This recipe comes from my friend Jules Silver at ClubSauce.com. His web site offers some great gourmet products and may be the only site on the Internet offering all of More Than Gourmet’s products including Demi-Glace Gold you always here me talking about.

I have no problem plugging my buddy Jules because I know the products he markets, I use a lot of them myself, and Jules offers some of the best service you can find on the Net.  Jules handles all orders himself so I know he takes good care of his customers.

In his spare time, Jules likes to dabble in the kitchen and has recently come up with his own line of products called Splash that are Pomegranate Reduction Sauces. They’re excellent for making sauces or adding a little extra flavor to soups and stews but I also like them on fresh fruit and ice cream.

Here’s Jules recipe for pan seared pork loin with his

Pomegranate Port Reduction Sauce
Servings: 4 

Ingredients:

1 2-3 lb pork loin
1-tablespoon garlic, chopped
1-tablespoon herbs de Provence  (typically contains rosemary, marjoram, basil, bay leaf, thyme)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup dry red wine
1/3 cup chicken stock
1/4 cup Splash! Pomegranate Port Reduction Sauce
Fresh ground pepper to taste 1/4-cup fresh pomegranate seeds, optional
 
1. Pre heat oven to 325°. Rub pork loin with 1-tablespoon extra virgin olive oil until lightly coated. Sprinkle with herbs de Provence rubbing it into the meat and then set aside.

2. Combine 1-tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, garlic, and herbs de Provence in a sauté pan over medium low heat. As garlic starts to brown add wine and reduce until the mixture has a slight syrupy consistency.

3. Whisk in the roasted chicken stock and the pomegranate port reduction sauce until blended. Remove pan from the stovetop. Heat a separate skillet with a heat resistant handle over medium-high heat. Add the pork loin and quickly sear on one side and then turn so that both sides have slightly browned.

4. Using a brush lightly baste the pork loin with the sauce mixture and then place the skillet with the pork in the oven. Cook for about 45 minutes or if using an instant read thermometer 150°, basting every 15 minutes with the sauce.

5. Remove the pork loin from the skillet to a dish and allow to stand for 5 minutes before carving. Place the meat on a carving board and pour any juices from the plate back into the saucepan. Return the pan to the stove and warm over medium low heat.

Carve the pork loin at a diagonal in 1/2-inch slices. Place the sliced pieces of pork on each plate. Spoon the sauce on top. Sprinkle with pomegranate seeds and serve.

Last night my wife was out with some friends so I asked my daughters what they wanted for dinner. “Pasta Daddy, Pasta”.

I asked them if they wanted me to make a sauce but they just wanted butter and grated Parmesan cheese. I gave them what they wanted with some carrots and they were happy.

I wanted a sauce with my pasta but something extremely quick, easy and delicious. There was some sweet Italian sausage and sweet grape tomatoes in the refrigerator so I had the basis for a good sauce.  I was going to make my Quick Pasta with Tomato Sausage Sauce for the family but since the kids only wanted butter, I only needed sauce for one.

I remember a chef once telling me about making fast, delicious sauces, “Keep it stupid simple,” he said or maybe it was “Keep it simple, stupid.”   Not sure now. But I do remember him telling me that sometimes the simplest dishes he makes for his customers are his most popular.

This sauce is extremely simple but I was surprised how incredibly delectable a little sausage, a dozen or so grape tomatoes, some high quality extra virgin olive oil, some grated Parmesan cheese and a little salt & pepper can be.

The trick to this dish is the olive oil. You can purchase various qualities of extra virgin olive oil; I purchase a big jug of it at Costco that I use in lots of various ways but for this sauce, I wanted to use an extra special high-end extra virgin olive oil.

For this sauce I used some Tuscan style olive oil by Georgio Zampa that I found at ClubSauce.com. It is not cheap but I only use it sparingly as a dipping sauce or for sautés like this. You can find plenty of great olive oils at your own favorite market and one of these days I’ll work on an article about the differences between olive oils.

Penne Pasta with Simple

Ingredients

Pasta – amount to be determined by your appetite and if you are feeding some to your kids with butter

2 sweet Italian sausages
10 – 12 sweet grape tomatoes cut in half
3 – 4 tablespoons good quality extra virgin olive oil
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Salt & pepper to taste

How To Prepare This Simple Sauce

Bring a pot of water to boil. Add a pinch of salt to the water and then your pasta. See my tips on cooking pasta.  When the water comes to a boil, add your pasta, stir immediately and cook to al dente. Be sure to stir frequently to prevent the pasta from sticking.

While the pasta is cooking, heat a saucepan over medium-high heat and squeeze the sausage meat out of the sausage skin into the saucepan. Break it up with a wooden spoon into bite size pieces. Brown the sausage meat until cooked through.

Add the tomatoes and cook with sausage meat for a few minutes. Add the olive oil and stir to coat the meat and tomatoes. Season with a little salt & pepper. Cook for an additional minute or two.

Drain the pasta and add some of it to the saucepan. It is easier to add more pasta if you have enough sauce than take it away if you don’t have enough sauce. It really doesn’t matter because the sausage and tomatoes are going to give the olive oil a lot of flavor and the oil should coat a decent amount of pasta.

Serve the pasta topped with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

You are going to be surprised just how good this simple pasta dish tastes. Your going to wish you made more for leftovers.

If you have spent any time on my web site, you know I am a huge fan of preparing sauces…pan sauces, classic French style sauce and everyday simple sauces. As Fernand Point, the man considered to be the father of modern French cuisine said, “It is the sauce that distinguishes a good chef. The Saucier is a soloist in the orchestra of a great kitchen.”

Now that may be taking it a bit far, but I do believe if you know how to prepare sauces, you can turn an ordinary sautéed chicken breast into something special. Same with a pork chop and even a steak that can usually stand on its own. See my Steak with Wild Mushroom Sauce or Grilled Steak with Peppercorn Sauce.

The trick to making great sauces at home is having the right ingredients. The reason professional chefs can serve you an incredible rich, velvety brown sauce in your favorite restaurant is because they have spent hours, sometimes days preparing stock reductions and demi-glaces.

Most of us home cooks don’t have the time or the desire to put the time and effort into making classic stock reductions for soups, stews, braises and sauces. Sure, we have no trouble making a batch of chicken stock for homemade chicken soup but how many of you want to spend two days making a demi-glace? Not me.

Good News For Home Cooks

Good news for us is there are now companies making some very good commercial stock reduction products that we can use to make great sauces in our own kitchens. Some are better than others and it’s my goal this year to try as many products as I can find and give them a taste test.

In the meantime, my current favorite commercial brand is More Than Gourmet’s Demi Glace Gold and any of their other classic stock reductions that include chicken, fish, lobster, veggie, duck, veal and a few others. I have been using these products for years and I can honestly say these products have elevated my cooking more than any other line of products. I can now make the same sauces that I’ve enjoyed in many of the fine restaurants I’ve been fortunate to dine at.

 Now I’m not saying there aren’t better products on the market. I’m sure there are cheaper brands but most of those are pure chemicals and not using all natural products. If there is a brand you recommend me trying, please let me know and I will give it a go.

If you want to learn more about making sauces at home and read more about these products, I suggest you go to www.gatewaygourmet.com. There you will find dozens of sauce recipes, many of them featuring More Than Gourmet’s products, plus ingredient breakdowns and where to purchase them.

Who Said The Holidays Are Over?

Better yet, one of those sources is now offering the entire More Than Gourmet product line at 20% off.  This is an incredible opportunity to try these products and start making restaurant quality sauces in your own kitchen. But you’ll want to hurry because the sale ends this Sunday, January 7, 2007.

So go over to GatewayGourmet.com and take a look at these products and their recipes and if you like what you see, take advantage of the sale going on at ClubSauce.  The sale ends on Sunday and I don’t think you’ll find prices like these anywhere.