There comes a time in every man's life when he must throw off the shackles of tradition and move to something more revolutionary. I speak, of course, of Latin American food.
When I think Latin American food, my journey takes me no further south than Tijuana, home of tequila, tacos, burritos, enchiladas and other such combinations of tortilla, beans, rice and meat. After a while, one begins to get the feeling that perhaps the Central and South Americans over-produced tortillas and didn't know what to do with them. Call me ethnocentric, but you know you're thinking it, too.
Thank heavens for chef and Food Network personality, Tyler Florence. I didn't see this recipe on TV, but Hannah did and told me that I had to make it because I have had an organic free-range pork tenderloin in the freezer for the past three or four months. I remembered how good it was the last time I made it and said, "YES, by gum! I shall make this!"
And I didn't regret it.
You see, what he made was a pork tenderloin marinated in a lime, jalapeño, spice, vinegar, olive oil mixture called chimichurri. This is an Argentinian sauce that has several origins, all of them involving an English colonist with a name not dissimilar to "Jimmy Curry" preparing the sauce and everyone just calling it thus. This leads us to the original Argentine recipe, which involves chopped parsley, dried oregano garlic, salt, pepper, onion and paprika with olive oil. Citrus juice and vinegar are added for pep. Clearly, Tyler made a variation of this with loads of pep and a Mexican influence.
This has simple ingredients. Everything you need is in your produce aisle (assuming you, like me, store your pork tenderloin for months at a time). And it's easy peasy, too. It's an hour, tops.
Pork Tenderloin with Chimichurri
From Tyler Florence
Chimichurri:
6 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
2 jalapenos, seeded and minced
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
About 1/2 cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
About 1/2 cup finely chopped fresh oregano leaves
3 limes, juiced
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
2 pork tenderloins (about 1 pound each), trimmed of excess fat, patted dry
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Extra-virgin olive oil
Lime juice, for drizzling
Parsley sprigs, for garnish
Combine the garlic, jalapeno and vinegar in a bowl. Stir in the parsley, oregano, and lime juice. Whisk in the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Mix well and set aside at room temperature to allow the flavors to marry.
Reserve 1/2 cup of the chimichurri to serve and marinate the pork in the rest. Put the pork and marinade in a sealable plastic bag and set aside in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Preheat an outdoor charcoal grill or oven broiler to high.
Remove the pork from the marinade, wiping off any excess. Season both sides with a generous amount of salt and pepper. Drizzle with olive oil and place on the grill. Grill the pork on the hottest part of the barbecue for 4 minutes per side, until well charred. Allow the tenderloin to rest for about 5 minutes prior to slicing. Spoon some chimichurri over the meat, drizzle with lime juice, garnish with parsley, and serve with the remaining sauce at the table.
We served this with beans and basmati with cumin seeds and boiled and roasted carrots. I was stuffed all night. I made two tenderloins and only ate one. So the next day, I made Tenderloin salad for a sandwich:
Tenderloin Salad Sandwich
My own recipe
1 Pork tenderloin, grilled and cubed
1 Tbsp mayonnaise
1 Tbsp sour cream
2 or 3 Tbsp chimichurri sauce (from the previous night)
Salt and pepper to taste
Combine the mayo, sour cream and chimichurri. Add the meat. Season to taste. Place it on a sandwich. Eat.
I got two days of sandwiches out of this. It is fabulous. And if you make this meal, you will never EVER have anything better.
Unless perhaps...a picnic.
Peanut butter sandwiches hardly seem blogworthy. I am pretty sure I made my first one all by myself right after I swore off bologna at age 4. I used to get teased in elementary, middle, and high school because I always had a vegetable, a fruit, and some variation on peanut butter (usually in a pita, on wheat bread, or with strawberry jam) instead of a conglomerated meat sandwich and an industrial snack cake. In those days, it was crunchy Jif and Smucker's strawberry jam. For a brief interlude I convinced myself that reduced fat Jif just tasted so much better. But, that is just crazy talk.
So, when Matthias decided on Monday that taking 4 hours to roast a baby sheep would be a good idea, I thought something simple, or better yet, elemental would be in order for lunch. I am a plain girl. My mom calls me her 'Plain Jane' (I get it honestly. This is her old nickname). I own 4 gray T-shirts, leaving 3 days a week to wear something else. I like food that tastes wholesome and simple. I don't need my tastebuds to be dazzled, or confused, or overwhelmed. I want my life to be honest, genuine, fair, and just. Begin political tirade:
That said....I highly recommend that you use all natural, unsalted peanut butter to make your sandwich. Get this, it actually tastes like peanuts (aherm, Matthias...not corn syrup, hydrogenated oil, salt, and peanuts). If you choose to augment your sandwich with fruit or some other sweetness, please make sure your jam does not have high fructorse corn syrup, or any other unidentifiable ingredients. We like St. Dalfour jam (we know, it's not local, and we're sorry, Earth. We have plans to jam our own when we have more than one refrigerator/freezer/counter shelf between the two of us) or raw honey. Matthias loves his sandwich with bananas. Now, we should talk about bananas.
To accompany our sandwiches, we decided to make smoothies. Matthias is of the opinion that smoothies cannot be made without bananas. I am of the opinion that bananas are one of those things that people can and absolutely should do without unless they are organic and fairly traded. Without further soapboxing, I give you:
Bananas-Are-Not-Negotiable smoothie
Serves 2
1 small apple, diced
1 orange, peeled and sectioned
¾ medium banana
½ cup unsweetened soymilk
½ cup Greek yogurt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp agave nectar
3 ice cubes
Blend until combined.
Author's note: Use fruit that looks good to you. Please do not buy blueberries from Chile in March just because they are full of antioxidants. Please do not buy Driscoll’s strawberries, I don’t care how big and juicy they look. Their workers have not been fairly compensated, and their farming practices are partially culpable for the thick central California air (try breathing it from May-October with asthma). And for pity’s sake, try unrelentingly to petition for and purchase fairly traded bananas, because banana farmers are truly some of the worst worker’s rights offenders and some of the most vibrant vestiges of Cold War politics. And trust me, you don’t want to eat your smoothie with a guilty conscience on the side. You want to eat it with a peanut butter sandwich.
End tirade.
Further reading: Co-op America, New York, I'm looking at you, Fair Trade Federation, Banana Wars
