It was
Tapas Time again last month and we did a Grinch Christmas gift exchange, and it was fun.
But I was stymied when it came to what I wanted to make. And since this month it wasn't held in our house, I had to make and transport my dish (es).
I cannot stop at one thing, sigh.
I did a twist on
Spring Rolls, I added some shrimp to each roll, and they were good.
And then there was the Pork Tenderloin I had in the freezer...
I wanted to stuff it, and then slice it, and I looked up a Danish recipe, but I didn't have any prunes, sigh. Then I thought, hmmm, apples and pork go so well together, and I did have a couple of Pink Lady apples left from my last organic veggie share, so I did what any self respecting cook would do, I looked it up on the internet and found this
recipe.
But I didn't follow it all the way.
I'm the cook and I don't have to.
This is what I did do.
Recipe: Stuffed Pork Tenderloin
1/2 cup Chicken or Turkey prepared stuffing mix
1/2-1 cup Diced Artisan bread
1/2- 3/4 cup chicken stock (more if needed)
1 unpeeled apple, diced
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 tablespoon melted butter or olive oil
Opt. Chopped fresh Rosemary
I used a half cup of prepared stuffing mix, added a half cup of
diced artisan bread, hydrated it with some chicken stock and set it
aside. Cut up an unpeeled Pink Lady apple, and added it to the pan,
then I dumped in a half cup of dried cranberries, and some chicken
stock, stirred it around and let it cook just a tad,
and then put it on a
baking sheet and crisped it up in the oven at 400 degrees for about 10
minutes.
Took it out and let it cool while I prepared the tenderloin.
Turned the oven up to 450 degrees to preheat while the tenderloin was
being prepared.
There was a little silverskin left on it, so I
took that off using a sharp paring knife. You always want to remove
the silverskin, it's tough and does not add anything to the tenderloin,
I sliced the tenderloin in half,
then cut each piece in half lengthwise but did not cut it all the
way through, then I put a piece of plastic wrap over it, and used the
bottom of a pot to flatten it so that it was equally thick.
I
dumped placed half the stuffing on each half of the tenderloin. I also added a little chopped fresh Rosemary to one of the tenderloins, just for fun.
Folded
them over and tied them up with some baking twine.
Put the tenderloins
on some parchment paper, drizzled them with a little olive oil, and
salted and peppered them,
and then put them in the preheated oven for 20
minutes.
I pulled them out and checked the internal temp,
I wanted them to be
just at about 140 degrees and they were, as they sat and rested from
their strenuous time in the oven, the temperature rose to 145 degrees
and I put them into an insulated container and took them with me to
Tapas. When we got there, I sliced them up, put them on a plate and
counted myself lucky that I got a taste. They were awesome.
I do love pork, what can I say? I grew up on a farm, we raised pigs, the occasional beef, chickens and sheep. Well, the sheep were a 4H project and, I only did it once.
Time to go and finish my post on Deep Fried Turkey, which will be coming up soon. And then there's my Secret Recipe Club recipe to blog about soon, and I'm sure I'll have lots more coming up.
I was also featured on Full Plate Thursday at
Miz Helen's Country Cottage.