Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Brown Sugar Glazed Pork with Maple Glazed Sweet Potatoes
For our Valentine’s Day dinner, I decided on this recipe I had seen in Publix’s weekly circular. I’ve used a couple Publix recipes before, most have been really good. Unfortunately I don’t remember them, because it was before I blogged! I sure am glad I blog now, because my memory seems to be fading fast. Publix often pairs a recipe with an item that is on sale that week, and last week (their ad runs Wed-Tues) featured pork tenderloin that was on sale. We bought the smallest one we could, and it was still 1.5lbs. I gave The Boy the task of splitting that up into two portions to freeze. One thing I often do to save money is buy meat strictly when it’s on sale. Even if I don’t have plans for it yet, I’ll buy it, freeze it, and figure out what do cook with it in the meantime.
The original recipe paired the pork with a package of frozen mashed sweet potatoes, but I decided to pair ours with cubed sweet potatoes roasted in a dash of extra virgin olive oil, and a drizzle of maple syrup and honey. Prepared this way, you get a bit of a crunch on the outside of the sweet potato that gives away to a soft center. I prepped these first, and put them in the oven while I finished up the pork. I also served green beans that I steamed and then roasted in the oven.
The pork recipe uses just a handful of ingredients, all of which I already had on hand. And because you slice the pork and saute it in the pan, the cooking time is much faster than roasting it in the oven. It’s funny, I had originally planned on serving this on Friday night, but ended up working a little late and knew I wouldn’t have time to get dinner on the table in the small window of time The Boy has for his dinner break from work. In the end, I’m really glad we had it as our Valentine’s Day dinner. While it was pretty simple to make, it tasted like a special dinner! Ok, enough talking about it, here’s the recipe!
Brown Sugar Glazed Pork
from Publix
3 fresh garlic cloves
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
2 teaspoons Montreal steak seasoning (we used a peppery Toronto seasoning we purchased at Whole Foods. Toronto, Montreal, same country, right?)
1 pork tenderloin (about 1 lb) (we used about 3/4lb)
2 tablespoons butter, divided
1/4 cup red wine
Crush garlic, using garlic press, into medium bowl. Use knife to remove garlic from bottom of press. Stir in brown sugar and steak seasoning until well blended.
Preheat large sauté pan on medium 2–3 minutes. Cut pork diagonally into about eight 1-inch-thick slices. Place pork slices in bowl and press into mixture. Turn and press again to lightly season both sides (wash hands).
Place 1 tablespoon of the butter in pan; swirl to coat. Add pork (wash hands); cook 5–6 minutes on each side or until well browned and internal temperature reaches 160°F (for medium). Use a meat thermometer to accurately ensure doneness.
Remove pork from pan. Stir in wine and remaining 1 tablespoon butter; simmer 1 minute, stirring continually. Serve wine sauce with pork.
CALORIES (per 1/4 recipe) 230kcal; FAT 9g; CHOL 90mg; SODIUM 440mg; CARB 8g; FIBER 0g; PROTEIN 24g; VIT A 4%; VIT C 2%; CALC 2%; IRON 8%
Maple Glazed Sweet Potatoes
my own creation
1 large (or 2 medium) sweet potato
approx. 1/2 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
approx. 1/2 Tablespoon maple syrup
approx. 1/2 Tablespoon honey
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Peel and chop sweet potato into cubes. In a medium bowl, combine sweet potato cubes and enough EVOO to coat them enough to have a little sheen. Drizzle a bit of the maple syrup in and toss to combine. Pour into foil lined baking dish (mine all fit nicely in an 8×8 pan).
Bake 10-12 minutes. Take out and using a spatula, unstick any that are stuck to the bottom. Toss & stir well. Drizzle with honey, and more maple syrup if desired. Bake for 8-10 minutes longer, checking on them to make sure they don’t burn.