Serenbe Style and Soul

with Marie Nygren

Wednesday

21

October 2015

0

COMMENTS

Lettuce Play: Turning New Leaves Into A Fun Fall Salad

Written by , Posted in Miscellaneous

View More: http://jashley.pass.us/serenbe2015

When the organizers of Serenbe’s weekly Farmers and Artisan Market told me it was time to do another chef demo, I immediately called Ashley Rodgers, manager of Serenbe Farms, and said, “Whatcha got?”

IMG_3554Ashley said she had lots of fresh ginger, turnips and Asian greens.

Now remember: I’m the daughter of the grand dame of Southern cooking. When it comes to greens, I know mustard, turnip and collard greens a lot better than mizuna, yukina savoy and komatasuma. Dealing with unfamiliar ingredients might feel scary to some, but to me, cooking is like playing. Those Asian greens were my new toy and I wanted to learn how to have fun with them.

So I turned the turnips and ginger into an exquisitely delicious soup. And instead of cooking the greens, I decided to treat them like lettuces. I washed and gently tore them apart and headed to the store to look for vinaigrette inspiration, which I found in a bottle of sorghum.

To me, sorghum means fall. A lot of people don’t use the sweet syrup made from grassy grain, but it’s a good base for lots of things. Instead of honey, I mixed the sorghum with lemon and orange juice for the vinaigrette. It also inspired me to roast some fresh pears for the salad with a little sorghum and pinch of salt on top.

Then I got a pork loin from Double T farms and let it sit overnight in a mustard-soy marinade. The nextIMG_3570 morning I took it out, let it come up to room temperature, cooked it, sliced it and served it at room temperature on top of the Asian greens and pears.

The same thing that made this dish perfect for the demo also makes it a great for dinner parties: Everything can be made ahead. Washing the greens, making the vinaigrette, marinating the pork—even the soup can be made the day before. You have a first and second course, so pick up dessert somewhere and be done with it. You’ve made two of the three things—who says you have to make everything?

In the middle of the demo, I realized I had a little more vinaigrette left so I threw it on top of the pork, which needed a little more oomph. And then it was perfect. Two key ingredients you’ll never find in any recipe but are essential to a good meal: spontaneity and oomph.

Soy Mustard Pork Loin, Asian Greens and Sorghum Citrus Vinaigrette

  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 1/4 cup canola oil
  • 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
  • 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  • 2 lb pork loin

 

Mix first four ingredients. Place pork loin in a Ziploc bag. Pour liquid mixture over, close tightly and place in refrigerator to marinate overnight.

Take pork from refrigerator several hours before roasting to bring to room temperature.

Heat oven to 375. Remove pork from marinade, reserving the marinade and place pork on roasting pan. Place in oven. Roast pork for 25-30 min. Remove from oven, reheat marinade to boiling and pour over pork. Let sit 30 -45 min to rest. Slice and serve.

Asian greens

  • 6-8 cups mixture of mizuna, yukina savoy and komatasuma, washed and spun dried

 Vinaigrette

  • 1 cup fresh orange juice
  • 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
  • 2 tablespoons sorghum
  • 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
  • 6 tablespoons peanut oil
  • Kosher salt

Add first five ingredients in jar and shake. Season to taste with salt.

To assemble:

Set out a large serving platter. Toss greens with vinaigrette. Place on platter. Then place pork on side of greens. Serve.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>