Stuffed Pork Tenderloin Sammiches

You guys. I just had the best sandwich of my entire life. And, I mean, I’ve had a lot of great sandwiches. But this one was BANANAS. It all started with a take on Ina Garten’s fennel and onion stuffed pork tenderloin… *film blur*

Ingredients

• 3lb pork tenderloin, butterflied all the way out
• 1 cup plain breadcrumbs
• 1 cup thinly sliced fennel bulb
• 1 cup thinly sliced Vidalia onion
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
• 1 tbsp each butter and olive oil
• 2 tbsp pastis (Ricard is best, Pernod is acceptable)
• salt and pepper

Preheat your oven to 425*. Melt the butter and olive oil together in a pan over medium heat, then saute the fennel and onions until they are soft and browned. Add the garlic, thyme, pastis, and salt and pepper to taste. Toss with the breadcrumbs, sprinkle your unrolled pork with more salt and pepper, then pack in the stuffing. Roll the tenderloin up and tie it together with some kitchen twine., and salt and pepper the outside. Place on a baking rack over a sheet pan and roast for 30 minutes, then turn the heat down to 350* and cook for 20 more minutes. Let it rest and slice it up!

This is my cat receiving his share of pork, moments before he nearly took my hand off for it.

It is phenomenally delicious as it is, especially when paired with the orange, fennel, and pomegranate salad I made, but DUDES. This is the epitome of leftover nirvana and was suggested by someone who is clearly a freakin’ genius. Slice up some of your leftover pork. This is what it looks like cold, fyi:

JEAH!!

Heat up a bit of butter in the pan and lightly grill a sandwich roll. Remove the buns and toast up the pork rounds until they get a nice crispy outside. Remove, add a bit more butter and your favorite bbq sauce to the pan to thicken quickly. I was recently turned on to Montgomery Inn, a Cincinnati-style sauce that is AWESOME with this sandwich. My knees go weak at the thought of it now. Hmmmmm. *blush*

Anyway…

Place pork on bun, pour sauce on pork, top with other bun like so:

Stop it, you tease.

Devour mightily. I know it looks insanely simple but this is just mind-blowingly good.

See, e.g., the carnage.

Garlic-Riddled Pork Tenderloin: The Triumphant Return

And we’re back! I’ve been home (New Jersey, of the NYC Metro variety) for the past week on a rather spur of the moment trip, spawned by a super cheap plane ticket and a slight personal crisis. It was really nice to see my mom (obviously, because she rocks my socks off), to eat and drink my way across three states, and also for it NOT TO BE RAINING OMG. And then I got back to Macon and in less than 24 hours it was, naturally, raining like the end of days. But in the great obnoxious metaphor that is life, after the rain comes the sun. We may not be seeing much sun in Georgia right now, but after my own personal thunderstorm these past 5 months (good grief, has it really been that long and yet only that long?) I have finally seen the sunshine. I start my very own full-time, health insurance-providing, ass-kicking lawyer job next week. Say whaaaaaaaat! F’real f’real. So here is a tasty celebratory meal thanks to Fresh Market’s on-sale pork tenderloin and a whole lotta garlic. Super easy and makes fantastic leftovers for sandwiches or just snacked on plain.

Ingredients

• 1 pork tenderloin (I bought a two-pounder and got home to find that it was actually two one-pounders stuck together…winning!)
• 1 head of garlic, cloves skinned nekkid
• fresh rosemary stalks
• olive oil
• salt’n’peppa

Preheat your oven to 325*.  Place the tenderloin(s) in some sort of walled cooking contraption – I used a deep baking sheet. Strategically poke holes in your loin and insert whole (you heard me) garlic cloves firmly into the meat. As much as you want. I went garlic-crazy, but that’s totally normal for me. The garlic will try to work its way out, so just push it back in. Also take some spears of rosemary and shove them into the pork as well. If you go with the grain of the meat, they’ll run in quite easily. Drizzle a little olive oil on and add salt and pepper to your taste.

like so…

I was intending on cooking my 2lb conquest for an hour and a half, but since they turned out to only be 1lb each, they got an hour. Remove and tent with foil for 10 minutes while it rests.

serious om noms

Extract the rosemary as best you can from the pork. Slice into medallions and marvel at the gems of garlic studding your magnificent loin (have you been giggling every time I’ve said that? GOOD!!). I enjoyed this with simple sauteed yellow squash’n’onions, a Southern summer favorite. Deeeeeelish!