Pork Tenderloin, Remix

At about 10 pm on Sunday evening I suddenly! realized that I would need to think about Monday evening's dinner. And who said that stay-at-home-mothers had an easy life?

As I keep most of the protein (heh, I'm conversant in chef-speak) in the freezer, I really do need to plan my meals at least a day ahead.

Oh, I know, I have some pork tenderloins in the freezer. And I have just the barest inkling of an idea for a marinade/sauce. Quick - off to the kit-cave??

Okay, please bear in mind that this was after 10 pm on a Sunday evening and I am just winging it.

My marinade ingredients are:

red pepper flakes

honey

whole grain mustard

rice vinegar

black pepper

soy sauce

Worcestershire sauce

garlic

ginger

I'm sorry, but as I was just winging this, there are no measurements available. However, I know that even if I had managed to precisely measure the ingredients, I would never have subscribed to these exact measurements again. All I can say is that you should make this to taste.

I started by grating the garlic clove and some of the frozen ginger and I moved on from there.

Taste, taste and taste again until you are satisfied with the marinade.

The marinade was poured over the pork tenderloin and this stayed in the refrigerator overnight.

Then, this afternoon I decided that bacon makes everything better (and keeps the daughter happy) so I defrosted three thick-sliced pieces of bacon for the dish.

I wrapped the pork loin and seared the meat over high-ish heat for several minutes on each side.

A digital remote temperature probe was placed in the meat and the alarm was set for 142 degrees.

Am I the only one who thinks that this picture looks like a lobster? No, just me? Guess I need to go get some therapy then...

Keeping in mind my daughter's preferences, I also prepared roasted red potatoes with bacon and onion and roasted green beans with bacon and onion. Hmm, notice a theme here?

The Asian pork loin ended up being succulent, tender and very flavorful.

Public service announcement: DO NOT, under any circumstances, ever attempt to touch a skillet handle that has, up to very recently, been residing in a 400 degree oven. How would I know that? Um, I don't know? And I really don't know anything about all of those extremely off-color words that were recently released rather explosively in this general vicinity. All I can say is that I am very thankful that my dear husband (have I recently said just how much I love that man?) cut the meat for me and that I am ambidextrous.

Oh, and I really, really want to hurt the builder who decided that my kitchen didn't need more than 2 linear feet of counter top in any given spot. Oh yeah, I have your number. You'd better run. Fast! And you'd better hope that I never catch you.

Er, back to the food...

After blanching the green beans, they were roasted, along with bacon lardons and sliced Vidalia onions for 30 minutes at about 400 degrees.





The red-skinned potatoes were scrubbed before being cut into one-inch cubes. They were then roasted at 400 degrees for 30 minutes before bacon lardons and sliced onions were added. This was then placed back in the oven for an additional 30 minutes.

I do believe that I have found yet another flavorful recipe for pork tenderloin. Even my conservative husband liked this dish. I love it when a recipe comes together.*

*Bonus points to whoever can figure out the origin of this phrase.