RECIPES FROM THE MID-80s

These recipes are from cooks who were featured in the Herald-Leader’s food section in the mid-80s.

Rick Paul, owner of the White Light Diner in Frankfort, was a private chef at Calumet Farm when he shared this recipe for roast pork tenderloin, which was a family favorite at the farm.

Roast pork tenderloin with mustard sauce
• 1 cup soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 2- to 3-pound whole pork tenderloin
• Dijon mustard
• Mayonnaise
• Sour cream

In a small bowl, mix soy sauce, brown sugar and garlic. Pour over pork tenderloin, and marinate for 2 hours. Roast 45 minutes at 350 degrees or until internal temperature is 185 degrees.

To make the sauce: Mix equal parts of Dijon mustard, mayonnaise and sour cream. Do not heat. Serve over warm meat. Makes about 3 servings.

Bill Harmon, who was vice president of food and beverages for Jerrico Inc. in the late ‘70s, spent many years as executive chef at some of the top hotels in California before moving to Kentucky. This was a recipe he taught at cooking classes.

Tournedo sur socle, bouquetiere
• 6 ounces green peas
• 6 ounces carrots, sliced
• 6 ounces broccoli florets
• Bread socles
• Grilled tomatoes
• Pommes Parisienne
• 4 mushroom rosettes
• 4 beef tournedo, 5 ounces each

Blanch peas, carrots and broccoli until tender.

To make bread socles: Slice 4 green peppers into 3/8-inch-thick rings. Fill each ring with 4 circles of white bread. Grill 1 minute on each side in buttered pan. Cut country ham rings wafer thin and same size as toast, and grill 1/2 minute on each side. Place ham on toasted bread.

To make mushroom rosettes: Wash and decorate the top of mushroom crowns. Saute mushrooms slowly in 1 ounce of butter and 1/2 ounce white wine until tender. Remove from heat, and retain in own liquid.

To make grilled tomatoes: Top 4 tomato halves with bread crumbs and parsley. Grill tomatoes until hot but not soft.

To make pommes Parisienne: Cut raw potatoes into ball shapes with a melon ball cutter. Brown potatoes, season, and sprinkle with parsley.

Heat vegetables; add seasonings and butter.

Saute tournedos (thick slices of choice meat from the center of the whole fillet of beef) until browned but still pink inside, and place on socles in center of platter. Garnish with mounds of vegetables. Top each tournedo with a Bearnaise sauce.

BEARNAISE SAUCE
• 4 tablespoons tarragon vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon tarragon leaves
• 4 peppercorns, crushed
• 1 teaspoon shallots, chopped
• 3 egg yolks
• 2 ounces consomme
• 6 ounces butter
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon tarragon leaves, chopped

Place vinegar, tarragon leaves, peppercorns and shallots in saucepan, and reduce liquid to 1 tablespoon. Strain through a fine sieve into a double boiler. Add consomme and egg yolks; mix well. Cook over low heat until yolks begin to thicken.

Whisk butter (heated to 180 degrees and using the oil only) into the egg yolks. If sauce becomes too thick, whisk in a small amount of hot water (1/2 tablespoon at a time). Incorporate all the butter. Add salt to taste. Remove sauce to warm container (145 degrees) until served.

As a young woman in China learning to cook, Faon-Chiy Mu never dreamed she would one day be cooking her native food in a foreign land. Before coming to the United States she lived in Taiwan, where her husband ran a restaurant and she was a homemaker taking care of five children.

Mu left Taiwan in 1974 and came to the United States to stay with relatives. She opened a restaurant in Concord, Calif. It was the first restaurant in that town to serve Szechwan and Mandarin style of cooking.

At the request of friends, she came to Louisville to work at the Empress of China Ltd. restaurant. When her daughter Nancy came to Lexington to attend the University of Kentucky, she found that there were no Mandarin-style restaurants in Lexington. She talked her mother into moving the family to Lexington, and in 1981 the Mus opened Beijing Palace on New Circle Road.

This recipe was one Mu prepared for her family.

Kung pao chicken
• 2 pounds chicken breast
• 1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 1/2 tablespoons cold water
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1/2 cup peanuts
• 5 cups oil
• 8 pieces dry hot red pepper
• 1 teaspoon ginger, chopped
Seasoning sauce:
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon wine
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil

Cut chicken into 1-inch cubes. Mix cornstarch, cold water and soy sauce together in a small bowl. Stir evenly, and rub on chicken. Marinate for 1/2 hour.
In saucepan, in small amount of oil, fry peanuts until golden. Remove and let cool. Fry chicken in boiling oil for a half-minute. Remove chicken, and drain oil from frying pan. Heat 2 tablespoons oil to fry red pepper until it turns black. Add ginger and chicken. Stir quickly.

Combine ingredients for seasoning sauce in a small bowl. Stir into chicken mixture and heat until thickened. Turn off burner, and put peanuts on top of mixture. Serve.

Charles Thompson was manager and one of the owners of Le Cafe Chantant, a French-Continental restaurant on West Vine Street in the ’80s. One of his favorite recipes was for a simple tuna salad. Here is Thompson’s recipe.

Tuna salad
• 1 can tuna
• 1 hard-boiled egg, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
• 1/4 cup grated carrot
• 1/4 cup pickle relish
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• Few drops Tabasco
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Juice of half of lemon
• 1/ 2 teaspoon sugar
• Mayonnaise
Combine all ingredients with enough mayonnaise to get desired consistency. Serve on homemade bread.