This simple but beautiful dish is really satisfying. I again am cooking for our dear friends Heather and James. They are hard at work opening up "Coulis" their new breakfast/lunch restaurant where the old "Blue bird" restaurant was on Prytaina street. So it is nice to share a meal with them so they can relax after a long day.
The Crescent City market was bustling on Tuesday. It had been a long, rainy weekend. The only light we saw was the Saints kicking some butt on Sunday!
For this meal I was inspired by the beautiful mix of fresh Beans from B&B Farms. I purchased a pound each of the Baby Lima, Pink Eye Sue, and the Crowder beans. I then Picked up a couple of Creole tomatoes from the Monicas and some goat cheese from Ryals Goat dairy, and I was on my way to a great meal.
Fresh bean salad
Ingredients:
1lb each fresh baby Lima, pink eye sue, crowder beans
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 shallots, minced
2 creole tomatoes, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Method:
Boil each type of bean separately in salted water. (I do each separately because they all have different cooking times.) Boil each until tender with a slight bite because we will cook them a little more later. Each should take between 5 and 8 minutes to cook. Just test them as you go. I don't have a specific time, the fresher the bean, the quicker it cooks.
Pour hot bean into a strainer and cool with cold water. This will stop the cooking process.
Next heat up a large non stick skillet. Place the olive oil in and let it heat up over medium heat. Add the tomatoes, garlic and shallots. Let them cook for about 3 minutes to infuse flavors into the oil and soften up. The tomatoes will release their juice.
Add all the beans into the pan. Mix so that everything is well incorporated. Salt and Pepper to taste. (I always say to salt and pepper to taste because every ones pallet is different and ingredients are different also.) Now just let them simmer all together for about 5 to 10 minutes so that some of the liquid evaporates and the flavor all melds together. Be sure not to over cook the beans.
From this point you can add some fresh ricotta or goat cheese from the Ryals dairy if you would like and and toss it in for a different spin.
Stuffed Pork tenderloin
First we have to make the filling. This is so easy.
Ingredients:
12 oz goat cheese
1 cup Italian bread crumbs
6-8 sun dried tomatoes
1 bunch Italian parsley, tops only
1 cup pecans (or any nut you prefer)
zest of one lemon
Place all ingredient in a food processor and pulse until it becomes a chunky paste.
Set aside. If you do not have a food processor you can chop it all by hand and mix together.
Now we need to prepare the pork loin. you need to butterfly the pork loin, which means you just need to open it up. I will try to explain. Take you knife and cut down the middle length wise until you get down to 1 inch from the bottom. You do not want to cut all the way through.
Next take you knife and cut along the length of the loin on each side slowly rolling it open.
Salt and pepper well.
The next step is to spread the goat cheese filling over the surface of the pork.
Roll the pork up like you would a jelly roll. Tie with string down the length of the loin so that it will stay closed during cooking. Salt and pepper the out side of the loin.
Place 1/4 cup of canola oil in a large skillet. Heat on medium high. Place the pork roll in the pan and brown on all sides. Place the browned pork roll on a greased sheet pan. Bake in a pre heated 350 degree oven for approximately 40 min. Remove from oven and let rest for 5 min before slicing. this will let the juices go back into the meat.
Slice and serve with the Fresh been salad.
Enjoy!
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