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Good morning folks.
Welcome back to part 2 of our experimentation with porcini mushrooms.
You’ll remember last week – when we weren’t dodging hurricanes and earthquakes and shit- we discussed the earthy, woodsy, dank gloriousness of the porcini which we featured in a ragu.
That shit was amazing too.
Thought I would head in a completely different culinary direction with today’s meal.
Not that this will be as easy as last week mind you but the preparation is just as simple as the potential to fully fuck up the landing is.
What does that mean?
That means we are going to walk the tightrope and attempt to execute the perfect doneness of…
Our dear friend, the pork tenderloin.
Holy good goddamn do I love a good pork tenderloin. Almost as much as I dislike an overcooked or fucked up pork tenderloin.
You all know how tricky this fucker is to make properly. If you remember I’ve previously given you some simple tricks to achieving a properly cooked tenderloin.
Like this one.
And this one.
Simplest trick is also the most obvious. Just don’t overcook the motherfucker, alright?
I’m pretty sure you astute folks know that pork today isn’t the same as yesterday and you can indeed have a little pink in your pork.
Wait, what?
Don’t be afraid. This will be done, you won’t die of ptomaine poisoning and it will be delightful.
That’s one of the best parts about tenderloin, it’s a very neutral flavor and it takes on seasonings brilliantly. Which is why I cook this shit as often as I do.
Don’t be afraid to get some flavor going around this shit.
Which brings us to the topic of our second menu of our two week experiment.
Porcini mushrooms.
I thought a lovely red wine cream sauce with some chopped porcinis in it would be a dynamite addition to the humble loin and holy shit was that ever a good idea.
When browsing about for various recipe ideas I discovered one that had potential but their sauce just didn’t work in my brain. Their sauce had some of the base ingredients as mine today but theirs had cognac, which I replaced with some red wine, their recipe also had lemon and honey and no. No, I wasn’t going to do that to my sauce. I know a perfectly decent sauce we can make that doesn’t mimic a goddamn cough drop.
I used some inspiration from that initial recipe in the form of a quick marinade but the final finishing sauce was from my very own cooking experiences and preferences.
I did like their idea for a quick marinade and I used that one as stated but adjusted the amounts.
todays recipe inspired by allrecipes.com
You will need:
1 pork tenderloin. Remember that bag of pork up there has 2 tenderloins in it. Use one and freeze the other.
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons herbes de Provence
3-4 garlic cloves minced
Let’s let the wikis explain the Herbes shall we?
“Herbes de Provence is a mixture of dried herbs considered typical of the Provence region of southeastern France. Formerly simply a descriptive term, commercial blends started to be sold under this name in the 1970s. These blends often contain savory, marjoram, rosemary, thyme, and oregano. Lavender leaves are also sometimes included, especially in North American formulations. The herb mixture is typically used with grilled foods and stews.”
Folks?
This shit did indeed have lavender. We’ll get to that in a bit.
We will make a real quick marinade with the olive oil, herbs and garlic.
Give our little piggy its spa treatment.
Slather that shit all over. Notice the pan the piggy is sitting in? We will cover that pan with some foil and let the tenderloin marinate in the fridge for about 3 hours. That will be plenty of marinating time.
When thinking about a side to serve with the tenderloin my brain just latched the fuck onto mashed potatoes. Well, because I love the fuckers, I really do, so why not level them up a bit with some roasted garlic?
You remember that shit yes? Slice the top of the garlic head off, drizzle some olive oil, a little salt, wrap in foil and roast in a 350 degree over for about 30-40 minutes?
That type of shit?
Well, do that.
Once again to our featured ingredient.
I broke out the Vigorous Mountains again!
Only half an ounce of porcinis today. Yes, they will again require rehydration. Boil some water and pour just enough to cover the mushrooms and let steep for 30 minutes.
Don’t throw out that water! It goes in the sauce just like last week.
Time to get our swine out of the fridge and let it get to room temperature. This should take about an hour.
See that foil there? That’s the foil that we covered the pork with during the marinating process AND it will be the foil used to cover the pork during the cooking process. Same baking dish too.
Handy!
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
Since this thing is already coated in oil, you just need to heat up an un-lubed pan or skillet to give this little piggy a sear.
Just 3 to 4 minutes per side and flip over.
Pop quiz time! How many sides do we have to sear?
Four! There are 4 sides to sear. Next get that back into the marinade/baking dish, re-cover with the same foil and into a 400 degree oven for just 20 minutes.
While it cooks we get our asses busy with the potatoes and the sauce.
Boil your potatoes as if you’re making mashed potatoes. Because you are!
Potatoes should be cooking until tender while we address the sauce.
We start here.
Start with one shallot.
Mince up that shallot.
Using the same pan we seared the pork in, to utilize those lovely brown bitsies you see, melt about 1-2 tablespoons of butter and scrape up that fond with a wooden spoon.
Now we check on the soaking mushrooms.
Looking good. I like where this is heading.
Sauté that shallot!
This sauce will require some red wine.
Lemme show you something.
For a wine I bought from the top shelf?
This was NOT top shelf shit at all. Didn’t like it, me. Not at all. Shit was sweet, cloying and just not a good bottle of vino.
I know I’m breaking protocol by using a wine I didn’t like to drink but this shit was expensive dammit. Plus the sweetness of the wine will replace the honey that the original recipe called for.
Or so my own internal reasoning rationalized.
Dump that shit in with the shallots and the mushroom liquid and reduce down for a bit. That’s maybe 1/3 a cup of wine right there.
Simmer and reduce by about half.
Since I’m making this shit up as I go along how about some of this?
Hell yes. A little dab’ll do ya. Get that mustard in there and give a stir. Fucking love what Dijon brings to a sauce.
Chop up your soaked porcinis next.
Very nice, these will just blow your minds in this sauce, man!
Measure out half a cup of heavy cream.
Add the cream and 1 tablespoon of butter into the sauce.
Finally add in the mushrooms, stir and reduce slightly. Just until thickened to a gravy/sauce texture. Season with salt and pepper as desired.
Hol-Lee shit that’s nice.
Slap a quick cover on there to keep warm.
Remove the pork from the oven and let it rest for at least 5 minutes before slicing. Don’t miss this step!
This is a biggie for getting the perfect doneness. You cut this fucker too fast and the juices will run out rather than redistribute then you’ll have a plateful of juice and a dry-ass tenderloin.
Very important shit right there.
Now let’s finish the potatoes.
Butter and roasted garlic go in the bowl of the stand mixer.
It’s a little dark but they’re in there.
When the potatoes have cooked, give them a drain, dump them in with the butter and garlic. Maybe a splash of that heavy cream, a little salt and pepper and give them a spin.
Oh boy, oh boy!
Garlic mashed potatoes!
Shall we dine then?
Well fuck me HARD! That’s glorious.
Look at the doneness of the tenderloin.
Perfection.
Think that sauce didn’t work famously with the garlic mashed potatoes? You must be new here.
That shit was wonderful! Goddamn that was good. The lovely still lightly pink tenderloin with the creamy, wine-rich sauce and those mushrooms mixed in?
That’s a fucking 40 dollar plate of food in a decent restaurant. Full on Five Star Shit!
Now about that lavender. It’s noticeable in a “That’s..What the fuck is that flavor?” kind of way. It’s not bad, it’s just well, lavender I guess. I personally wouldn’t put lavender in my herb blend but then again I’m not French either. It didn’t take anything away from the dish but it also didn’t really add anything apart from a novelty flavor. Neutral opinion I guess.
This meal actually made me mad at myself because I cooked it on Sunday and since I’m vegetarian starting on Mondays I didn’t get to enjoy the leftovers.
My ass needs to start cooking this stuff on Saturdays during football season!
Speaking of…
One more episode to go folks then it’s go time for football.
Come back next week for the Sunday Gravy Season 9 finale.
This will be a fun one.
Enjoy your Sunday and see you next week.
PEACE!
editors note: ready for some gatdamn football and want to join a suicide league? Join our eliminator challenge group here! Play along with the masses!
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