Mustard Fried Pork Tenderloin on Apple Compote

3/13/50...3/4/70

Remembering Harmon J Bove Jr.

The Quintessential All American Boy

This is a look back by Mrs. Tom's brother Peter. It was March 8th 1970 and the sports page of the Burlington Free Press was filled with the usual stories except for one. Big George Scott had led the Red Sox past the mid-west all stars whoever the heck they were. Billy Kidd was getting an award for being crazy on a pair of skis. Austin Carr broke the NCAA single game scoring record with 61 points to lead Norte Dame over Ohio University.

However the major headline on this day was a Tribute to Harmon J Bove my beautiful cousin. Jules Brulater the sports writer for the Press wrote, "this is the hardest column I have ever had to write". Harmon was 19 and gave his life for his country in a war we still have trouble understanding. Harmon was like a brother to everybody he meet. Brulator wrote that he gave warmth, knowledge, advise and true friendship to all that came in contact with him.

Harmon was arguably the best athlete in Vermont upon his graduation turning down a full scholarship to Nebraska (the defending National champions) to play football and signing with the Houston Astros right out of high school. Harmon and I graduated high school in 1968 he in Burlington and I Rutland. It was 1968 and the war in Vietnam was still raging away and we were losing our children at an awful rate of attrition. It is well documented that the war was not very popular especially on college campuses. Where I was fortunate to find myself. Harmon was all about duty, honor, country.

Harmon was called up to the big league soon after arriving and putting on a Houston uniform. In typical Harmon fashion he didn't want the guard to interrupt his focus with the team so he joined the Marines. He marched bravely into the darkness to fulfill his duty. I never saw him again, he didn't get to play on that big stage that awaited him on a warm spring day.

I don't think Harmon was afraid of anything with the exception maybe of our Aunt Elmer. It was 1966 and Harmon came to live in Rutland for the summer where we both worked for our Aunt Elmer at the 7UP bottling plant in Rutland. Harmon and I became very close that summer. We both shared one real fear, the wrath of Aunt Elmer. She was a women rooted firmly in a man's world in the late fifties and early sixties. She ran a bottling plant with a iron fist. When she was riled up she could expound with a profound rhetoric akin to any railroad conductor.

It was a hot summer Saturday and the plant was closed, except for the anticipation of a truck load of sugar that was to arrive. Aunt Elmer left Harmon and I alone to see to it that the sugar made its way up the small conveyor and to the second floor of the plant. There were 100 bags to arrive and they weighed 100 pounds each.

While waiting for the truck to arrive , we became board. So we started to use the conveyor like a skate board something that had just been invented. Well sure enough the conveyor stopped running and we were scared to death of what Elmer would say when she returned to find the sugar on the main plant floor. So Harmon and I carried 100 bags of 100 pounds of sugar to the second floor. I will never forget it! There was still the dilemma of the conveyor and confessing to its demise.

It seemed this might be one of those times where discretion be the better part of valor and a small white lie would be of no consequence, so we told her that just at the end of the mission to hoist the bags to the second floor the conveyor stopped working. She walked to the room under the stairs and flipped the breaker and the bloody thing started right up!

They named the football field after Harmon and numerous foundations shot up in his name. In his compelling accounts of the Vietnam War. Gene R Dark dedicated his book The Brutality of War to Harmon Bove. The images are so vivid that they tear me apart thinking about my beautiful cousin, who's courage and kindness serve as my reminder all these years later. It was March 4th 1970 he was 10 days short of his twentieth birthday on a foreign soil, Quang Nam Province in South Vietnam. It seems surreal to me but I'm sure not to the men who stood beside him. In the many tributes I found about Harmon, One of the men that served next to him said "he just wouldn't stay in the rear"

 



 

Apple Time and Tonya

 

As promised here is a little more complicated apple celebration, but worth every minute of the preparation. The Mustard Fried Pork is a traditional southern dish done on the plantations and always with venison, so feel free to substitute the venison if you have it. My brother and his family serve it every Christmas Eve.

Mustard Fried Pork Tenderloin on Apple Compote with black pepper cider sauce

This dish can all be prepared ahead of time.
 

Ingredients:
2 pork tenderloins
1 cup of brown veal stock ( ask your favorite restaurateur if he will sell you a cup or get more and freeze the rest in an ice cube tray)
 4 tablespoons of apple cider jelly
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup crushed black peppercorns
3 lbs fresh picked Vermont apples seeded, quartered and peeled
1/4 cup dry white wine
      pinch of fresh ground nutmeg1/2 cup all purpose flour
      Jar of French's yellow mustard
      oil for pan frying

Mustard Fried Pork:

Cut the pork into rounds 1 1/2 inch thick and lightly pound them. They are tender so no need to pound thin like veal, just a few gentle thumps. Now coat the pork with black peppercorns. Be generous with the pepper( not to worry trust Mrs. Tom on this) Then dredge the pork in the generous gobs of mustard until the meat is totally and evenly coated. Refrigerate at least 3 hours or even better over night.

Fry just before service. In a hot skillet or fry pan pour enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan... heat the oil to fry temperature, test by popping some flour in the oil to make sure it is ready to sizzle. Take the pork from the mustard and dredge through the flour  and into the pan. Fry about 90 seconds on each side.

Apple Compote:

In a skillet melt a tablespoon of butter and sauté the apples  until they have are soft. Add two tablespoons of cider jelly and the white wine, stir until the jelly melts and let it simmer slowly. Pour in the 1/2 cup of heavy cream, stir until the apples are well coated. Season with S&P and nutmeg, reserve warm or at room temperature.

Black Pepper Cider Sauce:

In a small sauté pan combine the cup veal stock and 2 healthy tablespoons of cider jelly. Over a medium high heat reduce until 2/3 of cup remain. Be careful the sides of your pan don't burn because of the sugar in the jelly. Whisk in the butter and a tablespoon of black peppercorns. If it gets too thick add a little warm stock.

Presentation place the compote in the center of the plate and lay the pork around the base of the apple almost standing like an Indian t-pee, then drizzle your sauce around the base of the mixture. I won't tell you to consider sautéing a little warm red cabbage sautéed in bacon fat because the fat police will have my head but the combination is epic!

Hot Apple Dumplings

Is summer really gone?

We have been so busy at Proctor Gas. It seems everyone is preparing for old man winter to arrive. Since he gave us an unprecedented break last year we can only imagine what might be in store this year. Remember we have everything needed to keep you cozy this winter at our Proctor Showroom. With the end of summer and the fall rolling in, I'm thinking of the beautiful season ahead. There is nothing like Vermont at peak foliage.

Before we know it the leaves will begin their annual journey and we will be raking them from our lawns, making piles for the little ones to play in. My beautiful cousin Francesca with the leaves at their peak will take that wonderful leap of faith and marry her sweetheart. The ceremony and celebration will lead us right into the outstretched arms of the holiday seasons.

One of the great rites of passage in Vermont is the emergence of the Macintosh apple. There is nothing that signifies fall and Vermont like taking the little ones to pick apples. We can use them for  so many dishes. Of course I recommend picking and eating or brew up some fresh hot apple cider on a fall night. Warm homemade applesauce served with a pork tenderloin or even better a saddle of venison. Next week we will do a pork tenderloin with an apple compote and black pepper cider sauce. However if you want to indulge yourself in a bit of a sinful desire, here is my mothers :

Hot Apple Dumplings, serve them warm and with some Ben and Jerry Vanilla Ice Cream. Yikes!

Apple dumpling Biscuit Dough

2 cups all purpose flour

3  level teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
7 heaping tablespoons of Crisco
3/4 cup of milk

Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Remove to a flat floured surface and knead the dough for two or three minutes. With a floured rolling pin roll out the dough into a flat sheet about 1/2 inch thick.

1 hot simple syrup ( 2cups water to 1 cup sugar-boil) maybe a little extra

1 stick room temperature butter
1 stick cold butter
1/2 cup light brown sugar
12 Macintosh apples peeled seeded cored
Juice of one lemon
1/4 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees

In a bowl place the apples and toss with lemon, white sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon. Get them well coated.

Spread the room temperature butter and brown sugar evenly on the rolled out dough. Place the apples evenly onto the biscuit dough. Roll the dough with the apples in it similar to a jelly roll.

Cut the roll into 1 1/2 inch wide wheels and lay them in a buttered baking dish. Cover them with the hot simple syrup. (Have extra syrup in case you need it to cover). Place a slice of butter from the cold stick on each dumpling. Bake for about 35 minutes or until nice and brown. Check on them.

Mrs Tom's Secret: Eat them before the word gets out!

Crisp Salmon with New Potato Crab Hash

Oh Yah We Were Italian

First of all we lived in close proximity to about 250 Cousins, Uncles and Aunts. In our family three brothers had married three sisters in Naples Italy. They had 18 children, my mother the youngest of them. Close proximity means very close, like in the same house. Here you found my grandparents when they were still alive, my Uncle Gigi and Aunt Esther, Aunt Teresa mom's sister, her brother Uncle Peter, Mama Lee, my brother and I and of course a restaurant that sat another 50 guests nightly.

It was a 19 room house with 11 bedrooms on the top two floors. Two of the bedrooms were in the attic. Now they were finished nicely wallpaper and all. There were Italians living in the two houses next to us, the Valente's, they had two houses the size of ours side by side that housed four or five factions of their family including the grandparents, all the girl children and their husbands and children. My Uncle, Dr. Bove lived across the street with my five cousins. He was really a first cousin of my mother but we never bothered with that distinction, he was Uncle Eddie aka "the doc". His was a huge house that at one time contained his office where he saw patients. Then he opened a new office, you guessed it, across the street and above his office just so we didn't waste a inch of space lived Aunt Dot and Uncle John his brother and my cousin Paul.

 

How close was the new office you ask? Well when my brother would come home late and mom would ask him in the morning "what time did you get in" he would answer 1pm or so trying to be vague as possible and Aunt Dot sitting with her coffee and donut would chirp in "it was 2:15, she never slept! Right on the same block and around the corner was my Uncle Vic, mom's other brother who had taken over my grandfather's grocery store and he lived above the store with my cousins Barry, Vic Jr. and his wife Aunt Gina. When my brother moved back to Rutland after college and bought his first home, yup right there on the other side of the Valentes just 4 doors down from where he grew up and directly across from Uncle Eddie, Aunt Chris and the 5 cousins.

There was family everywhere and we were an Italian neighborhood. As part of that dynamic it seemed important that we all had a grape vine, ours was the biggest and covered a beautiful slate patio out back. How I remember picking and eating those concord grapes off the vine during football season. The old wine presses were in still in our cellar along with a dirt wine room but with the passing of my grandfather went that technology and passion. Our vine was identical to old Mr. Valente's, not 50 yards away however for some reason when he wasn't looking his grapes tasted a bit better.

I don't believe we ever went to a grocery store, everything was delivered to our house from the Italian bakery, or the food purveyors. We never ate a loaf of white bread or a can of anything! If we went to a grocery it was Uncle Vic's or the Salarni Brothers who were the only ones that could cut the braciole the way my mother wanted it.

Every holiday brought with it "the gathering" especially Christmas where we would have 50 to 60 Aunts, Uncles and cousins for dinner at the restaurant. It was a closeness that was lost with the passing of my mother's generation. I miss it and am sorry that our children have missed out on it.

 

Mrs. Tom loves fish! Here is a new version for you.

 

Crisp Salmon with New Potato Crab Hash

Serves four

4 / 8 oz skin on salmon filets

20 small peeled and par-boiled new potatoes
1lb of lump crab
olive oil to sear the potatoes and fish
1bunch scallions/ chopped
mix together 4 tablespoons virgin olive oil, 3 tablespoons water and three tablespoons lemon juice...whisk together
fresh dill/chop do not bruise
10 oven roasted roma tomatoes cut in half
Salt & Pepper

In a sauce pan pour the oil and heat. Place the potatoes in the oil and sear them mash the potatoes with a fork until they are rustic mashed fold in the crab add the scallions season with salt-pepper, fresh dill and then fold on the center of the plate.

For the salmon - A Mrs. Tom Secret:

Place the salmon on a cutting board skin side up squeeze the salmon from end to end so it humps in the middle and with a sharp knife score the skin with 6 cuts just through the skin and into the flesh. Place the salmon skin side down in a hot skillet or pan with oil and sear for about 4 minutes do not touch salmon until you turn it. It will keep the fish crispy and will hold its shape because of the scoring of the skin.

Place the fish on top of the hash drizzle with the oil, water, lemon mixture, place the tomatoes around the fish serve and enjoy.