Roasted Pork Tenderloin and Julienne Veggies

 

We noticed in the advertisements this week that pork tenderloin was on sale.  We have not had port tenderloin in years.  It sounded so good.  It was decided we would get one and roast part of it and use part to make some pork tenderloin gliders the next evening.

I was surprised at how nice the pork tenderloin looked.  As I took the butcher’s paper off I wonder why I did not use this cut of meat more often?  It was a very nice cut of meat, it reminds me of when I buy art supplies and such I get so excited and want to jump right in and get started.  You know beforehand that this project is going to be a good one.  One you will enjoy each step of the way.

I noticed at one of the kitchen shops they have a new julienne cutter, one that looked like a normal potato peeler.  They were using veggies and they looked so delicious.  I did not have this new fangled gadget and I am trying really hard to stop buying everything that comes onto the market, I am running out of room to store things.  I do use all my gadgets, but just do not want to add to the lot that I already have.  I do have a nice mandolin that makes the perfect julienne cuts; it’s the original julienne cutter, so it can do what this new product can do, better.  I thought about buying a new disk for my food processor that julienned but decided against it because for the same reasons listed above.

The dinner would be roasted pork tenderloin, julienned zucchini and yellow squash, with a Tossed Hearts of Romaine salad on the side.   Added to the romaine were sliced radishes, thin wedged apple slices, quartered and thin slices of red onion, halved cherry tomatoes, with a pomegranate, balsamic vinegar, olive oil dressing and then sprinkled with the thin sliced garlic chips I made while making fresh garlic oil to sear the pork tenderloin in before roasting.

Ingredient:

• Olive Oil ~ enough to sear tenderloin in
• 2 garlic cloves that are sliced thin ~ to make garlic chips
• 1 to 1 ½ pound pork tenderloin
• ½ to 3 ∕4 teaspoon of Rubbed Dalmatian Sage
• Sea Salt to taste
• Freshly Ground Black Pepper to taste
• Black Pepper Bacon, enough to wrap tenderloin in
• Red Onion thin slices
• Mushroom cut into small wedges (I used one nice size Portabella Mushroom)
• ½ cup of Whole Petite  Onions (you can buy them in with the frozen veggies)
• 1 t o 1 ½ cups of Chicken Broth

 

Put a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in heavy bottom frying pan and add the sliced garlic put the lid on and let this marinate for about 1-2 hours (do not cook, just marinating.)   When you take the lid off the aroma of garlic is pretty strong, but smells so good.  Over medium heat cook the garlic until it is just turning golden brown, continue swirling the oil in the pan to move the garlic around and turn it several times while cooking it.  Remove from oil and put on paper towel you will be using later on the salad.

I put the Sea Salt (remember you will be using bacon which has salt,) ground Black Pepper and Rubbed Dalmatian Sage in the bottom of the roasting pan I will be using to roast the tenderloin in.  Use the smallest roasting pan you have mine is around 7” x 9”.  I put the uncooked tenderloin in roasting pan and rolled around until all sides  had some of the seasoning.

Heat the garlic infused oil in the frying pan on medium-high heat until hot and add the tenderloin, be careful it will be hissing and spitting some and you do not want to burn yourself or make a big mess.  I put a lid on it and when ready to turn the tenderloin I take off heat and let it settle down a bit and then turn it with my tongs and put back on the heat. I do this until all sides of the tenderloin are nicely brown.

Once you have the tenderloin browned on all sides put the tenderloin back in the roasting pan, the same one you have used to season the tenderloin.  Let it cool down just a bit and when you can handle it without burning your little fingers take the pepper bacon and wrap the tenderloin from one end to the other, covering it well.  (This helps to keep it juicy!)  I use tooth picks on the ends of the bacon to keep them in place.  It won’t take as much bacon as you think; the tenderloin is still pretty warm when you wrap it and the bacon when slightly heated stretches out longer in length than you think it will.  I used a total of two slices of peppered bacon to wrap my tenderloin roast.  Preheat oven to 375˚.

Roast the tenderloin in preheated oven for about 30-35 minutes, or until it has an internal temperature of 145 degrees.  The length of time is determined by the size of the tenderloin.   Remove from oven and transfer to cutting board, cover loosely with foil (tent) let it rest for about 10 minutes.  The tenderloin will continue to cook for a few minutes.  Slice into about ½ inch slices.

Meanwhile while tenderloin is roasting in the frying pan that you browned the garlic and tenderloin in add about ½ cup of thin sliced red onion and cook for a few minutes, add wedged mushrooms and cook for a few minutes, place the red onions and mushrooms on plate save for later.  Now add about 1 – 1 ½ cups of chicken broth, stir and get all the browned bits and such combined with broth.  Cook this on medium to a little higher heat, you want it to boil, not a rushing boil, until it is reduced by about at least a third and add the whole petite onions, the cooked red onions and mushrooms and simmer for about five minutes or so, when the bulb onions are just tender it is done.

Plate the sliced tenderloin and pour the onion sauce over the tenderloin.  Save some of the sauce to put over julienne veggies (once you have them platted.)

Julienne Veggies:

• two small Zucchini, with mandarin cut into thin long julienne strips the length of each zucchini ~ similar to the size of thin fettuccine
• two small Yellow Squash,  using mandarin cut into long thin julienne strips length of each yellow squash, just like you did with the zucchini

Once you have your veggies julienned put in steam basket (I laid them in a circular manner in the steam basket placing some zucchini then yellow squash and back again until you have all the julienned veggies in steam basket) and steam until just turning tender, you do not want to overcook, or they will be soggy and fall apart.  You want them to keep their shape.

As soon as they were done I took the basket out and placed in a bowl so they would not cook anymore, I did not use ice water or anything, I wanted them to retain some of their heat.  I used clean tongs to carefully plate the julienned veggies.   Once I made a nice nest of the veggies I placed 3 slices of tenderloin and some sauce over veggies and added a few of the whole petite onions.

I had roasted a couple of very small Yukon Yellow potatoes (click if you want directions) that needed to be used.  With the nice side salad they were not necessary, but I just loathe wasting food.

The meal was very delicious, lots of flavor to waken up  the taste-buds and had lots of color.  It was a nice change to have tenderloin, it had been a long time since having this tender cut of meat, and I do not think I will wait as long to recap this meal….