Holy Tenderloins, Batman!

Now this one you might want to make some notes on. It's not hard (at all), but there are some specific steps. You'll also need an oven-safe pan.

So what's on the menu, you ask? Well...Candied Maple Orange Chipotle Glazed Pork Tenderloin and blanched Spinach with Vinaigrette.

First a little backstory. Sunday morning I pulled/strained something pretty bad in my back. I was pretty much useless on Sunday, and laid low yesterday to try to heal up. By late yesterday afternoon I was feeling a little better and could at least walk, and I felt bad about my bride having to pick up the slack for my puny ass, so I decided to make a nice dinner for her (and me).

So, when I say this meal isn't hard; if a gimp can do it, so can you. Sounds impressive though, right? Trust me, it's fantastic too! The foundation of this recipe was a recipe from America's Test Kitchen (who have some absolutely fabulous recipies) for Maple roast pork with a little twist. It goes like this.

Candied Maple Orange Chipotle Glazed Pork Tenderloin (for two, but easily scaled up for four, you'll see why right at the beginning)

1 - Pork Tenderloin, trimmed (about 11oz.) (most store packages come with two, and don't use the pre-marinated kind, just the ones from the pork section).
1/3 cup - Good dark real Maple Syrup (you can be liberal here)
2 Tbsp - Whole grain mustard (I use Dijon coarse ground)
1 Tbsp - Orange Marmalade
2 Tsp - Chipotle pepper, ground
1 Tbsp - Bourbon (I used Wild Turkey because that's what I had) (you could also use Dry Sherry here instead)
2 Tsp - Cider vinegar
1 pinch - Cayenne pepper
1 Tbsp - Cornstarch (you can be generous here too, like heaping)
1 Tsp - Sugar
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

1. Trim the pork. Set the oven to 350 with a rack in the middle of the oven. In a small bowl mix the maple syrup, mustard, marmalade, chipotle pepper, cayenne peppper, bourbon and vinegar together with a wisk. Add about 1/4 Tsp of salt and wisk again.

2. Mix the cornstarch, 1/4 Tsp of salt, 1/4 Tsp of pepper and the sugar together in small bowl until well mixed. Dump this out onto a shallow dish. Dry the tenderloin with paper towels, and roll the tenderloin in this cornstarch mixture.

3. Squirt some olive oil into a 10" oven-safe skillet and heat over med-hi until shimmering. Add tenderloin and brown on all sides (about 6-8 min.). Once well browned, remove tenderloin from skillet and set aside. (note - if you've got a lot of oil in the skillet, dump some of it off. If just a little, leave it...Don't wipe the pan out!) There should be a little oil and juices left in the skillet. Return pan to burner.

4. Add the maple syrup mixture (from Step #1) to pan. It will start to bubble. Stir / wisk constantly until the mixture reduces down to about 1/3rd cup (basically about 1/2 the starting volume).

5. Add the browned tenderloin back to the skillet and coat it thoroughly with the glaze mixture in the pan. (You're not trying to cook the meat here, just coat it with the glaze.) Now, transfer the skillet to the oven and cook for 12-14 minutes for an internal temp of 145F (depending on your skillet it may require a couple minutes longer, but pork cooks fast so be careful not to over do it). I usually temp it at about 12 minutes and at the same time spoon some more of the glaze over the meat before returning to the oven for the final couple minutes.

6. USING A POT HOLDER!, remove skillet from oven and set on stove. Remove tenderloin to a plate. Add about another Tbsp of maple syrup to hot skillet and stir in the remaining juices in the skillet. Now you can transfer this liquid off to a small bowl or gravy boat, but I just leave it in the pan.

7. Let the pork rest for about 5-10 minutes, then slice into 1/4" thick slices. Plate the pork slices and drizzle with the glaze sauce from the pan (gravy boat or whatever).

Note - when you do this right you'll know it, because any leftover glaze will literally turn into a caramelized hard candy when it cools (which is off the rails good just by itself).

So, while I was letting the pork rest, I put on a sauce pan of water to boil and I whipped up a quick vinaigrette with regular olive oil (not a big fan of EVOO here), some red wine vinegar (about 60/40) and some fresh cracked black pepper. When the pork was sliced and plated I took a good sized amount in a pair of tongs and blanched it in some boiling water on the stove for about 15 seconds making sure it was fully immersed. (Spinach volume decreases immensely when blanched). After 15 seconds I pulled it out and strained it and plated it with the pork. I gave it a quick generous shot of the Vinaigrette.

Boom! Done! Dinner is served.

Bon Appetit'!

(Try this...you'll love it!)

P.S. Oh, and if you want to double this, just use the 2nd tenderloin and double everything else. Easy peazy!

On a side note, I'd like to tell you about a spice I've found which is very unusual (to me), but turns out to be incredibly useful.

The spice is called "Sal, Pimienta y Naranja Agria" which translates to 'Salt, Pepper and Sour Orange'. It can be found in Mexican and Spanish Markets. The brand I use is by a company called Don Julio.

The ingredients are Salt, pepper, cumin and sour orange. To smell it, it smells like a citrus-ey cumin with a hint of pepper.

The stuff works fantastic in all manner of dishes, and they don't have to be Mexican/Spanish dishes.

I've made the same recipe listed above by using this in place of the Orange Marmalade, and it came out fantastic also.

Just thought I might mention this spice because it has so many different uses, and it's not something you'll ever see in a regular store.

Sounds good. Do you grow your own pigs to eat FCDisk? I know you have beef and chicken but I never saw if you raise your own pork chops.

a reply to: rickymouse

No, we don't raise any hogs. That's kind of a different operation, one I have no experience with.

We don't really do chickens anymore either. They're mainly coyote bait around here anymore.

I thought you said you had farm fresh eggs one day? I assumed they were from your farm.

a reply to: rickymouse

I probably did. We raised chickens for many years and had more eggs than we could eat. They were always fabulous, but the coyotes got to be too much. We had geese who would protect the chickens, but the big owls got the geese and then the chickens were fair game for the coyotes.

Losing the chickens was kind of sad, but getting rid of the feed and the mice, and the rats, was very welcome!!

Maybe we'll do it again some time, but next time...very FAR away from the house! Very FAR!

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

My kids want me to get chickens, we got fox and coyotes here and also those weasels that got our rabbits years ago. I have two suppliers who raise chickens, we get five dozen and a half every two weeks from one friend and three dozen from another every two weeks. I supply my kids and grandkids and some of our friends with eggs. It is easier to buy them and give them away than to raise them and give them away.

We actually did come up with a foolproof way to raise chickens (if you're okay with keeping them penned up mos times).

What we did was laid chicken wire flat along the ground for about 3 feet in every direction around the coops. Then we covered it with dirt, just a thin layer. Rodents and predators HATE chicken wire on the ground because it cuts up their feet trying to dig through it and they'll go elsewhere. Most predators will dig underneath and then come up inside the coop. Racoons will reach inside the wire and grab the chickens, so to prevent that we put thick poly tarps over the top of the coop and then put a layer of chicken wire over that. It was bullet proof for predators. Biggest problem was, in summer it got smoking hot inside there, so we had to let the chickens out. Bye bye, chickens!! Coyotes, hawks and owls just ate 'em up!