Pork in Orange / Chocolate Sauce

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The simmering stew and...

A package of pork stew meat was sitting in the fridge awaiting to be made into something eatable.
And, recently I found a recipe that was called: Pork sirloin with chocolate orange sauce.

Is it possible to combine pork and chocolate? Really?
There was only one way to find out, I had to go and try!

J.P. 's remark after he started eating: " What is that? The sauce tastes something like ...mmh, I don't know but it is good."
Upon telling him that it was a orange/chcolate sauce he looked at me saying: "You are kidding me, right?"
Wrong.
As it happened so often - some of the ingredients i didn't have.
Here is what I made out of the original.
To balance the acidity of the orange juice I chose to add some sugar. And, I can imagine that, if I had had one, a drop of cream would have been good to add too.
Since I didn't have any baking chocolate in my pantry either, I had to improvise and make some. (see: directions)
Nonetheless, the whole turned out to be a very tasty stew, in a rich brown sauce. Definitely a good combination that I will use again.

The final Pork stew with orange/chocolate sauce

As an additional information:
The day after I mixed the leftovers of two stews I made on March 5 and March 6.
Hubby and I agreed that the combination was even better.
The reason:  the chocolate flavour was there, but more subtle. 

Ingredients: (My own alterations are shown in brackets).

2 lbs pork tenderloin (pork stew meat, cut into small pieces)
salt
pepper
(sugar)
(1 tbsp ground sweet paprika)
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided (2 tbsp vegetable oil)
1 cup orange juice (and some water)
1 teaspoon ginger, freshly grated (1 tbsp ground ginger)
1 ounce bittersweet chocolate, chopped (1 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder, oil)

Directions: (for the original recipe go here)
(Heat the oil and brown the meat for a few minutes. Add  seasoning and orange juice. Simmer for about one  hour. Add on water as needed, but keep it to a minimum, just so that the meat doesn't cook dry.

Chocolate is a combination of cocoa and cocoa butter so, I  mixed cocoa powder with little bit of water until dissolved, added 1 tbsp oil, (preferable coconut oil) and mixed the fluid cocoa to the meat about 5 minutes before serving.

Side dish: Pilaff rice and stir-fried, mixed vegetables.

Golf Day and Moving around

Today was THE DAY.
After starting as a novice golfer here out on our desert golf course my friend Linda and I decided it was time to try the REAL thing. She booked us for a 9 hole  at the Barbara Worth Golf Club near Holtville, CA.
Linda's husband Bob was so kind to give us a drop off/pick up and take some nice pictures before we set out.

Welcome to the Golf Club!

Instead of coarse desert floor we walked on nice soft grass and the balls actually rolled in a straight line, not diverted by any rocks and pebbles.
What an experience! That was the good thing.

Of course, there are always two sides to a coin.
The down side was that it felt like "rush hour" on the course. In the desert we take our time, it is quiet and calming. On the course it was one cart full of golfer after the other that wanted to rush by. We grew tense and a little stressed.

A long way to the green!

On their website is says: quote" The par 72 course is short by today’s standards..."quote off. Well, for us the distances were HUGHE! :))
All the "pros" were way faster in getting their golf balls across to the green than we were and, we often had to offer a group to just go first while we waited.

I guess we have do a little more training on our desert course. :))

The other thing, we moved away from our spot among the bushes and out into the open.
The rising temperatures brought out tiny winged bugs that and Molly's water dish was suddenly crowded by ants.

Tiny ants on and around Molly's water dish

The solution is simple since we live on wheels and can move our "house" anytime anywhere, and we did.

Our new spot

A constant breeze kept the heat out of the trailer all day. We were able to sit in the shade and read WITHOUT getting eaten up by the bugs! Very nice, indeed.
There are good friends close by and even the new ones found the way to our new digs. Just when I started out for dinner I heard a voice saying "hello" outside. It turned to be Barbara from Me and My Dog on her evening walk with her sweet little dog Katie.
Again I forgot to take a photo. Barbara, we have to do that! Remind me next time when you stop by. :))

For the dinner part:
Yesterday I cooked a beef stew and boiled some potatoes.
Today there was just a 15 minutes warming up and the food was ready!
Life can be so easy!

Beef stew with potato salad

Ingredients:
1 pound of beef stew meat
1/4 onion, minced
1/4 cup of smoked bacon, cubed
oil to brown the meat
1 green bell pepper, cubed
1 carrot, sliced
1 cup of cooked pinto beans (had a batch in the freezer from last week)
2 cups of beef broth (optional use red wine)
salt
pepper
paprika powder

Directions:
Heat up the oil and brown the meat, onions and bacon.
Fill up with broth or other fluid and simmer for 1 1/2 hours. Add vegetables and simmer for another half hour. Season to taste.

Side dish: potato salad. How I do my German potato salad. Go to "search this blog" and type in "potato salad". Choose my posting from July 22, 2011.