Chef Dana Reinhardt
Chef Dana Reinhardt suggests oven-dried plums as a springboard for unusual and tasty dishes. “They make a nice sauce for pork or you can stuff a pork roast with shallots and dried plums. You can also purée them with red wine and star anise to make a dessert sauce for shortcakes.”
One of Dana’s favourite treats is spice cookies. “I like the sweet/savoury contrast.” She shows her enthusiasm for that combination as she rapid-fires some spicy ideas for fruit:
- cloves and cinnamon are ‘a natural’ with apples, pears, and plums
- aromatic cardamom melds with pears and peaches
- black pepper adds punch to blueberries
- and almost any of the dark red fruits—plums, blueberries—tend to blend well with the tone of star anise
“ … creating something from scratch to come up with a new and unique dish.”
“I enjoy the creativity of my job,” says Dana, “creating something from scratch to come up with a new and unique dish.” Dana gives these suggestions for using autumn’s bounty: To dry plums, pit them and sprinkle lightly with fine sugar. Place on a sheet in a low oven (175°F) for about 2 to 3 hours. Store in a covered container for up to a week.
D’Anjou pears also dry well by this same method. Dana dresses her signature salad of organic greens with a Gewürztraminer vinaigrette and tops it with the dried pears.
A few more of her ideas: fennel bulbs and apples grilled together for salad, chutneys (“pears make an amazing alternate for apples”), thinly sliced B.C. Brand Granny Smith apples to garnish a smoked trout specialty; the list goes on.
And when you start with the tree fresh quality of B.C. Brand fruit, inspiration just follows… naturally.
Recipe
Pork with Sweet & Sour Apples
4 pork tenderloins (approx. 5 oz. each) 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (divided) 1 tablespoon butter 2 B.C. Brand Golden Delicious or Rome apples, unpeeled, cored, cut into ½-inch wedges 1 clove garlic, minced 1 shallot, minced ⅓ cup unsweetened apple juice ¼ cup apple cider vinegar ¼ cup chicken stock ¼ cup heavy cream
Sprinkle pork with salt and pepper. Add 1 tablespoon oil and pork to skillet at medium-high heat; sauté 4 minutes or until browned on both sides. Place in a 450°F oven for 10 minutes or until thermometer reads 150°F. Place pork on a plate, cover with tinfoil and rest for 5–10 minutes.
Meanwhile heat butter and oil in the same skillet over medium-high heat. Add apples, shallot, and garlic. Sauté over low heat until apples are tender and golden, about 10 minutes. Remove apples from skillet and turn heat up to high.
Pour apple juice and vinegar into pan and allow liquid to reduce, about 1 minute. Add chicken stock and cream and allow sauce to reduce. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Transfer pork and apple mixture to plates and serve.
