Grilled Pork Tenderloin, Garlic Smashed Potatoes, Sauteed Mushrooms, Creamed Green Beans

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On the warm, lovely day we had on Thursday, I did a little grilling and we had a delicious summer dinner. These green beans take me back to my childhood. My paternal grandmother died before I was born, and her sister, my great aunt, Mayme Wester, became my adopted grandma. She lived to 96, and spent all but the last 4 months of it on her own in her little house. She was a great cook and baker - especially her pies and cookies. She used to make these creamed green beans for me when I was a boy. Luckily, she lived until I was in my 20's, so I was able to get some of her recipes, including this one.

Menu
Grilled Pork Tenderlion
Garlic Smashed Potatoes
Sauteed Mushrooms
Creamed Green Beans

Grilled Pork Tenderlion
5-8 oz. pork tenderloin per person
salt
olive oil

At least 2 and as many as 5 days before serving, rub the tenderloin all over with coarse or Kosher salt. Use a generous amount, but not excessive - you're not creating a crust. I use about 1/2 tsp for a 6-7 oz. tenderloin. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and keep in the refrigerator (not freezer!). 1 hour before grilling, take the pork out of the fridge, and rub all over with a little olive oil.

Grill over hot coals or a gas grill on high, turning 2 or three times to brown on all sides. Test for doneness by texture - very soft for rare, quite firm for well-done. There's still a lot of squeemishness out there around uncooked pork, but tenderloin is at its best medium-rare. Allow to rest for 5 minutes before slicing into medallions and serving.

Garlic Smashed Potatoes
1/4 lb. skin-on new potatoes per person, scrubbed with a brush (we're eating the skins)
1 clove garlic per person, peeled and ends trimmed off
1 tsp butter per person
half-and-half or whole milk, about 1/4 cup per person
salt
pepper
olive oil

Heat oven to 300. Place the garlic in a little packet of foil with a drizzle of olive oil. Bake until soft, about 25 minutes. Mash with a fork in a small bowl and set aside.

Meanwhile, place the potatoes in a large pot covered by at least 2" of cold water. Bring to a boil, turn down the heat and keep at a low boil until soft and peels are cracking - about 30 minutes. Drain off all the water, and add the mashed garlic and all remaining ingredients. Mash with a potato masher until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste.

You can use fingerlings or other gourmet potatoes for this recipe such as Yukon Golds, but I prefer simple baby or medium red potatoes, which are less waxy.

Sauteed Mushrooms
8 oz. fresh button mushrooms, rinsed and quartered
1 T butter
1 tsp. flour
1 c. white wine
1/2 c. chicken stock
1 clove garlic, minced
salt
pepper

Melt 1 tsp the butter in a medium saute pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and saute briefly until soft. Add the mushrooms and a couple pinches of salt and saute for 10 minutes, stirring or tossing frequently. They can brown slightly, but don't let them get too brown - they should be releasing their moisture into the pan. Add the white wine and cook, stirring occasionally, until nearly all the liquid has evaporated.

Meanwhile, in a separate small pan, make a roux of the remaining 2 tsp of butter and the flour. Melt the butter, stir in the flour, and cook, stirring frequently, until it just begins to brown - it should be a deep yellow color.

Working quickly, add the chicken stock to the mushrooms, bring to a boil, and add about 1 tsp. of the roux. Stir quickly to dissolve and cook. If the sauce is too thin, add a little more roux. Do this step quickly so the stock doesn't evaporate too much. Taste for salt and pepper and adjust as needed.

Creamed Green Beans
(serves 4)
8-10 oz. fresh green beans per person, trimmed and cut into 1" pieces
salted water
1 T butter
1 T flour
milk - about 3/4 c.
salt
pepper

Cook the green beans via the "salt water" technique I described in my March 31st posting. In short: gently boil in salt water until al dente. The water should be as salty as sea water.

Drain the beans and reserve. Briefly rinse the pan and return to heat. Melt the butter and add the flour, stirring and cooking briefly to make a blond roux - it should not brown at all - about 45 seconds. While stirring or whisking continuously, begin to pour in the milk in a fine stream. When you've added about 1/2 of the milk, stop adding; stir and cook for a bit to watch it thicken. If it's getting too thick, add a bit more milk. Continue this process until you have a thick, creamy sauce - it should be a bit thicker than you'd make gravy, but loose enough to be creamy. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add the beans and stir to coat. Serve.

Timing
This is actually a pretty quick meal. I start with the potatoes, and while they're cooking, I have time to do everything else, ending with the cream for the beans, as that needs to be served right away.

Technique
Judy Rogers, chef and proprietor of the Zuni Cafe in San Francisco, discusses salting meat in her Zuni Cafe Cookbook. I've tried her technique, and it's brilliantly simple and delicious. Buy your meat far enough in advance to do this. For beef, pork and lamb, rub a generous amount of coarse (or Kosher) salt all over the meat, wrap tightly, and store in the refrigerator (NOT freezer) for at least 2 days, and not more than 5, before cooking. For poultry, only salt 1-2 days before cooking. Salting meat a few hours before cooking can draw out its juices, but if you give it several days, the salt is absorbed all the way through the meat, and has the opposite effect of locking in the juices. It also helps preserve the meat. Baked or grilled meats prepared this way will be tender, moist, and very flavorful.

If you are familiar with cooking techniques, you'll have noticed that the "cream" for the beans is pretty much a classic bechamel (BESH-uh-mel) sauce - one of the French so-called "mother sauces". A favorite use of this sauce in my family growing up was "graveyard stew" - put a slice of toasted thick wheat bread on a plate, slather with "milk gravy" (unsalted or lightly-salted bechamel), sprinkle with sugar and sometimes cinnamon, and eat. Yum!

Bechamel is also the base of my macaroni and cheese recipe, and almost every other cheese sauce I make. It can be made with skim or 1% milk, which yields a creamy, rich sauce that is actually pretty low in fat. The most important step is the making of a blond roux - the flour must be cooked adequately, but no browning must occur or it will darken the bechamel.