Blackberry Chutney over Pork Medallions

If you're lucky, where you live is berry season right now.  You're probably seeing them popping up in the grocery store on sale - $2.99 for a 6 ounce tub, trucked in from nobody knows where (aka Mexico).  But a better alternative is getting up to a farm to buy them right off the bushes, or even to pick your own.  We went up this weekend and bought 10 pounds, adding to our 10 pounds of blueberries and 5 pounds of black raspberries from an earlier trip.  You may think that this sounds like too many, but I assure you, it is not.  We now have blueberry jalapeno jelly, raspberry jam, blackberry preserves, blackberry muffins, enough frozen berries to make smoothies through the year, and this gem.

Worried for about 5 minutes that maybe we went overboard with the blackberries, we went looking for recipes.  Good old Martha Stewart came through in a pinch, bringing us an assortment of about 20 different recipes ranging from desserts through drinks, with one savory dinner option.  This dish, pork medallions with a blackberry chutney, caught my eye, since I am a huge fan of the sweet / savory pairing, as well as the meats / sweets pairing.  The recipe looked easy, and we even had a couple of shallots lying around, so it was calling to us.  And the result was fantastic - tart, sweet, and with mellow caramel undertones from the molasses and sauteed shallots, we loved the blackberry chutney so much that we're trying to figure out what else we can serve it with.  So I have chosen to rearrange the name of this dish to showcase the chutney, which was by far the star in tonight's dinner.  It came together quickly, and had a short ingredient list, although you really do want good fresh berries, so some of the ingredients can be a bit fussy.  Don't make any substitutions beyond that, and you'll do really well with this dish.

If you can find it, get a pork tenderloin.  Not loin, that's too big and tough.  Tenderloin will do you well, and will cut up and cook easily.  We couldn't get our hands on one tonight, and used pork sirloin instead, which I think is a great runner up.  Otherwise, we followed Martha's recipe verbatim, which I reprint here.

Just a small fraction of the local blackberries we picked ourselves this weekend

Mushroom and Raisin Chutney

Poking through an excellent book by Jacques Pepin - Fast Food My Way, which is based on his public television series that brings a touch of European class to the quick and easy cooking style of Rachael Ray - I found a very bizarre sounding recipe for a mushroom chutney with raisins, tomato paste, and white wine.  It was almost like a quick pickling process, where you heat everything for a couple of minutes and then throw it into a mason jar to store in the fridge.  We served this with our Thanksgiving dinner, having made it the day before.  It was delicious, but I couldn't quite pin down the country that I thought this was from.  It almost had a Moroccan feel to it, but was made distinctly European from the addition of the barely simmered wine.  I highly recommend trying this out and serving either on its own or with some simple, roasted meat dishes.

Mushroom and Raisin Chutney
From Fast Food My Way, by Jacques Pepin

• 1 lb white buttom mushrooms, quartered
• 1/3 c dark raisins
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/3 c dry white wine
• 2 tsp chopped peeled fresh ginger
• 1 tbsp chopped garlic
• 1/2 c coarsely chopped onion
• 3 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 1 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp salt

A fairly simple list of ingredients with minimal prep

Not a lot to do, either - just throw everything in a pot for a few minutes

Put all ingredients in a nonreactive saucepan.  Bring to a boil, cover, reduce the heat to low, and boil gently for 5 minutes.  Cool.

Serve cold from the refrigerator or at room temperature.