leaves
• 1 ½ tablespoons minced fresh mint
• 1 ½ tablespoons minced fresh basil

Optional

• 3 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted, for garnish
• 4 tablespoons unsalted peanuts, for garnish

Boil noodles according to package directions and drain.  Rinse with cold water to halt the cooking process.  Gently toss noodles with the first 4 ingredients, coating thoroughly.  Add the remaining eight ingredients, distributing as evenly throughout the noodles and dressing as possible.  Refrigerate for approximately 45 minutes to an hour or until chilled through.

Memorial Day Cookout: Smoked Gouda Burger & Light Elbow Macaroni Salad

Menu: Smoked Gouda Burger & Light Elbow Macaroni Salad

Wine: Chardonnay, Riesling, Merlot

Smoked Gouda Burger
4 burgers grilled to your liking
4 kaiser rolls split and toasted over fire
Mayo
Smoked gouda
Lettuce
Tomato
Stack it

Light Elbow macaroni salad
1/2 (1 pound) package large elbow macaroni
1/2 cup olive oil best foods mayo
3 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sugar
Salt & Pepper
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
1/3 cup finely chopped onion

Cook pasta according to package directions, drain. Let cool under cold water. Stir together mayo, milk, vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper to taste. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Cover, chill thoroughly.

Bon Appetit!
Katie Mahanes
Don’t Forget To Kiss The Cook!

Potato, Caramelized Onion, Goat Cheese & White Truffle Oil Pizza (on the grill)

Menu: Potato, Caramelized Onion, Goat Cheese & White Truffle Oil Pizza (on the grill)

Wine: Pinot Grigio, Vouvray, Syrah

Being the food enthusiast that I am, I watch cooking and food related shows every chance I get, subscribe to a myriad of foodie newsletters, and am a fan – no, wait – I like a lot of food pages at my home away from home, Facebook.

Yesterday, during a break from cleaning, I checked out my news feed and found that one of these pages was stumping for a product that they sell. If you had asked me two years ago to explain, describe or even weigh in on this particular ingredient, I wouldn’t have been able to tell you anything about it – because I wouldn’t touch it with a ten-foot pole: truffle oil.

Anyone following culinary trends knows that this comes up quite often, as do members of the truffle family: mushrooms. Therein lays my problem. I cannot stand mushrooms. (I can hear the collective gasp of every gourmand reading this) Without getting all crazy about it, I’ll break it down like this – I don’t mind the flavor that they lend to a dish, but I can’t get past how they feel in my mouth – therefore I do not employ them often in my cooking. I even make my (I hope the gaspers are sitting down for this) Chicken Marsala sans fungi.

That being explained, how I even came to taste truffle oil was by complete mistake. I was eating a sandwich at a local bistro and upon popping one of the accompanying potato frittes into my mouth, my palette encountered something that didn’t register in my brain as anything familiar to me. In true food culture dialect, I can only tell you that it was an earthy tone. It was a tone that took an ordinary French fry to a completely unexpected and unfathomed level. Upon reexamination of the menu I discovered that the culprit was none other than truffle oil.

What the? And, really? I can’t tell you anything about the sandwich I was eating that day, but I can tell you that “Little Miss Mushroom Hater” spent the remainder of lunch picking up, looking at, smelling and taking careful, thoughtful bite after bite of the rest of those fries trying to wrap my brain around what exactly it was that the truffle oil did to that potato that made it so dang good – and why the heck I liked it so much. There are some things you just don’t question, you just run with ‘em.

When you’re in to what I’m in to, the way I’m in to it – cooking, that is – experiences like that have a way of filing themselves front and center in the “Things that make you go hmmmm?” section of the gastronomic filing cabinet. I started noticing the mention of truffles and truffle oil on other menus, during cooking shows, in articles. And each time, now that my brain had a reference point, I would think to myself: “Oh! I get that! I can totally see how that would lend itself to that recipe/ingredient/flavor profile!” That’s one of the things I love the most about having a passion for all things food related, the excitement that a revelation like that brings and how it gets the creative juices flowing. So, the next time I was trolling the gourmet food section of the local “name brands for less” chain and spotted a bottle of white truffle oil spritzer, I snatched it up with visions of truffled French fries dancing in my head.

My prized acquisition took its place among the ever-growing collection of artisanal oils and vinegars in the pantry, and there it waited – ever so patiently – until the “Ah-ha!” moment came to put it into action. Now, let’s not get all crazy here. One step at a time, kids. I was roasting some fingerling potatoes and thought a spritz or two of the oil would finish them off nicely. (Did you really think I was gonna stray outside the realm of a tuber for my first attempt?) And nicely, it did – mission accomplished.

That leap of faith occurred a couple of times more and then waned until just last night. You see, Monday’s e-mail inbox brought the weekly Wine Wench inquiry as to what was on the menu this time around. I had just gone shopping and was planning on turkey burgers for dinner that night, so I figured that’s what I’d write about. Well, thank goodness there was Tuesday, because, while quite tasty, the burgers weren’t working for me in the “Wow!” department for both the story spinning and aesthetically pleasing photo aspects. (You see, even I have my disappointing days at the helm!)

Remember, way back at the beginning of this story, where I first mentioned truffle oil? Facebook newsfeed ring a bell? Okay, good – as long as you’re with me here. Seeing that blurb was all the inspiration I needed for menu planning that night. Per usual, I throw the main ingredient into a Google search and wait for the first thing that catches my eye. I wasn’t too far into it when the link to Potato, Caramelized Onions, Goat Cheese & White Truffle Oil Pizza popped up. Who doesn’t like pizza? And I’ll put caramelized onions and goat cheese on almost anything. And, it’s been established that truffle oil and potatoes are highly compatible, so . . . The only other twist? Freda was writing an article for this newsletter about May being Grilling Month, so I decided I’d grill my pie.

I’ll spare you the dough rising-kneading-rolling out, potato slice soaking, onion caramelizing, goat cheese crumbling, fresh thyme sprinkling, truffle oil spritzing portion of the tale (See how I worked that in, regardless? LOL!) and simply tell you that if you haven’t had potato pizza, you have to. Based on the topping combo, I paired mine with a Pinot Grigio. The wine I chose was a nice balance of sweet and dry, with crisp notes of green apple and citrus with a hint of jasmine, all of which perfectly complimented the balance of the caramelized onions, tang of the goat cheese, earthiness of the potatoes and truffle oil and brightness of the fresh thyme.

Two years ago, dining al fresco with my husband at a local bistro on a beautiful late spring day, I was snuck an ingredient that, if I’d read was an element of the menu item, I would have passed on ordering. And in doing so, I would have thought that yesterday’s Facebook newsfeed extolling the virtues of that ingredient was insignificant, and probably even would have made a face at the laptop screen as I scrolled past it. This would have meant that I would have had to look toward another, most likely more “safe” component to inspire the dish that I chose for this, The Wine Wench Newsletter Installment No.5. Perhaps, had none of those series of events occurred, I wouldn’t be writing for The Wine Wench at all.

Truffle oil rocks.

Until next time, be adventurous in your culinary travels, my globetrotting enthusiasts! You never know where your next bite will take you . . . one dish and one bottle at a time.

Cheers!
Jennifer
OccasionsByJennifer.com

Potato, Caramelized Onion, Goat Cheese and White Truffle Oil Pizza
2 medium potatoes (red or white, preferably), sliced very thin
1 large Vidalia onion, sliced very thin
3-4 oz. of goat cheese (chevre)
White Truffle Oil
Fresh thyme (the leaves of a sprig or two)
Salt and pepper to taste
Store bought, refrigerated pizza dough
Olive oil

Divide dough into 2 equal portions. Grease a bowl with olive oil, place one portion of the dough in bowl, cover with a clean kitchen towel, bring to room temperature and allow to proof (rise).

Meanwhile, using a mandolin or very sharp knife, slice potatoes and onions wafer thin.
Place potato slices in a bowl of cold water.
Coat a sauté pan generously with olive oil and heat over medium high heat.
Add onions and reduce heat to medium. Let sauté slowly until soft and golden brown. Remove from heat and set aside.
Drain potato slices and pat dry. Season with salt and pepper.
Light and heat grill (or oven) to 400-425 degrees.
Knead and roll out pizza dough on a lightly floured surface according to package directions.
Brush top lightly with olive oil and place on grill (or in oven) to crisp crust slightly. (Keep a watchful eye and remove when faintly golden)
Line surface of pizza with potato slices and spritz or drizzle them with truffle oil to taste.
Add caramelized onions, goat cheese and thyme.
Return pizza to grill or oven and continue to cook until the potatoes are tender with golden edges, cheese is melty and crust is desired consistency.
Let cool slighty, slice and serve. Enjoy!