Feeding Friendship Round 2

This time around the "secret ingredient" was my call. I chose it after adding this to my regular couscous recipe really livened things up. Also, it didn't hurt that I have it available in my back yard. This week's ingredient is:

Fresh Rosemary 

Since I was a little stingy with my cauliflower coverage, I wanted to do a double dose of rosemary goodness. I love rosemary with pork, and it's still grilling season so that was the first dish I conceived: grilled pork tenderloin with a garlic-rosemary rub. First I chopped up a generous teaspoon of rosemary and combined it in a small bowl with around 3 cloves worth of minced garlic (I use the pre-minced kind in a jar because it saves me so much time), maybe a quarter teaspoon of fresh black pepper and around a half teaspoon of hickory smoked sea salt from the Spice & Tea Exchange (that stuff adds so much flavor!). I have a confession to make, dear readers. I am a geographic seasoner. I sprinkle until things are generally covered and it looks about right to me and don't always worry too much about the measurements. (not so for baking, that's a different ballgame) So that's why my measures are approximate here. I took my bowl and stirred the ingredients briefly and then rubbed them all over the tenderloin, thus: 

Per the instructions for a different rub in my Webster's Grilling recipe book, I let the tenderloin hang out on my counter for 20-30 minutes while I started the grill fire and made my other rosemary dish. To save money and get flavor, we went old school and got the prototypical black Webster charcoal grill- the best $60 I've spent in a long time. The "chimney starter" is a great time-saving device to own, if you don't have one, as it's just a metal scoop shaped like an oversize beer stein that you put charcoal in the top of and some newspaper in the bottom. Light the newspaper, and 15 minutes later you have hot coals with no lighter fluid to mishandle. (It also is a great outlet for those junky mailers you get with the latest local grocery deals- just not the glossy coated ones) Anyway, I rushed my coals a bit because I was hungry so I cooked my tenderloin about 8 minutes before flipping it over for another 8 since the heat was a bit low.

 I also soaked some hickory chips in water while the chimney starter was going and sprinkled those on the coals for an additional smoky flavor. When my handy Taylor mini-thermometer said 160F (aka medium) I took it off. 

Then I let it rest a few minutes to let the juices redistribute themselves. Mmmm, smoky! 

My next component was a bit of a stretch and I hadn't made anything remotely like it before. Since it was included in a new "Best of the Best" cookbook I bought, I made Rosemary Corn Scones originally from Brunch by Marc Meyer and Peter Meehan. First I chopped yet more rosemary- 2 tablespoons in all- and then chopped up 3 sticks of salted butter into little pieces and let it sit in the freezer while I combined the dry ingredients in my trusty food processor, per the directions. 

Here's proof. When do you get to take a butter in the freezer shot, really? 

And here's where it all went sideways. When I added the butter to the dry ingredients as follows: 

3 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 c cake flour

1 3/4 c corn meal 

 1 tablespoon + 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

 3/4 c light brown sugar

 and pulsed it, the butter stuck at the bottom. Adding the wet ingredients:

1 egg + 1 yolk 

2 1/2 tablespoons honey (I used orange blossom) 

1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons heavy cream

did nothing to help the situation. I suspect that the bowl of my food processor was a little too small for the job since it got really full and didn't allow everything to circulate well. I ended up scooping out a portion and mixing it in batches. Next I put all the dough on a cutting board and smooshed it til it was about 3/4 inch thick (there was no "rolling" this stuff). Like so:

Then I cut it into roughly 3-inch squares, which I placed on a parchment-covered baking sheet. Next I melted 1 T of butter and spread it over all the scones with a brush. Finally, I sprinkled 1 T (or more!) turbinado sugar on top and garnished each with a little rosemary sprig. They bake at 400 for 25-30 minutes (or 375 for about 20 in a convection oven). Voila!

So I put the two together in a rosemary extravaganza, though, admittedly not a riot of color ;) 

The pork came out tender with a great smoky flavor, and the rosemary and garlic really worked well together to make the rub really explode with flavor. The scones were a nice surprise. They were lightly sweet and infused with a really unique rosemary flavor that made my whole house smell great. My coworkers seemed to enjoy them, and one described it as the perfect marriage of rosemary and cornbread. I highly recommend enjoying them with a drizzle of honey. My only caveat is that you may want to mix them by hand in a very large bowl or halve the recipe. See you next time for Feeding Friendship and be sure to find our Tumblr feed here and check out our next secret ingredient!