and cheese mixture in a bowl and set in refrigerator until cool and thickened (or freezer if time is short). (Note: the mixture can be kept in the refrigerator for several days at this point until ready to fill the puff pastry.)
Onion Pie
To bake: Heat oven to 450°. Place pies, still frozen, on baking sheets (which have been sprayed with non-stick oil) and bake in oven until puffed and golden brown, about 15-20 minutes. Remove from oven and cover loosely with aluminum foil until ready to serve. They can remain out of the oven at this stage for about 15 minutes and still be plenty warm at serving time.
To serve: Dress serving plates each with 3 scallion “leaves” and place pies over the scallions so the tips of the green onion show.
AFTER THOUGHTS
As long as you are making these pies, make a double or triple batch. They freeze for months. Also, the onion mixture freezes well for later use. Often I will make a double batch of the onion mixture, use half for the pies, and freeze the remainder to use later for other dishes. This mixture works well in small pastry cups as appetizers. It can also be used as an accompaniment with sautéed chicken breasts or firm fish such as halibut.
Turkey (or Pork) Tenderloins with Dijon Orange Sauce
FOR 8
6 turkey tenderloins – or – 4 pork tenderloins
½ cup salt
¼ cup sugar
Dijon mustard
coarse, freshly ground black pepper
orange marmalade (good quality jarred)
TIME SAVER
The tenderloins, turkey or pork, can be completely cooked (either method) the day ahead. Cover the meat in a container and refrigerate. Bring to room temperature before your guests arrive and warm in a 225° oven for 15 minutes before serving. Alternatively, after cooking and allowing to cool, slice the meat on the diagonal and wrap the sliced meat in tin foil to refrigerate. This can be done the day ahead. Before guests arrive bring to room temperature, warm while still in the foil in a 225° oven and they are ready to serve.
You have probably noticed by now that this cookbook does not feature red meats as a primary ingredient for most of the menus. It is not my intention to discuss here the pros and cons of my reasoning, nor to make a judgment one way or the other. There are many forums where one can discuss these matters in more insightful ways.
I can say, however, that I miss eating many red meats that were formerly part of my regular diet and cooking. One is pork. An interesting discovery has been that when I have served my guests several traditional pork recipes (like roasted pork center loin – or this recipe that I am about to share) but substituted instead turkey breasts, most had no idea they were not eating pork. The same applies to veal scallopini dishes, when substituted with thin sliced turkey breasts. The taste and texture can be almost identical, depending on flavorings added.
For this recipe you may use either turkey breast tenderloins (whole tenderloins – not tenders) or pork tenderloins. In either case it is important to remove the stringy tendons from the loins.
Two methods of cooking:
Grill method
Oven method
To serve
Slice the tenderloins on the diagonal and either serve on individual plates with the spinach squares on the side, or on a larger serving platter. Drizzle the Dijon-Orange sauce over the sliced tenderloins.
Dijon-Orange Sauce
