Herb-Stuffed Pork Tenderloin

pg. 121


I'm not really sure what possessed me to start out with a dish that required multiple techniques that I wasn't familiar with. But here we are, for better or worse.

The recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups of "shredded" romaine and 1/2 cup of fresh herbs. They listed a bunch of herbs to pick from, and didn't offer any suggestions or warnings as to which ones would add what flavor. Apparently I'm just supposed to know these things. I ended up using basil (from the balcony), dill, sage and parsley (also from the balcony). I learned quickly that sage smells like Thanksgiving, and dill smells like a Christmas tree.


I finally opened my Magic Bullet and used that to shred (ok, pulverize) the lettuce and the herbs. I used a lot of parsley for the sole purpose of cutting the super-strong herb flavors, since I don't really get a whole lot of flavor from parsley. The bullet wasn't as easy as a food processor probably would have been, but I enjoyed the process!

The first of my new experiences in cooking was the removing of excess fat from the tenderloin. Eww! I still don't like touching raw meat, and now I can add "slicing through fatty goo" and "getting it stuck under my nails" to the reasons I don't like it! But I got through it, butterflied the tenderloin, and pounded the crap out of it until I ended up with what was supposed to be a 13" x 8" rectangle.

Jamie's cooking motto? "Close enough!"

After smearing the tenderloin with dijon mustard and then the greens mixture, I had my first meltdown while attempting to roll the damn thing.

My first attempt at rolling ended with about half of the green stuff squishing out the far end. And of course, when I unrolled it, some ended up on the wrong side of the meat! I stomped my feet and whined about not cooking because it always ends up looking like dog food, and got generally pissy. This lasted basically through the rolling and the tying. Scott stood by and handed me lengths of plain unwaxed dental floss (because we couldn't find cooking twine at Publix). In the end, I put something that looked like it could possibly be edible on the rack and into the oven:





We decided to serve the pork with sweet potato chips (baked sweet potato coins). So when the tenderloin was finished, Scott put a sheet of sweet potatoes in the oven and baked them until they were soft in the middle and crisp on the edges.

The recipe also included a "dijon sauce" consisting of plain yogurt, mayo, dijon mustard and honey. It tasted like salad dressing when it was cold. After warming through, it tasted like warm salad dressing. We don't understand it, but it really went well with the pork. Here's the final dish:

The meat was delicious, and cooked beautifully. Sadly, the herb stuffing all ended up in the middle, instead of in a lovely meat-herb swirl like the picture. The herbs worked well with the meat, but were overpowering. If I were to make the recipe again, I'd probably only use 1/4 cup of herbs and 1 cup of lettuce.

Also, if I were to make the recipe again, I would remember that the probe thermometer has also been in a 375-degree oven and that I shouldn't grab it with my bare fingers. (thanks to Scott's quick thinking, some cold water and some fresh aloe, I think that the two fingers in question will be red and sore for a while but might not blister)

I'm contemplating having my half of the leftovers on a roll instead of heated up on a plate. The whole meat-roll-with-sauce instantly struck me as the middle of a darn good sandwich.

Learned:
* how to pound meat (giggle)
* how to use the Magic Bullet
* how to roll meat (need more practice)
* how to tie the roll
* not to touch hot things

Would I make it again? Yes, with some minor modifications.