I found this great blog that focuses on recipes for foods mentioned in the Outlander novels and TV series – it is called Outlander Kitchen. I encourage you to check out her website for many other great recipes, I know I will.
Title from Outlander Kitchen blog
The recipe I chose to start with this week is inspired by the TV show, 4th episode where everyone is coming to swear allegiance to Colm as laird. Pork tenderloin, roasted in an oven, is certainly something that could have been made in the 18th century. And neeps, or rutabaga, would have been a regular part of any meal. Tatties, or potatoes, are certainly Scottish fare, however they may or may not have been available to the Mackenzie clan at that time as potatoes were newly come to Scotland. You can find more history of neeps and tatties on the Outlander Kitchen site.
Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Cider Sauce and Neeps & Tatties
Serves 3-4
As I don’t want to steal the thunder from Outlander Kitchen, you can find the ingredient list and directions for these 3 recipes at their website.
However I will discuss my experience with these recipes. The pork tenderloin and the companion sauce were AMAZING!!! We chose to use regular apple cider, because that is what we had on hand, but I think that the slightly thicker nature of regular cider contributed to the texture of the sauce, more so than a hard cider would. The spice mixture that was rubbed into the pork was so fragrant and tasted great on the pork. We would make this pork recipe again and again.
The tatties (the more yellow lump in the photo above) – I just made my standard mashed potatoes because we love how they come out and my recipe is fairly similar to the one from Outlander Kitchen. I always add paprika to my mashed potatoes as well as salt and pepper and use a hefty amount of butter (we only eat them occasionally, so it is fine.
The neeps, (the more white lump in the photo above) I made according to the recipe – well, none of us liked them. I tried, I really did. But just couldn’t get past 2 bites. The taste of the rutabaga was SO strong and we associate the taste with dirt. I like regular yellow turnips, have them every year at Thanksgiving, but these rutabagas will likely not see a return to my table.
Well, 2 out of 3 isn’t bad, right?
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Copyright © 2014 by The Maiden’s Court
I've been stalking that site too!!! And we'll need to go there now that Outlander is on mid-season hiatus (sob!!!) (Outlander = many exclamation points!)
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