The Coeur Of The Matter

Since February is American Heart Month and I care about your health and your life, I'm going to share with you some tasty, heart healthy recipes to feed your family (or yourself).




The following recipes were featured during Save A Heart For Valentine's Day at Best Health on 2/13/09. For nutritional information, please email me at nicolettemiller [at] hotmailDOTcom.
Pink Peppercorn Crusted Pork Tenderloin Serves 16
The inspiration behind this dish came last year during my first foray into the Royal Foodie Joust over at the LeftOver Queen's Forum (of which I haven't entered in months...that may change soon enough). The ingredients were pork, citrus and pink peppercorns. The dish didn't win, but it was tasty to me. I decided to bring it back and introduce it to a whole new group of people.
6 Tbsp Pink peppercorns, crushed
¼ tsp. Kosher salt
4 lbs. Pork tenderloin roast, raw
Cooking spray
Butcher’s twine

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray; set aside.
3. Rinse tenderloin under cold water and pat dry with paper towels.
4. Using a spice grinder or hand-held grinder, grind peppercorns and put them on a plate and mix in the kosher salt.
5. Spray all sides of loin with nonstick spray. Place loin on pepper-covered plate and roll until all sides are coated evenly with pepper.
6. Place loin on prepared baking sheet. Roast in preheated oven for 25-35 minutes or until roast registers 160 degrees F on meat thermometer.
7. Let rest for 10 minutes and serve with blood orange salsa.
Blood Orange Salsa Serves 4
'Tis the season for citrus and any citrus combinations work well in this recipe. Blood oranges are beautiful and give the salsa a slightly sweet, yet tart flavor. To offset the tartness, using navel oranges or even mandarin oranges would be advantageous.
2 each blood oranges
2 each navel oranges
½ each red onion
1 Tbsp. fresh mint, chiffonade
1 each jalapeno pepper
1 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
¼ tsp. black pepper

1. Peel and remove pith from oranges. Cut into supremes and dice.
2. Dice onion into small pieces.
3. Stem jalapeno pepper, remove all seeds and mince.4. Combine all ingredients, toss, refrigerate for 30 minutes to chill before serving.

Lemon Curd  
Serves 4
Usually made with multiple egg yolks, sometimes butter (to produce a creamier texture), fruit and their zest, curd is generally thought of as a fattening and certainly NOT heart healthy. The recipe below uses one egg yolk, splitting the cholesterol intake by four. Substitute orange or any other natural fruit juice to produce a tasty curd to be slathered on scones, eaten in a demitasse with clotted cream (or in this case, cottage cheese) or as a filling for a tart, cake or pie. Cottage cheese is added in this recipe to cut the tartness of the curd.

¾ cup Dixie Crystals Extra Fine Granulated Sugar
1 ½ Tbsp. cornstarch
1 each egg yolk
1 cup lemon juice
4 tsp. grated lemon zest
½ cup fat free cottage cheese (optional)

1. Put 1/2 cup sugar and cornstarch in a nonreactive mixing bowl and whisk to combine. Whisk in the egg.
2. Combine lemon juice, zest, and remaining 1/4 cup sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
3. Whisk this in a thin stream into the egg mixture.
4. Return the mixture to the saucepan and bring to a boil, whisking steadily.
5. Reduce the heat and simmer 1 minute, until thickened.
6. Transfer curd to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap, pressing it against the surface of the curd to prevent a skin from forming.
7. Make a slit in the wrap to allow the steam to escape.
8. Let cool to room temperature then refrigerate.
9. When ready to serve, spoon 1 oz. cottage cheese in a bowl with 1/4 cup curd.