I'd like to introduce someone to you.  This is My Scientist. 


She lives next door to me and has a dinosaur in a cage. 

As a rule she's a pretty awesome lady. 



You can tell cuz she lets me take pics of her in my dad's old wool suit.  Pretty sweet, No?

She cooked for The Grump and I the other night and let me tell you, it was Fantastic!  This might be the best way I have ever seen to use pork.  Trust me it's awesome.  Let me turn the typing over to her and she can tell you step by step how to make this dish.


This is an amazing recipe that makes people think you slaved for hours over a hot stove, when in reality, there's about 10 minutes total active time. Born out of my and my mothers love for all things pig related, this is an all-time favorite, and since it can be made the night before, it's great for parties when you don't want to do tons of work when yours guests are hanging around (that means more time for wine!). This recipe has a built-in cheat, which was added specifically with the party in mind. While you can make a real sauce out of the pan liquid, the spice packet does the trick just wonderfully, and has become part of my standard prep.

Whenever I made this for a party or a group of friends, I always get asked about how to make this, and everyone's always surprised at how simple it was. In fact, when I was in line at the grocery store buying goods to make this for Da Cook, I got into a conversation about what I was making with the checkout girl, and then was approached by the woman who was checking out in the line next to me. She came right up and said "repeat EVERYTHING you just said." I told her the recipe, and all wide-eyed, she said, "I'm going to make that this weekend!" It's just that good. Even strangers and checkout girls love it.

Pork Wrapped Pork Recipe

4 pork tenderloins
1 medium onion
1 jar whole grain French mustard
1/2lb bacon (specialty if possible, I prefer thinly sliced applewood smoked)
1 packet McCormick peppercorn or garlic steak sauce
salt &peppr

Preheat oven to 325. Rinse and pat dry pork tenderloins and trim excess fat. I usually remove the silverskin on the pork for my texture preference, but you don't have to. Don't remove all the fat though, that'll ruin the flavor. Place tenderloins in a roasting pan. If you're using a non-stick pan, put a little olive oil down first to make sure it doesn't stick. Season with salt (not too much) and pepper and spread a thick layer of mustard over the top of the tenderloins. Thinly slice the onion and put about 2/3 of the onions on the mustard covered tenderloins. Place bacon in layers over the top of the onions. Place the rest of the onions over the top of the bacon.

Place pork in the oven and roast for about 1-2 hours, depending on the thickness of the tenderloins. If you're using thick bacon, you can turn the heat up to 350 to get the bacon nice and crispy.

When the pork has finished cooking, remove it from the pan and slice it into 1" thick medallions (slice the bacon right on top of it, tongs help out a lot in this situation). Use the liquid from the pan to mix up the sauce packet per directions on the packet. I know the recipe calls for steak sauce, not pork sauce, but this is a tried and true addition.

Put the sliced pork and the sauce back in the roasting pan and toss together until coated. Cover the pan in foil and let it sit in the oven. If you have a lot of extra work for your side dishes at this point, I would turn the oven off to make sure it doesn't dry out. At this point, the pork is ready to serve whenever you are ready to eat it.

Notes:

I've made this dish the night before an event and it's held up perfectly. Cook as directed, slice and toss with sauce, and then refrigerate. The pork can then be reheated and served and it tastes as good if not better than fresh cooked. Time improves the flavor of the dish. It's also great as cold leftovers on a nice crusty roll the next day.

I like to try different kinds of specialty bacon for this dish. Check your butchers case and see what they have available. I usually buy the equivalent of about a 1.5-2 inch stack of slices of bacon. You can use more or less depending on taste preference.

Be careful with the amount of salt you add, because both the bacon and the sauce packet will add a good amount of salt to the dish.



So there you go!  Go make pork and be fruitful!