[Bob in St. Louis]

Throwing together a dinner for tonight, thought it might turn out to be pretty good based on the ingredients I'm using. Was wondering how you'd improve on it. I'll let you know how it turns out, but would be interested in doing it again and how you'd change/alter what I'm doing.


I only get to cook on the weekends. As a result, I tend to cook for three or four hours, starting at about 3:00pm and finishing about 6:00pm. I tend to make things an "epic big deal" (as my son calls it) Mainly letting things simmer while I drink beer and perform other duties from the honey-do list. Today I'm doing some pork tenderloin. Here's my itinerary:

3:00pm - In a sauce pan I bring chicken stock to a medium/hard boil.
- Several thin slices from a red (Vidalia) onion are finely diced.
- About one cup of cheapo "regular" grocery store mushrooms are finely diced.
- One teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper
- One teaspoon of fresh ground Rosemary
- One teaspoon of dried garlic powder
- These go in the chicken stock. The liquid is turned down as low as possible.
- Lid put on.
- Beer time.
- More later......

[Bob in St. Louis]

Whoops......
I forgot to tell you the big picture. 

I'll be searing two pork tenderloins in EVOO in cast iron pans.
Then, they'll be wrapped in bacon and baked in the oven.

The sauce I'm making will be drizzled over the sliced meat "medalions" after they're placed on the serving plates.

Thinking of a garlic mashed potato and baked bread as sides.

whatcha think?
Bob

[Tyson]

EVOO won't hold up very well to high heat.  Coconut oil would be a better choice, as would lard.

Spaetzle is a great side for dishes like this.

[Wayner]

Mix olive oil with canola and it will take the higher temp. I think that the coconut may leave a strange taste.

When do we eat? I'm just having some hambergers and soup (homemade, tho).

Wayner 

[Bob in St. Louis]

The only oils I have are Canola and Olive.
Have thought about stocking some peanut oil as I've heard it can withstand massively obscene temps, but.....I've yet to buy some. 
I'll try a 1:1 mix of Canola and EVOO. Never did that before. Thanks for that Wayner.

Will have to Google "Spaetzle".

Bob

[Bob in St. Louis]

Things went very well. Can't complain.
The sauce ended up spending about 3.5 hours in the pan. "Normal" for me, but probably an exorbitant amount of time for somebody who knows how to time ingredients properly.

To thicken things up, I used a handful (half cup?) of flour in the sauce and removed the lid to get things to 'progress' along at a quicker rate.

The meat was about perfect. Before I wrapped it in bacon, I gave the seared meat one (additional) last liberal sprinkle of kosher and fresh ground black pepper. My 6 year old daughter tasted the pepper and thought it was too much. The rest of us thought it was fine. I had to "blast" it with some 500` temps to get the bacon done. There was so much liquid (pork fat) in the baking dish that the bottoms of the four pieces of bacon wrapped meat were essentially boiling in fat, and inedible. Nice, (for those of us not on a diet) but required a super hot fresh cast iron pan to sear/brown/cook the bacon on the bottom.

The tators didn't happen. 

The bread was a "refrigerator clearing" of four different kinds of pre baked bread. Chibatta, sourdough, and a couple "regular" types. Each dipped in melted butter and lightly sprinkled with kosher before baking (warming). Yummy.

Chilean red topped it off for me. Milk for the kiddies, of course. 

Nice. Very nice indeed.
I'll do it again....Any improvements you can think of?

Bob

[some young guy]

I would do a simple brine of 3 parts kosher salt, 1 part sugar, black pepper corns, garlic, rosemary, white wine and water for the t-loins over night.

In the morning; dry them off and then wrap them with the bacon. When you sear them make sure to dump the excess fat before putting them in the oven. Cook them for 10-15 minutes until they're medium, making sure to rotate them as they cook to ensure all-over crisping.

Start your chicken stock/herb reduction ahead, but leave the lid off. There should be no need for flour.

If you want your mashers, cut and soak them with salt ahead of time.

I would use the bread, but instead of a butter dip, I'd layer it with sauteed onions, some greens (like Swiss chard etc.) and finish with some grated parmesan on top. Put a good amount of seasoned stock in there too. Bake this off 20-30 minutes before you put the pork in the oven.

Bacon fat would also do well for your searing, but canola, canola-olive oil mix or grape seed oil are all good options as well.

[taoggniklat]

Save that bacon fat! Its great with eggs

I agree on brining or marinating the pork ahead of time. Spaetzle is good and can take on many different flavors. Another option is quinoa instead of rice or potato.

[lonewolfny42]

One teaspoon of dried garlic powder...

  ...Next time....Use the "real" thing....

[Bob in St. Louis]

Scott, ("Scott"??? Sorry, it's been a while.  )
Those are fantastic tidbits of information. Thank you very much.

taoggniklat, We do use bacon fat, but sparingly, for obvious reasons. 

Chris, we (almost) always have real garlic, but what I had, had gone bad. Yea, I wasn't happy.

Great advice fellas, thank you very much!

Bob