Chef Jessica would kill us for posting this picture (since she’s a hyper-perfectionistique food stylist). However, we’d eat this meal out of a bucket. Just look at all the colors and textures! The apartment smelled like the most delicious corner of heaven.
Pork tenderloin with cabbage, apples, rosemary. Beets and goat cheese.
Rosemary Citrus Pork Tenderloin
- 2 Pork tenderloins- cleaned and cut in half
- 1 Tablespoon butter or duck fat
- 2 Sprigs of rosemary
- A splash of champagne vinegar
- 4 Cloves garlic
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 Zest of orange
Red Cabbage
- 1/2 Head of red cabbage
- 2 Tablespoons Red Wine Vinegar
- 2 Teaspoons sugar
- Salt and pepper to taste
Rosemary Apples
- 1 Granny smith apple
- 1 Pink lady apple
- 1 Tablespoon butter
- 1 Sprig of rosemary
Chef preps the pork by marinating it in chopped rosemary, vinegar, and garlic for 6 hours in a large bag.
Afterward, she removes the loins from the marinade and transfers it to a vacuum seal bag, seasons it with salt and pepper, grates on the zest of one orange, and puts in a pat of duck fat (you can substitute butter). It cooks at 60°C for 3 hours.
Jessica then juliennes the gorgeous cabbage into ribbons and quarters and thinly slices the apples.
Prep cabbage for sous vide.
Jessica is not afraid to shank somebody.
Sliced apple.
So purple!
The cabbage is put into a vacuum seal bag with vinegar, sugar, and salt n’ pepper and cooks in the water oven at 82°C for 90 minutes. She seasons her apples with butter and a chopped sprig of rosemary, it goes into the vide at 76°C for two hours.
Apples ready for sous vide.
At this point, while everything that needs to be vided is cooking precisely away, Jessica bakes a cake because she is a BEAST in the kitchen.
Cake batter in mold.
Salted Almond Cake
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 4 oz almond paste
- 1 cup flour
- 4 oz salted butter, at room temperature, cubed
- 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 large eggs, at room temperature
Maple Cinnamon Cream
- 1 pint of heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
She cuts the almond paste and mixes it with sugar and half of the flour till it resembles sand. Then, butter and vanilla is added until the mixture is fluffy. After, she pours in the egg. Jessica mixes the remaining dry ingredients in a separate bowl before she adds it to mixture. Once it’s smooth, she pours the batter into a round buttered pan and bakes it at 350°F till it bounces back when touched lightly (start checking after 25 minutes).
Slice the pork 1-2" thick
Just as a warm almond smell starts to saturate the kitchen the pork is ready to slice. Jessica cuts the loin into medallions and gives them a flash sear to develop a fragrant crust. They are plated with the cabbage and apple.
The pork is so tender that it has the toothsomeness of swordfish. The outside has an addictive tang that is carried into zestiness when we take a forkful of it with cabbage. The sweetness of the apples rounds out any sourness and is a classic, juicy pairing to pork.
We waste no time and move straight to dessert. To plate, Jessica first lays down some maple cinnamon whipped cream. She uses an isi whip but for those of us that aren’t that fancy, a cold bowl and some elbow grease would be adequate. The cake is plated with apples and a gentle dusting of cinnamon. This recipe makes a cake that is ultra moist, not too sweet, and perfect after a hearty meal. We couldn’t imagine eating a chocolate lava cake after Jessica’s pork fiesta.
Thank you so much Chef Jessica Entzel for an amazing three course meal!
