Sunday Gravy with yeah right: Pork Tenderloin and the many things to do with it.

Hello everyone!

Welcome back to another edition of Sunday Gravy. Good to have everyone here.

Sorry about the absence last week. Many thanks to Litre Cola for filling the Sunday Morning void.

Work has been reasonably stupid lately. For those who don’t know I recently started managing a second department at work in addition to the one I’ve been running since the fucking ’90’s. It’s something I can absolutely do, am currently doing and have done in the past. As with any new assignment there’s a learning curve. This one has been fairly simple and straightforward but between the meetings and the ridiculous amount of additional emails I’m getting I simply ran out of time to get that episode “In the can” as we say. 

I’ve got a serious handle on the new department and we should be fine moving ahead but there are definitely more things to do in the work day.

We’ve got a shit-ton-o-fun to get to today and what could possibly be the largest pictorial post ever featured on Sunday Gravy.

So. Many. Photos!

Occasionally we’ll feature a single protein item and then expounded on the many ways said item can be prepared. We will be doing exactly that today.

We begin with our protein of choice.

Oh yeah. That’s a goddamn good protein for todays experimentation. The boneless pork tenderloin!

So many ways to overcook this tricky little fucker but an equal number of ways to prepare it and make it delicious.

First day. First method.

Let’s make the prep on this one simple.

A little salt and pepper. Maybe a little garlic.

By the way it was only after taking this photo, editing it, imbedding it and re-editing the text that I finally noticed its slightly, um, let’s say phallic appearance? Note to self, be very aware of plate rotation prior to taking photos!

You know what would be nice? Some fresh rosemary.

You know where we’re going with this already don’t you?

Yes we are. It’s sous vide time for you Mr. Pig! I cooked at 140 degrees for ninety minutes today.

Warm up the sauna!

Know what we’re going to do today? I frequently mention my semi-world famous macaroni and cheese here and give the link but isn’t it time we revisit the whole walkthrough with updated photos and shit?

Hell yes it is. From the very first time I made it here back in 2015.

“Mac and Cheese, yeah right style!

• 1/2 pound macaroni, cooked
• 2 cups cheese sauce
• 1 cup grated sharp Cheddar cheese. I use Collier’s Powerful Welsh Cheddar if available. The sharper the cheese the better. You want this cheese so sharp that it pulls a switchblade on you when you open the package. I also mix in some Fontina for a nice melt.
• 1/2 cup freshly made buttered bread crumbs. I use panko and 1 tbl melted butter.

Cheese sauce

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 1/4 cups whole milk, heated
• 1/2 cup of shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese and fontina
• Salt
• Freshly ground pepper
• 1/4 tsp cayenne
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg (NUTMEG!!)”

When the pasta is cooked al dente get busy with the cheese.

Today it’s fontina for the melt and extra sharp cheddar for the salt and bite.

Of course we’ll make a bechamel. Roux first.

Add the milk and some salt and pepper then add in the cheese.

Get it nice and bubbly.

Combine the cheese sauce and pasta.

Some grated cheese on top.

Mix some butter and panko.

Get them on the top, then grate on some parmigiano reggiano right over the top.

Into a 375 degree oven for 30 minutes until nice and toasty.

Oh shit yes.

By the way I did the entire macaroni and cheese production during the 90 minutes the pork was in the sous vide.

Here’s the pork about halfway through the process just swimming away.

After ninety minutes are up let’s get it out of the bath.

Again, not the most appetizing of appearances. We can fix that.

I’ve shown off a ton of my cookware before, especially my cast iron skillet but I thought I would change it up today and show you “Old Faithful.”

I’ve had this bastard for-fucking-ever! It’s at least 35 years old. It was one of the few things I got custody of during my divorce. It’s perfect for smaller cuts like the tenderloin.

Heat it up, add some oil and get a sear on that thing!

That’s not a sear. Get a damn sear on it!

Much better. The sear is critical here.

Let’s plate it all up.

How about we zoom in on that mac and cheese?

See what cooking sous vide does for the pork?

Insanely delicious. Don’t be trippin’ ass over the pink. This is cooked PERFECTLY! That last minute sear gave the exterior a lovely salty depth and crispness just around the edge. A must.

Fucking hell this was really goddamn tasty.

I had so damn much fun I went ahead and built another pork menu for the very next day.

The idea for Day 2 was to grill some of this delicious pork over charcoal a few different ways.

Let’s start with our old friend the yogurt marinade. Featured many times before.

Slice up a few medallions of the tenderloin. Remember there are 2 tenderloins in that original package. This is the second one.

These will go in that gallon zip top bag you see siting there with one container of plain Greek yogurt, juice of 1/2 lemon, 3-4 cloves of minced garlic and your seasoning of choice. Decided not to do anything too fancy and just sprinkled on some “essence.”

Add the pork to the marinade, dump everything in the zip-top bag and refrigerate overnight.

Since we’re doing grilled things the second day and since the yogurt marinade goes really well with some nice flatbread how about we make some naan?

Fucking hell yes man.

Let’s do that! Recipe here.

Give your dough a good mix and knead and let it rise.

After the first rise, shape into little naan balls.

Let them proof one more time.

Then we roll them out over a lightly floured surface and get into a pan with some hot oil.

Just a minute or so then flip.

Cover with a clean kitchen towel and finish cooking them all.

In addition to the yogurt marinade we’ve also got some pork marinated in teriyaki sauce and another chunk with just some salt and pepper.

Not gonna leave it at just salt and pepper. How about some barbecue sauce right at the end of the cooking time?

And onto the grill they go.

Use some foil under the yogurt marinated pork. It tends to stick to the grill grates.

Then the teriyaki glazed piggy goes on.

They’re just about finished grilling. Here’s a good shot of the three little pigs right here.

When finished we’ve got a little something like this.

Didn’t make my own hummus today. Hell man, you got two menus for the price of one. Stop yer bitchin’!

Get in on that pork why don’tcha?

Clockwise from upper left we have the yogurt marinade, the teriyaki glazed pork and the barbecue sauced version.

I’ve mentioned before about what the yogurt marinade does to the actual texture of the protein that’s soaked in it. You can really see here how it breaks the fibers of the meat down and gives it a really unique texture.

All three versions were goddamn delicious. When wrapped in a piece of naan with some of that hummus? Shit howdy!

The reason for selecting the tenderloin and doing these various methods was to demonstrate the chameleon-like quality of the tenderloin. It’s a flavor sponge. The pork takes on whatever type of seasoning you want to dress it up with.

Things have been a bit hectic lately but it’s all coalescing. One of the strange things I’ve noticed about work and the additional duties, it’s actually kind of re-invigorated me. I know for certain I had gotten into that “Just make these next few years pass by so I can fucking retire already” mindset and my old crew have things down to a science so I guess I was in a bit of a rut. This has turned out to be pretty fucking cool.

Who knew that having twice the duties would be motivational?

I’ve got this shit and it just gets easier each day. Now where’s my goddamn raise already?

That’s one of the real joys of government contract work; if there’s a change to the contract it has to go through my company’s legal team AND the customer’s legal team and the government doesn’t do SHIT very quickly.

Oh you bet your ass there will be retro pay.

Good to be back with you again. 

NFL training camps begin as early as next week!

Feel that?

So do I.

Be well everyone. My work re-instituted the indoor mask mandate and the new variant is every fucking where. After 2 years of this insanity we’ve got this.

Be well.

Stay safe!

Have a great Sunday.

PEACE!