citrus marinade | Bewitching Kitchen

Last week, on a very busy day in which I had zero inspiration for cooking dinner, the daily email from Martha Stweart’s Everyday Food was a life saver. It arrived mid-morning as usual, and featured a grilled pork tenderloin with a simple soy-citrus marinade. I had a tenderloin in the fridge, and all ingredients needed for the marinade. Side dish? Orzo sounded great, so I searched for recipes on the same website, and one of the top choices was “Toasted Orzo with Olives and Lemon”. The clouds left the horizon, blue skies announced that my dinner blues were gone. And you’ll get both recipes in a single post! 😉

PORK TENDERLOIN WITH SOY, GINGER, AND LIME
(adapted from Everyday Food)

1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon vegetable oil (I used grapeseed)
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
1 pork tenderloin (about 1 pound), trimmed of excess fat and silver skin

In a medium bowl, combine soy sauce, vinegar, lime juice, oil, and ginger. Add pork to the marinade, turning to coat well on all sides. Marinate in the fridge for several hours to overnight.

Remove meat from marinade, and pat it dry. Season it very lightly with salt, and grill for 7 minutes on a hot grill. Turn the meat to grill the opposite side, and grill for 6 minutes more. Without opening the grill, turn the heat off and let the meat stay inside for 5 minutes. Remove the meat from the grill, tent it with foil, and let it rest for 5 minutes before slicing.

to print the recipe, click here

TOASTED ORZO WITH OLIVES AND LEMON
(adapted from Everyday Food)

1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 pound orzo (1 + 1/4 cup)
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
Salt and ground pepper
1/4 cup slivered black olives
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a medium pan over medium-high heat. Add the orzo and cook for 5 minutes, stirring often. Add 2 cups of water and lemon zest, season with salt and pepper, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium; cover, and simmer until orzo is al dente and liquid is absorbed, 10 to 15 minutes.

Remove from heat. Stir in olives, parsley, lemon juice, and remaining tablespoons of olive oil, if desired (I omitted this step).

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: What a great dinner this was! Ready in less than 30 minutes, all I had to do was make the marinade at lunch time (but you can do it in the morning, if you don’t go home for lunch), and by the time we came home from work, dinner was a cinch to make.

I used the 7-6-5 grilling method for the pork tenderloin, because it works well with pretty much any type of marinade or dry rub. It is easy to take care of the rest of the meal when all you have to do is set a timer and move the meat around when it goes off.

Toasting the orzo is what makes this side dish so special. I’ve used a similar method before in one of the simplest and greatest recipes I’ve made last year, the “Carrot Nib Orzo”. If until now you’ve only treated orzo as a normal pasta, boiling in salted water, please try either of these recipes, you will be more than pleasantly surprised by the improvement in taste and texture.

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I fall in love with words quite easily. Mahi-mahi…. is just one of the many beautiful Hawaiian words. When we visited Oahu I found it fascinating to read the street names, which for the most part were quite hard for a foreigner to remember: Kamehameha, Mamalahoa, Kealakehe, Hualalai. They all seemed so…. musical!

It turns out that the Hawaiian alphabet lacks a few consonants: C, J, Q, and X. It also makes no distinction between K and T. When the complexity of a language decreases at one level, it often compensates on another. The fewer consonants probably explains why so many Hawaiian words have duplicated syllables, giving the spoken language a playful component that’s quite pleasing. But, I digress… mahi-mahi (by the way, “mahi” means “strong”) is one of my favorite fish, at the top with striped sea bass. It has a mild, but definitely not bland flavor, and a meaty texture that’s perfect for grilling, as this recipe (another gem I got from my friend Heather) will convince you.

GRILLED MAHI-MAHI WITH CITRUS MARINADE
(from Heather’s kitchen)

2 filets of mahi-mahi (may substitute other firm-fleshed fish)

for the marinade:
2 T fresh lime juice

3 T rice vinegar

1 T finely chopped ginger

1 T finely chopped scallions

3 T mild vegetable oil (I used grapeseed)

1 T soy sayce

1/2 t Asian chili sauce (optional)

freshly ground black pepper to taste

Prepare a marinade by whisking all ingredients together. Marinate the fish for 30 minutes to 2 hours in the fridge. Grill until cooked through.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: This was one of the tastiest dinners in the past few weeks. A fish like mahi-mahi is delicious on its own, so the less you mess with it, the better it is. This preparation was perfect: a hint of lemon, a little heat, and nothing else. No elaborate toppings, crusts, or sauces. A simple, delicious meal, as healthy as it gets.

We loved it with roasted asparagus, and with a mixture of white rice and wheat berries that, all modesty aside, was a spur of the moment inspiration that had me patting myself on the back. I spotted some white rice in the fridge and some cooked wheat berries that I was saving for a salad. I just mixed them and warmed them in the microwave. It was an absolutely delicious combination that will be a regular production in the Bewitching Kitchen.

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