Beer roasted pork with portobello (and chocolate soufflé)

Twas' cooking day in my humble abode last Thursday, i do believe it was the best home cooked meal ever made (so easily) by mine and Ems' hands :D

Beer roasted pork tenderloin

- Pork tenderloin : 1 hunk

- Ketchup : 4 tbsp

- Beer : 1/2 - 3/4 can

- Sugar : 2 tbsp

Mix the ketchup, beer and sugar, and pour over the tenderloin. Preheat oven to 180C and cook for an hour. Just way too easy.

We ended up putting some leftover onion rings over the pork, leaving its fate to the forces of nature whether to be charred or lit ablaze :D

Onion stuffed portobello

Portobello mushrooms : 4 large

Garlic : 3 cloves, diced

Onion : 1/2, diced

Olive Oil : 2 tbsp

Butter : 2 tbsp

Cheddar : 2 slices

We removed the stalk from the portobello, then diced them together with the garlic and onion, then tossed them in the olive oil with some good ol' S&P (not Standards & Poors).

Stuff the mixture on the gills, cover with butter and bake for about 15 minutes. After which cover the stuffing with cheese and bake for another 3 minutes for the cheese to melt :)

Dinner was served with the pork on a comfy cushion of simple garlic mashed potatoes and a side of rocket tossed in olive and truffle oil.

The pork turned out very well cooked (... slightly overcooked and a little hard), slightly charred on the edges with a little crisp. The beer sauce went from a watery red soup to less than 20% of its original volume, and was sweet with ketchup flavour, went really well with the pork and the potatoes! The charred onions also went surprising well with the pork.

Surprisingly, the mushrooms were unimaginably moist and juicy, and the stuffing a perfect complement to the meaty portobello. The potatoes soaked up the overflown juices, making for a nice clean and flavourful finish :D

Chocolate soufflé

Semisweet chocolate buttons : 3 ounces

Butter : 2 tbsp

Sugar : 2 tbsp

Eggs : 2, seperated

For dessert we did a standard chocolate soufflé. First we seperate the whites and the yolks by demanding them to.

Then melt the buttons over hot water. Stir in half the sugar, then lastly add both yolks (most recipes call for just one but i'm not letting the other go to waste!) and stir till homogeneous. Meanwhile Ems was hand-whipping the crap outta the egg whites (with remaining sugar) till it soft-peaked, a process that seemed therapeutic and is a nice way to vent frustration :) Fold in the beaten egg whites, then ramekinize them. Ramekins can be refrigerated from this point, else simply bake for 10-15 minutes until they rise.

The key to perfect soufflé timing is to remove them just as they rise to their peak!

The ramekins were a bit too deep so it didn't rise out of the ramekin like they do in photos. Nevertheless it looks pretty perfect to me!

Not sure if I would call this soufflé a success, but the outer rim is a little too well cooked, almost like a sponge cake, while the interior was a still little too goopy. Ems suggested it might be due to the temperature being too high ... we left the oven on after cooking the pork for 180C for an hour, maybe a lower temperature and longer baking time would have been better.
Regardless, the soufflé was absolutely smashing!!!