I eat, I read, I watch — dining solo #17
Pork Tenderloin and braised cabbage, with radish and fried potato
I eat, I read, I watch — dining solo #17
Today’s post is the 17th of “I eat, I read, I watch,” my column highlighting one of my solo dinners and my reading or Netflix accompaniments. Please treat yourself well at mealtime too. Don’t just eat alone - dine solo! You’re worth it. And it’s not hard to do.
Missed the earlier instalments? See the list at the bottom of the post:
I eat: Pork Tenderloin, Red Cabbage, Potatoes
As with many Canadians right now, I’m trying very hard to eat Canadian food. I typically eat seasonal food so it’s likely a little easier for me than for many. (you’ve previously read my views about eating out-of-season asparagus!) In this meal, I tried extra-hard and came up with a pretty decent repast, if I do say so myself.
I began, as I often do, with chopping an onion. This time, however, I added a quarter of a red cabbage and an apple. I sautéed the cabbage in some butter, added the onion and apple as my favourite braised cabbage recipe requires. Then I started free-styling with the sweet elements, which should be brown sugar and grape jelly. My brown sugar is on a high shelf and without hauling the stepstool out, I can pretty much guarantee it’s as hard as a rock. I don’t currently have grape jelly. Neighbours however had given me strawberry jalapeño jelly made from produce in their Weston garden. You know already that I like a bit of heat, so I added a quarter cup of it, turned the pot down, and slapped a lid on it. 20 minutes, according to the recipe. But time is not as critical with something like red cabbage.
I’d pulled a pork tenderloin from the freezer earlier in the day. Fully thawed now, and ready for slicing into inch thick rounds. I then pulverized them to a quarter inch. I had a marinade leftover from a mushroom edamame salad - it’s a mix of sesame oil, olive oil, flax seed oil, honey, soy sauce, garlic, and ginger. Perfect for pork. It would only have a minute to soak in the sauce, but I figured, correctly, it would be good as a frying liquid too.
No full sized potatoes in the fridge, but the handful of baby multi-coloured potatoes will do nicely. I slice them and get them going in the cast iron pan in avocado oil (not Cdn obviously), with a dash of umami salt.
Then I heat the stainless steel frying pan. Once I figure it’s hot enough, I add some pieces of coated pork. Sizzle sizzle. Nice. I stir my potatoes and flip my meat for 10 minutes or so.
I serve it with a couple of sliced radishes on the plate - always a cold element if I can - and a glass of bubbly water with a squeeze of lemon in it. Bubbly - the brand - is NOT Canadian despite the endless Buble promo but this is a house-brand knock off which says it’s Canadian.
Prep Time: 40 minutes
Origin: Pork, cabbage, apples, onions, butter — Ontario; baby potatoes — Alberta; umami salt from Salt & Mustard, Toronto; radish - Quebec
Cost: $7 - tenderloin; $5 (est) - everything else - 2-3 meals
Favourite go-to Canadian grown food? In the Comments below please!
I read: Endless newsletters and emails
Thankfully, four years ago, I had the good sense to set up a separate email account for everything to do with writing. The number of writerly emails I’ve signed for since then is breathtaking! Everyone who’s anyone has a newsletter, a news digest or an online publication and they need to tell me about it multiple times a week (or so it seems). They’re mostly free or at least there’s a free version with a plea to join the paid club. I have been careful not to get into paid content because, well, mostly it would be a donation to their coffers: I simply don’t have the time to read it all. I’m primarily interested in two things: promos for webinars that will help with my actual writing or the marketing of my writing; or emails with submission or contest deadlines. Irony? Yes, indeed, as I add to the traffic myself as subscribers well know.
Pouring into the same inbox are the 10 or so Toronto Star and New York Times daily news digests. BREAKING, THIS JUST IN — they all scream read me read me read me. I know I should be more attentive, but honestly, who can possibly keep up?
Are you feeling buried by email subscriptions? Tell us about it in the Comments below.
I watch: The Mire
Yeah, you read that right. Not The Wire, the show where we all fell in love with Stringer Bell, but The Mire, a Polish Netflix series. This is excellent drama! It’s got a something for everyone - police corruption, a love story, dogged media investigation, a WWII backstory, family drama, homophobia, anti-Roma sentiment - it’s all there. Beyond the language struggles, the plot is challenging, leaving me frequently wondering: did I fall asleep for a moment? (entirely possible) because I have no idea what is going on. After 18 episodes in three different time periods, the loose ends come together in a nearly-neat bow. Having now seen the whole thing, I’d like to start over to catch what I missed the first time.
One of the most fascinating aspects though is seeing Poland go from a pre-solidarity state in 1984 in the first season, to a decade later, and its conclusion in 1999. Everything my husband Jack said drove him to leave in 1986 showed up in that first season - the line-ups, the bleakness, and the corruption - is on full display in this show. Also lots of bad 80s hair and Soviet-era cars. In the 2nd season, the affects of liberalization are so evident - the cars, the clothes, the hair, the discos, showing a the transformation of a country in such a short time. By season 3, just before Y2K (remember that?) Poland was looking much more like the Westernized version I saw regularly with Jack 2011 through 2017.
I loved the show for all those reasons. But it was also really hard to watch. I could imagine Jack lying beside me in bed, pausing the action regularly to tell me an anecdote prompted by the street scenes. And the language. I was so exciting to recognize so much more vocabulary than I thought I knew: a steady stream of Polish swear words - Kurva! Spierdalaj! Popierdolona! So much more colourful than our reliable old F word.
Give it a watch!
Have you found anything worth sharing? In the Comments below please!
Missed the earlier instalments of this column? Click:
#1 (pork chop & green beans)
#2 (trout & veg)
#3 (shrimp pepper bisque)
#4 (rice & peas with coleslaw)
#5 (ramen)
#6 (burger & fries)
#7 (duck sausage & salad)
#8 (shrimp & veg with pasta)
#9 (Wigilia)
#10 (mushroom shepherds pie)
#11 (roasted veg and sausage)
#12 (leftovers)
#13 (garlic shrimp with rapini on egg noodles)
#14 (beef stew)
#15 (salmon mac and cheese)
#16 (salmon cakes and ragout)
If you like what you’re reading, there is no greater compliment than to become a subscriber. Sign up below with your email address to receive an email with my weekly blog.