Recipe #7: Herbed Roasted Pork Tenderloin

For this new recipe, we had decided one Saturday night that we’d like a pork tenderloin dish, and so off I went in search of a recipe. I had forgotten about a new cook book I received for Christmas, so I pulled it out and flipped through the pages. I was happy to find this recipe, exactly what we were looking for.

On the note about the new recipe book, it was a gift from Erin and Brad this past Christmas, and it was an edition of America’s Test Kitchen Cooking for Two. I had blogged about borrowing a similar version from the library a while back, so they might have gotten a hint from there. The book is really useful; not only does it have a great variety of recipes, but it gives helpful tips for new cooking techniques. It also gives ideas on what to do with leftover ingredients, say, if a recipe only calls for a half a bell pepper. They call it “Use it Up Recipes”; so clever!

This recipe was fairly easy to achieve, and not only did I get to try a new recipe, I also got to try out my new IKEA meat hammer (thanks, Jeff, for picking that up for me). What better way to take out some stress than on defenceless pork tenderloin? The results were delicious, too. Oh, and I discovered that if you don't have kitchen twine on hand, cotton yarn works just as well!

INGREDIENTS:

2 tbsp butter

4 tsp whole-grain Dijon mustard

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp fresh thyme

2 tsp fresh sage

1 tsp lemons zest + 1 tsp juice

1 pork tenderloin, trimmed

2 tsp veg oil

3 or 4 pieces of kitchen twine

DIRECTIONS:

PREHEAT oven to 400 degrees.

MASH together in a medium sized bowl the butter, mustard, garlic, thyme, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Reserve 1 tbsp.

PAT tenderloin dry, and slice lengthwise down the middle, stopping about ¼ inch from the bottom of the tenderloin. Spread apart to resemble a butterfly, cover with plastic wrap and pound to ½ inch thickness. Spread with butter to the outside edges and roll tightly starting with the short end. Tie securely with twine.

HEAT oil in an oven-safe skillet and brown roast on all sides, 5-7 minutes each side. Transfer skillet to oven and roast about 14-18 min, or until 140-145 degrees, flipping halfway.

TRANSFER pork to a carving board, spread the top with the reserved butter, and tent with tin foil; let rest for 10 minutes. Remove twine and slice.