This week’s French Fridays with Dorie challenge is for Fresh Orange Pork Tenderloin. After a string of odd and so-so recipes, we really wanted to like this dish. We’ve learned so many wonderful techniques for cooking meats that we thought this would surely be another.
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| Salvaged sauce simmering with pork and mandarin oranges |
After all the labor of peeling and sectioning the oranges, it was disappointing to taste the sauce and find it lacking. At first taste, it reminded me of how some restaurants put out lemons for tea that have been cut with the same knife and on the same cutting board as onions. It was just plain weird.
First, I asked John to sprinkle in a scant teaspoon of sugar which helped only minutely. So, he resolved to strain the orange pulp, onion, and cardamom seeds out, reserving the sauce. Then, he returned the sauce to the pan, added the juice from a small can of mandarin oranges and a Tablespoon of arrowroot to it. After stirring over low heat for a bit, the sauce began to thicken and John returned the pork to the pan with the reserved mandarin oranges. In the end, our dinner was saved and the pork was very tender. However, this is not a recipe we will make again.
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| Butternut Squash Risotto |
Since we had butternut squash left from last week, I made Butternut Squash Risotto that was based on this recipe I made for Le Creuset cooking demonstration but we left off the pecans and prosciutto and added Parmesan cheese. (Yes, Mary, I know this is an all-orange dinner! LOL!)
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| California Sealions basking in the sun on Anacapa Island |
Oh it’s always frustrating when a recipe doesn’t work, but you certainly made the most of it! Your risotto looks delicious, butternut squash is my favorite :).
I´m making this one today Susan and I´m too looking forward to it. That risotto looks incredibly creamy! Butternut squash is such a great vegetable.
Orange dinner 🙂
Sorry you had a tough time with this one – we enjoyed ours, but I didn’t follow the recipe so I don’t know if we would have liked it as written. On to the heart of cream!
Yeah, this recipe needed some help! I’m not quite as creative as you or Cher…I think straining out the cardamom would have helped with my review…and I like Cher’s addition of balsamic vinegar. I think next week will be better (except I’m passing as I made a coeur a la creme just before Feb’s recipes were announced…don’t think we could eat two in two weeks time!).
What you said is exactly why I didn’t go through peeling and cutting oranges. I just had a sense that it wasn’t worth it. I used OJ and white wine and it tasted great and it was so simple. Try it you might like it. I like the balsamic vinegar idea too. The sauce just needs a counter to the sweet orange. There isn’t any depth to it.
Beauttiful pictures !
The risotto looks great
Yummy !!
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An all orange dinner. I love it. I’ve honestly never heard of color themed meals before Dorie and I’ve yet to try one in my own home. Maybe I’ll get around to it before we finish the book.
Good job on making the dinner into something successful. And that risotto sounds wonderful!
Your John is so smart to know how to restore this recipe to something yummy BRAVO to him!
Well, we’ve certainly had a couple of months of bad recipes from this group. I could not get a vision for this project so I “fixed” it…I have a new resolve to quit going along with the crowd when it’s not a good idea…seems like something I drilled into all my kids; common sense is needed at times. I admit I’ve tried things that I thought would be nasty, but have been pleasantly surprised, but I don’t think there are many of those types of recipes remaining in this Dorie book. We all invent recipes from time to time but it doesn’t mean they are publication worthy. I’m impressed by your fix and good for John and his terrific kitchen help…great ideas. Your Butternut Squash Risotto looks like the best part of this meal. It all looks quite good and your pics are lovely, as always.
Always love your photos! This wasn’t a great recipe for me – just didn’t have much going on, though I’ve been happy to see what others did to make it better. Of course, what you did – making that butternut risotto! That sounds great!!! Hope you have a lovely weekend!
All-orange is good……if you’re drinking mimosas.
Yep, this pork dish was lacking but no one has made that as explicitly clear as you did in this Post, Susan. Ever the professional writer. I especially like the explanation about lemons and onions. LOL This seemed to be a recipe that just “tried too hard.” Although I ate my pork – I needed food this past week and that’s what there was to be finished in my fridge – I like my tenderloin rolled in salt, pepper, Herbes de Provence, pan seared and roasted, leaving a rosy pink inside. To my mind what saved your meal was that fabulous looking risotto.
Your meal seems more appropriate for the all-orange dinner Dorie mentioned with the (not very orange) Shrimp noodle dish. I also found the sauce lacking, but didn’t rescue it. I won’t be making this again either. Hopefully the creme a la coeur is a good one.
Let’s not talk so much about the pork – I was of the same opinion as you…kinda weird. But the risotto! I made a butternut squash risotto this week too and loved it! Great minds think alike! And I made it in my Le Creuset braiser too!
Susan, I haven’t made mine yet. I was thinking of doing this dish for dinner tomorrow night…but the reviews are not good! I may leave it whole and make a orange based sauce to serve over it. Sorry this one was not a hit in your house! Your Butternut squash looks incredible!! I have just printed out the recipe!
Looking forward to the Coeur a la creme….made mine today!
For me, much better as a salad the next day. I’d almost make it again just to have as salad food for lunches during the week. Hardly a good reason to make something though…for the leftovers?
Love the sea lions !!! Awesome shot and so fun to see extra-curriculars like this 🙂 You nailed my own thoughts about wanting to like this, the prep time on that orange and the final results. I actually think my guys are still reeling from the liver, cellophane noodles and other adventures of late that they might have given their thumbs up a bit higher than perhaps they should. Was not bad by any stretch, there are just so many other ways to enjoy pork (and those oranges)- that we didn’t seem to do justice to either. I have Nana as my helper- so fun to hear how John is troubleshooting your FFWDS 🙂 Awesome job !!
Beautiful photos! We weren’t thrilled by this one, either. I like the way John dealt with the sauce. I will use cardamom again with tenderloin – I’ll just roast the meat whole and use balsamic and apple in place of the orange.