I made this pork for dinner on Friday night and it was universally praised – from the youngest child to the oldest grandparent present. This being the case, I thought it was probably good enough to share. I've combined two Mark Bittman recipes together here because the pan sauce Mr. Bittman used in his pork recipe was a cream sauce and I do my best to go non-dairy most of the time. I love this for its simplicity - it isn't complicated or time consuming but the results are delicious – that is a given - but also almost elegant. I pre-heated a lovely french porcelain casserole dish which I removed the meat to after it cooked, I then poured the pan sauce over all and – since I had chopped fresh parsley on hand I actually did sprinkle it over all. I did forget to take a picture. Well, I’ll have to do that the next time I make it.
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Twice Cooked Pork Tenderloin with Soy-Ginger Sauce
1 boneless pork tenderloin, between 1 and 2 pounds
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 Tablespoons butter, or olive oil or a combination
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup dry sherry
1 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
Chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves for garnish, optional
1. Sprinkle meat with salt and pepper. Put a large heavy skillet over medium-high heat; a minute later add 2 tablespoons of butter and/or oil. When butter foam subsides or oil dimples, add meat (curve it into skillet if necessary). Brown it well on all sides, for a total of 4-6 minutes. Turn off heat, remove meat from pan, and let it sit on a large plate. When skillet has cooled a bit, proceed.
2. Cut meat into inch-thick slices. (I don’t bother pulling out my tape measure for this – the width of the first two fingers on my right hand is just about 1 inch so I use them to measure). Once again turn heat to medium-high, add 1 tablespoon butter and/or oil and when it is hot, add pork slices to pan. Brown on each side, about 2 to 3 minutes each. Turn heat to low and remove meat to a warm platter. I used an instant read thermometer, stuck deep into the narrow side of each piece of pork to double check that the internal temperature was over 140 degrees. Pork is ideal at 150, and it will continue cooking even after it is removed from the heat of the pan, but you want it to be over 140 at least before you consider it done enough.
3. Add soy sauce and sherry to pan, turn heat to high, and cook, stirring and scraping, for a minute. Lower heat slightly, add ginger and continue cooking and stirring for another minute. Turn off heat and add the last 1 tablespoon of butter to pan. Stir sauce until butter is completely melted, then taste and adjust seasonings. Pour pan sauce over pork and sprinkle with parsley if you like.
Yield: 4 – 6 servings
BBQ Sauce Variation (lowfat)
I use my cast iron skillet for this since it goes under the broiler without any risk. Steps one and two are the same, although I cut back on the amount of oil/butter used and just spray the pan. In step 3, use 1/2 a cup of red wine or beer to deglaze the pan and cook until it is almost completely reduced. Add 1 cup of your favorite barbeque sauce (I use Sweet Baby Ray's - it isn't complex but it satisfies my requirements for a sweet and smoky flavor and I put enough ground pepper on the meat to add some spice to the final product) to the pan and stir. Return the pork to the pan along with any juices that accumulated on the plate while they were resting. Turn the meat to coat it completely with sauce. Arrange meat in single layer and spread another 1/2 cup of barbeque sauce over top of pork. Put pan under broiler for 3-5 minutes - until meat is starting to blacken on corners. Turn slices of pork over and brush with more sauce and return to broiler for another 3-5 minutes. Now they are ready to serve.
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