Pork tenderloin can make a really nice company meal, if you’re willing to fancy-it-up a little by butterflying it and adding a tasty filling, and then making a quick red wine pan sauce to drizzle on top. Most of the work can be done hours ahead and just finish at the last minute.

I read the other day that the price of pork is going to go up – if it hasn’t already. Food in general, it seems to me, has gone up a whole lot more than than the inflation rate. Have you noticed that? Pork has been one of the best bargains in the meat world for a long time. Anyway, I buy those nice, big pork tenderloins at Costco. I bake one right away, then seal up the others in FoodSaver bags to freeze and defrost whenever I have the need. I’ve found that, especially if you stuff a tenderloin, these from Costco will feed at least 3 people, maybe even 4, as long as you don’t have a high school linebacker at the dinner table! And providing you have other dishes to round out the plate – like a carb and ample vegetables.

This recipe, adapted by Tarla Fallgatter at a recent class, came from a Food & Wine article way back in 2001. Tarla used a pork tenderloin instead of a roast. Whenever I go to a cooking class I assume that many of the instructors use or revise some older recipes, so I search online to find them – that way I don’t have to type the recipe from scratch into my recipe software.

Butterflying a pork tenderloin is perhaps a little tricky. However, you’re in luck, there’s a video on vimeo showing you exactly how to do it. Cutting the second side (latter part of the video) shows it better than the first half. Technically you cut open the tenderloin like a book, then you open each side further like a fold-out in a magazine. It’s really easy and once you’ve done it once you’ll have no difficulty repeating it. One of the nice things about this stuffed roast is that you can do most of the work ahead of time – even the day before.

The stuffing and crust are composed of onion cooked in butter, walnuts, panko crumbs, parsley, fresh sage and freshly grated Parmigiano cheese. Part of that filling is set aside and is used as a crust after the tenderloin is roasted. The filling is spread throughout the butterflied meat, rolled up carefully, then tied in multiple places to keep it intact through pan-browning it. Into a roasting pan it goes with a little bit of water (to keep it from drying out), then it’s covered (with foil if that’s what’s available rather than a lid) and baked for 20 minutes. Then it’s removed to yet another pan. Stay with me here . . . The pan sauce is made on the stovetop IN the roasting pan you baked the meat in). The roast has its strings removed at this point, then is topped with that saved filling (that now becomes a top crust) you set aside earlier, then it’s broiled briefly just to give that crusty topping a golden brown glow.

Meanwhile, you’ve made the red wine sauce – it’s quite simple – red wine, reduced down, chicken broth also reduced, then it’s thickened with a cornstarch slurry, seasoned, buttered and it’s done. Carve the meat and serve! Now, as for the make-ahead part . . . you can stuff it and tie it ahead – hours before or even the day before. Have all of the other ingredients measured and ready. Just before serving you’ll need to pan-brown the meat, bake it, then make the sauce. Not exactly quick, but not difficult. If one of your guests will help, have them make the pan sauce while you finish up the rest of dinner and broil the meat.

What’s good: lovely presentation, and the meat is just pink-tender. The easy pan sauce adds a nice touch for a company meal.
What’s not: nothing, really. It’s a bit of work, but you’ll master it, then you can make it again!

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Who knew a pork roast could taste so moist and flavorful, and that black beans and rice cooked underneath the pork could absorb so much flavor from the meat drippings?

My friend Cherrie gave me a cookbook called Perfect One-Dish Dinners: All You Need for Easy Get-Togethers. I hadn’t cooked anything from it, although I’d read through it and knew I wanted to. The cookbook assumes that you want to entertain occasionally, but you want to cook everything in one pot (for ease), but also have it be nice enough for guests – and tasty enough to wow them a little.

We were having Cherrie and Bud over for dinner, so it was a perfect opportunity to try something from this cookbook. I told my DH about 2 recipes – a stuffed chicken breast and a stuffed pork loin and gave him the choice. He chose the pork. He went off shopping for me (bless his heart – he loves to go grocery shopping!).

It’s kind of a long story, but my DH could not find the long, long package of boneless pork loin at Costco. He phoned me in distress – what should he do? I finally told him to buy a sirloin package he’d found instead. But truthfully, I’d never fixed a sirloin pork roast before, so didn’t know how I was going to adapt the recipe. As it turned out, it wasn’t a problem. We found an illustration of a pig (butchered), and I ended up following the directions just as if it was a boneless pork loin and it cooked the same. But instead of a longer roast in one piece, I actually cooked 2 of the sirloin roasts (way too much for 4 people – the Costco package contains 4 chubs of sirloin roast and I’d say each one easily serves 4 people).

First I made up the adobo-chorizo stuffing. I used the dry Spanish chorizo – the recipe doesn’t specify, but just called for fully-cooked chorizo. Anyway, that was cut up into chunks (after peeling off the skin). It gets whizzed up in the food processor with fresh cilantro, some garlic you’ve cooked in olive oil, some chipotle chiles in adobo, dry bread crumbs and ground cumin. I cut deep slits in the pork roast and gently opened it up to push in the stuffing.

My DH helped me tie up the roasts – you don’t want the filling to leak out. It’s a dry kind of filling, so it really shouldn’t leak, exactly.

Then you mix up some spices – also adobo style – cumin, salt, pepper, paprika, brown sugar – and gently roll the roast in those seasonings. Including the ends, which often get overlooked.  They were now ready for baking.

In the bottom photo you can see the roast is sitting on a rack and it’s in a roasting pan (mine is nonstick). It went into a 250° oven for about 1 1/2 hours – until the meat had reached about 125° (not cooked sufficiently yet). Then, you remove the meat and the rack and set it aside momentarily. Tick the oven up to 400°. Everything was all ready to go – I’d pressure cooked some black beans (11 minutes after a 1-hour water soak), measured long grain rice and opened a can of diced tomatoes. And measured out chicken broth. All that was dumped into the bottom of the pan and stirred around. There were a few – really very few drips on the pan bottom – just enough to give some flavorful Chorizo and cumin flavoring to the rice. The roast went back in with the rack, which sat just above the beans and rice below. Back into the oven it went, and the rice was done in exactly 20 minutes, just as the recipe indicated.

The pan was removed from the oven, the roast set aside for a few minutes to rest, and I covered the beans and rice with foil so it wouldn’t get cold. Meanwhile I mixed up the salad and got everything all ready. The meat was sliced and I quickly poured the beans and rice down both sides and served it. I sprinkled on some cilantro, but forgot the green onions! I didn’t make anything other than the salad.

What’s good: that it cooked all in one pan. I won’t exactly call this a cinchy, easy dish, but it’s not all that difficult, either. Much of it could be done ahead of time. The pork roast bakes untended for 90 minutes or so, and then another 20 minutes once you add the beans and rice. So the labor part can all be done at the beginning, or earlier in the day, or even the day before. It makes a lovely presentation – especially on a bright contrasting platter. And the flavor was wonderful. I’d definitely make this again and especially for guests. Next time I would probably make some kind of colorful veggie (broccoli? asparagus? red bell peppers?), although it really doesn’t need it. We just like veggies and prefer them to carbs. But oh, these carbs were delish and especially good along side the slices of pork. And even though this recipe is long and has a rather long list of directions, it’s not hard.
What’s not: absolutely nothing at all.

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When I ponder something new to fix for dinner, I can’t say that I ever think about choosing Malaysian food! I don’t know that I’ve ever had Malaysian food, for that matter, until now!

I’d defrosted some pork – one of the few remaining packages from the 4-H Berkshire pig we bought over a year ago. I still have some bacon and ham and that’s about it. Even though the package said it was country ribs, it was a very small package, so I decided to spread out the pork wealth by making something like stew. As is my usual method, I went to Eat Your Books, where I have listed nearly all of my cookbooks. I put in “pork stew” and within seconds I had a list of the dozens and dozens of recipes contained in my own cookbooks. Well no, it doesn’t really have the recipes, it just has the title and the list of ingredients (by name, not quantity), which makes it quite simple to deduce if I have the ingredients on hand. In this particular recipe, yes, I had the pork, coconut milk, onions, white wine, ginger, tomatoes, fresh mint and cilantro. I didn’t have fresh basil, but I overlooked that one.

I just love that website – it makes finding a recipe so simple. Once I chose this recipe, I glanced at what cookbook – how funny – it’s from my mostly new-favorite book – The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Classic Recipes for a New Century. And better yet, once I pulled out the book itself, I found that I had already flagged the recipe – but just hadn’t gotten around to making it! All serendipity – it was meant to be!

The cookbook version suggests Boston butt or pork shoulder. I assumed the cooking time wouldn’t be much different for the country ribs. It also has you make it all on the stovetop, whereas I had decided to use the pressure cooker, which worked like a charm. The preparation is the same – it’s just the difference of the cooking time (10 minutes by pressure cooker, and about 60-90 minutes on the stovetop).

The pork stew chunks are dredged in a spicy mixture of curry powder, cumin and paprika. I had a hot curry powder, so I didn’t add cayenne as listed in the recipe. (Although, I couldn’t really discern any heat in the finished dish, so it was more mild than anticipated.) They were browned well in oil, removed, then I sautéed the onions (it called for red, I only had a yellow one). Then you add in all the other ingredients, including garlic and simmer. That’s when I put on the lid and pressure cooked it for 9 minutes.  I had a bit of coconut milk left over (I made half of the recipe you see below) so I just added it in at the last, along with the fresh green beans. I simmered them just until they were barely cooked through. Because we limit white carbs, I only used about 2-3 T. of cooked rice in each bowl, ladled the soup around the outer rim (so we could see the rice), then sprinkled on the garnishes. The lime juice adds a really important taste element – be sure to add that part. I liked the flavor combination from the spices (paprika, cumin and curry). The garnish is a combo of fresh mint, fresh cilantro, basil (if you have it, I didn’t), peanuts (I didn’t have peanuts, but I did have sliced almonds so I chopped those up) and lime juice. That garnish adds a wonderful touch to the taste.

What’s good: just the overall flavor of the gravy or soup part – it’s loaded with taste. The pork was nicely cooked, although not overly so. It might have been able to take another minute or two in the pressure cooker. I’m sure this could be made the day ahead, even. Just make the garnishes at the last minute. And the left overs – they were wonderful.
What’s not: nothing, really.

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A real down-home meal with blade cut, bone in pork chops and a lot of onions, with a very tasty beef broth based sauce to smother them with.

Ever since we got back from our driving trip last week, I’ve been kind of distracted with catching up on things. My car (my NEW 1-year old used car) has had some engine trouble and is in the shop for the 2nd time since our return, and we’ve had numerous other house-related difficulties (the wine cellar A/C quit working, our drains are plugged up as I write this – no flushing, no washing dishes, nuthin’ through the pipes or it’s pumping out onto the street below us), so meals have been a bit makeshift. So when I stood at the freezer, peering in at the assortment there, I thought about what we’ve had lately . . . burgers for one. Our oldest grandson is inordinately fond of burgers and I have to bribe him to get him to drive 30 minutes to visit, so I made sliders using the French Hamburgers recipe, just did small ones without the sauce and with Trader Joe’s slider buns. And with my favorite new Tomato Jam to scoop on them. I used the leftover burgers in a couple of ways (plain with more tomato jam and then chopped up in a Caesar salad). Anyway, we’ve also had chicken. And one all-veggie dinner. So, back to me standing in front of the freezer, and I pulled out a package of pork chops. They’re from the 4-H farm pig we got a year ago, and I’m winding down on what’s left, but there was this one package of blade chops – it was just what I needed for this recipe.

Since our return I’m also trying to catch up on all the shows that recorded on my Tivo – to make room for all the new shows that are starting up again for fall. So I watched a recent Cook’s Country TV show about smothered pork chops. Sounds like something my mother would have made – she loved Swiss steak (beef) and pot roasts with gravy (beef).

There was nothing difficult about making these – you just have to plan ahead and know that the chops need to bake for 90 minutes before you can eat them! The thin (no thicker than 1/2 inch) chops are seasoned (paprika, cayenne, salt, pepper, onion powder), browned, then set aside. The onions are cooked in some butter, thyme, garlic and bay leaf added, then all is assembled, covered and baked for 90 minutes at 300°. Now here’s the next step – you must remove all the onions and chops (set aside covered in foil so it stays warm), strain the beef broth sauce and remove as much of the fat as you can with a spoon on the surface (otherwise it’s way too greasy), then thicken the sauce with cornstarch. Everything is added back in, rewarmed and you’re ready to serve.

What I liked: the good, old-fashioned flavor; good onion and beefy flavor to the sauce; it was also relatively easy to make.

What I didn’t like: nothing at all. Maybe not a blue-ribbon recipe, but it was good.

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This isn’t a new recipe here on my blog. But it’s a winner. A keeper. It’s also not very healthy, sorry to say! What with a buttery crust, Boursin cheese on the bottom, then Greyere and Mozzarella cheese on top. Well, yes, there are some fat grams here. But delicious? Oh yes.

When I made this the other night I did change it up just a little – in the middle of frying up the red onion, I decided to add some bacon. Into the freezer I went and pulled out 1 1/2 slices of thick bacon. These were chopped up and added to the onions. Not really enough to add a lot of calories particularly, but oodles of flavor. I make this tomato pie almost every year when tomato season is in full swing. When those big honkin’ heirlooms are as big as baseballs.

Here’s the link to my previous post of this (including the press-in pastry) – I’ll tell you, though, that I did quick work of the press-in pastry. Normally it needs to be chilled a couple of hours. I didn’t have time – I just pressed it right into the pie plate and went from there. This isn’t a quick meal – you do have to pre-bake the crust. You need to combine the cheeses and mayonnaise (2/3 cup) that go on top. You have to peel the tomatoes and cut them up, squeezing out most of the juice and seeds. The Boursin needs to sit out at room temp for a bit so you can spread it all over the bottom of the crust (it provides a lovely barrier so the juicy tomatoes don’t soak into the crust. Then, of course, it has to bake for about 30 minutes. Or so.

So, you see, there are steps involved. I didn’t take a photo of the press-in pastry after I’d par-baked it. But, here you can see the finished product – with a few slices missing:

Once it’s baked, let it rest for about 15 minutes. If you cut it immediately, it’ll be just too, too soft and oozy. It will spread all over your plate.

Use a big pastry wedge to get it out – and in fact the first slice may get a bit mangled. Subsequent slices are almost easier to remove from the center out if you can get the pie wedge IN there. The crust is sturdy enough to allow you to do that. We ate a slice apiece for dinner. We had it again the next night. Then I had another slice for lunch one day. I reheated each piece in my microwave for 45 seconds. If you heat it much longer than that it, too, will ooze all over the plate. As I write this there is still one slice left and it’s going to be given to our friend who’s staying here at our house while we’re on vacation. Just enough for one. I served it with a green salad.

Obviously, if I make this every year, you know it’s a Carolyn favorite. Try it before tomatoes are all gone. Click on the link above to get to the original recipe. Just add some bacon to the onion and you have a different recipe!

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Throwing this dinner together was very last minute. But fresh produce from our corner farm stand just made it fabulous. And the grilled double pork chop? Oh my goodness! Read on . . .

The day I fixed this dinner – a Saturday – I wasn’t even planning to cook dinner. We were heading to San Diego, to spend the afternoon on our boat and with friends and would eat dinner at our yacht club. But traffic got in the way. It took over an hour for us to drive 20 miles. The freeway was just jammed. Where in the world were all these people going? There was no accident, yet my trusty iPhone traffic info said it would be stop and go for another 35 miles at least. We were in my DH’s convertible. Top up, of course, but still it was over 100° and I was sitting on the passenger side, in full sun, with the A/C barely keeping me cool. In bumper-to-bumper traffic very few car A/C’s can keep cool. We eventually got off the freeway and turned toward home. We stopped at our corner farm stand and bought another big box of the less-than-perfect tomatoes ($10 for 10 pounds), 2 ears of corn, some squash and a bunch of asparagus. Walking into our house (heavenly A/C) I stopped at the garage freezer and poked through the contents until I found one last 2-rib pork chop.

The chunk of meat was plunged into a big bowl of cold water and defrosted in a couple of hours, with some weights on top of it. I sliced a big honkin’ tomato and made a caprese with it. Easy. I sprinkled the corn with a new seasoning mix I have – from Savory Spice Shop. If you have one in your neighborhood, try this mixture – called Peruvian Chile Lime Seasoning. I sprinkled it all over the corn which I’d sprayed with Trader Joe’s canned olive oil spray. Wrapped in foil, it cooked in about 10 minutes or less.

The pork I sprinkled liberally with Montreal Seasoning and spread with some grapeseed oil, then I sprinkled on a brand new ingredient – smoked cinnamon. Oh my goodness was that ever delish. So easy, and so very wonderful!

Then I quick-like researched asparagus and found this recipe which was quick and easy too. I had shallots. I had an orange and sherry vinegar. And I had sliced almonds too. It came together in a flash. It was thin asparagus, so it took no more than about 4-5 minutes to cook from beginning to end.

What I liked: I don’t usually do this – 3 recipes in one post – but all of these were so easy I decided I should just post them all together. The pork and the corn were so simple they hardly even require a recipe! Fabulous meal.

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If you have some pizza dough on hand, and a package of prosciutto, some fresh mozzie and fresh tomatoes, a pizza marriage can be made. Especially with the arugula salad on top and decorated with more Parmesan cheese and pine nuts.

Perhaps I’ve mentioned it before, but I can remember the first time I had  pizza with a salad on top – it was at California Pizza Kitchen, and it was surely 25 years ago, or more. What a combo, I thought. And I’ve ordered it many times since. And I’ve made it in a few variations. Most recently it was the Pioneer Woman’s version with prosciutto and figs. I’ve also made an artichoke & zucchini focaccia pizza too, and because I love the salad aspect, I’ve added it onto the other pizzas I’ve made too, like  my all-time favorite one, chicken, red onion and kalamata olive pizza.

This one had an arugula salad on top. Truth be known – I love-love arugula. It’s the peppery-lemony biting flavor of it that I like so much. In this case it’s tossed in a light olive oil and lemon juice dressing. Nothing fancy at all – I didn’t even measure, although the recipe does give you amounts.

The recipe came from yet another cooking class with Phillis Carey. What a wonder woman she is. Five different dishes at this last class, and five winners. You’ll see them all here eventually. This was the first one I made from the class. And I’ll tell you right now – my DH Dave and our dinner guest Irene both nearly levitated off their chairs they loved this pizza so much. Dave even ate my little pieces of crust I’d left on my plate. If you can’t find or can’t get fresh mozzarella, you can use regular mozzie. It won’t have the same taste, but it’ll be good. And if you want to try a little something different, add some goat cheese to the mixture. That will make it good too.

One of the features of home made pizza is creating individual sizes – a one pound ball of pizza (which I bought at Trader Joe’s a week or so ago) can be divided to make 2 to 4 pizzas, or even 8 if you want small ones. I divided it into thirds, which was just right for us. Bigger appetites, maybe not enough. One of the secrets to working with raw pizza dough is giving the dough enough time – in between stretching it out – to rest and relax the gluten. In the past when I’ve been in a hurry and just jammed and pushed and pulled to try to get the pizza dough to stretch out into a big enough shape, and I’d get so frustrated. I knew it needed to rest, but I was in a gosh-darned hurry and didn’t have time for the blasted dough to give me trouble. But it will let you manipulate it if you just let it rest.

What I did was cut the dough into thirds. I put those blobs onto a rimmed baking sheet. Then I drizzled my hands with olive oil (actually it was grapeseed oil) and pressed out the dough some. Whatever you do, DON’T oil the entire ball of dough as then it won’t stick to the pan. It’ll just slide right back into a blob after every pushing/stretching session. As I began gathering up the ingredients for the pizza, I’d give the pizza dough another stretch, then I’d wash my hands again and go do something else for 10 minutes. It took me about 30 minutes to get the rest of the dinner together, and by then the dough was perfectly pliable and I was able to stretch it easily into sort of oval shapes.

Then the toppings begin. Because I’d oiled my hands as I molded the dough, I didn’t need to put oil on the top of each pizza. You choice, though. You can also use a rolling pin to stretch and shape the dough if you don’t like getting your hands icky. Phillis used fresh oregano. Well, I didn’t have any fresh,so I just used dried. That went on first. Then half of the Parmesan cheese, sprinkled all over the dough.  Then the fresh Mozzie went on, along with the strips of prosciutto. More Parmesan went on with a bunch of halved cherry tomatoes (the recipe calls for plum tomatoes) and a sprinkling of red pepper flakes.

They’re baked in a hot oven and once removed it’s so much easier to go ahead and slice the pizza right then and there, THEN dress the arugula, pile the salad on top. I slid the pizzas onto plates, then topped each with the salad. Then you sprinkle on the last bit of Parmesan and toasted pine nuts.

What I liked: well, it’s easy to make, especially if you buy the raw pizza dough. Just have all the ingredients ready and it’s quick to put together. The toughest part is stretching the dough into place. The tastes in this are just fantastic.

What I didn’t like: nothing at all!

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Even using the sous vide, the prep work may require a couple of steps – as in this case. First I soaked the pork chops in an apple brine for 24 hours, then they went into the sous vide for several hours with some seasonings. Worth the effort for sure.

After several weeks, I’m still learning my way through using the SousVide Supreme Sous Vide Water Oven. The process doesn’t come naturally like stove top sautéing, or grilling or simmering. But I’m getting the hang of it. This time I pulled some pork chops out of the freezer that I’d already prepped. I’d bought one of those big packages of boneless thick pork chops at Costco. Here’s what I did to the whole batch:

1. Soaked them in a big Ziploc bag in Tyler Florence’s Spiced Apple Brine. For 24 hours. I drained it, then . . .
2. Put two small chops each into vacuum pouches (still left open at this point).
3. Added to each pouch a little sprinkling of capers, about 1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard and kind of mushed it around on one side of the meat, about 1/2 teaspoon of fresh chopped rosemary and some pepper. Then I sealed them up with the vacuum sealer.

At this point I froze them so it would be easy to prepare once they were defrosted, which I did 24 hours ahead of serving. The day of, I put them in 131° water in the Sous Vide, and let them cook for about 6-7 hours (the range is 5-8 hours – meaning they’d be done in 5 but they can hold at that temp for up to 8 hours). My DH fired up the gas grill and just seared them for about 1 1/2 minutes per side. I made a kind of a raita sauce on the side (sour cream, fresh chives, minced cucumber, lemon juice, a little jot of champagne vinegar, some fresh herbs, salt, pepper). I’d also done some of the pork in a curry kind of flavoring mix, but none of us cared for it much – so that’s why I made the raita style side. Raita goes mostly with Indian food (you can see the yellow curry in the upper pouch), but it was nice enough with this.

So how was it? Wonderful! The meat was tender as could be – it was perfectly cooked through, pink in the middle too. If you are cooking pork from a raw state the USDA recommends you cook it to 143° to kill the pathogens. But using a sous vide, several hours of that slow cooking provides the same bug-killing at 131° (according to my sous vide information). In my sous vide cookbook, it indicates that pasteurization of meat (beef, lamb, pork) occurs  after 2 hours (1 1/4 inch thick meat). Thinner meat takes less time. So even though the meat was pink in the middle, it was completely cooked and safe.

What I liked: just how tender the meat was, and how flavorful the little seasoning in it was. Brining was definitely the way to go.

What I didn’t like: really nothing. I’d definitely make this again. I’ll likely make a different sauce.

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Another experiment with sous vide cooking. This time I made pork shoulder (pork butt), cooked it at 140° for 48 hours. And I served it with a very tart North Carolina vinegar sauce instead of the usual ketchup-based barbecue sauce that’s more typical. Mostly I did that because my DH is a diabetic and very rarely eats pulled pork because the traditional BBQ sauce just sends his blood sugar skyrocketing.

At least once a week I’m experimenting with my SousVide Supreme Sous Vide Water Oven. Not every dish I’ve made has made it to a post on my blog, as I’m not experienced enough yet. One pork dish I made was not very good (pork chops were too thin, I think, so it overcooked). I’m liking the long, slow cooking for more things – the less tender cuts. Not steaks and such – they are best with relatively little sous vide cooking. I had a big chunk of pork in the freezer – I’d purchased a gigantic pork shoulder a month or so ago, at a great price and cut it up into smaller cooking portions. But I didn’t have a sous vide cooker then. So the meat was just vacuum sealed with nothing whatsoever in it. I decided to just go with it that way. Nothing else in the pouch but the meat. No salt. No pepper. No onions or seasonings of any kind. I knew I’d need to doctor it up with seasonings later.

So I did some reading about barbecue sauces. Goodness, but there are a lot of different types. I knew there was a Memphis style, and St. Louis style, but that was about it. Referring to one of my Steven Raichlen books, Barbecue! Bible: Sauces, Rubs, and Marinades, Bastes, Butters, and Glazes, I hunted through all the dozens of possible permutations, trying to find one that was low on sugar. We’re mostly tuned into such sauces containing lots and lots of ketchup. Then I read about the sauce that is the favorite with folks in North Carolina. It’s a vinegar sauce and has nary a teaspoon of tomato in it – like ketchup or tomato paste.

So here’s what’s in it – onions sliced thin, apple cider vinegar, water (not pictured), red chili flakes, sugar, salt and pepper. It’s not cooked. You merely combine the ingredients in a bowl (non-reactive) and stir it up. I made it ahead because I wanted the onions to soften a bit in there, which they did. Not only did they soften in texture, but the soaking takes away some of the fresh astringency from raw onions. I covered it and just let it sit out on the counter for several hours.

What you need to know about this sauce is that you combine it with the shredded pork and the meat just absorbs a lot of the vinegar sauce. No, it’s not sour (because the meat has a lot of sweetness to it). You’d think it would be sour. I was unsure enough about this sauce that I took a piece of pork and gingerly dipped it into the sauce to sample it. Oh my. GOOD. Amazing, I thought.

I cut up some green cabbage and put just a little bit of the vinegar sauce on it and served that with the sliders – to put onto the sandwich itself. The meat – so tender and juicy. I added about a cup of the onions and vinegary sauce to it and let it sit for about 5 minutes before I set out the slider buns, the meat, the cabbage. I let everyone make their own sliders. I also made a delicious cabbage salad which I’ll post in a couple of days.

What I liked: the texture and taste of the pulled pork. It was incredibly tender after 48 hours of sous vide. The vinegar sauce was outstanding. I loved it! For left overs I put out regular barbecue sauce (bottled) and some eaters had some of that too.

What I didn’t like: nothing. It was really, really good.

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. . .This recipe hardly even deserves an entire recipe box listing – it’s just pork shoulder, vacuum sealed, done in the sous vide for 48 hours. Done.

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Shall I just tell you that if I’d had a spoon, mine would have been in the pot of sauce, eating spoonful after spoonful of that balsamic and goat cheese combination; it was THAT good. What you see on the right front is a grilled cipollini onion – a VERY grilled cipollini. You might think it’s burned – nope! Absolutely meltingly tender.

A couple of weeks ago I attended a cooking class with James Clark, the chef at Croce’s Restaurant and Jazz Bar in San Diego. He was a very charming man and had all of us 50+ students nearly eating out of his hand (well, not literally). With a few stories interspersed throughout his monologue, this recipe was a real standout. And as I mentioned above, if I could have had a little BOWL of the sauce on the side, it would have been eaten straight. It was just addictive. The class was busy – well, I mean HE was busy. First he made soup, the Croce’s Mulligatawny Soup. Then he made twice-baked potatoes (I probably won’t write up that one just because it’s so simple: to the whipped potatoes, just add butter, goat cheese, parsley, salt and pepper and half and half and put them back into the potato skin; bake them about 15 minutes, along with the cipollini onions), he prepped the asparagus and the cipollini, made the glaze, the marinade. And he made the salad – I’ve written that up already: Pear, Arugula and Fennel Salad. That one was so good. I have one more recipe to go, as well, the dessert. You’ll get all the recipes from this class eventually.

The pork is marinated for 2-3 hours (no longer, no overnight marinade), grilled, then baked in the oven. It rests 5 minutes then it’s sliced and served with the cipollini onions and asparagus. AND the fabulous balsamic goat cheese glaze drizzled all over it. Make it, okay?

What I liked: the sauce, the sauce, the sauce. And the onions too. Pork was lovely too.

What I didn’t like: nothing – it looked easy to do, and some of the work can be done ahead.

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