Grilled Honey Chipotle Pork Tenderloin w/ 4-Bean Salad

[xray]

WOW!! I just checked out the link to the bruschetta. It looks fantastic!! Got it bookmarked and will certainly be adding that one to the rotation. I can actually see multiple uses for this. First is an appetizer or side dish. d would be to add a nice slice of smoked ham, make an open faced sandwich, and eat it as a meal.

Oh the hits just keep on coming....
Robert

Bruschetta pizza is pretty good. I like to buy those naan flatbreads and top with bruschetta and cheese and broil in the oven. Leftover grilled chicken if I have it.

I never thought to combine it with ham, sounds crazy!! But then again a local pizza place makes a primavera pizza that is mainly marinated tomatoes topped with onions, roasted bell peppers, hot soppressata and ham.

I've never looked for it but I'm sure I could buy it. I could also buy bacon out of the grocer's cooler but I don't. It's always better to do it yourself and things like this are fun to put together. I enjoy watching (and tasting) as they come to fruition.

Bacon to vac seal, oil to make, vinegar to make....so much for not having anything to do today

Robert

You make a good point!

 

[tx smoker]

Well Joe, I went and made the 4 bean salad last night. Made a couple alterations by choice and one out of necessity. I'll preface this by saying I only made a half batch since it was just the two of us. If any of you like my ideas and make a full batch you'll need to double everything. Here are my changes:

SALAD
-Our little grocery store did not have the Cannelli beans so used Great Northern
-I added 1 T fresh minced garlic. That really added some depth to it.
-I added about 1/8 cup of grated Parmesan cheese

DRESSING
-I used my garlic infused olive oil. It was great!!
-I added 3/4 t of Arbol pepper spice. The dressing was good as posted but I felt needed more flavor to make up for thebeans not having a lot of flavor. This REALLY brought the dressing to life.
-I used Pink Himalayan sea salt. It's a lot less acidic than regular table salt.

Dinner was NY Strips, the salad, grilled cheesy bread brushed with olive oil and a dipping oil for the bread.

This is the salad and finished dinner. If anybody wants to see the step by step, please say so. I'm trying to be careful and not hijack Joe's thread, only highlight the salad that's gotten so much interest.

Salad

Finished meal. Steak was about 10 seconds overcooked but still pink, tender, juicy, and flavorful. Salad was amazing!! The additions I made brought it to life in a big way.

Joe, you posted a winner here my friend!! Thanks so much for sharing. As one of the other members stated, it's really nice to have something different in the rotation and this certainly fits the bill!!

Wondering what's next,
Robert

 

[knifebld]

Joe, you posted a winner here my friend!! Thanks so much for sharing. As one of the other members stated, it's really nice to have something different in the rotation and this certainly fits the bill!!

Great alternative Robert! I think its definitely worth creating your own post under sides and listing out your step by step. You've peeked my interest.

It's all about building on what others have done and making it your own! Well done.

 

[xray]

Your dinner and salad look great Robert, wish I had a seat at the table.

Feel free to hijack and post a step by step! Any additions are welcome. I really just threw that salad together; no researching or finding recipes. I just knew what a bean salad tastes like and wanted to cut back the sweetness.

The northern white beans work, any bean would probably work. I had can of seasoned black eyed peas that I thought about throwing in. I figured I wouldn’t get that crazy...yet.

The infused olive oil is a definite winner!

If I may make a suggestion. I would hold off on mixing the parmesan cheese in the salad...especially if you make enough to eat it for 2-3 days like I did. The cheese mixed in with the oil and then refrigerated may become slimy, especially since evoo congeals at refrigeration temperatures. I eat the salad cold but pull it out of the fridge a few minutes earlier so the oil thaws back out....Taste is the same.

But using the parmesan on top while serving or if making a smaller batch like you did? I would most definitely add it in.

Thanks for trying it and making it yours. It only gets better from here!

 

[gmc2003]

Fabamundo Joe, that tender and salad look great. Makes me wish I wasn't taking the wife out for dinner tonight.

Point for sure
Chris

 

[tx smoker]

Great alternative Robert! I think its definitely worth creating your own post under sides and listing out your step by step.

Feel free to hijack and post a step by step!

Thanks to both of you for the positive feedback. I didn't really do a step by step on the salad itself and probably should have clarified that. I was referring to the entire meal.

Joe, you did mention having made yours on th fly so I took a few liberties with it and honestly feel that they made a positive difference. Flavor was exceptional and the additions created much more depth.

The salad was pulled from the fridge about 5 minutes before we ate and that's when I added the Parmesan. Like you mentioned, I had a feeling that the oil and finely grated cheese may make a slimy mess....but we are cheese folks around here and it goes on almost everything.

This is the recipe exactly as I made it, but this is for a full batch and I only did a half batch. We ate all but a small amount of it so there wasn't enough to save so no issues with the cheese and oil getting weird.

3 cups of fresh green beans, 1” pieces
1 can Kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 can Great Northern beans, rinsed and drained
1 can of Chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/2 of a red onion, thinly sliced
1/4 cup freshly chopped cilantro
2 T fresh minced garlic
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese

Dressing:
1/2 c. Olive Oil
1/4 c. Apple Cider Vinegar
1 T. Sugar
1 t. Pink Himalayan Sea Salt
1 t. Ancho powder
1 ½ t Arbol powder
1/2t. Black pepper
1/4t. Celery Seed

Blanch green beans in salted boiling water for 2 minutes, then transfer beans to an ice bath or rinse with cold water to stop cooking. Add green beans, and the rest of the ingredients except for the Parmesan cheese to a large bowl and mix well. Add dressing and stir to combine. Chill at least one hour before serving. Remove salad from fridge 5 minutes prior to serving, add Parmesan and stir to mix

Should have taken more pics I guess. i only have one pi of the salad before it went into the fridge and one after it came out and I added the Parmesan.


Oh well....
Robert

 

[tx smoker]

Alright Joe, you have created a monster Monday evening when I made the cheesy bread brushed with the garlic EVOO for the first time, Tracy loved it. I also told her about your spicy vinegar and she informed that I was to make some....right now!! She also mentioned adding some Italian herbs to the olive oil along with the garlic. She wanted me to get a really large batch going as I only did a small batch at first as a sample. I liked the concept of the Italian herbs, but not the application. Got to thinking how I could pull this off without having a bunch of stuff floating in the oil. Then I had a brain storm (brain fart??)....about a year ago I bought some really high quality food grade cheesecloth that I was going to wrap meat with to dry age it. Wound up not doing that so the cheesecloth has been sitting unopened. I thought I could take a piece of that, add the herbs, tie it up, and just drop it into the oil. Well, I did a bottle of the spicy vinegar yesterday and got the olive oil going today. Here ya go:

Cheesecloth cut and about 2 T of herbs

Tied into a ball with butcher's twine

A half gallon of olive oil with about 40 cloves of garlic in it

You can see the herb ball at the bottom

Spicy vinegar and garlic olive oil together. I only had cayenne peppers when I set this up so there are 16 of them in the vinegar

I absolutely love the idea you mentioned in a different thread about using these as an oil and vinegar dressing for a salad....but all sorts of things are running through my mind right now I'll keep you posted of any new brain farts I come up with. We sure have had fun with all of this stuff!!

Brain starting to smoke,
Robert

 

[Smokin' in AZ]

Very nice Robert!

LIKE

I was just going to post my strip steak cook from the other night but it pales in comparison to this.

John

 

[tx smoker]

John....post it my friend!! This is not a penis waving competition If you made it I'm sure its noteworthy and I'd love to see it please. My only request is to tag me on it so I dont miss the thread.

Waiting with baited brwath,
Robert

 

[tx smoker]

P.S. thank you very much for the kind words and the LIKE John. Truth be told, Joe deserves all the accolades. He's the one that started this avalanch

Dodging the falling boulders,
Robert

 

[xray]

Alright Joe, you have created a monster Monday evening when I made the cheesy bread brushed with the garlic EVOO for the first time, Tracy loved it. I also told her about your spicy vinegar and she informed that I was to make some....right now!! She also mentioned adding some Italian herbs to the olive oil along with the garlic. She wanted me to get a really large batch going as I only did a small batch at first as a sample. I liked the concept of the Italian herbs, but not the application. Got to thinking how I could pull this off without having a bunch of stuff floating in the oil. Then I had a brain storm (brain fart??)....about a year ago I bought some really high quality food grade cheesecloth that I was going to wrap meat with to dry age it. Wound up not doing that so the cheesecloth has been sitting unopened. I thought I could take a piece of that, add the herbs, tie it up, and just drop it into the oil. Well, I did a bottle of the spicy vinegar yesterday and got the olive oil going today. Here ya go:

Cheesecloth cut and about 2 T of herbs
View attachment 406204

Tied into a ball with butcher's twine
View attachment 406205

A half gallon of olive oil with about 40 cloves of garlic in it
View attachment 406206

You can see the herb ball at the bottom
View attachment 406207

Spicy vinegar and garlic olive oil together. I only had cayenne peppers when I set this up so there are 16 of them in the vinegar
View attachment 406208

I absolutely love the idea you mentioned in a different thread about using these as an oil and vinegar dressing for a salad....but all sorts of things are running through my mind right now I'll keep you posted of any new brain farts I come up with. We sure have had fun with all of this stuff!!

Brain starting to smoke,
Robert

Here’s my bottles from my pepper plants:

The best thing is you could top off with more vinegar. The only reason I made that bean salad was to incorporate the vinegar in it. The wife isn’t a fan of very spicy food, so I omitted it....but I added a splash of it to both our dishes when we finished the leftovers last night....she actually preferred the extra pepper vinegar in it.

I could see it being good with some fresh grilled vegetables, hoppin’ john and some fried foods like fish and chips. I don’t fry food at my house so maybe I’ll have to take some out to restaurants with me, lol.

It’s starting to transition into colder weather here so I’ll be eating more soups and stews pretty soon. I can’t wait to add a splash to some ham and bean soup and also some ham, cabbage and potato soup....love adding a spoonful of vinegar when i have a bowl.

 

[xray]

Fabamundo Joe, that tender and salad look great. Makes me wish I wasn't taking the wife out for dinner tonight.

Point for sure
Chris

Thanks Chris, I wouldn’t mind tagging along! Thanks for the point.

 

[tx smoker]

I don’t fry food at my house so maybe I’ll have to take some out to restaurants with me, lol.

It's been years since we have gone out to eat dinner. It just sucks to spend $100 or more for a meal that I could have made in half the time it took to get to the restaurant, eat, and get home, plus the food at home is WAY better.

We do very little (if any) fried foods here also. If I may suggest and if you haven't already done it, you may want to look into an air fryer. We have one and absolutely love it!! I've done a bunch of different things with it but our favorites are French fries and chicken fried steak fingers. I've also done several different types of sausages in it that cam out well. I believe there is an entire sub forum designated for air fryer cooking if you need a better resource.

Robert

 

[Smokin' in AZ]

It's been years since we have gone out to eat dinner. It just sucks to spend $100 or more for a meal that I could have made in half the time it took to get to the restaurant, eat, and get home, plus the food at home is WAY better.

We do very little (if any) fried foods here also. If I may suggest and if you haven't already done it, you may want to look into an air fryer. We have one and absolutely love it!! I've done a bunch of different things with it but our favorites are French fries and chicken fried steak fingers. I've also done several different types of sausages in it that cam out well. I believe there is an entire sub forum designated for air fryer cooking if you need a better resource.

Robert

Totally agree with you, we very seldom eat out for the same reason you mentioned above!

 

[xray]

It's been years since we have gone out to eat dinner. It just sucks to spend $100 or more for a meal that I could have made in half the time it took to get to the restaurant, eat, and get home, plus the food at home is WAY better.

We do very little (if any) fried foods here also. If I may suggest and if you haven't already done it, you may want to look into an air fryer. We have one and absolutely love it!! I've done a bunch of different things with it but our favorites are French fries and chicken fried steak fingers. I've also done several different types of sausages in it that cam out well. I believe there is an entire sub forum designated for air fryer cooking if you need a better resource.

Robert

Totally agree with you, we very seldom eat out for the same reason you mentioned above!

I second this as well. We rarely go out to eat anymore and if we do it’s mainly for wings and pizza, stuff we don’t typically make at home.

There is this cajun seafood/steakhouse that we liked going to for our birthdays but it’s just so gosh darn expensive. The food is excellent but everytime I look at the menu, the price seems to jump another $2. It’s easily over $100 if we order alcoholic drinks and tip. I could make that same meal everyday for 3 weeks for the price we paid!

As for the air fryer. I definitely want one. That plus an instapot. I may need a bigger house. The wife thinks i have a “kitchen gadget problem” lol.

 

[tx smoker]

Fat fingering this on the phone so please excuse any typos.

Joe....I'm no expert on the Instapot but my understanding is that if you have one of those you dont need an air fryer also. The Instapot will perform both features I've never owned one but have a good friend that recently got one. He's a really good cook and knows his way around a kitchen. He's also a really nice guy as well as a member of SMF so you may want to reach out to him for some input. His name is Gerald and he's snakehead . He also has a blog you may want to look at I believe there's a separate section about the Instapot in there. Dont quote me on this but I believe the web address for his blog is geraldskitchen.com Certainly worth a look if you're considering one or the other

Hoping not to have too many typos,
Robert

 

[snakehead]

Thanks tx smoker , appreciate the kind words. Sorry for taking so long to respond, but as you know I am up to my eyeballs in stuff right now.

Actually, the Instapot is definitely NOT a replacement for an air fryer. I have both for a reason, and they serve different purposes. The air fryer is fine for cooking things like french fries, chicken nuggets, tater tots and such. That said, don’t try to batter something and think you can fry it in the air fryer. It just doesn’t work that way and you’ll end up with a big mess. It’s basically just a convection oven. I hope that makes sense, if you have any questions, feel free to ask. Make sure you mention me, so I know to respond