The Nation Has An Appetite

Pork for the win

27 Comments

Doc S says that if I don't take the food porn photos then it didn't happen. He's to blame for this.

If you recall last week (what is time?!?) Dr. Chop told me that she wasn't going to be satisfied with anything form our repertoire wrt dinner and thus the pork wellington was hatched. No photos, but it did happen. Welp, decadent Saturday seems like it's a thing that is going to keep happening my diet be damned.

This week's entry? Pork rollup with cream cheese, hatch green chili, and pistachios wrapped in bacon. Dr. Chop work shopped this one, and I executed. Oh, mama was this good.

First I butterflied a pork tenderloin, and then smashed it into a 1/4 of an inch thick slab of meat product.

Next comes the cream cheese bath - cooks note I had a half a tub of creole cream cheese which is pretty runny and easily smeared across said meat slab

Next comes the hatch green chilis- canned is fine, jarred (look for 505 brand / young guns brand)is better, or freshly roasted which is optimal. I hear from my old man that fresh hatch chilis have hit the super markets in 'perterville so they're likely around the greater MN metros. (I also used a bit of shredded cheddar to bind things in the heats of the grills). I rough chopped about 1/3 cup pistachios and dumped them onto the pig product.

 

Next comes the roll up

 

I hadn't planned to wrap this in bacon, but as it turns out the roll up wasn't as tight as I wanted. I happened to have a half pound of schmidt's meat market bacon on hand so why not?

 

This is the final wrap up (yeah doc, you asked for this - now lie in your bed)

 

I quick smoked this by lighting ~3/4 a chimney of briquets and dumping them when mostly on fire in a pile on one side of the grill. I choked off the heat by leaving the bottom vent wide open and the top vent 1/8 inch open. While the coals were regulating themselves I started roasting some baby red potatoes and carrots. I added a couple good sized chunks of cherry wood and put the pork on the indirect side.

Once the internal temp had hit 140 I moved the whole shooting match over the coals with the lid off to crisp up the bacon.

The final result was nothing short of decadent. Doc, wish you were here brother. Even if you were here there wasn't enough for three....... Okay there was but I was greedy AF.

27 thoughts on “Pork for the win”

  3. Looks dee-lish, printer.

    Blame me for doc's edict. I kept saying it to him on fb. Finally shamed him into complying.

    1. Oh, I'll blame anyone and everyone for this. I ate way, way too much of this last night. I can't wait to make it again. A few tasting notes, an herb, or the green bits of a green onion and a dried fruit would have taken this to another level. Next time.

      1. One of like 3 good things that has happened this year is we now have quite a mini herb garden going. I love being able to pop into the backyard and snatch up some fresh oregano for example.

        1. Cosign. I have so much basil and oregano to use up each week. I was disappointed our Thyme and Cilantro plantings were weak at best and our Rosemary never came up at all.

          1. We have so much sage and I have no idea what to do with it. If you do need it in something, you usually only need a tiny bit. I asked one of my most culinary minded friends what to do with it, and she was like, I dunno, dry it and smudge?

            Cilantro and chives were a bust for us. Tons of thyme if you need it.

            1. Strap in for this one:

              Last time in Umbria, Italy, we had fried zucchini blossoms and sage leaves, in beer batter. I planted zucchini earlier this year and we had some, but got COVID'd with two months in Minnesota.

              Get some flour in a bowl and add beer/soda water to make a simple batter, then deep fry the zucchini blossoms and sage leaves in olive oil. Bellisimo!

              1. Actually, yeah, I forgot about that. I did see the deep frying thing. That seemed the only good way to use a lot of it as there's not really any sauces you can make or anything. Kind of light on zucchini blossoms around here though.

                I did make a blackberry sage kombucha (not bad, but might have cooked out too much of the sage flavor), but that barely put a dent in it.

                1. Also, hey, this also reminded me I've got to pop that grapefruit kombucha into the fridge before I have a very large mess to clean up...

                  (just boring basic grapefruit; wanted to add chia seeds, but I think that window passed.)

                2. Farmer's Markets are my go to for Zucchini blossoms. Was just talking about making what NBB described last weekend when I saw them in MSP.

      2. Being a transplanted midwest citizen (born in Long Beach, CA) I was thinking of some sort of sauce or glaze to take it to another level. Maybe a honey-chili-lime glaze of sorts (Bobby Flay influence). A little citrus somewhere. Recipe looks amazing as do the pictures. I am definitely going to rip this off at least for home cooking!

  4. Dayyum.

    I am happy to have helped facilitate the post. It was beautifully done.

    And welcome back, pork product posts!

    Finally, I love that bread box(?).

  5. I like to cook and have been trying stuff out too. So I'll prob contribute soonish. Got food plans people.

    I hear from my old man that fresh hatch chilis have hit the super markets in 'perterville so they're likely around the greater MN metros.

    Personal comment: I'm not convinced they are the same and still bring back peppers every time I'm in the SW. It could be how they're preserved or something I dunno.

    I definitely use a lot of stuff I've seen at the WGOM first foodwise. One of my fav things about this community.

    1. I definitely use a lot of stuff I've seen at the WGOM first foodwise. One of my fav things about this community.

      Dido. Looking forward to more food posts from more folks.

  6. All this pork-talk, gotta weigh in.

    I got a pair of butterflied pork loin chops from Brines in Stillwater, and applied a dry rub-recipe feat. brown sugar, paprika, cumin, cayenne, black pepper, salt.

    Into the smoker with bits of oak barrel got from this carpentry shop in Stillwater - we recently had Adirondack chairs custom made - awesome job. Smoked at 250F for an hour, then upped the heat to finish. You could do worse.

    1. Brine's is a local classic - used to be downtown, now up on the hill in Stillwater on Curve Crest. Great meat selection, especially pork chops, baby-back ribs, bone-in country style ribs, crusty baguettes. When in Minny I swim at the River Valley club, and Brines is a block away. Beats going into Cub to walk a mile through their warehouse.

  7. What, if anything, did the pistachios contribute? In not a fan, so I'm wondering what would be lost by their removal (or perhaps substitution).

      1. Salt + texture. This is where dried apricots rough chopped would have been a good substitution.

        Really this is a totally jackass magazine recipe. You could, just spitballing here, go for Dijon, some sort of easy going cheese like Muenster, dried figs and green onion.

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