Herbes de Province Pork Tenderloin

Okay,Okay,Okay……I’m a bad food blogger. The last two months have been crazy busy with finals and concerts and recital and getting my life in order. Additionally, the boyfriend has officially moved in. Now that we are all settled I’ve been cooking up a storm of awesome impressive things.

Since moving to Cleveland, the boyfriend is most impressed by the Westside Market. Evidently they don’t have anything like that in Pensacola. Anyway, we’ve been going twice a week since it’s still kinda magical to him. Anyway, yesterdays adventure produced, among other things, impressive pork tenderloin. This was not my idea at all. But the boy insisted. So there I was….in my kitchen…..hunk of meat sitting on the cutting board. In a panic I paged through a couple of cookbooks I had handy and browsed the Internet for something that didn’t involve me butter flying it or grilling it. So then I remembered that I had a large jar of Herbs de Province in my pantry that I had bought a few months ago on some odd herb-buying spree. To make a long story short the result is lovely tender pork tenderloin lightly crusted with Herbs de Province.

What you need:

1 One to one and a half pound pork tenderloin (not to be confused with pork loin)

5 tbs herbs de province blend (available from your local spice guy or grocery store)

1 tbs salt

½ tbs pepper

6 tbs olive oil

1 clove garlic, minced

¼ diced onion

¼ red wine

2 tbs honey

What you need to do:

Preheat over to 375 degrees (f) and line small roasting pan with foil

First pat the pork loin dry with a paper towel. Then rub the herbs, salt, and pepper all over the meat.

In large skillet, heat three tablespoons of the olive oil and sear the tenderloin for about one minute on each side. Remove from pan and  place tenderloin on plate.

In same skillet add the rest of the olive oil, garlic, and red onion. Then add wine. Over low heat, stir mixture until wine begins to reduce. Remove from heat and stir in honey.

Place tenderloin in roasting pan and spoon glaze over the top. Cover with foil and roast for about 35 minutes or until thermometer reads internal temperature at 140 degrees or so.

Let sit for about 5 minutes before slicing.

So this is my first month as a Daring Cook. The way it works is that there is a challenge posted every month and all the Daring Cooks are supposed to make it (or some variation of), photograph it, and post it on their food blogs. Sounds simple enough right? Lets just say that deadlines and I do not get along. Therefore, I am posting this super-late. However, this whole Daring Cooks thing sounds fun and will (hopefully) guarantee that I’ll post something tasty at least once a month.

The 2010 March Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Eleanor of MelbournefoodGeek and Jess of Jessthebaker. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make risotto. The various components of their challenge recipe are based on input from the Australian Masterchef cookbook and the cookbook Moorish by Greg Malouf.

You should know that there really is nothing terribly complicated about risotto as long as you have the time to baby-sit it. One of the requirements for this months challenge was to make your own broth and while I was very seriously tempted to use the stuff in the pretty box with a picture of the jolly Wolfgang Puck egging me on, I decided to bite the bullet and make my own. You can really use just about any broth you’d like. I opted to make vegetable broth since I had an over abundance of fresh vegetables in my fridge. I’m not going to post a recipe on here for the broth since I a) didn’t measure and b) there are a bazillion other broth recipes out there. Basically, I just threw everything into a big pot and let it simmer on the stove for about two hours. If the prospect of having the smell of homemade broth wafting through your house isn’t enough to convince you that homemade is better then you should know that risotto made with the canned stuff doesn’t hold a candle to the good stuff. Sorry Wolfgang.

What you need:

About 1 ½ cup broccoli florettes, cut into manageable bite-sized pieces

1 tbs olive oil

Pinch of salt

Pinch of pepper

2 tbs butter

½ small onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 cup risotto (I used Arborio)

¾ cup white wine (you could use red if you were feeling fancy I suppose)

Pot of simmering broth

Salt

Pepper

Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 325 degrees (f) and line a large sheet pan with foil. In bowl, toss broccoli with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Dump broccoli onto sheet and roast in oven for about 20 minutes or until the broccoli is dark and very slightly beginning to brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly.

While your broccoli is in the oven, begin risotto. Heat butter in medium saucepan and add onion and garlic. Sauté until onion is soft and translucent. Add risotto and stir. You want to make sure to coat each grain of rice and brown it every so slightly.

Add wine and stir. Do not be alarmed by all the steam. The objective here is to evaporate most of the alcohol. There will still be a little liquid in the pan. Add the stock about one cup at a time. You want the broth to just cover the rice. When all the broth has been absorbed it’s time to add another cup or so. Same process as before. Repeat this process until the risotto is the desired consistency (which is soft). Turn the heat off and stir in about ½ cup Parmesan cheese. You may add more or less depending on taste. Add salt and pepper. Then add in the broccoli.

Serve immediately. Sprinkle some Parmesan on top if you want it to look a little bit fancy.