Food on Fridays: Roti Orloff

Here at the Food on Fridays carnival, any post even remotely related to food is welcome.Really, it’s not just about recipes (though those are always welcome). You can reminisce about your favorite childhood snack or moan about how inept you are at the kitchen. Take a picture of your new faucet or of a bowl of apples. Photograph it, write it, and link to it. Don’t forget to paste the broccoli button at the top of your post—count it as one of your five-a-day!Here’s a Mr. Linky tutorial:

Write up a post, publish, then return here and click on Mr. Linky below. A screen will pop up where you can type in your blog name and paste in the url to your own Food on Fridays post (give us the exact link to your Food on Fridays page, not just the link to your blog).You can also visit other people’s posts by clicking on Mr. Linky and then clicking participants’ names–you should be taken straight to their posts.

Food on Fridays Participants

1. hopeannfaith (physical health is next focus)
2. Beauty in the Mundane (diabetic recipes: crustless spinach quiche)
3. A Day in the Life (frugal fridays recipe swap: (crock pot roast pork)
4. Newlyweds! (sweet bean burritos)
5. Stretch Mark Mama (Thai Chicken Salad)

Food on Fridays with AnnThe Belgian Wonder’s niece and nephew visited us back at Thanksgiving and introduced me to a French recipe that their mom makes called “Roti Orloff.” I got intrigued, so they phoned their mom, my sister-in-law, for instructions.I was afraid it would be a super-fancy, complicated dish that I wouldn’t be able to handle, as I’m not too confident in the kitchen. But when she explained it, I thought, “Hey, I can do that!” It’s different and seems special without a lot of extra effort.Here’s what you need:

• Pork tenderloin
• Swiss cheese (or Gruyere or Emmentaler if you have it–I used my manager’s special cheese)
• Ham (any inexpensive sliced ham you’d buy at the deli is fine)
• Cream or half-and-half 

Pork tenderloin can be expensive, so watch for a good sale or manager’s special. I found it half-price.I think you could brown the tenderloin in a skillet beforehand, but I didn’t. I just stuck it in the oven in a baking dish until it was cooked through.Then pull it out of the oven and slice it thinly, stopping before the knife goes all the way through.Place a piece of ham and cheese between each of the pork slices.Put more cheese on top (shredded or more of the slices). Then pour cream or half-and-half straight into the pan juices. I used almost an entire small container of half-and-half.This is what ours looked like at that stage (vegetarians, if you’re still with me at this point, please avert your eyes):Then we stuck it back in the oven for another 20 minutes or so, until the cheese was melty on top and the sauce was warmed through. This is what it looked like when we pulled it out to serve:Maybe it doesn’t look like much, but it was delicious. Our niece said that her favorite side dish with Roti Orloff was “pommes dauphine.” Alas, our American grocery store didn’t carry anything so French. We served it with the closest thing we could find in the frozen potato section: “Smiles.”Not too long ago, I made it again with only cheese. I recommend it that way, as well, though we should call it something different. I like the name coined by our niece and nephew: “Roti Kroekoff.”

More Friday Carnivals

• Hooked on Houses hosts Hooked on Fridays
• Anne Glamore at My Tiny Kingdom is hosting Flashback Fridays
• The Inspired Room is hosting A Beautiful Life
• Amber at the run-a-muck is hosting Friday Funnies
• Frugal Fridays at Biblical Womanhood
• The Grocery Cart Challenge Recipe Swap