Thursday, May 14, 2009

Fire Roasted Smashed Tomatoes

Is there anything better than cooking outside on a warm spring night?

I made two new dishes tonight. One was a simple one I made up tonight and the other was Pecan Crusted Pork Tenderloin Pinwheels with Carolina Mustard Sauce from Chris Lilly's new book, Big Bob Gibson's BBQ Book.

Fire Roasted Smashed Tomatoes
Ingredients
6 ea roma tomatoes
6 ea basil leaves, chopped
6 ea oregano leaves, chopped
kosher salt (to taste)
black pepper (to taste)
feta cheese (just enough to top each half)
Olive oil
Instructions
Halve the tomatoes and then score each mater so it can lay flat like this (use a very sharp knife and don't cut all the way through):
Sprinkle each tomato half with basil, salt, oregano, and pepper. Crumble feta cheese on top of the seasoned tomatoes. Drizzle with your favorite olive oil.

Place the tomato halves on a preheated pizza stone on a 500f grill, cover and cook approximately 5-7 minutes until the cheese starts to brown. (I was having a horrible time with lighting in the kitchen. That does it, I am getting a light tent set up!)
Oh man, I can tell you these things are aweome! Great appetizer or side dish. Just enough of a subtle smokiness came through in the feta cheese.


Pecan Crusted Pork Tenderloin Pinwheels with Carolina Mustard Sauce

I won't re-post the whole recipe since it can be found here or in Chris Lilly's new book. The book does a much better job explaining the assembly process. Basically, it is just rolled up strips of pork tenderloin and bacon, then grilled. It kicks ass.
TIP: To slice the pork tenderloins...Do this with a very sharp knife while they are still partially frozen. The tenderloin usually has a flat side. Place this side down on the cutting board.

First of all, pecans make me hurl, so they weren't an option. Secondly, I didn't have plain yellow mustard. We go through tons of plain mustard bbqing so all I had was stone ground mustard.
(If you don't know my sarcastic style, please know the serious look in the picture is just goofing off.)

The coarse mustard seed worked for texture, since I wasn't doing the pecans.
I cook the pinwheels on the Brinkmann Charcoal Grill using Kingsford Hickory Briquettes while the tomatoes cooked on the Egg using Full Circle Lump.

Despite my completely crappy pictures, the food came out incredibly great. The bacon helps keep the lean tenderloin from drying out during grilling and adds flavor.
These are great for a heavy appetizer serving or as a main dish. We got 20 single servings out of one twin pack of pork tenderloins.

Things I'd change next time:
Tomatoes
- Just take better pictures!

Pork
-Be careful of distance to coals. I was cooking too close (5-7") on the first side so I got that side a bit crispy. Next time either start checking for done-ness at around 5 minutes or raise the cooking great a few inches.

For printable recipe, click here:
Pecan-Crusted Pork Tenderloin Pinwheels with Carolina Mustard Sauce