Experimental Pork fricassee, spaetzel, and brownies with caramel sauce

Sam and I are always impressed with how we haven't been repeating recipes. B is probably starting to go 'but what about my favorite??'...

We did pork again, since all of a sudden we have an over abundance of the stuff hiding in the freezer (expect to see 'pork tenderloin' on a lot of our 'what we used' lists for a bit...)



Experimental Pork Fricassee

What We Used:

• 1 1/2 lbs pork tenderloin
• 1 leek
• 1/2 clove elephant garlic OR 3 cloves regular garlic
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 1 portabello mushroom, sliced thin
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 1 cup heavy cream
• butter (for the pan)
  

We prepped everything before even starting to cook. The pork was cut into thin medalions, the garlic was minced, the celery was chopped, and the mushroom sliced. The round part of the leek was seperated from the top and chopped into thin rounds. The leaf part of the leek was julienned for our purposes... but I'm pretty sure it could be cut however you want (Sam insists that all parts of the leek can be used.)

The pork was cooked in the mock-wok with butter until it was almost done, then the celery, garlic and the round part of the leek were added. When the celery was soft the mushrooms were added. It was all cooked for about two minutes, and then the julienned leek and the stock were thrown into the mix.

We didn't actually time how long the thing simmered, since we were busy with the caramel for desert... but after a long while we tempered one cup of heavy cream and stirred it into the rest of the mix to thicken it. If you need it, you can add a corn starch slurry... which means you remove some of the liquid from the pan, add corn starch and mix until it's kind of like a runny mud, then add it back to thicken further.

After a couple taste tests, we ended up also adding a dash of the asian hot chili sauce sitting in the fridge.

The question 'what are we serving this with?' always seems to come up with us. Rice or potatoes are the default... but since we have a project in mind, we ended up going with spaetzel... which is like a german dumpling noodle thing. We also didn't go traditional with it (nutmeg) instead opting for saffron and white pepper.

Experimental Spaetzel

What We Used:

• 1 cup flour
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• pinch saffron
  
• pinch white pepper
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Sam mixed together the flour, salt, white pepper, and saffron. The eggs were lightly beaten, and added alternately with the milk to the dry ingredients. Mix until smooth. (Since you don't really need to worry about it rising, beat the crap out of it.)

After it was all mixed, we put a pot of water on to boil with plenty of salt added to it. When it reached a full rolling boil, we got to the fun part. Using a slotted spoon, we scooped up some of the batter and pushed it through the holes and into the boiling water. The spaetzel cooked for about four minutes, until everything was floating, and the end result looked a little bit like scrambled eggs.

Dump the contents of the pot into a strainer, then transfer the drained spaetzel back into the pot and keep it warm till you're ready to serve!

I'm not going to get into the brownies, since the recipe used was out of a cookbook... but (as inspired by Sam's sister) we made a Grand Marnier caramel sauce to drizzle over top.

I had a lot of fun with this, since one of my loves is fudge making and I do enjoy candy.

Verdicts?

The spaetzel had kind of a scrambled egg texture... which is how it's supposed to be (I guess). If we were to do it again, Sam and I agreed that we'd try finishing it off by frying or something.

The Fricassee had fantastic flavor, on the other hand, and is a definate 'must try again'



Grand Marnier Caramel Sauce

What We Used:

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 cup whipping cream
• 2 tbsp grand marnier

Like in any candymaking endevor, I made sure everything was ready to go beside the stove before I even turned on the heat.

Once everything was set up, I set the stovetop to medium heat and put the cup of sugar in. It was stirred vigorously... When you're doing this, you want the sugar to melt, not burn... and it all happens very suddenly. In fact, I was apparently standing there for a while stirring dry white sugar in a pot.

When the sugar had melted and had turned into a glorious amber color, the butter was added. Once the butter was melted, I removed the pot from heat and slowly added the cream and then the liquor. All this was stirred vigorously for a while... the liquids caused the caramel to bubble... but as soon as it was smooth, it was done. I transferred the mess over to a glass measuring cup to cool (do NOT use plastic. Boiling sugar + plastic = melted sugar flavored plastic all over the floor.)

Finally, after it was cool I transferred it again to a drizzling bottle and proceeded to douse my brownies. Which is delicious.

Verdict?

I was worried about the grand marnier flavor when I first tried it, trying to figure if it was orang-y enough... but it turned out fantastic. What we may do in the future, however, is add a touch of salt.

Anyway... dinner was interesting and will definately be something to work on. Until next time, Ciao!

-Jess