Food and Family

I had planned to post this yesterday, but some last minute touches on a friend's birthday gift kept me up just a little later than I had intended, and sleep trumps blogging, I am afraid to say.

Tuesdays are my favorite night of the week. I know that seems weird because, let's face it, Tuesdays, as rule, are pretty outrageously lame. However, Tuesdays for my "family" and I take on a whole new meaning.

Tuesday Night Dinner is family dinner night for a large and continuously rotating group of my friends. What started as a weekly date night with one friend as a way to keep from eating out all the time has exploded into a fabulous way to relax, mingle, have fun, and just enjoy each other's company.

The premise is simple: One person hosts the dinner at their house or apartment. They are responsible for making an entree for the group. While there are about 18 of us in the Facebook group that we use to organize, usually between 5 and 8 show up at any given time. Each person who comes to dinner brings something to share: bread, salad, wine, your sunny disposition, or, if you're Sze, one of a growing repertoire of fantastic soups. We will sit around, eat, drink, talk, and laugh our heads of for usually around 3 hours. The next week, another person hosts, and we repeat the process. These people are my newest family, and the reason I love Tuesdays so much.

Because I feel like it, today you get two recipes: one famous Sze soup, and one of mine that I make for TND as often as I can.

Sze's soup is from the Wall Street Journal's weekend edition, which, in my opinion, makes it all the more fantastic. Really, who gets recipes from the Wall Street Journal?

Wall Street Stew

6 strips bacon, diced
3 pounds beef chuck, trimmed and cut into 2-inch cubes
Salt
Pepper
2 yellow onions, halved and thinly sliced
8 peeled, whole garlic cloves (DO NOT DICE!)
1/4 cup tomato paste (1/3 can)
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 12-oz cans/bottles of dark beer
2 cups beef broth
2 medium carrots, end trimmed and peeled
2 celery stalks
6 sprigs flat-leaf parsley
4 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves

Prep - cut beef into 2-inch cubes, peel and trim carrots and celery. Season beef with salt and pepper. Heat soup pot over medium heat for 2 mins. Add bacon and brown.
Set aside.

Up heat to high, add beef. Brown meat on all sides, then set aside.

Add onions, cook until limp and browned. Reduce heat to medium, add garlic, cook until fragrant. Stir in tomato paste, cook 2 minutes. Add meat and flour, cook 2 minutes while stirring constantly. Stir in vinegar, cook 1 minute. Add brown sugar, beef broth, and all but 1/4 cup of the beer. Tie the carrots, celery, parsley, thyme, and bay leaves into a bundle with some twine. Add to pot.

Bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 90 minutes. Discard carrot-celery bundle, add the rest of the beer, season to taste with salt and pepper. Garnish with bacon.

Now, as for me, we get roasted pork loin with an orange-wasabi glaze and ginger smashed potatoes. I have a new found affinity for all things that come in squeezy tubes, including a pre-mashed ginger paste that you can find in the produce section of most grocery stores.

Roasted Pork Loin with an Orange-Wasabi Glaze and Ginger Smashed Potatoes

1 2lb pork loin
salt and pepper
1 tsp ground thyme

Glaze:
1 cup orange juice
2 T brown sugar
2 tsp wasabi paste (you can find this near the sushi-deli counters in most grocery stores)
1 T ginger paste
2 tsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp salt
2 T unsalted butter, cubed.

Potatoes:

1 small bag Petite Yukon Gold Potatoes
Butter and Cream to taste (around 2 T butter, 1/2 cup cream for me)
Salt and Pepper
1 T ginger paste.

Preheat the oven to 375. Rub pork with salt, pepper, and thyme. Bake for 30-45 minutes until internal temperature reads 150. This means you need to invest in a meat thermometer.

While that is happily baking, bring water to a boil in a large saucepan. Quarter the potatoes. I am lazy and don't peel them. You can if you want to. Boil 10-15 minutes until soft.

In a small saucepan, reduce orange juice to about 1/3 cup. Lower heat to medium, then whisk in next five ingredients in glaze and cook until sauce turns a nice amber color. Stir in cubed butter and remove from heat.

Remove the potatoes from heat and drain. Add butter and cream and mash with a potato masher until desired consistency is reached. Salt and pepper to taste, then stir in ginger.

Slice pork. Serve over the potatoes and drizzle with glaze.

Enjoy!