Raspberry Pork Medallions with Asparagus and Wild Rice

Whew. That's a mouthful.

For this Sunday dinner I went to a new cookbook in my collection, Weekend Cooking by Ricardo. This is a lovely cookbook to browse for inspiration on a day you can't quite decide what to make for dinner. The pictures are mouthwatering and the recipes fairly simple to execute.

The weather around here continues to be variable, to put it politely, meaning we can't quite commit to Spring yet. Poo I say, and decide I want asparagus to figure in our Sunday menu if only to see if my youngest son continues to love any green vegetable put in front of him (more on that later).

So Raspberry Pork Medallions it is. All that is required is a pork tenderloin and some fairly typical pantry staples (chicken broth, honey, onion, garlic). And fresh raspberries of course. Which, being out of season I should have figured would be expensive this time of year. Indeed - $6.99 for a smallish pathetic looking package. Yikes! At this stage I'm committed so into the cart they go. I also need a teaspoon of raspberry vinegar. Luckily I can get a half litre of the stuff for another $5.99. Excellent. Mental note - find some salad dressing recipes that call for raspberry vinegar.

I must say that once I had assembled my ingredients preparing this dish was truly a snap. The tenderloin is cut into medallions and pan fried in a combo of olive oil and butter. Add a splash of this, dash of that, some fresh berries and into the oven to finish. Looked nice on the plate (add another sprinkling of fresh berries) and no leftovers in sight. Still, I was expecting more flavour from this dish - more tang, if you will. Could be the out of season raspberries. Only two of us enjoyed pork prepared this way. My kids just couldn't wrap their heads around fruit paired with meat. The youngest in our household did, however, enjoy his asparagus.


Roasted asparagus is one of my favourite Spring dishes. Here is the best method I've come across for preparing roasted asparagus:

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Clean bunch of asparagus, snap off woody ends. Lay asparagus on cookie sheet, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt. Cook in oven for 5-10 minutes, depending on thickness of asparagus. Serve immediately. (Try it drizzled with balsamic vinegar!)