Like everyone else during the past year, we have eaten a lot more meals at home. Since we love to cook, I suspect that bothers us less than some people. On weekends we get really creative and go all out, making homemade versions of things like breakfast sausage and English muffins, just because we are bored and love to cook.
The Kitchen Genius has remained true to his New Year’s resolution to master both homemade bread and pasta. His bread is pure perfection, and he is honing in on the best pasta recipe. There have been some slight stumbles. We were both a little all-thumbs trying to form bow-tie pasta on Sunday. It’s pretty tricky.
So far, his pappardelle has been my favorite. It even freezes well. Thin flat pastas seem to be easier to ace than formed pasta. Next weekend, he plans to try making raviolis.
As much fun as it is to play with over-the-top recipes on weekends, we also have to face the daily grind of cooking weeknight meals. Some weeks are more inspired than others, but it usually comes down to a few essential main sources of protein. Every week, we buy a whole chicken, some kind of white fish, possibly some beef, but always pork tenderloin.
Out of all the cuts of pork, the tenderloin is my favorite. It doesn’t hurt that it is always ridiculously inexpensive. Lately, we’ve been finding a package of two pork tenderloins for as low as $5. Most nights we have four people at our dinner table, so that price point is irresistible for one meal a week. On the nights it’s just the two of us, it amounts to $2.50 per person for the protein.
For years, I’ve been researching why pork is so inexpensive. The answer is a complex mix of old-fashioned supply and demand. Americans love bacon. Fast food companies put it on everything from burgers and chicken to fries and salad. Then pork belly became the darling of the restaurant world. Since both bacon and pork belly come from the same small real estate of the pig, that leaves the whole rest of the animal to sell.
That explains the glut on cheap pork in general, but not the reason that the tenderloin, which also occupies a small part of the pig and yet it is also inexpensive in recent years.
According to Bloomberg News, pork farmers increased production right before the U.S. – China trade spat ended a lot of exporting. That flooded the home market with a whole bunch of unexpected pork. The result was extremely low prices. Even bacon has been less expensive since the trade war.
Enough with the economics and on to the cooking. The challenge with cooking a pork tenderloin is finding ways to keep it creative. It’s very lean so all applications have to be quick on the heat. This is not a cut of meat to slow-roast.
For the first few months we kept to our classic recipe of marinating them in olive oil, rosemary and garlic and searing them in a cast iron pan and finishing them in the oven. KG got bored with that pretty quickly.
Since then, he has cut the pork tenderloins into pieces, pounded and breaded them and then fried them as pork schnitzel served with sauteed red cabbage and apples. He has also cut them up and butterflied and stuffed them. They are pretty tasty when basted with my red pepper jelly and roasted.
Pork banh mi and Cuban sandwiches have both been on the home menu – both delicious. Leftovers are turned into pork fried rice with a fried egg on top.
The beauty of pork is that it is so versatile it meshes with many different flavors. It works well with savory, spicy or sweet. But it is also a perfect vehicle when you want to combine more than one of those flavor profiles, as we did with our most recent incarnation of pork with figs, garlic, balsamic vinegar and thyme.
It takes about an hour to make this recipe. That makes it is a delicious weeknight dinner that is designed to impress That’s a win/win.
Pork Tenderloin with Fig Thyme Sauce
Serves 4
1 package of pork tenderloins (1 1/2 to 2 pounds each)
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 medium onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 cup dried figs, chopped
3 tablespoons fig jam
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
2 tablespoons butter
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a small bowl, mix 2 tablespoons of olive oil with rosemary, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper. Rub mixture into pork tenderloins and let rest on the counter for 30 minutes. Heat additional 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large cast iron skillet. Sear pork on all sides. Transfer to a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees.
Add last 2 tablespoons of olive oil to the skillet to refresh it. Sauté onion over medium heat until tender, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute. Deglaze the pan with balsamic vinegar, using a whisk to scrape up the fond. Add chicken stock, dried figs, fig jam and fresh thyme. Turn heat up to medium high and reduce for 10 minutes. Add juices from rested pork roast and remove pan from heat. Whisk in butter to thicken sauce.
To serve: Slice pork tenderloin roasts on an angle. Spoon some of the fig sauce onto a plate and place pork slices on top. Top pork with remaining fig sauce.
The Link LonkFebruary 27, 2021 at 10:13PM
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Food: Pork tenderloin is a weeknight go-to - Wicked Local
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