Sometimes on weekends I do find the time (or we make the time) to do some serious cooking. The same weekend I made the lasagna, I also made an excellent pork tenderloin dish. The reason is that we picked a basketful of pears the previous week from Sam’s tree and needed to start using them up. I have a pork dish I’ve often made using apples and cranberries. Usually during the festive season. But we wondered if the mellow sweetness of the pears would be a good, if not better, substitution for the apple/cran combo. Well, wonder no further for it is true. Here’s the general recipe:
1 good size pork tenderloin (or 2 smaller ones): about 4-5 lbs
chicken broth (1L)
white wine to taste (not too sweet)
stove top stuffing
pears
brown sugar
fresh rosemary
salt, pepper, poultry seasoning
Preparation: slice and fold open the tenderloin so that it is one ‘flat’ piece. You want it to be fairly even and flat…so take a meat tenderizer too it to make it so. At the same time, prepare the stove top stuffing. I would normally say you should make your own stuffing, and you can go ahead and do so, but I’ve done this many times before and it’s not worth the effort in my mind for the minimal (if any) added value.
Once the stuffing is ready, spoon it down the middle of the flattened out loin. You’re going to roll the meat around it so that the stuffing ends up in the middle. So don’t overspoon or it’ll get messy. Once you’ve done this and rolled up the loin, string it up with butcher string and store in the fridge
Prepare the broth. While it is being prepared, peel and cut about 10 or so pears. Place them in a bowl and coat with brown sugar. You want enough so that the roast plus the pears basically fill up the roasting pan. Not enough to completely cover the roast. Just enough to fill in the gaps around the roast.
Set the oven to 350
Take a roasting pan and set the pork into the center. Add the broth. Add the wine. I use about 1/3 to 1/2 a bottle. There should be a enough liquid to cover about 1/2 the roast. Add the pears around the roast.
Sprinkle poultry, salt and pepper to coat the top of the roast. add 4-5 sprigs of rosemary around the roast. I say around and not on top so that the rosemary will stay moist and work its way into the sauce. If you set on top of the roast it may/will dry up and not provide enough value to the subsequent sauce.
Cover and place in oven for 1-1 1/2hrs until pork is cooked and tender. Take the lid off with about 1/2 to go to brown the top. Once done, set roast on cutting board. Cut off string and slice the roast into 1 inch pieces.
Take a hand blender and blend the pear mixture that remains in the pan until smooth. If the sauce is too liquidy, add starch and boil. Pour into a gravy train and serve with the pork.
I like to make this dish with roasted new potatoes and fresh beans from the garden (or flash frozen from the garden).