Adventure One: THE PHOTOS

We started the evening by making some Margaritas to accompany our Latin inspired meal.

Yummy :)

Here is our pork tenderloin rinsed and dried.

The Pork coming from the oven.

Mary Frances is correctly testing the temperature of meat with a thermometer.

Mama Blom taught us well!

Smoky Black Beans Cooking on the Stove

Look at that beautiful Mango-Pineapple Salsa

Sliced Pork Tenderloin, Oven Roasted Sweet Potatoes 

And Smoky Black Beans

In case you were wondering, everything was delicious!

Adventure One: THE RECIPES

Cooking with Mama Blom

Girls Cooking Meat – Adventure One – May 16^th, 2011

 

Latin Spiced Boneless Pork Tenderloin

(Recipe serves 4 - 5)

Ingredients:

1 lb. 4 oz. Pork Loin, Boneless

1 Tbsp. Olive Oil

Spice Rub Mix:

1/2 tsp. Chili Powder, mild

1/2 clove Garlic

1/2 tsp. Thyme

1/4 tsp. Black Pepper

1/4 tsp. Cumin, ground

1/4 tsp. Salt

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. 

2. Rinse meat and pat dry with a paper towel.

3. Combine all ingredients for the spice rub in a small bowl.

4. First, rub olive oil all over meat. Then sprinkle rub on meat, rubbing in with your fingers.

5. Place meat on a rack in a shallow pan* and roast for 25-35 minutes or until when tested with a thermometer reads at least 145 degrees for 15 seconds.

6. Once meat registers 145 degrees, remove from the oven, cover and set aside for at least 15 minutes before slicing.

Nutrition Facts: Per 4 oz. serving - Approximately 137 calories, 3 g total fat, 1 g saturated fat

 *If you do not have a roasting pan and rack, use any pan you have with sides and take heavy duty foil and fold ridges to cook meat on.

Mango-Pineapple Salsa

(Recipe Serves 4 - 5)

Ingredients:

1/4 cup Mango, peeled and diced

1/4 cup Fresh Pineapple, peeled and diced

2 Tbsp. Red Bell Pepper, diced

2 Tbsp. Poblano Chile Pepper, diced finely

2 Tbsp. Red Onion, finely diced

1 Tbsp. Lime Juice

2 tsp. Olive Oil

1 tsp. White Wine Vinegar

Salt to taste

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl.

2. Cover and chill for 15 minutes or up to 24 hours before serving.

Great with pork or chicken!

*Green bell pepper may be used instead of Poblano chile pepper.

Oven Roasted Sweet Potatoes

(Recipe serves 4 - 5)

Ingredients:

1 lb. Sweet Potatoes, fresh

1 Tbsp. Olive Oil

1/2 tsp. Cinnamon, ground

Salt and Pepper

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare sheet pan by lining with foil, parchment or by spraying pan well with non-stick cooking spray.

2. Peel and cube sweet potatoes into approximately 1 inch cubes.

3. Toss cubed sweet potatoes in olive oil, cinnamon. Salt and pepper to taste.

4. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until potatoes are browned and tender.

Alternative: Add some sugar to preference instead of salt and pepper.

Smoky Black Beans

(Recipe serves 4 – 6)

Ingredients:

1 small onion
1 chipotle chile (either canned in adobo or dried)
Two 15- to 16-ounce cans black beans
2 teaspoons olive oil
3/4 cup fresh orange juice

1 cup water
Salt to taste

Directions:

1. Mince onion.

2. If using a dried chipotle chile, place it in a bowl soak in boiling-hot water to cover 5 minutes and drain. Wearing protective gloves, mince soaked or canned chipotle.

3. In a colander rinse black beans well and drain.
4. In a 2- to 3-quart heavy saucepan cook onion in oil over moderately low heat, stirring, until softened. Add chipotle chile and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes.

5. Add beans, 1 cup water, and orange juice and simmer, mashing mixture 3 or 4 times with a potato masher, until slightly thickened, for about 15 minutes. Season beans with salt.

The Beginning

Monday, May 16th, 2011, marked the beginning of the "Girls Cooking Meat" adventures in the kitchen with Mama Blom.

"Mama Blom" aka Beth is none other than my wonderful mother and best friend who has so graciously offered to teach a few lessons to me and my friends on the fundamentals of cooking meat in an attempt to educate all of us on the correct way go about buying, preparing, cooking and ultimately eating meat.

Mama Blom, among many things, is a wonderful cook and experienced teacher. Her credentials encompass owning and running a bakery cafe with my father for over 12 years. More recently, she taught cooking and food safety courses at a community college, a local non-profit and even to prisoners enrolled in job training courses.

One of her greatest accomplishments though (in my opinion anyway) is her family. My father, three brothers and I are very blessed to have such giving and loving woman in our life. Mom is always whipping up something delicious for us and our waist lines attest to this truth!

The friends that are joining me on these adventures into uncharted cooking waters are none but the best and dearest there are. As it turns out, we have already been cooking together for years sometimes as often as once a week and sometimes less often. No matter where we have ended up or how busy our lives get, we always make time to get together and enjoy a home-cooked meal. There is nothing better than great food and great friends. 

As it happens though, our group was really just a "bunch of girls"; one of whom is a vegetarian, and our knowledge and experience with cooking MEAT was limited. A few of us are single and felt that all the trouble to buy and cook meat for one person just was not worth the hassle. Some girls found it frustrating how expensive it was to buy meat and then not know how to cook it properly. One girl being a vegetarian of course does not eat meat, but cooks it for her husband and just really wanted to know how to cook meat well. Of course, at some point my mother "Mama Blom" found out about this little problem we had and came to the rescue insisting she would teach us all the basics on cooking meat. Furthermore, Mama Blom insisted it was easy and fool-proof at that! 

So that brings us to the present. We decided to just pick one night a month and each time learn how to cook a different meat. As it turns out, Mama Blom is right! Cooking meat is pretty simple. I never doubted her of course :) 

May 2011's menu was centered around cooking pork tenderloin. Before we dive into that though, we all learned that the real secret behind perfectly cooked meat rests with one important kitchen tool - a properly calibrated meat thermometer! Note: Any old thermometer will not do. More on all of this later in another blog post. 

My next post will include all of the recipes from our first adventure in cooking meat which we appropriately named PORK-O-LICIOUS!

Happy cooking and let me know if you catch any mistakes in the recipes or have any comments or suggestions.

- Christen aka Mama Blom's Daughter