Next to flowers and heart-shaped boxes of chocolates, dining at a nice restaurant is perhaps the most popular Valentine's Day tradition. But considering the times we live in, that is not an option for a lot of people. Besides, going out to eat V-Day is amateur hour! Stay at home and put all those COVID-19 cooking skills to good use!
What to make? It being Valentine's Day, I wanted to make something French. After all, the French practically invented l'amour, right? Second, I wanted the dish to be special. With these two variables accounted for, the outcome was obvious: cassoulet. I came to this conclusion around 11:00 a.m. on Valentine's Day itself. You can see where this is headed.
I made cassoulet, for the fist and only time, several years ago using Julia Child's recipe. So, off to the bookcase near the kitchen where I keep my cookbooks and grabbed Mastering the Art of French Cooking. There at page 399, the recipe read: "
Don't let the rather quotidian title fool you. This recipe is six damn pages long and requires cracked mutton and lamb bones! Pretty sure I skipped the cracked bones the last time. In fact, I'm pretty sure that I blocked that recipe out of my mind. I don't recall slogging through six pages of detailed instructions or spending all day in the kitchen. Call it culinary PTSD.
Maybe there's a quicker version...
I next turned to David Lebovitz's, My Paris Kitchen. His recipe was a mere five pages, but required a two-day head start. Hmmm, now where did I park the DeLorean?
Ina Garten was now my last chance to make cassoulet on Valentine's Day. She is an expert at taking classic French recipes and making them relatively straightforward. I walked back to that bookshelf with a bit more optimism in my step and confidently plucked Barefoot in Paris from the shelf and opened the index: caramelized shallots, rosemary cashews, cassis a l'eau, cauliflower gratin...but no cassoulet.
Maybe she has a recipe online, I thought.
When I googled "Ina Garten cassoulet," I discovered why she doesn't have a cassoulet recipe:
“There are so many dishes I love to make at home, but there are some things I just don’t make at home. I order them in restaurants, like cassoulet. Things that take, like, days to make and they’re so good.”
Well, if Ina Garten doesn't think cassoulet made at home is worth it, then I'm sold. But there was still the question of what I was going to make. Back to that bookcase yet again.
There on bottom shelf between Eric Ripert's Avec Eric and Raymond Olivier's La Cuisine, was Mimi Thorisson's French Country Cooking, someone I've written about before. One of my favorite recipes in French Country Cooking is Pork Tenderloin with Prunes and Red Win Sauce. Because of its ease of preparation and its deliciousness, this recipe punches well above its weight.
Here's the recipe:
PORK TENDERLOIN WITH PRUNES & RED WIN SAUCE
FOR THE SAUCE
2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium carrot, diced
2 shallots, finally chopped
1 bay leaf [I usually double what recipes call for.]
Leaves from 3 springs of fresh thyme
Course sea salt and freshly ground pepper
3/4 cup of red wine
2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
1/4 chicken or vegetable stock
8 onces of prunes soaked in warm water for 15 minutes
FOR THE PORK
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 pounds of pork tenderloin, cut into four equal pieces
Coarse sea salt and freshly ground pepper
3 garlic cloves, unpeeled
Leaves from a few sprigs of fresh flat, leave parsley, finely chopped
PREPARATION
1. Make the sauce. In a medium sauté pan, heat 1 tablespoon of the butter over medium heat. Add the carrot and shallots and cook until slightly golden, about 3 minutes. Add the bay leaf and thyme, season with salt and pepper, and then add the wine and vinegar. Simmer for a few minutes to reduce slightly. Pour in the stock and bring to a low boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
2. Add the remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons butter to the pan. Drain the prunes and add them to the sauce. Continue to simmer for 5 mins. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
3. Meanwhile, cook the pork. In a large sauté pan, heat the butter and olive oil over medium-high heat. Season the tenderloins on both sides with salt and pepper and add to the pan with the garlic cloves. Cook on both sides until golden brown and cooked through, 8 to 10 minutes. [I would like to try this recipe with bone-in pork chops.]
4. Spoon off and discard any excess fat from the pan, then pour the prune sauce on top of the pork. Garnish with the parsley and serve immediately.
And there you have it. And while not the labor of love that I had originally intended, this recipe gave me more time to enjoy that meal with my love. And that's the whole point, isn't it?
Oh, did I mention that Mimi Thorisson has a recipe for cassoulet? Maybe I'll try again next year, starting around the end of January.
