Sautéed Pork Loin in Tangy Orange Sauce

I've wanted to make pork loin for a long time, but never have, probably because it was never on sale. I finally decided I didn't care anymore and picked this recipe out of the my meat book I got for Christmas. The pork here is a cut from the center loin and I put it through a herb rub of basil, rosemary, oregano, garlic salt, pepper and tarragon. Tarragon wasn't actually in the recipe, but I never get to use it very much, so I just threw it in there. The pork was then panfried on both sides, and cooked covered for just a few minutes. The meat book laments continously about how pork is universally overcooked, promising that trichinosis is killed at 137 F, and therefore slightly pink is ok, but I still may have gone a little too far, as I didn't see any pink at all.

The leftover drippings were used to make the pan sauce, which was supposed to consist of onion, orange juice, lemon juice, orange marmalade, and chicken stock. However I have a rather annoying habit of making up a grocery list so I don't forget anything, then forgetting to take the list with me. Therefore when I got to the store I was left to the mercy of my memory, which as you may guess from the previous sentence, has some gaps. Luckily I had some chicken bouillon, which I added to boiling water to replace the chicken stock. In anycase, the onions were sautéed in the drippings, then all the other ingredients added and the sauce boiled and reduced. At the very end I added some corn starch to thicken it some.

In the end I'm glad I decided to splurge, for though the pork lion may have been cooked a little longer than necessary, it wasn't dry, and the orange sauce turned out wonderful. I have enough pork to cook it again tomorrow night, so I can take another shot at getting the cooking time down.

Plus now I have extra orange juice, which I love to drink, but never buy, because well, you can guess.

Chicken Brocccoli Penne

This is pretty similar to a couple of other things I've posted earlier. The only significant difference is the addition of the broccoli. Broccoli does better in cool weather so is actually more abudant in the winter. I didn't cook the broccoli any before the whole thing was set to simmer in chicken broth, and it might have done a little better had it been so, or at least simmered longer. I think broccoli tastes almost bitter when it's raw. In anycase it was still good, which is fortunate because I'm going to be eating it for three days.

London Broil.....kind of

London Broil isn't actually a cut of meat. Rather it's a method of cooking used to prepare a top round steak. The method became so common that now you can see cuts of top round labeled london broil instead. As you may guess London Broil normally involves broiling, so I'm reluctant to call this such, as I in fact did not broil this steak at all. In anycase, I've made this once before, but that was before I had an cast-iron skillet. Like the last time I made a marinade of olive oil, soy sauce, lemon juice, worcestershire sauce, and other fun things. A slight schedule hitch actually caused the steak to be marinated a full 72 hours, but longer is better right? Then I proceeded to quickly sear the steak on both sides, managing to set off the fire alarm while I was at it. I was aiming for medium rare, but I think I overshot it a little bit, probably because I let the steak rest in the iron skillet, which keeps its heat much longer than aluminum. Anyway the marinade did an excellent job, as this turned out quite flavorful and juicy.

Bolivian Fare

Pique: Bite-sized chunks of beef served with green peppers, tomatoes, locotoes, and onions over a bed of fry-cut potatoes in a beer sauce, all topped with an egg.



Brownies: Well they were supposed to be anyway. Much of Bolivia is at a high altitude and therefore requires some adjustments in baking. Generally a reduction in baking soda or powder, an increase in the liquid paired with the flour, and a decrease in sugar is suggested. For other cooking just remember that water boils are a lower temperature as the altitude increases, meaning an increase in cooking time is required.


So why does water boil at a lower temperature at higher altitude? (sorry can't resist)

Entropically, it's favorable for the liquid molecules to be in the gaseous phase. However at temperatures lower than the boiling point, the energy it would take the individual molecules to break free from the intermolecular forces holding the liquid together would be greater than than the entropic gain from going into the gas phase. Thus the boiling point is when these two factors are equal. Remember that the liquid isn't just up and turning into a gas, there is a required energy input, but that is equal to the entropic gain by switching to a gas at the boiling point.

So at higher altitudes the pressure is lower, thus there is a greater entropic gain than at lower altitudes, thus the equality between the energy and the entropy occurs at a lower temperature.

Anyway if you want to calculate the boiling temperature of a pure liquid you can use this equation. You'll need to know the atmospheric pressure.

Saltena: Simliar to a meat pie, it contains beef or chicken in the middle along with peas, other vegetables, an olive, and a quail egg. It also holds a lot of juice, and to be correct you have to eat it with your fingers without spilling any. I couldn't.

Truncha a la portuguesa - I am not generally not a big fan of fish, but sitting in a little restaurant on the shore of sparkling Lake Titicaca that specializes in trout, it would just be wrong not to get it. The only options in ordering the trout was how they fried it, and mine came with onions and tomatoes, though I'm not completely sure what they fried it in. In any case, it was excellent, and may cause me to reevaluate my opinion of fish.

Traditional bolivian meal in the area surrounding Lake Titicaca: Fried trout, something like sardines, chicken, boiled eggs, corn, potatoes, and beans. I didn't eat they sardines; they were looking at me.

A little bit of miscommunication at an ice cream place. In the top photo my brother tried to order a cappuccino milkshake and instead got a strawberry milkshake(the default flavor) and a cappuccino.

In the bottom photo my father ordered an ice cream coke expecting some akin to an ice cream float. Instead he got just what the name said, ice cream, and a coke.

Llama!: This is probably not a traditional method of preperation, but the fact that it's llama makes up for it. It tasted similar to beef, but kind of gamey.

T-bone steaks: This was one order of steak. One. Other than that, how different how can cooked cow meat be?