Weeknight Recipes

The Simple Art of the Medallion

Quarry Lane wrote about the beauty of the pork loin in a previous post a couple of weeks back – that ready-made tube of meat that needs little more than a browning, an oven roast, and then a final slicing to create those pork discs everybody likes.  Well, there is one more step to take in the final evolution of the art of pork loin cooking.  To 'medallion,' in the case of the loin, is to cut it into the desired discs first, then apply whatever cooking process the recipe calls for.  For 'Pork Medallions with Roasted Nectarines,' out of the Williams Sonoma One Pot of the Day Cookbook, the recipe picture above

shows to cut the medallions into 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch discs, lay those first in pan heat, 4-5 mins. per side, then let 'em sit while you work off of the pan juices and bits.  Now, I learned that I do like to play around with recipes these days, either by choice or by the fact that I just don't have all the stuff in the house.  This ingredient list wanted me to add some hard cider to the pan juices, drop some rosemary in and eventually top it all off with 'grainy mustard.'  The problem is nobody here digs hard cider. Rosemary is, as far as I'm concerned, an adult herb, and grainy mustard tends to go over with a sour face.  So I found some little apple juices in the fridge and let that reduce in the pan, allowing it to pick up some of the fruit that I knew the recipe was going for...the roasted nectarines,

I also decided to play with the cut size of the meat a bit.  I've had medallions at restaurants that are very thick and pink, oozing up with the properly heated juice through the center, so I cut our loin, for fun, to around 2 1/2 inches, browned those, then roasted along with the nectarine slices for an amount of time that has to be tested.  I had already baked some Yukon Golds, smashed those up, skins on, added thick milk, (lactose free) butter, then splattered the top of the plated dollop with the roasted juices from the pork and nectarine – who needs heaps of gravy when you have such a concentrated flavor to add to the potatoes? Juicy, filet mignon-size roasted pork loins, touched by a bit of sweet yet sour fruit, accompanied by peasant-style mash potatoes, was an easy but edible semi-gourmet weeknight meal.