Cooking Makes Everything Better
There’s nothing really wrong, just a sense of concrete-heavy ennui that’s making it hard for me to get out of bed in the morning, hard for me to do anything other than cook–anything else just takes EVERYTHING out of me, and I mean EVERY scrap of physical and mental energy–and hard for me to care about much more than just keeping my head above water. It’s been like that for the past few days, despite me getting an incredible amount of work done over the weekend.
Weasel Boy wasn’t that difficult a book. I shouldn’t be having this sort of draining rubber-band snapback after finishing just a sodding draft, for heaven’s sake. But I am. Go figure.
Yesterday was chili. I was agreeably surprised both by the beans (soaked the day before, cooked all night in molasses and garlic beef stock) and by the leftover barbecue ribs giving it a nice smoky flavor. Everyone ate except Sir Pewksalot, but that’s to be expected. I also experimented by not putting salt in with the beans, and they softened up much quicker and thickened the chili better. (So, thanks to whoever it was who told me about that.)
Today it’s pork tenderloin, and since I’m seriously dragging and have no braincycles for anything else, I’ll give the recipe. The kids really love this and it’s sooper-easy to prepare.
Pork In Yogurt Sauce
You’ll need:
- pork tenderloin
- half a large onion
- plain yogurt
- crushed garlic
- chicken stock/buoillon/base
Get out your crock pot. Put a tablespoon of water in (or enough to just lightly coat the bottom of the crock.) Dab a little buoillon or base in it and smear it around. OR, put enough chicken stock in to lightly coat the bottom of the crock. Turn the crock pot on low.
While it’s warming, saute the onion and crushed garlic in butter. I like crushed garlic in a jar, because it’s easy to work with, fresher, and packs more punch. Garlic powder lacks a certain something, but if you need to use it, dab a little of the chicken base etc. in the pan.
Dump half the garlic/onion saute into the crock to provide a nice little bed for the tenderloin. Nestle said tenderloin, ahem, tenderly on top. Spoon a light covering of yogurt over the meat and dump the rest of the saute over it.
Cut the potatoes into quarters (I usually do this while everything’s sauteeing). You can put them in a big bowl with the saute drippings, a little butter, and your favorite seasoning blend (I use Trader Joe’s 20 blend) and clap a plate over it, shake the little buggers. (I like disco music on while I do this.) Spoon the potatoes around the tenderloin. I like to use a wide long crock pot–the narrow ones do better for soups, in my humble opinion. But whatever you have will work.
Then leave it on low for ZOMG a long time. If I’m pressed for time, I usually turn the crock on high for a couple hours, then finish up with low heat. I like this dinner because I can walk away and forget it, and just start some steamed veggies twenty minutes before we eat. Easy-peasy.
The potatoes can be served as-is, or thrown in a mixer and mashed with a little milk. The yogurt and chicken stock will do wonders for them, and you get a very nice homestyle-potato mash if you leave the skins on, which I prefer. Sometimes there is a request for smoked Gouda in the potatoes, if I have done chili in the recent past and have some Gouda left over. Note: if you use bigger potatoes, cut them into smaller chunks so they cook thoroughly.
I’ve got some French bread rising on the stove too, which makes me feel good. No day is so bad that baking can’t make it better. Tomorrow I’ll probably go on about bread, if I’m still in this mood.
And now, dear Reader, adieu. The roast is starting to smell good and it will only get better all afternoon. Mmmmmmh.
