Sunday dinner with friends

Sally and John came for dinner today. It was a beautiful day. We had appetizers and dinner on the deck. For appetizers we had marinated mozzarella balls, hummus with jalapeno and some more of my asparagus pesto. Sally loved the asparagus pesto. So I have served it 3 times and 3 times it has been the favorite. I guess this recipe is a winner. For the soup and main course I used the Eat Well Cookbook from Williams Sonoma again.
The soup is called Spring Vegetable Soup. I had to substitute pea shoots and the star shaped pasta. Serves 4

Star shaped pasta, ½ C (I used a round pasta I had purchased in Berkley, CA)
Large eggs, 2
Chicken broth, 4 cups
Carrots, ½ C diced
Pea shoots, 2C chopped, I used snow peas
Parmesan Cheese, ¼ C

Cook the pasta in water and drain. Add 1cup water to the 4 C of chicken broth. Bring to a boil and add the carrots. Cook at a simmer for 5 min. and add the peas, cook an additional 3 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and drizzle in beaten eggs, stirring the soup gently in one direction as you pour. Stir in pasta and cheese and season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately. This was OK. As usual I did not look at part of the recipe and they said if you could not get pea shouts, use spinach. I think real peas or the spinach would have been better.

Our main course was Pork medallions with Romesco Sauce. The Romesco sauce was great. You can also use it on pasta. I made this a little different than the recipe. I marinated the whole pork tenderloin and did not cut it in 1/2“ rounds to fry in a skillet. I had Jim cook the tenderloin on the grille.

Pork tenderloin, 1#
Salt
Crushed fennel seed, 1/2t
Ground cumin, ½ t
Sweet smoked paprika, 2 t
Toasted walnut pieces, ¼ C
Garlic, 1 clove
Roasted red bell peppers, 1 jar, 8 oz., drained
EVOO, 3 T (add 1 1/2T more if you are going to fry inside)
Red wine vinegar, 1T
Cayenne pepper, ¼ t

I mixed ½t salt, fennel seed, cumin and ½ t paprika in a plastic bag. After trimming the fat and the silvery membrane from the tenderloin, I added it to the bag to marinate in the dry rub. For the sauce put the remaining ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth. I served this with very thin green beans that I added a little water and orange EVOO to a pan and microwaved. Jim cooked the tenderloins on the grille for about 15-20 minutes, 140F to 150F. This recipe said it served 4. I doubled the meat, but not the sauce. I have sauce left even though everyone had a generous portion of sauce; only a few scraps of meat left. We all liked this main course. Jim served a Burton, 2004 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir with the meal. It was very good.

For dessert, I described yesterday making the cakes and lemon curd. Today I filled the depression in the cakes with lemon curd and put strawberries on top. The strawberries were excellent, but I probably should have crushed them more to make more of a sauce. Maybe Sally and John will look at the blog and give their comments.