Agave and Serrano-Brined Pork Loin

We interrupt this blog-cast for a special report - we've got our first YTK original recipe! Well, original enough, we suppose. Certainly someone's done this before, but we're pretty proud of it.

Over the weekend, we watched a few Cooking Channel specials and one of them made a reference to brining. Now we love a good brine, but we usually reserve that method for turkeys, and we didn't happen to want a turkey right now. Then our minds turned to the pork loin hanging out in our freezer. Jackpot!

And so it was decided that we would brine a pork loin - but with what? We had two serrano peppers from a forgotten recipe getting a little um, aged, in our fridge, but we feared they might yield too much heat. To balance them out, we originally considered adding some honey, but when we opened our pantry, the answer was staring in our faces: agave nectar.

So without further ado, here's our recipe for Agave and Serrano-Brined Pork Loin!

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Brining Time: 8+ hours

Cooking Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:

4 cups low sodium chicken broth

2 serrano peppers, thinly sliced

2 tbsp agave nectar

1 tbsp kosher salt

1 tbsp minced garlic

1 lb pork tenderloin

1. Combine first 5 ingredients (through garlic) in a large bowl or plastic-ware container, stirring well with a whisk.

2. Submerge the pork tenderloin in the broth mixture. Cover the bowl or container and place in the refrigerator overnight.

3. Place the pork tenderloin in a baking dish. (For extra kick and presentation, place sliced serranos along the top of the tenderloin.) Discard brine.

4. Bake at 375 degrees for 35-40 minutes, until an oven thermometer registers the tenderloin at 170 degrees. Remove from oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes before slicing.

And there you have it, folks! This no-fuss pork tenderloin had a wonderfully subtle heat that won't upstage a showy side (more on that in another post). We loved it, and we hope you will, too!

Steak with Stout Pan Sauce

There are few things in life more satisfying than a big ol' piece of meat. (That's what she said?) It's definitely what we said when we tried this simple recipe from Bon Appetit magazine. It's Steak with Stout Pan Sauce, and it sure is tasty!

We picked up the January issue of Bon Appetit on a whim, and so many of the recipes seemed intimidating. Either we'd never heard of the ingredients, or we knew they were super expensive, or we didn't have one of the key appliances (side note: we have got to get ourselves an immersion blender). When we found this recipe, with its total cook time of 20 minutes and familiar ingredients, we repeated a few quick affirmations and got to shopping.

Let it be known that New York strip is not the cheapest cut of meat you can buy. At our local Whole Foods-like store, the cheapest variation rang in at $16.99 a pound. The good news, though, is that it is such a rich, flavorful cut of meat that a smaller portion really isn't that meager in flavor.

About 10 minutes before you start cooking, set out your tablespoon of butter and the steaks. This will bring them to room temperature, which will prevent the steaks from sticking to your pan and will make the butter easier to mix with the flour.

The first step is to coat the steaks with dijon mustard, then sprinkle them with salt and pepper. The steaks are cooked over medium-high heat in olive oil to desired doneness. In our case, 5 minutes each side was about enough to do the trick. The steaks are then transferred to a cutting board or plate to rest, and the pan is wiped clean.

Take a moment to mix the butter and flour together in a small bowl and set it near your burner. Next, heat another teaspoon of olive oil in the pan, and press the garlic into it. The garlic is sauteed for a matter of seconds before the broth is added and brought to a boil. (This also takes just seconds, so have the rest of the ingredients nearby for quick incorporation!)

Add the stout, brown sugar, soy sauce, mustard, and butter mixture to the pan and boil it until it's reduced. When the mixture measures about 2/3 of a cup, slice up your well-rested steaks and plate them with a spoonful of sauce.

We can't tell you enough how much we enjoyed this recipe. The steak is perfectly seasoned, and the sauce is smooth and rich without being overwhelming. Best of all, it really did only take 20 minutes, start to finish - you can't beat that! We were so impressed that we're naming Steak with Stout Pan Sauce a YTK Favorite.

And, now that we've tackled one recipe from a new source, we're hungry for more. Bring it on, Bon Appetit!

Steak Piperade

We've had such great luck with the Williams Sonoma What's for Dinner: 30-Minute Meals special recipe set! Really, these recipes are straightforward, unintimidating, and true to their quickness claims. Our next foray into the meal plan was Steak Piperade.

First, a flank steak is seasoned with salt and pepper, then browned over high heat with 1 tablespoon each of butter and olive oil. You have some freedom here in terms of doneness - the recipe instructs you to cook the steak for 4-6 minutes on each side. We found ourselves going a little over the time on each side, by about 2 minutes per side, to achieve the "medium-rare" doneness suggested by the recipe.

Just a side note: When preparing flank steak, we also like to make it medium on the ends and medium rare inside. Then we eat the outer edges for dinner and save the interior for lunch the next day, which, upon reheating, yields us a nice, medium-cooked steak lunch. So when we say our steak was "medium-rare", we're referring to the inside bits, and not the ends.

Once it's done, the steak can be moved to a cutting board and covered loosely with foil while the peppers are prepared. The remaining butter and oil are heated and used to sautee the red onion, garlic, and bell peppers along with the thyme. The wine and tomatoes are added, and the whole mixture is simmered for about five minutes. This process provides the steak with enough time to rest for cutting.

We really enjoyed the buttery flavor of the steak - it's not for every day, but it was a nice little treat! We probably should have sliced our bell peppers slightly more thinly, because they were still on the crisp side in our finished dish, compared with the tender, shaved-looking peppers in the recipe image.

We would definitely make this recipe again, and we'd recommend it to our readers, too, as a no-fuss weeknight meal. If you try it, let us know what you think in the comments section!

Bourbon-Pecan Tart with Chocolate Drizzle

Those who know Mrs. Yuppie know there are two things in this world that she can't live without (besides, of course, Mr. Yuppie): pecan and bourbons. These two ingredients are married deliciously together in Cooking Light's Bourbon-Pecan Tart with Chocolate Drizzle (Nov 2007).

This has been a favorite recipe of ours since we first tried it 2 years ago for a Christmas party. Now, we always keep the ingredients on hand in case of birthday lunches and special occasions. (Especially the bourbon, but then, we've always made sure to have that on hand!)

The real selling point is how easy it is to assemble: simply grease up a tart or pie pan, drape the pre-made pie crust over it and trim the edges, mix together the remaining ingredients (except the chocolate) and pour them into the crust.

The tart bakes for 45 minutes at 350 degrees. If you're so inclined, once it's cooled, you can drizzle melted chocolate over it, but that part is left to the most decadent eaters - the tart on its own is fantastic enough!

For its tried and true, sinfully delicious taste and ease of preparation, we hearby crown Bourbon-Pecan Tart with (or without!) Chocolate Drizzle a YTK Favorite. Happy no-fuss baking!

Cuban Beef Picadillo

It's time to try another offering from Williams-Sonoma's "What's for Dinner" 30-Minute Meals feature! Today, we're investigating the Cuban Beef Picadillo.

This dish appealed to us because of its straightforwardness and the number of potential serving methods. The recipe claims it can be served over rice, in tortillas, or over spaghetti. (Yeah, that last one didn't sound awesome to us at first, either!)

The recipe begins with an onion, sauteed for 4 minutes. To that, the ground beef is added and browned for 8 minutes, taking care to break up the clumps. The recipe instructs you to separate and discard any fat, but our beef was lean enough that the fat content was negligible.

Next, the spices and garlic are incorporated and cooked for 1 minute. After this, the remaining ingredients are added and brought to a simmer.

Williams-Sonoma's chefs claim that 15 minutes was enough to reduce the mixture to a "stew like" consistency, but it took us almost double that. Our canned tomatoes may just have been extra juicy, or we may not have had the heat turned up enough - either way, we'd caution you to leave a little extra time for preparation. After all, if you finish early, there's no harm in leaving it on low heat a little longer!

We thought this recipe was good, but not great. Because of the seasonings and the currants, the finished product had a slightly sweet (but not too sweet) taste. You guys know us well enough now that you can probably predict our refrain: We want more kick!

If we make this again, we're likely to add a dash of cayenne, and we may also throw in some chopped olives and diced bell peppers for more texture. The salty flavor of the olives, we think, would balance out the sweetness particularly well!

And one final note about serving: Our original plating was with tortillas, which was good but, due to the subtle flavor and liquidity, a messy, mushy combination. We found a winner when we served it over steamed white rice, and, having tried it, we actually can see it being served successfully over pasta. (We know, right?!) It just goes to show, sometimes it's nice to keep an open mind.

Vegetarian Country Captain

In five years subscribing to Cooking Light, we haven't once found a recipe that we didn't like at all. Until today, that is. The recipe in question is Vegetarian Country Captain, a vegetable "stew" from their January 2011 issue.

First of all, it's worth noting that this recipe was originally published with the wrong picture (!!), which gave us the impression that we'd be eating something much different than what we wound up with. This may have something to do with our misgivings about the recipe - but probably not.

What we actually wound up with was a curry-based dish with cauliflower and edamame. It took roughly 30 minutes to prepare and a whopping 17 ingredients, half of which needed to be chopped, diced, or toasted. The prep work didn't take very long, but for all that effort, the final dish was disappointing.

The recipe goes a little something like this: saute onions, add apples, add flour and seasoning. Add broth and bring to a boil, then simmer for 2 minutes on low heat until the mixture thickens. Incorporate the mango chutney, whipping cream, and kosher salt, then add cauliflower and edamame and cook for 8 minutes. Serve over the rice, using the remaining ingredients (almonds, currants, green onions, and cilantro) as toppings.

Beyond that, we just can't get too excited about recapping this recipe, it was that disappointing. Commenters on the recipe page seem a little more enthusiastic, but trust us when we say this was bland, boring, and kind of tiresome to eat. The part we were looking most forward to - the mango chutney - was just plain absent from the flavor profile.

Because we hate wasting food, we'll eat the leftovers for lunch tomorrow, but it will be under extreme duress! Cooking Light still has a great track record, as far as we're concerned, and we're excited to make another recipe from their pages as a palette cleanser.

Cheesy Meat Loaf Minis

Mr. Yuppie's favorite meal in the world is meatloaf, so we've tried our fair share of loaf-based recipes. When we saw Cooking Light's Cheesy Meat Loaf Minis (January 2011), we were intrigued enough by the cheese factor that we decided to give them a shot. Want to see how they went?

First, some substitution notes. We forgot parsley at the store, so we substituted a few dashes of dried parsley flakes instead. Also, because Mrs. Yuppie isn't a huge fan of concentrated volumes of cheese, we decided to grate our cheddar instead of cubing it. This may have had something to do with our results (more on that in a second), so if you try this recipe with cubed cheese, you'll have to let us know what you think!

The first two steps are probably optional depending on who you talk to. The breadcrumbs, which we made fresh using a spice and nut grinder and half a slice of wheat bread, are first toasted in a small, oil-less pan for a few minutes. Motion is key here; don't let the crumbs sit in one place too long or they'll begin to clump together. It's not terrible if they do, but clumping can lead to burning.

Next, the onions and garlic are sauteed in cooking spray for 3 minutes. No surprises here, but try to let them cool off a bit afterward. (You might even send them for a quick trip to the freezer to speed up the process.)

Finally, all ingredients save 1/4 cup of ketchup are combined in a single bowl. You can place the egg in the bowl first, beat it, then add everything else for the least possible messy dishes. This is also why we recommend cooling off the hot items; otherwise, they go into the cold egg and cheese and things start melting and cooking. It's a bad situation.

The meat mixture is shaped into loaves on a broiler pan, which goes in the oven on 425 for 25 minutes, giving us a total, start-to-finish time of 37 minutes, just as advertised!

These meatloaves came together quickly, but seemed a little too moist - seriously, we almost thought they were under-cooked! As we mentioned before, this might be because of our choice to grate the cheese, so be sure to let us know if you try it with different results. All in all, this was a quick, tasty dinner that's sure to please, even if it won't quite knock your socks off.