Pork Tenderloin, Polenta, Kale Chips

Although I tend to grill year round, Memorial Day still feels like the beginning of grilling season. I happened to see some good looking pork tenderloins at the store, so I picked them up. I also decided rather than simply making grilled pork and a few sides, that I would make a full composed dish. Bit by bit, it started to come together. Continuing through the store, I saw some smoked cheddar, which would go great with the smokiness of the pork so I fit it into the dish in the form of smoked cheddar polenta. I also enjoy making Chinese char siu with pork tenderloin, so I thought to marinate it in the char siu-style, but I didn't baste it to keep it from having an overwhelming char siu flavor.

To go with the smokey polenta and sweet-ish pork, I thought some dark greens would add a nice bitter contrast. I made some kale chips by very lightly oiling kale leaves that had been torn from the fibrous stalk. Simply seasoned with kosher salt, they went into a 350 degree oven for about 12-15 minutes. They are finished when they are crisp and beginning to turn in color slightly. The kale chips remind me of the crispy bits of roasted broccoli. I also found some smokey braised collard greens at Real Kitchen, which we recently found makes tasty sides. While I can't see myself getting an entire meal there, I think they have great sides that can add another flavor note to a dish without any work.

After about a 10 hour marinade, the pork tenderloins were patted dry and thrown onto the grill. I grilled these over high direct heat to sear the meat, and finished them over lower indirect heat. Grilling over hickory wood chips gave the pork a nice, smoky aroma.

Thanks to the new FDA regulations that just passed, pork can now be cooked to the same levels of doneness as beef. Now I don't have to feel guilty for eating pink/red pork!

I made a simple batch of polenta by stirring coarse polenta into chicken stock. When the polenta has cooked for about 20-25 minutes and is the correct consistency, I added some grated smoked cheddar as well aged gouda. I also made a quick sauce by reducing homemade beef stock with a touch of the char siu marinade. The beef stock was full of gelatin, which aided in creating a silky sauce.

The final plated dish consisted of the smoked cheddar polenta, a bed of collard greens, sliced pork tenderloin, kale chips, and the char siu-stock reduction. The flavors worked well together, with the bitter greens providing a counterpoint to the smoky polenta and sweet pork. The kale chips were delicious with the dish, but I would leave them on the side next time to ensure they stay crispy.

The Butcher Shoppe @ Hobe Meats (Phoenix, AZ)

Groupon for The Butcher Shoppe at Hobe Meats.  $25 for $50 of steaks.  And the Groupon is only good for USDA Prime steak?  Sold.  Sign me up.

We ventured down this afternoon to cash in our Groupon deal.  To reach our $50, we chose two ribeyes (~18-20 oz each) and one filet (~10 oz).  And I couldn't help myself (especially with this being Memorial Day weekend) so we bought some freshly ground beef and a few jalapeño cheddar brats.  I went to the counter expecting to spend a small fortune, but all that food came out to (including the $25 spent on the Groupon deal) only $41!  While we were there, we noticed that Hobe Meats also was serving their Saturday Afternoon BBQ special.  So we grabbed a quick bite as well, ordering the Tri-tip sandwich (topped with provolone cheese on a sesame bun), potato salad, and a Coke for only $5.  This was certainly a worthwhile trip.

The steaks, originally intended for Memorial Day grilling, couldn't wait.  So they were coated with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper (and a few other seasonings) and thrown on the grill.

To accompany the steaks, we made two types of mashed potatoes (wasabi and cheddar) and asparagus with butter and Hawaiian sea salt.

These were certainly USDA prime steaks.  Both the ribeye and the filet had a pronounced buttery and meaty flavor.  We can't wait to grill the other ribeye and try the other meats from Hobe.  Although it wasn't quite Memorial Day, the long weekend got off to a great start.

Hopleaf (Chicago, IL)

Hopleaf is one of our favorite restaurants in Chicago; we've been going since we first moved to Chicago, but recently we've moved to within walking distance. Lately, with the warmer weather, we've been making it our Friday post-work place to unwind and get some great food and beer.

Located in Andersonville, Hopleaf is a Belgium pub known for a huge selection of beers, and equally impressive food. Any given day, they'll have 40 different beers on draught and countless more bottled selections (they have a 22 page bottled beer menu). 2 of our favorite, easy drinking beers that we have each visit are the Goose Island Green Line and Metropolitan Iron Works Alt. Even better, the Green Line, only available in Chicago and on draught, is the cheapest beer on the menu at $4/pint.

We started the meal by sharing the Herb Salad, which was a mache salad with roasted beets, goat cheese, sunflower seeds, and a laundry list of herbs, all dressed with a lemon-tarragon vinaigrette. The menu lists the herbs as chervil, mint, lovage, parsley, celery leaf, and micro radish greens. It was a refreshing salad, with the herbs (obviously) being the predominant flavor. I would have liked a bit more goat cheese to compete with the herbs.

One of Hopleaf's specialties are the mussels and frites, so to follow up the salad we ordered the mussels in a spicy thai curry. The mussels were perfectly cooked and perhaps the most tender ones I've had. The red curry, filled with sweet potato, jalapeno, lemongrass, and cilantro, was quite spicy and left a warming heat on our palate with each bite. As per any good steamed mussel preparation, crusty bread was provided to soak up the cooking liquid. Served along with the mussels are my favorite fries in the city, made even better with the accompanying garlic aioli. We moved onto a more bitter, hoppier 3 Floyds Pride and Joy to drink with the mussels.

Finally, we each had a CB&J for our main courses. We've had nearly all the sandwiches on the menu, but this is our favorite. This riff on the basic PB&J has cashew butter, fig jam, and raclette cheese on sourdough bread. Its gooey, sweet, nutty, and fantastic. This sandwich also comes with stilton mac and cheese. If you like blue cheese, you'll love this side dish. We had a Goose Island Fleur with the sandwich. You'll also notice we got our second and third portion of fries and aioli. God I love these fries.

We feel spoiled having Hopleaf so close for terrific beers and food. We just need to remember to order less food......

Spasso Pizza & Mozzarella Bar (Phoenix, AZ)

Well that was disappointing...

The second restaurant choice for us during the Spring Arizona Restaurant Week was Spasso Pizza & Mozzarella Bar in Phoenix.  This was another prix fixe menu option, priced at $30/person.  If it wasn't a prix fixe menu, I would have said Spasso was extremely overpriced.  By the way, this isn't exactly fun to write so I won't spend much time on it. 

First Course: Shrimp Calabrese (SALTY!) & Fried Calamari (decent)

Second Course: Dover Sole (the sauce was the "highlight", not the fish) & Barrcone (more like pork schnitzel than center cut pork loin)

Dessert Course: Tiramisu (whoops, they didn't have any)....so Chocolate Mousse (Chocolate cool whip) & Creme Brulee (actually not too bad)

Wine: The best thing I can say about it is that it looked like wine.

And the worst part of it was that we were there for close to two hours because of the slow service.  And this wasn't a two-hour dinner restaurant. At least the weather was nice on the patio dining area...and the bread they served (after we had to ask for it) was fresh!

Coup des Tartes (Phoenix, AZ)

Every year, the Arizona Restaurant Association hosts Arizona Restaurant Week.  Typically, restaurant week occurs in the fall, but with the popularity of the event, a spring event is now held, with 2011 marking the first spring restaurant week in Arizona.  We love to take advantage of the special discounts offered by the local restaurants, so this time, we decided to try Coup des Tartes, a small bistro-style French BYOB restaurant in Phoenix.

During restaurant week, each establishment will offer a prix-fixe menu for either $30 or $40 per person.  Coup des Tartes presented the following options for their menu:

Knowing us, we wanted to try as much of the menu as possible, so we ordered different items for each of the courses.  We started off with our server bringing us two different types of fresh bread and a butter herb mixture.

And since it was a BYOB, we brought a bottle of the 2007 Antica Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon that we enjoy so much.

First Course: Escargot & Parmesano Salad
The Escargot was much more tender and flavorful than we have had anywhere else (or when we try to prepare it at home).  And the leftover sauce was rich, buttery, and garlicky, which was great for bread dipping.  The Parmesano salad was a classic Caesars salad.  The dressing was pleasant; nothing special but overall a good start to the meal.

Second Course: Filet Mignon & French Style Braised Short Ribs
The beef was an Austrian Grass Fed Filet Mignon, which was topped with caramelized onions and an aged port glaze and served with haricot verts and mashed potatoes.  The beef was cooked perfectly at medium rare and was tender and flavorful.  Carli also commented these were the best haricot verts (French green beens) she had ever had.  The French Style Braised Short Ribs were slow roasted in a classic Mirepoix and served with sauteed spinach and mashed potatoes.  The short ribs were absolutely delicious.  The meat fell apart at the slightest prodding from my fork and had a wonderful rustic French character.  I don't recall the exact flavors of the sauteed spinach but I do recall them being seasoned nicely, teetering to the point of almost being over seasoned but not crossing that line.

Dessert Course: Four Berry Tarte & Creme Brulee
The Four Berry Tarte is composed of a shortbread crust filled with blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and cherries topped with an almond crumble and served warm with vanilla ice cream.  Coup des Tartes creme brulee is a classic creme brulee, with a nice caramelized crust and topped with a fresh strawberry and mint.  We also ordered a latte to go with our desserts.  Both desserts and the latte were a great finish, each living up to the expectations set by the previous courses of our meal.

Carli and I are both big fans of French cooking and Coup des Tartes only enhanced our enjoyment of that style of cuisine.  For us, Arizona Restaurant Week got off to a great start and we look forward to trying another restaurant before the event ends.

http://www.nicetartes.com