From our rehearsal...so young and in love :o)To celebrate, we splurged and bought a pork tenderloin to roast. I know, I know, I am not normally a pork eater, but I have slowly been won over to the other white meat team now. I still hate ham, however. I just can't fathom why people like it. I googled how to cook pork tenderloin and lemme tell you, I stumbled upon the best recipe and method ever. And because I've had two glasses of wine and am feeling quite benevolent, I shall share it with you.
First of all, purchase pork tenderloin! TENDERLOIN, people, not loin. It looks like a baguette of meat. About a pound or so will feed two people quite handsomely with leftovers. A couple of hours prior to cooking, prepare a brine. This brine will consist of 1 quart of COLD water, 1/2 cup of sugar, and 1/4 cup of salt (I prefer kosher). You can do three cups of water and then add in ice until it hits the 4 cup line to get your H2O cold. Place aforementioned tenderloin in a dish deep enough to hold it and the brine. Pour in brine, then place in fridge for about 30 minutes. Pull out and turn pork over if needed. I left it on the counter for 45 minutes after the initial 30.
Preheat your oven to 425F. In an overnsafe skillet (yes I said "overnsafe"...I think it's a hilarious typo and I refuse to fx it), heat up some olive oil and then sear the tenderloin over medium high heat on all sides (will take 4 to 5 minutes). Turn off the heat and pour off the excess oil if you have any. Glaze the tenderloin with a sweet fruit sauce. I used Fredricksburg Farms Pomegranate and Mango Chipotle Grilling Sauce and brushed it on all over the meat with a pastry brush. Now place the entire skillet in your preheated oven for 15 minutes. When 15 minutes is up, insert your meat thermometer (yes, you really should have one of these) and check to see that it is a minimum of 145F. You want the internal temp to be between 145 and 160, which is hot enough to kill off the bad bacteria. Once it's there, you're done cooking, but you're not out of the woods yet! Now comes the important part. YOU MUST LET THE MEAT REST. This means removing the meat from the skillet, placing on a plate and then "tenting" foil over it. You simply place a large piece of foil over the plate making sure that it doesn't touch the meat. Let rest for 5 minutes minimum. Once your 5 minutes is up, slice and serve kiddies!
You can use the same grilling sauce as a dipping sauce. The pork will be a little pink in the center, but so long as your temp reading came out to 145F minimum, you're A-OK. So there you have it, the perfect pork tenderloin. It melts in your mouth and is almost better than just about anything you can think of. We had ours with a veggie mix from the freezer and some garlicky bread and a Norton Reserva Malbec. DEE-vine!
And now that we're fat and sassy, I'm going to make some homemade brownies (no mixes here!) to eat with the rest of the wine. [sigh] It's been a good year...
Sealed with a kiss...Adios amigos,
The Guerra's
Happy Anniversary!
ReplyDelete