March 2020

Comfort Food: Char Siu Pork Tenderloin Mississippi Style

March 25, 2020 / / Mains, Recipes, Uncategorized

Continue ordering in from our local restaurants to help our Maine restaurants stay afloat,  but sometimes you might need a break if only to curb the cost of restaurant meals on a regular basis.  The takeout menus available are, I think, fairly priced and they’re still less than real dining out tabs.  I cook at home most of the time, and this dish courtesy of cookbook author Virginia Willis can be found in her book “Secrets of the Southern Table.”

I’ve made this often since there are few recipe ideas for pork tenderloin that appeal to me.  Don’t confuse this pork cut with a tenderloin roast.  This is the fillet section extracted from the loin and measures about 1 1/2 pounds.  Prices vary depending on where you buy it.  I get mine from Bisson’s who sells excellent Canadian pork products.  A full loin is about $6 and can easily feed two to three people.

When grilling season arrives soon enough, this cut is great on the grill, smoked over fruit wood and bathed in whatever kind of sauce you like. Or use char siu sauce.

Various dishes using pork tenderloin

A word about the sauce: It’s Cantonese and typical of urban Chinese markets. How it wound up in the Mississippi Delta is a curious story.  It’s from, according to Willis, an inspiration of a Chinese market in the Delta in the home of another cookbook author Martha Foose who says, “Though Cantonese, the flavors of the char sui have always reminded me of the flavors of the Mississippi Delta.” Read more…

Comfort Food: The Essential Larder Now for Cooking at Home More than You Ever Have

March 20, 2020 / / Discoveries, Recipes, Restaurants

Since almost all restaurants in Maine have stopped offering dine-in options with table service, a great many of us are supporting local restaurant by ordering out to take in.  From Eventide, Chaval, Central Provisions to even Applebee’s that now has, like all the rest, curbside pickup.

Take out has its usefulness, just think pickup from an Asian restaurant.  But whatever it is you’re having from a restaurant by the time you get it home it’s lost some of its luster. A friend of mine admitted that the dinner  prepared for pick up at one of the city’s finest restaurants was merely OK.

To the extreme I read an article in the New York Post the other day describing a New York  socialite who’s moved her family to the Hamptons where she spends thousands a day at specialty stores to feed her family.  In fact, the food stores in the Hamptons are doing booming business as many New Yorkers have retreated to their zillion dollar vacation mansions on Eastern Long Island to flee from NYC’s dire coronavirus outbreak.  They don’t buy one or two of food items but rather a whole meat tray worth of $29.99 per pound steaks.

For most of us cooking and eating in and shopping accordingly is more the norm.  I had about 7 days of meals at home and now I must go out to replenish. My stash for the week included a whole chicken made into chicken and dumplings; pork chops (stuffed and baked), chicken breast, pan seared, chopped meat for meat sauce over pasta, all of which presented leftovers for lunch the next day.  I still have a chuck roast in the freezer for pot roast, some more pork chops (see recipe here) and a lone bag of PF Chang’s orange chicken for potluck.

REMEMBER WHEN: SHOULDER TO SHOULDER? WE’LL BE BACK

Clockwise from top: Eventide, North 43 Bistro, Isa and 555

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Where to Shop Now Selectively to Maintain Safe Social-Distancing

March 18, 2020 / / Discoveries

More than ever where to shop now for basic food and groceries is a vital choice in keeping safe social distancing.  Places like Hannaford, Shaw’s, Whole Foods, Target, Walmart, et al, are too crowded to shop to maintain social distancing.  But I’m not suggesting that  you stop going altogether but shop early or late in the day when these stores are not as crowded.   Though the other day, I needed cultured butter to make these great cookies based on that butter. It’s a NYT Cooking recipe called Cultured Butter Cookies.  There are only a few places in town to get cultured butter.  The most easily found is from Vermont Creamery.  Now get a load of price differences.  Whole Foods sells it for $5.99 per half pound.  Walmart has it for $2.99 and Shaw’s sells it for $3.99.  Hannaford does not carry it.  If you’re in Market Basket neighborhood in Biddeford, all their butters—and they have a great selection—are cheaper across the board including Vermont Creamery.

The big retailers, Whole Foods and Hannaford

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Processed Foods, Not Sustainable Cooking Methods: I Rarely Prepare Desserts or Any Other Food Prep with Processed Ingredients

March 6, 2020 / / Baking & Desserts, Recipes

I bumped into one of Portland’s star chefs the other day at Harbor Fish.  I was there to pick up haddock fillets to bake under a dome of buttered bread and cracker crumbs.  The chef was looking at the gutted trout, which he said were terrific, local trout farmed in Caribou.  He bought the whole fish, which he would bake with herbs.

As we were standing at the checkout counter, I felt compelled to tell him about a dessert I made comprised of canned  pie filling and topped with the contents of one of those prepared cake mixes. “Oh, yes,” he said.  “My mother used to make that quite often.  Delicious. It has a crispy top,” he said as though remembering this homespun dessert from childhood.”

I admit I felt somewhat naughtily guilty using a processed food ingredient such as the packaged cake mix and canned pie filling.  I hardly ever use any food that is not farm fresh or or locally derived, much less processed.

I came across the recipe in a cookbook called “At My Grandmother’s Table, Heartwarming Stories and Cherished Recipes from the South“ by Faye Porter.

It sounded so good. How bad can it be I considered before deciding to make it?  It was quick and easy to prepare without messing up the kitchen.  I make a fresh-baked dessert almost every night. It’s a pleasurable effort.

The recipe, Easy Layered Cobbler, called for canned apple or cherry pie filling, a can of crushed pineapple and 9 ounces of butter-cake mix with 1 stick of melted butter drizzled over the top.

Fresh out of the oven the cherry pie version of the Easy Layered Cobbler was delicious

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