Roasted Pineapple Pork Tenderloin

Roasted Pineapple Pork Tenderloin

adapted recipe courtesy of Epicurious

1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon mild or hot chili powder (or achiote paste)
1 jalapeno, finely minced
1/2 cup orange juice
3 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound pork tenderloin, trimmed
1 small golden pineapple (about 1 1/2 pound), diced into 1-inch cubes
1/2 cup pineapple (or orange) juice
1/4 small red onion, finely chopped
Vegetable oil cooking spray

Heat a large pan over high heat to the smoking point, 3 to 4 minutes. Brown pineapple 4 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add pineapple juice and stir 1 minute, scraping up brown bits from pan. Remove pineapple from heat. Combine in a bowl with pepper, onion and basil. Mash together and set aside.
Mix tomato paste with chili powder.
Combine with orange juice, lime juice and oil in a double resealable bag.
Add pineapple mixture to the bag.
Add tenderloin and marinate at least 3 hours.
Heat a grill or grill pan over high. Coat with cooking spray.
Remove pork from marinade; place on baking pan. (Discard excess marinade.)
Bake marinated pork in a preheated 350 oven, until pork is no longer pink and internal temperature is 160°F 18 to 20 minutes. Let pork rest 5 minutes before slicing.
Garnish with cilantro leaves before serving.

Tropical Sangria

The following recipe was made and shared at my Tapas party. You can read about the event and view links to the other recipes shared HERE.

Tropical Sangria

1 bottle of reisling wine (750 mL)
2 cups guava juice
1 cup diced mango
1 cup pineapple tidbits
1 cup sliced strawberries
1-2 shots of coconut rum

Mix all of the ingredients together and serve well-chilled or over ice.
Top with additional diced fruit.
(With my various sangria, I chopped up a few different fruits that my guests could add to their glass including diced pear, apple, orange, lime, and peaches.)

Harv: My Ice Cream Idol

One very special friend of mine, Harv, surprised me with a fabulous new kitchen toy over the weekend. He graciously gave me a Cuisinart Frozen Yogurt, Ice Cream & Sorbet Maker. Thank you Harv! He’s quite the ice cream connoisseur and well, I have ice cream maker envy because he has the king of all ice cream makers. Even more impressive is that he’s rebuilt/refurbished 2 commercial ice cream makers from scratch himself! (I’m in complete and utter awe…) Here are similar pics of his handsome ice cream maker, a Taylor 104-27 (which is very similar to what is used on Iron Chef competitions of Food Network):

My first recipe I tried was a simple strawberry ice cream. Unfortunately my attempts to make it healthier by using 2% fat milk and half & half didn’t result in the consistency I wanted. I learned from a fellow friend and blogger, Annie of Annie’s Eats, that full fat is definitely necessary. Check out her blog for the same recipe but with much better results!

So for my second attempt I wanted to use up some well ripe fruits and ingredients I had on hand. Thankfully this time around I had success! I made an adaptation of a sherbet recipe included in the instruction/recipe booklet. Here’s my recipe for a low fat pineapple sherbet:1 cup low fat vanilla yogurt
2 cups 2% low fat milk
1 cup processed fresh pineapple*
3-4 tablespoons powdered sugar

*Process fresh pineapple in a blender. Use 1 cup of this processed fresh pineapple for the recipe.

Combine all ingredients in the blender and blend until smooth.
Pour into your ice cream maker and churn/freeze based on your manufacturer’s directions.
You may want to transfer the finished product in a freezer proof container so that it can “ripen” for an hour or two in the freezer.

Pineapple Fried Rice

Pineapple Fried Rice

2 cups cold prepared rice
1 clove garlic, minced
1 small onion, finely diced
2 tablespoons olive or canola oil
2-3 stalks green onion, sliced
1 small can pineapple tibits, drained
1-2 tablespoons lite sodium soy sauce
salt & pepper to taste

In a wok or skillet, heat oil.
When hot, add diced white onion, garlic, pineapple and half of the sliced green onion.
Toss and heat until white onions are softened.
Add cold rice, crumbling it with your hands.
Fold rice into the onion/pineapple mixture
Allow rice to heat & crisp up.
Add remaining green onion and toss.
Drizzle in the soy sauce for additional flavor and color.
Add salt & pepper to taste.
Fold or toss rice to fully combine.
Serve when heated through.

Shrimp Tacos.. Ole!

The weather has been dreary lately and so I wanted to add some freshness to our dinner tonight. What better way than to bring the flavors of shrimp tacos with a touch of sweet tropical salsa?!
In Mexico, the word taco is a generic term like the English word, sandwich. A taco is simply a tortilla wrapped around a filling. Like a sandwich the filling can be made with almost anything and prepared in many different ways. Tacos also vary according to the geographical region you are eating them.

Seafood tacos with salsa are easy to make and somewhat exotic. Most people associate tacos beef, chicken or pork but the use of seafood is now seen as a healthier alternative. There’s so many ways to make a taco and it’s accompanying salsa, that the possibilities are endless.

Here is the recipe for Soft Shrimp Tacos with a Tropical Salsa, adapted from CookingLight.com:

Salsa:
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon canned chopped green chiles
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 (11-ounce) can mandarin oranges in light syrup, drained
1 (8-ounce) can pineapple tidbits in juice, drained

Tacos:
Cooking spray
1 cup total of yellow, red & green bell pepper strips
1 cup vertically sliced white onion
1 garlic clove, minced
1 1/2 pounds medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
8 (6-inch) flour tortillas
1 1/4 cups (5 ounces) shredded reduced-fat Monterey Jack cheese
0% greek yogurt for garnish

– To prepare the salsa, combine the first 6 ingredients in a bowl. Cover and chill.
– To prepare tacos, place a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat until hot.
– Add bell pepper, onion, and garlic; sauté 2 minutes.
– Add shrimp, cumin, chili powder; sauté 3 minutes or until shrimp are done.
– Stir in cilantro.
– Spoon 1/2 cup shrimp mixture over one half of each tortilla.
– Top with about cheese, salsa and yogurt; fold tortillas in half.