Fuji Apple Jalapeño Marinated Pork Tenderloin with Caramelized Spanish Onion, Caprese Orzo and Soy Brussels Sprouts. Monkeys loooooove brussels sprouts.
See!
Well, here is the how to help. Chop up a big ole spanish onion, I used a red one, you can use an neon orange one for all I care, just pick the coolest looking onion in the grocery. And if you have never examined all the onions to find which one is coolest than grocery shopping with you is no fun. If you ever see anything in the produce aisle that just looks cool, buy it. You buy your clothes because they look cool, why are you so dull when it comes to food? Take your super cool onion and slice it up. Toss it into a pan on medium heat with a decent amount of olive oil, add salt and pepper. This pan will sit on medium heat for the entire time, onions take a long time to caramelize properly. You are not trying to burn them or make them crispy, you are trying to slow cook them and make them mushy and yummy. You will be periodically adding liquid to this pan to keep them soft. I go between water and apple juice, but you can use whatever liquid you like. Just don't let the pan get dry. You add enough liquid to just cover the bottom of the pan and let it boil off slowly. Be patient this does not happen quickly. As you get used to doing this you may become more like me, I am constantly adding different amounts of liquids, adjusting the heat so that the liquids concentrate faster or slower. I will get impatient, add a little too much liquid, turn the heat up high to boil it off, then turn it down super low and let the pan dry out to get more caramelization and repeat. There is not much method to the madness.
In the Apple Juice post I talk about the marinade for the pork tenderloin, now that the pork has sat overnight you can dump the entire pork tenderloin and the marinade into a small baking dish. Small is better because it keeps the moisture level high on the tenderloin. Everyone (and by everyone I most certainly mean you) has eaten dry, over cooked pork. It is impossible to over cook the pork in this recipe, IMPOSSIBLE. Put this tenderloin bathing in marinade into a 350 degree oven.
Put a pot of water to boil for your orzo, or whatever kind of rice shaped pasta you got. Salt this water heavily. While this water is coming to a boil slice up some cherry tomatoes and pull out some shredded Asiago cheese. You can use whatever cheese you like. You can shred your own or buy it shredded. But I don't recommend parm for this one, it is too salty and strong. Something milder. Manchego would be good as well. Once your water boils, cook your orzo, drain it and toss it with the tomatoes and cheese. There are not even rough amounts in this part of the recipe because you should just use whatever you like. If you are a tomato fiend do a ton of tomato. If you are on a diet use less cheese. It's whatever you like. Once you toss this just leave it out in the bowl and let it get to room temperature.
Once you have set aside your orzo you can start the brussels sprouts. Don't try to overlap this task because you needed that 20 minutes to go by so that the tenderloin can cook. Take your brussels sprouts and slice them in half. Toss them into a big pan, not pot, and put about a centimeter of water in there. Turn the heat up to high and wait for this baby to boil. If you have a lid big enough cover this bad boy and it takes half the time. These brussels sprouts are steaming in the water, so after a couple minutes once they start boiling take a spoon and toss them around to make sure the steam evenly on all sides. As the water starts to boil out and the pan dries up check one of the sprouts and see if it is close to done. If they are almost the way you like them then good for you, if they are still hard add more water and let them keep steaming until they are almost perfect. Add water a little at a time because for the last step you want the pan to be almost dry. Once you think they are done and the pan is dry toss in a couple spoonfulls or big splashes of soy sauce. Toss all the sprouts around and the soy sauce will sponge up into all the little interior layers and then start to caramelize as it cooks. YUM! These are so good I usually make way way way too many in hopes of saving them and then they all get eaten.
So, turn your sprout heat off and lid the pan so that they stay warm. Hopefully you have been attentive to your onions this whole time even though I haven't reminded you. I mean come on! You're a bid kid now, do I really have to remind you to do everything?? Oh yeah, don't forget about your tenderloin. Your onions should be cooked down by now and you can scoot them over to one side of the pan.
All eyes turn to the tenderloin. Pull it out of the oven and set it down. If you got a tiny tenderloin then it is done now, if you got a beefed up hormone injected tenderloin than there is an extra step. Let the meat sit for 5-10 minutes, and pour the liquid into the pan with the onions, kick the heat up a notch. Either way, after the meat sits for 5-10 minutes you can now slice your tenderloin into medallions. If the meat is slightly pinkish in the center of your slices it is cooked perfectly... this will be the smaller tenderloins. If it is very pink and raw looking throughout the center you got a big momma and you will need to toss your slices into the pan with the cooking liquid and onions for a hot second. This is really easy, all you do is through the slices in and cook them for 1 minute on each side. Either method leads to perfectly cooked, juicy pork.
To plate the pork lay it on the plate drizzle some of the reduced marinade over it with a spoon and top that with caramelized onion. Plate up your sprouts and your orzo and tah dah! Dinner for all your monkeys.
Please excuse all typos, it has been so long since i posted that i just want to through this up there.
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