a bean counter's food blog
About that recipe I promised you…
How good do these pork skewers look?
I tend to shy away from Asian cooking. Usually, it’s because the recipe calls for lots of ingredients I don’t have on hand (rice vinegar, sesame oil, fish sauce? oyster sauce??). The long recipes and foreign (no pun intended) techniques are intimidating! Last year, in a short-lived wave of cooking confidence, I bought a wok at Ikea, and I’ve used it a whopping two times.
The beginning of the year is a stressful time for us accountants. There’s year-end close and year-end audits plus T-A-X season. Spelling it out makes it sound a little less dreary, right? With all the extra hours clocked at the office, the only recipes I’ll consider right now are ones that take the littlest, teensiest amount of hands-on time possible.
Two of my favorite simple recipes are Sweet Chili Pork Tenderloin and Roasted Parmesan Brussels Sprouts. The oven does all the work for both recipes, and the hands-on time is pretty minimal. Ever since we made these wickedly addicting sprouts a few months back, they’ve become a Sunday night ritual. A pound of them split two ways is barely enough. There’s talk of making a pound a piece from here on out.
As for the pork, the sweet chili flavor combo comes via a simple brown sugar and chili powder spice rub, and the high temperature and relatively quick cooking time keeps the meat moist.
If you’re lucky enough to have any pork leftover, it makes for one mean sandwich!
Serves 4
STEP ONE: Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Cover a cookie sheet with foil, and coat with cooking spray. Remove excess fat, if any, from the tenderloin. Combine all remaining ingredients (except olive oil) in a large Ziploc bag or large container with lid. Add the tenderloin to the container, seal, and shake to evenly distribute the spice rub. Lay the tenderloin onto the cookie sheet, lightly drizzle with olive oil.
STEP TWO: Cook the tenderloin for 15-20 minutes, flipping the meat half way through, or until a meat thermometer reads 165 degrees. Set the meat aside to rest before cutting.
Note: if you are serving this pork with the sprouts, tent the meat with foil at this point and proceed to the Roasted Parmesan Brussels Sprouts recipe. Serve with carb of choice.
When it comes to food, I have an extremely hard time making decisions. I blame it on information overload, or rather, possibilities overload. Between cookbooks, magazines, recipe sites, delicious blogs, and PINTEREST, it’s practically impossible to zero in on “the one.”
This week, like the loving gal I am, I pushed the horrible task of deciding what to make for dinner onto my boyfriend. I handed him the latest issue of Cooking Light and asked him to pick out one recipe that we would then make for dinner. He diligently flipped through the magazine, cover to cover, jotting down notes along the way, and then presented me with a list of not one but TEN recipes he’d like to try.
I appreciate the enthusiasm, but ten?! So much for following instructions…
As inefficient as it sounds, this process was actually much faster than usual. Plus, we hit the trifecta: cheap, fast, and delicious.
I’m not usually a big fan of mixing sweet and savory, but this combination of pork, apples, and onions was fantastic—the perfect fall meal.
When I think of pork, the first word that comes to mind is “BLAH.”
What are we having for dinner?
Pork.
BLAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Perhaps I was subjected to too many dried out pinky-thin chops as a child. Or perhaps I was too enveloped in my love affair with the other two other-white-meats. Given that my one true love in life is FOOD, it hurts my heart to dislike something. I actually force myself to occasionally eat the hated food(s) in question in hopes of maturing my palate and someday rising above these childish dislikes.
That’s dedication people.
Watch out kidney beans, olives, eggplant, and every species of fish known to man. I’m coming for ya.
In an effort to branch out, I decided to try and cook up some pork tenderloins. I’d never cooked pork tenderloins before, and the ONLY other time I’ve attempted a pork dish was this pork chop flop, which clearly no words can describe.
This Allrecipes.com recipe for Chipotle Crusted Pork Tenderloin was my inspiration, subject to a few mweaks. The result was, well, it definitely ain’t yo’ grandma’s pork.. or your step-mother’s pork as the case may be. Sorry to put you on blast, Sally. 
This pork was JUICY and super flavorful with equally balanced sweet and heat. I never thought I’d use “flavor” and “pork” in the same sentence. Just did. Take THAT pork chop flop. TAKE THAT.
These tenderloins were SUPER simple. All you do is mix the following in a large ziploc baggie or large bowl with lid:
Plop 2 pork tenderloins (approx 1.25-1.5lbs each) into the bag/bowl and shake the crap out of it to evenly coat the loins with the seasonings. Lay the tenderloins out on a cookie sheet coated with cooking spray, then drizzle a little extra virgin olive oil across the top:
Cook in a 500 degree oven for 20 minutes, turning half way through.
Let the meat rest for a few minutes, then transfer to a cutting board to slice:
Crazy blurry photo courtesy of my iPhone!
Dare I say I LOVED this pork???
The BF declared “this was the best meat he ever had.” To which I responded with a perfectly timed and completely appropriate “that’s what she said.”
Speaking of appropriate, I cannot type or say the word “loin” without giggling. Apparently, my palate isn’t the only thing I need to work on maturing.
To round out the meal, I made Rachael Ray’s Orzo with Feta and Tomatoes:
This was just OK—a bit on the bland side, so I doubt I will make it again.
Thank god for potatoes. They totally made up for the orzo. Halved baby red potatoes, coated with some EVOO, garlic salt, black pepper, and a touch of cayenne pepper roasted at 500 degrees for 20 minutes:
I can honestly say I’ve never met a potato I didn’t like.
Feel free to leave inappropriate meat jokes for the BF in the comments. I’ll be sure to pass them along 😉
Sweet Chili Pork Tenderloin (serves 6)
Step one: combine all of the ingredients other than the pork in a large Ziploc baggie or large bowl with lid. Place the 2 pork tenderloins (approx 1.25-1.5lbs each) into the bag/bowl, seal, then shake to evenly coat the loins with the seasonings.
Step two: spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray, lay the tenderloins on top, then and drizzle them with a little extra virgin olive oil. Cook in a 500 degree oven for 20 minutes, turning flipping way through.
Step three: Let the meat rest for a few minutes, then transfer to a cutting board to slice.
