A dinner to impress

Good day fledgling cooks!



Today, I'm going to throw you in the deep end. It's time to get gourmet on this mofo! You've been seeing boy/girl x for a few weeks (months?) now, you've made the pasta, the stir-fry, and maybe even gotten brave enough to try out something out of a cookbook. Well done! I betcha it served you well (wink, wink, nudge, nudge, saynomore). But now it's time for the big leagues, Slick! On the plus side, you pull this off, you're golden FOREVER!



Dudes and dudettes, I give you Maple-Cognac Glazed Pork Tenderloin.



I invented this one a few years ago in a fit of recent singledom, and while I've had mixed success with the consistency, the flavour is un-flipping-believable! It's also really easy to make.



To make life easier, I'll also say that you're serving this deliciousness with a side of green beans.



So, I'll give you the step-by-step.



Spice Rub

- coat meat (best to use pork tenderloin) lightly in olive oil and mixture of crushed black pepper, garlic powder, salt & crushed rosemary - I usually coat the meat with my hands, sprinkle the spices with a spoon and then massage them lightly into the meat with my figners. If reading any of this is making you tingly, get help.

Meat

Essentially, grill or bake the tenderloin until it's a uniformly cooked consistency in the middle. Tenderloin always stays a bit pink in the middle, so don't worry about that. In other cuts of pork, ensure it's white in the middle. Once cooked, slice into medallions about 3/4 inch thick.

Glaze/Sauce

In saucepan, sauté/fry/caramelize 1 tbsp very finely minced garlic and 1 tbsp very finely minced onion in butter. Basically, you want it to turn golden, but not burn.

Reduce heat to medium-low (about 4)

Add 1 oz. Maple syrup & reduce (cook until it starts to thicken)

Add ½ oz. Cognac & reduce

Add extra rosemary if desired

Allow mixture to simmer until reduced to glaze consistency (this is always the part I find hard, sometimes it just takes to long to thicken).

Baste or spoon onto cooked meat

As for the beans, boil them in a very shallow pool of boiling water, drain once tender, coat with butter and serve.

And there you go! Send me comments if you need more detail!

I'm not entirely sure what to put in my next post. I might go off on another diatribe...