Tonight, I Outdid Myself

I'm talking pork here, people. Not that kind of doing and not that kind of pork, but good nonetheless...

Tonight I made asian spiced pork, patty-pan puree, citrus vinagarette salad and vanilla ice cream with spiced mandarin sauce. The best part? It was all part of a low-fat meal I was making for my uncle who has promised himself a new truck if he loses 70 pounds. It wasn't the lowest calorie meal, I'll admit, but I was conscious of not making it the highest calorie meal, either. I don't have pictures (which is what makes any food blog entry interesting, I know), but I have rough recipe ideas if anyone is hungry for low-fat and de-ricious.

Asian spiced pork:
Get some pork tenderloins
Mix together some brown sugar, chinese five spice, salt, black pepper and some cayenne pepper (if you're nasty). It's about 3 parts brown sugar to one part chinese 5 spice with the others to taste.
Heat up a heavy bottomed pan on med-high (cast iron works great if you have it)
Pre-heat oven at 425F
Rub the sugar/spice mix on the tenderloin
Sear tenderloin on all sides in pan.
Put seared tenderloin in an oven safe dish and bake for 15-20 minutes.
*Remember -- most Americans completely overcook pork. It doesn't need to be grey to be done, it just needs to reach 160F. And even if it doesn't, most US store-bought pork won't do much harm even if it is undercooked a bit. The pork I cook comes out a little pink and it's fantabulous.

Glaze for pork:
In a small sauce pan, combine a heavy dose (about a 1/2 cup) of apricot preserves (orange marmalade will do in a pinch or even in combination), something salty/savory like soy sauce or worcestershire sauce, a pinch of sugar, some salt and maybe some cidar vinegar (if you have it).
Bring whatever you combined to a boil, then let it simmer til it thickens to a sauce. Even if it's runny, though, it''ll taste good. Just dump it over the pork and whatever you use as a vegetable base (I used the squash puree listed below).

Patty-pan squash puree:
Peel and seed 1 large patty-pan squash
Boil in salted water until completely rendered (fork meets no resistance)
Drain squash and dump into a blender with butter ( I used about 1 tblsp. to one cup squash), sour cream (2 tblsp. to one cup squash) and fat free cream cheese (1 to one squash ratio).
Add about 2 tblsp. fresh thyme leaves if you have them. If not, add some dried italian seasoning, basil, oregano, etc.
Salt liberally.
Puree to a pulp then reheat if necessary.

Citrus vinaigrette salad:
This salad is basically baby greens/spinach mix, toasted sweetened nuts, goat cheese, red onions and the vinaigrette. We added some chopped roma tomatoes because we had them - if you don't, no biggie. Use a sweet vinaigrette that you like -- mine is just a made up thing that I'll probably change based on what I have, but here is what I made:

Can mandarin oranges in juice (or light syrup if you can't find the juice)
2 tblsp. fresh, fruity extra virgin olive oil (if you are not going to cook the olive oil, you need to do some taste testing to find the one that works for you. That Bertolli stuff is not the end-all-be-all even if the package looks fancy.)
1 peeled, cored apple (it does not matter if this apple if old and bruised and mealy -- its main purpose is to add some volume to your dressing)
2 tblsp. fresh thyme (again, if you have it. If not, use italian seasoning or something.)
a good dose cider vinegar (another vinegar will work, but you have to keep an eye on the tartness -- cider vinegar tends to be mild in that regard [almost sweet] so don't overdo it if you substitute something non-fruity)
Salt to taste
Blend everything in a blender and let it sit for at least 15 minutes so the herbs can mature a bit, then season to taste.

Toss the salad greens with onions, goat cheese (crumbles), and dressing. Woot!

oh, and the dessert...

I chose Breyers fat free vanilla ice-cream. It's creamy and smooth, and doesn't taste like frozen skim milk, so I think that's a winner.

For the mandarin sauce...

Puree another can of mandarin oranges in juice (light syrup if you can't avoid it)
Add about 1/2 tsp of ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg (or just a good dose of pumpkin pie spice or all-spice or whatever sweet-spices you have on hand).
Bring to boil, then reduce to a simmer until syrupy.
Pour sauce over ice-cream.

Enjoy like it's 1999