Savory Red Wine Pork Tenderloin

For Caine's birthday, we tried a recipe (bacon-wrapped pork loin medallions) that we saw on America's Test Kitchen. The tenderloin that we found on sale at QFC was enormous, 6.5 lbs, and we had a big chunk (probably about 2 pounds) of pork left over. With limited ingredients available, this is what we came up with.

For the pork:
2 pounds of Pork Tenderloin
salt and pepper
summer savory
flour
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
1/3 cup (we used some Italian called "tutto bene")
3 cloves roughly crushed garlic

For the sauce:
2 tbsp red wine
1/4 medium sized yellow onion, finely diced
1 clove minced garlic
1 tbsp brown mustard
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp bacon grease
1 tbsp butter
pan drippings

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.



First, remove any excess fat and any "silver skin" from the tenderloin. Pat dry with paper towels. Season both sides with kosher salt, fresh ground pepper, and summer savory. Dredge the pork lightly in flour that has been seasoned with salt and pepper. In a large heavy bottomed skillet, heat the vegetable oil over medium high heat until it shimmers (just before it smokes). Sear the pork on all sides, about 4-5 minutes each side. Remove pan from heat and add about 2 tbsp red wine to deglaze. Set pork aside.

Line a roasting pan with tin foil (for easy clean up) and add the 1/3 cup wine, rosemary sprigs and crushed garlic. Place a rack in the pan to elevate the pork from the bottom. Center the pork on the rack and tent the pan with heavy duty aluminum foil. Be sure that the foil is not touching the pork and that it forms a tight seal around the pan. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until internal temperature reaches 150 degrees. You also may want to remove the foil for the last ten minutes or so of cooking time. When the pork reaches the desired temperature, remove it to a plate, tent lightly with tin foil, and let rest for 10-15 minutes.

While the pork rests, add 1 tbsp butter and bacon grease to the deglazed pan and melt until bubbling. Add the diced onion and saute until tender, then add 1 clove minced garlic and cook until fragrant. Pour all liquid, rosemary, and garlic from the roasting pan into the frying pan. Add mustard, brown sugar and cider vinegar. Simmer until liquid has reduced by about half.

Slice the pork into roughly 1 inch thick pieces, drizzle with sauce, and serve.


We had this with mashed potatoes and spinach.















Notes:
So, there are a few issues we run into regularly in our particular kitchen. First off, our oven/range, while new, isn't particularly high quality. It's electric, and only a fool would fully trust the built in temperature gauge. To compound this, neither of our meat thermometers are terribly accurate. With this in mind, be very aware of how your kitchen works, and take this into account when considering cooking times, particularly for pork. Ours came out just barely on the rare side.

As far as the searing goes, we may forgoe the flour dredge next time. It tasted fine, but I think hindered the development of fonde in the frying pan. We were originally trying to make a somewhat gravy-like sauce. With this in mind, next time I may reserve the flour until the meat has been seared and just add it directly to the frying pan.

The sauce, while delicious, was just a bit to high-pitched or strident. I think, as it was, it would have been better served on lamb. This could have been corrected by using less of the apple-cider vinegar, or even less wine. The meat was very juicy, though again, a little rare.