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!