Tender Pork Loin with Herb Sauce

Simple Seasonal is in it’s 6th month as a baby blog and in that short time I’ve learned a lot about the world of blogging. Truth be told, if you asked me a couple of years ago wether I would ever think about writing a food blog I’d be like, “are you crazy?!” In fact my husband, who is a user experience designer for AWeber Communications,  an e-mail marketing company (my biggest unfair advantage ever), has asked me to consider such a venture repeatedly over the last 5 years or so and I’ve continually refused to even contemplate the idea.

I’ve always enjoyed writing and photography, so it was a good fit for me, but I was never inspired enough by one particular topic to the point that I could  imagine myself writing about it week in and week out. That all changed when, energized by my desire to improve my family’s diet, I decided to join a local CSA (community supported agriculture). I immediately fell in love with cooking fresh, local foods and a couple of years later the idea for Simple Seasonal was born.

This week I had the exciting opportunity to be interviewed by AWeber, where I talk about how I’ve marketed my blog (including e-mail marketing), as well as some of the more personal things I’ve learned as a baby blogger. To check it out go to AWeber’s blog!

For today’s recipe I have a Tender Pork Loin with Herb Sauce which is a sophisticated, yet earthy preparation of pork tenderloin. In the spring we get a healthy excess of greens from our CSA, which pair so nicely with this dish. My tried and true (and probably most frequently used) recipe for Quick and Easy Kale is a delicious accompaniment.

Tender Pork Loin with Herb Sauce

Serves: 4

Prep Time: 10 minutes                         Cook Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 tsp olive oil
• 1 1/2 lb pork loin
• 1 C white wine
• 2 C chicken broth, plus more as needed
• 1 tsp garlic
• 1/2 tsp thyme
• 1/2 tsp rosemary
• 1/2 tsp sage
• 1 Tbsp flour
• 1/4 C heavy cream
• 1/4 C shredded asiago cheese
• fresh cracked pepper to taste

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 350ºF. Heat 1 1/2 tsp olive oil over medium-high heat in a dutch oven for 1 minute, and then add your pork loin, browning on each side for about a minute each.

2. Push your pork loin off to the side of the dutch oven and add 1 Tbsp flour and all of your dried spices to the pot, and cook for 1 minute while stirring frequently. In the summer months, when there are fresh herbs available at my CSA, I use fresh for the recipe by just doubling the amounts for the garlic and all of the herbs.

3. Add 1 C of white wine to the dutch oven, while scraping the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon. This will pull delicious flavor off the bottom of the pot that was left behind from browning the pork loin and cooking the herbs. Allow the wine to simmer for 1 minute, cooking off the alcohol, and then add 2 C of chicken broth to the pot. Cover and continue to cook on the stove until the contents of your dutch oven come to a simmer.

4. Place the covered dutch oven in a preheated oven and cook your pork loin for 1 hour, checking every 15 minutes to make sure the liquid at the bottom of your dutch oven isn’t drying out (You should have 1 cup of liquid remaining at the end of the cooking process). If the liquid level is getting low, simply add more chicken broth 1/2 C at a time. Your need to do this will very much depend on how well your dutch oven seals.

5.  After one hour remove your dutch oven from the oven, and place your pork loin on a cutting board to rest while you finish your herb sauce. Once the contents of your dutch oven have stopped simmering, add 1/4 C of heavy cream to the sauce and mix well. It’s important that the sauce isn’t simmering or boiling at this point because the high heat will cause the cream to curdle.

6. Cut your pork loin width-wise into medallions, then plate and drizzle with sauce. Garnish with 1/4 C fresh asiago and fresh cracked pepper to taste, and now you’re ready to serve.