[TCF (April)] Cocoa Crusted Pork w/ Mocha Marinara Pasta

Personal Recipe, took awhile to get the spice rub for the pork just right, but got there in the end lol
Enjoy~

Cocoa Pork Rub
Ingredients

Use only about 2 Tsp of rub per serving of meat



Chop tomatoes into 1 inch size chunks, place chunks in the water in a small pan. Turn on med-high heat. Add your salt, oregano and parsley. Stir together and then add the bay leaves. Bring to a boil, and let it bubble for 10 minutes. Turn heat down to med-low and allow to reduce.

Mocha Marinara
Ingredients


Boil 5-6 cups of water. Add olive oil and salt and pepper to taste, and add pasta. Allow to boil until al dente or preferred tenderness. Drain and set aside.

In a saucepan, sautee onions, garlic and carrots in the olive oil until caramelized, but take care as to not burn the garlic, just toast it. In a separate bowl, combine parsley, basil, oregano, thyme, salt and pepper, and your cocoa powder. Add your roux to this and let sit until the vegetables are done.


Add your roux and spice mixture to the saucepan, and heat at medium until it the mixture begins to bubble. Reduce heat and allow to simmer for 15 minutes. Add your Easy Stewed Tomatoes, and finally, add the coffee, cinnamon and a pinch of salt. Simmer for 5 minutes and add to pasta.


Cocoa Rubbed Pork tenderloin
Ingredients


Cut ½ inch slices of pork tenderloin, and lightly tenderize. Marinade in preferred seasoning, I personally used Rice Vinegar and Chocolate syrup for this dish. Heat oil and diced garlic in wok on high and allow meat to marinade for no more than 15 minutes.

While meat is marinading, prepare secondary pan with oil, thyme and rosemary, leaving pan on low, low heat. Lightly coat slices in Cocoa Rub and add to pan, searing for only 3 minutes.


Turn heat up to med-low on second pan and transfer pork from wok to second pan to finish cooking. Slice and plate, garnishing with bittersweet chocolate shavings.


Serve pasta with a small amount of sauce, the marinara will go a long way. Dust pasta with powdered cocoa and plate alongside pork.

The pork looks so good! Cocoa in pasta seems a bit weird to me, but my adventurous palate demands that I try it next time I make a sauce. Possibly this weekend.

Make sure when using cocoa in any sauce that you don't overuse it. Cocoa needs to be a background flavor, mellow but firm, and is very disconcerting if it is a full frontal strong element in any sauce unless it is for dessert lol

Ah, it looks delicious!
I will definitely have to try this soon, having plenty of cocoa here.

How many times have you made this?

Counting today, three times, this one I was most pleased with

Ah, well I congratulate your success then!

One trick I use when making a sauce with dried and powdered herbs is to heat my oil up and then let my herbs and spices brown briefly. Ive often accidentally burnt spices (esp the powders) this way, but if you do it right the oil leaches the flavors out much better. Its a great substitute for hours of simmering to get that rich full bodied flavor.

Beside that minor change in process (just hold off on the roux for a few seconds, be mindful that the roux is already cooked and the more you cook it the less thickening power it will have) the flavors of the dish look like a massive stroke of brilliance. I was sitting here imagining the ratios and they seem very well balanced. Good work.

Edit: I'm curious as to why you chose to use a roux in a marinara. Normally that is reserved to thicken the bechamel, espanol, and veloute. I think using tomato paste or any starch would give a better result. But I havent made this specific dish, comments?

Due to the fact that I added my spices later in the process, I opted not to use the oil-infusion process, but I'm glad you are aware of that technique

As far as the roux, I just didn't have any tomato paste on hand lol

This looks good. Can I switch the pork to beef or chicken or any other meat?

Yes, the spice rub was never intended for one specific meat

I would think that someone called Chef Sanji would put a bigger emphasis on plate design.

I think i might try the sauce sometime, but i am not a fan of tomato chunks in my pasta sauces. Could i substitute tomato sauce for the stewed tomatoes?

Also,does your response to takoyaki mean i can use tomato paste in place of the roux?

Yes, a tomato sauce would be acceptable, however, the flavor will not be the same.

As far as the paste verses the roux goes, tomato paste can in fact be used, however, I found that when I made the sauce a second time, using tomato paste masked the cocoa flavor even further, so I leave it to your discretion.

@Longevity - I still don't see YOUR entry, I'd like to see how you would plate

I have to agree with Lonegevity, you need to work on your plating D:

As if YOU can talk

that is hardly a relavent response to something.

I fail to see how any bad plating on my part excuses you from bad plating on your part. Dont post if you cant accept criticism, sanji...

I tried the recipe... not that bad.

A little question, what kind of coffee would be the best for this? Cuz I wanna enjoy this with the finest ingredients available.