Roasted pork with smokey plantain crema, pickled red onions, mole and baked Haitian grits

(Serves 4)

Smoky plantain crema
Makes 2 cups

This is one of my all-time favorite sauces. It is excellent with grilled or roasted poultry or pork dishes. When I travel and cook at various events, I often include this on the menu.

1 chipotle chile
1 tablespoon chipotle vinegar or Spanish sherry vinegar
2 1/2 ounces smoky bacon, diced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 poblano pepper, stemmed, seeded, and minced
1/2 large red onion, diced
1 carrot, peeled and diced
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 Scotch bonnet chile, stemmed, seeded, and minced
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 teaspoon annatto seeds
1 bay leaf, broken in half
1 teaspoon toasted and ground cumin seeds
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
1/2 cup chicken stock
2 cups heavy cream
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
1 tablespoon canola oil
1/2 very ripe plantain (the skin should be almost black)

Toast the chipotle in a small skillet over medium heat. Remove the stem and seeds.
Combine the vinegar and toasted chipotle in a small bowl. Set aside to soften.
In a medium pot, cook the bacon in the olive oil over medium-low heat until beginning to crisp. Turn the heat up to medium, add the poblano, onion, carrot, garlic, and Scotch bonnet, and season with salt and pepper. Cook until the vegetables begin to soften, about 4 minutes.
Add the annatto seeds and stir. Then add the chipotle-vinegar mixture, the bay leaf, cumin, and 1 teaspoon pepper, and simmer until almost all of the liquid has evaporated, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the orange juice and simmer until only a small amount of liquid remains, 4 to 6 minutes.
Add the chicken stock and reduce almost to a glaze, about 7 minutes (you'll know it is done when the bubbles start getting bigger). Add the heavy cream and vanilla bean, stir, and simmer for 8 to 10 minutes, until the cream in quite thick. Pass the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer; discard the solids. Reserve.
In a sauté pan, heat the canola oil. Add the plantain, season with salt and pepper, and cook over medium heat, turning occasionally, until dark golden brown on all sides. Transfer to a paper towel to drain.
In a blender, puree the plantain with the strained liquid. If any lumps of plantain remain, strain one more time. Refrigerate until needed; this will keep for 4 or 5 days.
Reprinted with permission from New World Kitchen by Norman Van Aken, April 2003
Copyright © 2003 HarperCollins

Pork and marinade
1 sour orange cut in half
2 oranges cut in half
4 limes cut in half
2 cups olive oil
24 whole bruised black peppercorns
4 bay leaves, broken
12 cloves garlic, sliced
2 red onion, peeled and sliced fairly thin
4 whole pork tenderloins, trimmed

Mix all of the above together and put the pork in it. Marinade for 2-3 hours and up to 12 hours. Take the pork out of the marinade and rub all over with the Escabeche spice blend, (recipe below).

Escabeche spice blend
Yields 1 1/2 cups)

1/2 cup cumin seeds
1/2 cup black pepper
1/4 cup sugar
1/8 cup kosher salt

Put the cumin and peppercorns in a dry skillet and toast over medium heat, shaking the pan frequently until fragrant and slightly smoking, about 30 seconds to one minute.
Transfer them to a spice grinder and pulverize them until not quite finely ground. Remove them to a bowl and mix in the sugar and salt.
Store the rub in an airtight container until needed.

For the pickled red onions:
1 large red onion, sliced into 1/2 inch rounds
1/2 tablespoon kosher salt
6 ounces red wine vinegar
2 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper

Separate the onions into rings and place them in a large bowl. Add the salt and toss the rings. Allow to set for 30 minutes. Rinse the onions and drain them well. Now lay them on paper toweling and pat them dry.
Mix the remaining ingredients together in another bowl. Whisk well and then add the onions to it. Mix gently and allow to marinate an hour before serving. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Note: I like to use the Pickled Red Onions to ?lash? the pork together so that I can stand them up. Be sure you cut the onions thick enough so that they make sufficient ?lashes?.

When you are ready to cook the pork, lightly oil the surface of the grill and place the pork on the grill. Rotating often, cook pork roughly for 8-10 minutes for medium rare to medium temperature and set aside.

Spoon the Smokey Plantain Crema onto each dish.

Cut pork tenderloin on a bias and stand it up where each cut is facing opposite direction. Take the Pickled Red Onion rings and wrap them around pork to secure pork. Set pork on mole. Garnish with rosemary sprigs.

Baked Haitian grits
(Yields 16-18 potions)

5 cups milk
5 cups cold water
3 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons black pepper
1 teaspoon grated nutmeg
8 ounces butter, cut into small pieces
5 cups Haitian grits (or coarse yellow cornmeal)
2 cups grated manchego or pepper jack cheese
2 tablespoons blue cheese
5 ears of blistered corn kernels
14 jalapeños, diced small
Butter to saute corn and jalapeños

Preheat oven to 425° F. Set up a deep half hotel pan (12- X 10-inches, 21/2 inches deep) with parchment paper and the sides greased.
Put the 5 cups of milk in a large saucepan with the 5 cups of water, salt, pepper, nutmeg and butter and bring just to a boil.
Now whisk the grits into the hot milk mixture and stir constantly. When it starts to bubble and ?splat?, turn the heat down to medium, (about 5 minutes). When the grits are quite thick, mix in the cheese. Mix vigorously for 1 minute. Turn off the heat and continue to whisk 1 more minute. Now turn this mixture into the baking pan. Bake un-covered for 30 minutes.
Cut into circles to serve.

21st century mole
(Yields 12 1/2 cups)

4 tomatoes, cored and roasted for10 minutes in a preheated 400° oven
8 tomatillos, husk discarded, cored and roasted with the tomato
8 poblano peppers, roasted and peeled, stem & seeds discarded, cut into small pieces
1 cup olive oil (or chile oil)
1 cup chilies mezcla (mixed dried chilies)
4 small red onions, peeled and diced small
16 large cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 scotch bonnets, stem and seeds discarded, minced
3 very ripe plantains, peeled and diced small
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
4 teaspoons fresh oregano leaves
4 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
4 bay leaves
1/4 cup cumin seeds, freshly toasted and ground
1/4 cup black peppercorns, freshly toasted and ground
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1 cup raisins, soaked in 2 cups of port wine
1 cup Spanish sherry wine vinegar
1/2 cup toasted unsalted Spanish peanuts
1 1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup stale bread, ripped up and briefly sautéed in olive oil
2 quarts of hot dark chicken stock

Preheat oven to 400°. Core the tomatoes and tomatillos, put them cored side down on a small pan and make an ?x? with a sharp knife on the bottom. Now roast them for 10 minutes. Let them cool. Skin the tomato and then roughly chop them both.
Get a large heavy saucepan hot and add the olive oil. Add the mezcla and fry for about 20 seconds, stirring. Now add the onion, garlic, scotch bonnet and plantain and stir well to coat. Allow to cook 4-5 minutes.

Note: I like to use the Pickled Red Onions to ?lash? the pork together so that I can stand them up. Be sure you cut the onions thick enough so that they make sufficient ?lashes?.
To serve
Black bean sweet corn salsa, your choice

When you are ready to cook the pork, lightly oil the surface of the grill and place the pork on the grill. Rotating often, cook pork roughly for 8-10 minutes for medium rare to medium temperature and set aside.

Spoon the Smokey Plantain Crema, grits and mole onto each dish.

Cut pork tenderloin on a bias and stand it up where each cut is facing opposite direction. Take the Pickled Red Onion rings and wrap them around pork to secure pork. Set pork on mole. Garnish with rosemary sprigs. Serve with salsa.