Pork and feta medallions

Tonight’s dinner was a riff of a Jaime Oliver recipe - one which I can’t for the life of me find anywhere online. I’ve been cooking too many 1-dish meals and felt the need to get back to the dinner stalwart of protein, carb, veg. PK was impressed, Helen less so:

Tonight’s takes:

Husband: “Delicious.”

Helen (6 years old): “I think it’s really good. But you didn’t nail it. Like, it’s good, but you needed, like, one more point to nail it. The pork is tasty. And the rice and beans are really good. But you didn’t nail it. It’s okay, mama; it’s still really good.”

Hector (3 1/2 years old): “NO I DON’T WANT THE MEAT! AND DON’T CUT MY BEANS. NOOOOOOOO THE BEANS ARE TOUCHING MY RICE.”

What I used:

• 1 pork tenderloin

• feta cheese

• 7 slices salami

• 1 cup jasmine rice

• a lot of green beans

• sage powder

• garlic powder

• canola oil

What I did:

Got rice on - 1 cup jasmine rice, 1 1/2 cups water, pinch of salt, ~1 tsp canola oil. Simmered with the lid on for 18 minutes.

Prepped pork. Sliced into 1” thick medallions.

Cut a slit into each medallion. Made sure not to cut all the way through. Added a chunk of feta into each slit.

Dusted medallions with sage powder, garlic powder, and pepper. Salted the side without the feta.

Put sauté pan on medium heat and added a healthy amount of canola oil to the pan.

Once pan was hot, added pork medallions, feta side up.

Added salami slices on top of each medallion. Sautéed for 10 minutes. Made sure not to move them at all while sautéing.

Opened Marrow Vermouth. Tried the red vermouth tonight. It’s GOOD. Richer mouthfeel than the white vermouth and a bit less bitter. Perfect aperitif.

Once sides of medallions looked cooked (10 minutes of sautéing), flipped them onto salami side.

Turned the heat down to medium-low - was concerned the salami would crisp up before the medallions were cooked through.

Sautéed for 10 minutes on this side as well. Checked with thermometer - 135°F internal temp. Removed from pan.

Added beans and ~1/2 cup water to sauté pan.

Turned heat up to medium-high. Put lid on and steamed for 5 minutes. Done!

Served!

Next time:

I forgot to pound out the medallions - I’ll do this next time. They’ll cook a bit faster if they’re flatter. They could have used more spice as well - next time I’ll be heavier handed with the sage and pepper.

PK put sriracha on his rice… I don’t know what to do about that.

Otherwise, it was really good. Because when are two types of pork, cheese, and pan frying not going to be good?

😋😋😋

-Ellisa