Twice-Cooked Pork Tenderloin

Inspired by both Hannah and the pork tenderloin in the deep-freeze, I cooked Mark Bittman’s Twice-Cooked Pork Tenderloin on Sunday night.

It was so good, I don’t think I’ll make pork tenderloin any other way ever again.

Although the recipe doesn’t call for brining the pork tenderloin, I figured there was nothing to lose from brining and a whole lot of flavor to gain. I used a brining formula from a grilled tenderloin recipe in The Best Recipe – 1 ½ tablespoons salt and ¾ cup brown sugar, dissolved in 4 cups water. We were having company over, so I prepped two tenderloins and let them brine in the fridge for about two hours.

I prepared the rest of the recipe per the instructions, using Dijon mustard and doubling everything except for the water that you add to the sauce in step 4. I think that adding less water helped the sauce substantially – it had a perfect consistency and was so flavorful that after the four of us polished off both tenderloins and our guests left, I scraped the remaining sauce out of the sauté pan with a spoon and ate it straight-up.

I served the pork with buttermilk mashed potatoes and creamed chard from The Improvisational Cook. We also had salad greens, tossed with mandarin wedges and dressed with Roasted Pecan Viniagrette from The Gumbo Shop Cookbook.

I can’t recommend this recipe enough – like I said, four of us polished off two tenderloins:

Twice-Cooked Pork Tenderloin
Adapted from Mark Bittman

2 boneless pork tenderloins, about 1 pound each
1 ½ tablespoons salt
¾ cup brown sugar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 tablespoons butter, extra virgin olive oil, or a combination
1/2 cup cream
2 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves

1. Dissolve 1 ½ tablespoon salt and the brown sugar in 4 cups water. Trim the tenderloins of the silver skin and immerse them in the brine. Refrigerate for about two hours.

2. Discard the brine, rinse the tenderloins, and pat them dry. Sprinkle meat with salt and pepper. Put a large skillet over medium-high heat; a minute later, add 4 tablespoons butter and/or oil. When butter foam subsides or oil dimples, add meat (curve them into skillet if necessary). Brown it well on all sides, for a total of 4 to 6 minutes. Turn off heat, remove meat from pan, and let it sit on a board. When skillet has cooled a bit, proceed.

3. Cut meat into inch-thick slices. Once again turn heat to medium-high, add remaining butter and/or oil and, when it's hot, add pork slices to pan. Brown on each side, about 2 or 3 minutes each. Turn heat to low and remove meat to a warm platter.

4. Add 1/2 cup water to pan, turn heat to high, and cook, stirring and scraping, for a minute. Lower heat slightly, add cream and cook until slightly thickened. Stir in mustard and parsley, then taste and adjust seasoning. Serve meat with sauce spooned on top.

Comments

[Dawn]

T, thank you so much for this recipe. My husband and I love pork tenderloin, but I am always looking for ways to improve on something. I will definitely be trying this over the weekend.

[Al]

I cannot wait to try this. It sounds fanTAStic. And you know how I love to brine stuff, and all.