Grilled Pork Tenderloin

Perfect weather today, so we decided to fire up the charcoal to appropriately honor and respect Mother Nature. I am watching the season two premiere of TrueBlood as I type this, so I hope I don't inadvertently describe freshly extracted human hearts rather than the grilled pork tenderloin, broccoli rabe, and couscous that we actually cooked.

So the meal prep began after my return from the grocery store in the early afternon. I put one pork tenderloin in a marinade of olive oil, white wine, white wine vinegar, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and fresh oregano and chives from out back.

When the grill was finally ready (it took a long time to get going, allowing me to drink many beers on the back patio), I dropped the meat on first. I swear by the digital thermometer when cooking any sort of pork, and this evening was no exception. However, for some reason tonight my thermometer decided to work only in Celsius, so after rifling through long-forgotten, jumbled memories of 5/9 or 9/5, I moved the computer outside for easy calculations. I wanted to be sure to leave half the pork a little undercooked (a la P.N. Peterson) for tomorrow night's meal (that's supposed to be a cliffhanger).

The pork cooked faster than I thought, so I pulled it off to rest and dropped on the broccoli rabe and lemons. I had previously tossed the broccoli with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper, and the lemons I just cut in half and grilled pulp-side down. The lemons were awesome when I finally pulled them off, but the broccoli rabe (despite getting a nice char) was a little crisp. Probably should have left it on the covered grill a little bit longer.

The final dish was a simple whole wheat couscous. No big surprises here, but I did opt for chicken broth rather than water. I also toasted about a 1/3 cup of pistachios while the pork was cooking, then smashed them up and mixed them into the couscous right before serving. I've got to say, the pistachios were delicious (but kind of a pain to shell).

All told, a solid summer meal. Not mind-blowing, but tasty and healthy.

And I cannot figure out how to get these pictures to work how I want them to. Any thoughts?

Garlic Shrimp Pasta

This dish ended up great although it took longer than anticipated. I used frozen shrimp, which added some time. Begin by peeling the shrimp and simmering the shells in water for about ten minutes to make a shrimp stock. Shrimp stock is the quickest stock you can make and really tastes great. You can even freeze shrimp shells until you are ready to make a batch. Since it is so easy to make, I never bother to freeze the actual stock though.

As the stock is simmering, cut broccoli into florets, slice one large shallot and slice two large cloves of garlic. Peel two additional garlic cloves. Once the stock is done, strain and trash shrimp shells. Bring the stock back to a simmer and cook broccoli. As the broccoli is cooking, heat 1.5 T of butter and 2 T of olive oil in a pan with the 2 garlic cloves. Remove cooked broccoli and bring stock back to a boil, adding more water if necessary. Add pasta to the boiling water/stock and cook. Meanwhile, add the shallot and garlic clove slices once the oil is hot. Remove the whole cloves, cook the garlic and shallot slices until slightly browned and then add the shrimp. Cook shrimp until nearly done and then add the broccoli. Stir in the pasta and add 1-2 T of the cooking stock/water to thicken up the sauce a bit. Add salt and pepper as needed.