Quinoa Stuffed Pork Tenderloin

I've been on a bit on a quinoa kick lately, and when this recipe showed up in my inbox from Lia this morning, I wanted to share it ASAP. It looks positively scrumptious. Featuring lovely nutty flavors from the quinoa and pine nuts, sweet apples which always go well with pork and spiced with Garam Masala, this is sure to be a hit!

Ingredients:

½ cup uncooked quinoa

1 cup water

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, chopped or minced

1 medium-large apple, peeled, cored, and chopped

½ cup raisins

4 tablespoons pine nuts

4 mushrooms, chopped

4 tablespoons white wine

2 pounds pork tenderloin

Cinnamon, to taste

Garam masala, to taste

Salt and black pepper, to taste

Directions:

1.     Bring the quinoa and water to a boil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer until the quinoa is tender and the water has been absorbed, about 15 minutes.

2.     Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Cook and stir in the onion, garlic, apple, raisins, pine nuts, and mushrooms until the onion has softened and translucent, about 8 minutes. Stir in the white wine, and cook another minute until liquid has evaporated. Combine the apple mixture and quinoa until evenly mixed; set aside.

3.     Preheat oven to 425°F.

4.     Cut the pork tenderloin from one side through the middle horizontally to within ½ inch of the other side. Open the two sides and spread them out like an open book. Place between two sheets of heavy plastic wrap on a solid, level surface. Firmly pound the tenderloin with the smooth side of a meat mallet to a thickness of ½-inch.

5.     Season the tenderloin on both sides with cinnamon, garam masala, salt, and pepper. Spoon the quinoa filling into the tenderloin, then roll up and secure with kitchen twine or toothpicks. Place onto a roasting pan.

6.     Roast in preheated oven until the pork is no longer pink in the center, about 35-40 minutes. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of the filling should read 160°F. Cover with aluminum foil, and let rest for 10 minutes before slicing.

Tiramisu Cheesecake (Lia's birthday cheesecakes, part deux)

As promised, here is Lia's second cheesecake recipe, and I think I would eat this one once a week if I could!

Tiramisu Cheesecake

For the Crust:

• 1 12 once package lady finger cookies *
• 4 Tbsp salted butter, melted
• 2 Tbsp coffee flavored liqueur

For the Filling:

• 2 Tbsp coffee flavored liqueur
• 24 ounces cream cheese
• 8 ounces marscapone cheese
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 4 Tbsp all purpose flour
• 1 ounce semisweet chocolate

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Place a pan of water in the bottom of the oven.
2. Crush the ladyfingers into fine crumbs, mix in the meld butter and moisten with 2 Tbsp coffee liquor. Press into an 8 or 9 inch springform pan.
3. In a large bowl, mix cream cheese, marscapone, and sugar until very smooth. Add liqueur and mix. Add in the eggs and flour, mix slowly, just until smooth. Because the consistency of the mascarpone can vary, if the battery is too thick, slowly add in a little cream if necessary. Do not over mix. Pour batter into crust.
4. Place on middle rack of oven and bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or just until set. Open oven door and turn off heat. Allow cake to cool in oven for 20 minutes. Remove to cooling rack and allow to finish cooling. Refrigerate at least 3 hours, or overnight.
5. Grate semisweet chocolate over the top just before serving.

*Use the hard ladyfinger cookies, not the sponge ones, they will be too soft for this recipe, even if stale.

Red Velvet Cheesecake (or Birthday Cheesecakes Part 1)

What I like about this recipe is that it has the cocoa powder, buttermilk, vinegar, and red food coloring in it, just like a traditional red velvet cake, so it maintains a good degree of authenticity. In addition, this recipe features a cream cheese frosting as well. The chocolate graham cracker crust is easy and is a nice color contrast to the vivid red of the cheesecake and fluffy white frosting. Enjoy!

Red Velvet Cheesecake
From Southern Living

For the Crust:

• 1 1/2 cups chocolate graham cracker crumbs
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 Tbsp sugar

For the Cheesecake:

• 24 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 3 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/2 c buttermilk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp distilled white vinegar
• 2 ounces red food coloring

For the Frosting:

• 3 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Stir together graham cracker cubs, melted butter and 1 Tbsp sugar; press into bottom of a 9-inch spring from pan.
2. Beat together 24 ounces of cream cheese and 1 1/2 cups sugar at medium-low speed with electric mixer for 1 minute. Add eggs, cocoa powder, sour cream, buttermilk, vanilla extract, vinegar and food coloring, mixing on low speed just until fully combined. Pour batter into prepared crust.
3. Bake at 325F for 10 minutes; reduce heat to 300 degrees and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until center is firm. Run knife along outer edge of cheesecake, turn oven off. Let cheesecake stand in oven for 30 minutes. Remove from oven, cool on wire rack for 30 minutes. Cover and chill for at least 8 hours.
4. Beat 3 ounces cream cheese and 1/4 cup butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Gradually add powdered sugar and vanilla, beating until smooth. Spread evenly over top of cheesecake. Remove sides of springform pan.

Into to Lia and Birthday Cheesecakes

Well, another chef has thrown her, um, springform pan, into the kitchen. Her name is Lia, and she makes a mean cheesecake! Here is her introduction to her recipes:

I love to bake and cook, so any time I get an excuse to do so, I take it and run. For example, my birthday is December 23 (yes, I'm a Christmas baby) and every year I would wait and hope that mom would make me a birthday cake. And just about every year my cake was either left unmade, or shared with dad's birthday (on January 4). I know it sounds a bit like I am complaining, and I guess that is because I am!

So last year, I decided to just make my own birthday cake. If I want one so bad, then I should just make it myself. This is my excuse! I'm taking it and running with it. I decided to make cheesecake, since it is really awesome, and when made properly, DELICIOUS!!! I love red velvet cake, and the tiramisu my grandma makes, so choosing the types of cheesecakes to make for my birthday cake was pretty obvious. It took a lot of research and pouring through countless recipes to come up with these versions, I hope that you enjoy them!

Since I had to work every day before my birthday I had to make the cheesecakes after work, meaning I passed a few late nights to make sure they were done in time for my birthday. But since they turned out so fantastically, it was definitely worth it. I ended up bringing the cheesecakes to work as a birthday treat to share with my coworkers and they were a huge hit! Every piece was gone before the end of the day! I was even asked by multiple colleagues to bring more for the next day, I'm sorry to say that I had to let them down because that just wasn't happening. They were just going to have to wait until next year. But my birthday is coming up next month, and I've already decided on this year's cheesecakes :-) But you'll have to wait until another day for those recipes.