Sometimes taking initiative with a recipe is not a good idea. Dorie's recipe for
Fresh Orange Pork Tenderloin (pg 273 of
Around My French Table) calls for four large oranges. We're still hauling in mandarins from the last tree in my landlord's grove that we haven't picked clean. He has orange trees, too, but the fruit doesn't taste like anything. I chose to use the mandarins instead.
I've been making batches of marmalade out of them (OH MAN--SO GOOD), and the marmalade recipe allows using the entire mandarin peel, pith and all, since the skin is so thin. It works beautifully for marmalade.
The same concept of using the entire peel does not work beautifully for pork. This whole dish turned out bitter. Really bitter. It was unpleasant. Those cups of sugar that go into the marmalade do a good job tempering the bitterness. Maybe if I add cups of sugar to the pork....
Just kidding.
I don't blame the recipe. This defeat was all my own doing. I'll give it another shot with normal orange zest one day.
Oh, sorry the marmalade didn't work for you. It was a good concept, so that's a bummer.
ReplyDeleteOranges from you landlord - Jealous!!!!
I can attest the mandarin marmalade is delicious...had it in place of my usual jelly substance on my breakfast PB&J sammy this morning :) I tend to avoid cooking citrus fruit in meals for that very reason, one too many meals have come out bitter even when the tiniest amount of pith gets in there. I only use the juice and the thinnest shavings of zest I can get. I like your sugar pork idea tho ;)~
ReplyDeleteWell, at least the marmalade is delicious! Pith can be such a saboteur, and it will take over a dish if it can. Hope it's better luck next time!
ReplyDeleteI've used marmalade with chicken no problem is pork really different to cause bitterness? Sorry it didn't turn out well for you. I changed the recipe and it worked, I think it is worth trying. You never know what you might create.
ReplyDeleteI should clarify in my post. I didn't use marmalade. I used the same method on the mandarins as the marmalade says is ok, namely, using the pith too. Without all the sugar used in marmalade, that method yielded very bitter results.
DeleteYummy !!
ReplyDeleteI love your blog and your univers
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Oh well, live and learn. How exciting to have an orange grove though! And how exciting that I can comment again on your blog!
ReplyDeleteAgh ... isn't it always a bummer when you put in an effort expecting a nice meal and it just doesn't taste good? I didn't realize that the peels of mandarins are that much more bitter than regular oranges. Perhaps if you had added some sugar or honey, it would've offset it a little?
ReplyDeleteI don't know that the peel itself is more bitter than an orange, but that I used the whole thing, white included, instead of zesting it or peeling the zest with a peeler, like you would an orange. Bad idea.
DeleteYay! The comments work over here! Homemade marmalade from hand-picked fruit -- I'm so jealous! Sorry your choice of citrus didn't work, but personally, I thought the sauce lacked flavor, so maybe it wasn't the fruit you used. I see you're "immersed" in Nigella's Kitchen. Have you tried the Rapid Roastini? I like that recipe.
ReplyDeleteFunny timing, Betsy! I actually made the Rapid Roastini last night. They were tasty little bites! And yes, I feel very rich with a grove of mandarin, tangerine, and lemons at my disposal. It's amazing.
DeleteI didn't think this was all that great. I used some oranges that I'd been given by a friend, now I'm a bit sorry that I didn't just eat them out of hand, oh well!
ReplyDeleteI used little Cuties and had a little bit of bitterness in mine as well - that's what I get for substituting I guess!
ReplyDeleteFirst, thanks for going back to your original (for me, at least) Blog. I do not need more confusion in my Life and I like reading your Blog. I have orange marmalade (from England or Spain) every morning with my toast but if I lived near you, I would snitch some of yours, for sure. I think you'd have done better by using marmalade as a marinade for your pork. I wanted to love everything about this recipe and I ate every bite but.....in the end, I like my tenderloin whole, rolled in salt, pepper, and Herbes de Provence, pan seared and roasted. With a big old meat thermometer nearby. Nothing unique about it, but delicious and always with a pink center. You're not the Lone Ranger about "going rogue". I'm not particularly good at it either.
ReplyDeleteEven with a 'normal orange' I reduced the zest and you still fight the 'bitter'. I really need to learn marmalade though... hmm...
ReplyDeleteI am totally now craving big crusty bread toasted with orange marmalade. Yes, I know you only used the clementines (and not marmalade) in your dish but it is winter and the thought of tea, toast and marmalade brings back many great memories. Back when I was too young to know (or care) what a carb was :) Love the idea of the fresh fruit- that is hardly an option with the blizzards we have been dodging. Keep going rogue- that is how brilliant ideas are born.....
ReplyDeleteIt's too bad about the pith. It sounds like the oranges themselves are wonderful. It must also be lovely to be able to go out and pick oranges right outside (my jealousy is clearly kicking in again). We weren't wowed by this recipe, but a number of others loved it.
ReplyDeleteall i know is I'm coming over to pick some oranges....
ReplyDeletethe piths all seemed to be bitter for most of us I think!