What looks good for dessert?

Okay, a new year means low calorie and healthy foods.  But what can I make that is a dessert?  I think for many of you, THIS is what you have been waiting for.

My wife had purchased some sugar pears at SAMS, 2 weeks ago and as they were starting to get soft, I had an idea.  I was first going to make a tart, then decided to make a jam, but finally rested on the idea from a Gordan Ramsay book.  This recipe was simple and I made some changes.  I took the rest of these pears, sliced them up in large chunks and then put them in a bowl and coated them with the powdered Stevia my wife and I found at Dierburgs.  The stuff acts just like regular powdered sugar, except it has 0 calories.  So, we have sweet sugar pears coated with fake powdered sugar and into a pan with a splash of olive oil they went.  I cooked them to make them softer and try to infuse the sweetness into everything.  I finished by adding a dash of some Moscato wine and then about a cup of blackberries.

All-in-all, it made a delightfully delicious dessert with the only calories coming from the little bit of extra virgin olive oil, the wine that didn't cook out, the pears and blackberries.

How difficult is fancy to do?

I am a fan of shows like Top Chef and Iron Chef and one thing that some chefs do to make their food more appetizing is to make it look and sound fancy. I remember chefs making things like seared Kobe beef on a bed of field greens with a raspberry and wine reduction.  Well food lovers, that does sound fancy doesn't it?  I even bet that this dish can be found in some places for as much as $10 a plate!  Well, let us look at what it is really.

A piece of expensive beef cut, from hand massaged cows, then seared in a pan, which we can all do.  Then that is placed on a handful of either watercress, arugula or some other lettuce leaf.  Then some red wine was placed in a skillet with some raspberry puree' and boiled down for 10-15 minutes. 

Now, did my description sound complicated? Here is a visual example for some pepper and rosemary encrusted pork tenderloin.  Something like this can be found in some restaurants for about $10-$15. It is easy and uses what I have here:

That up there, clockwise, is: a mortar and pestle, salt (I used Hawaiian Sea Salt), dried rosemary, peppercorns, dried mustard, celery seed, two thick pork tenderloin pieces and parsley.

Now, this is what you do.  You mix all of those spices and seasonings in the mortar and pestle and grind it all together.  Then you set your oven for 450 degrees.  Then you rub the mixture all over the pork and cook in the oven for 30 minutes.  Then you let it rest and when slicing and serving, cut some fresh parsley for on top.

This picture above is before cooking...

There you have it, some rosemary and pepper encrusted pork tenderloin.  Now, if I wanted to be fancy, I could make a mushroom risotto from Gordan Ramsey's book to have the pork lay over. But who wants to do that much extra work right?

Gordon does make it easy...

While not a huge fan of his shows and his attitude, I am still a huge fan of Gordon Ramsay's recipe collection and blunt honesty of showing, telling and doing things. In his book here, above, he has some great recipes. I have done the bacon wrapped chicken legs and converted the recipe to work well with just bacon stuffed chicken breasts. I've done the risotto of wild mushrooms and my wife loved it. I've done the pasta and bacon with peas, which is a lot like a pasta carbonara. I even just last night did the hot chocolate fondant, which produces two small cakes with a creamy chocolate center. I will be honest in that in the large number of recipes, I can pick through and select the ones that look good and easy to do, and I have not been disappointed with any of them.

The link is below, get the book if you like simple recipes with fresh food.
Gordon Ramsay Makes It Easy