Grilled Pork, Mashed Potatoes with Chervil, Applesauce, and Sauteed Collards

My intent with the “Farmer’s Market Dinner” category is to highlight a meal made almost entirely with local ingredients.  Clearly this is a not a 100% promise, but more of an intent to use as many local ingredients as possible.  Tonight’s meal was made from local pork tenderloin sourced at my winter’s farmers market, mashed potatoes and chervil from my CSA, applesauce from CSA with both local apples and honey, and collard greens from the CSA as well.  I am not churning my own butter or pressing my own olive oil (yet…. ; ) ) so there are still quite a few grocery store ingredients.

If you are in a colder climate and don’t have access to a winter CSA or market, this is definitely more difficult this time of year, but you might be surprised.  Search your area on localharvest.org for access to all sorts of local food opportunities — you might be shocked at what you actually have available to you.

The other thing to mention about these meals is that they are more procedures than recipes.  Try to be creative with what you have available to you and go from there.

Grilled Pork, Mashed Potatoes with Chervil, Homemade Applesauce, and Sauteed Collard Greens

The Pork:
2 pork tenderloins, trimmed of any silver skin
1/2 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
Zest of one lemon
1 t salt
Freshly ground pepper
Chopped fresh rosemary (if you have it)

The Potatoes:
4-6 medium potatoes
Fresh chervil (or other herbs, or skip it)
Milk
Butter

The Applesauce:
6 apples (any kind will do, or a variety is even better)
Cinnamon Stick (or ground cinnamon)
Pinch of salt
2 T water
1 T honey
1 T butter

The Greens:
Large Bunch of Collard Greens (other greens such as spinach, kale, or chard would work nicely too)
1 t chopped garlic
1 t honey
2 t olive oil
Salt and Freshly Ground Pepper

Prep:

1.  Make a marinade for pork with 1/2 cup olive oil, chopped garlic, zest of one lemon, rosemary, and salt and pepper.  Place pork in marinade and set aside.  (Preheat grill or start charcoal)

2.  Peel potatoes, cut into chunks, and place in large saucepan with plenty of cold water and a healthy pinch of salt.

3.  Peel, core, and chunk apples and place in medium saucepan with salt, cinammon stick, water, and  honey.

4.  Wash and stem greens (you will want to remove all of the stem from these more hearty greens).  Smoosh them all into a big ball or roll them up and chop into shreds.

Method

Pork:  When grill is ready (we grill using charcoal with indirect heat, if using gas I’m thinking about medium heat and away from flames), cook pork for about 20 minutes until done — but not overcooked!  Since we use local, organic pork and trust our farmers, we feel fine cooking it until about 145 degrees and letting it rest while it comes up a few degrees.  This keeps it moist, but certainly not rare at all.  But, cook it to your desired temperature based on your pork and your preferences.  You can also just bake this in the oven for about 20 minutes at 375 degrees if you like.   

Potatoes:  When you put pork on the grill, turn on potatoes and water to high heat so they come to a boil.  Reduce heat on potatoes to medium and cook for 15 minutes until very soft, but not completely falling apart.  Drain water from potatoes and throw in a healthy pour of milk (start with 1/2 cup and add more as needed to make a nice, creamy mash) and a couple of tablespoons of butter.  Mash and season with salt and pepper.  When ready to serve, stir in chopped chervil or other herbs.  Just taste them to make sure they are good — a little extra salt, milk, and butter usually is the key to tasty mashed potatoes.  And you can also use cream if you like…

Apples:   When you put pork on grill, turn on apples to medium heat until apples begin to simmer.  Reduce apples to low heat and cook for 15-20 minutes until very soft.  Stir to break up large apple pieces until desired consistency (could puree if you like, but I can’t be bothered).  Keep warm until pork is ready.  Remove cinnamon stick.

Collards:  When pork is about half way done, in a saute pan over medium heat add a splash of olive oil and chopped garlic for greens.  Add greens and saute until wilted and tender (about ten minutes).  You may need to add a little water if the greens stick.  Season with salt, pepper, and honey and taste to be sure.  If your greens are extra bitter, you may need a little extra honey.

 

Slice pork into medallions and serve with mashed potatoes, applesauce, and sauteed greens.