Celebrate Saturday: Pork Tenderloin with Blackberry Sauce

Welcome to my annual recipe crush. Each February I choose a theme, and provide one or two recipes each day for the whole month. This year the theme is Weekly Menu Planning. What are the categories, you ask? We have Sunday Special, Meatless Monday, Taco Tuesday, Worldly Wednesday, Thrifty Thursday, Fishy Friday, and Celebrate Saturday.

This dish will make a splash for your special occasion. The medallions of pork look so elegant and sophisticated—even though my pictures don’t look it! We had this with Herbs de Provence roasted baby potatoes and arugula, blueberry, strawberry, blue cheese salad with balsamic vinaigrette. Very yummy!

I doubled this recipe because I wanted to use the extra pork tenderloin and blackberry sauce in sliders at an appetizer party next week.

As is the case with many of these special weekend recipes, this pork tenderloin recipe takes longer, with more steps, than most recipes in this month's collection. However, it’s worth the time for the drama! This recipe comes from The Washington Post.

Blackberry-Bourbon Pork Tenderloin (serves 4)

One 1 1/4-pound pork tenderloin

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon kosher salt

3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 1/2 cups fresh blackberries

1/4 cup molasses

1/4 cup ketchup

1 tablespoon plus 1 1/2 teaspoons whole-grain mustard

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

1 tablespoon Kentucky bourbon (see headnote)

1/2 teaspoon hot sauce

Place a large cast-iron skillet in the oven; preheat to 425 degrees.

Trim off and discard the silver skin from the meat. Rub the oil over the tenderloin, then season with salt and pepper.

Combine the blackberries, molasses, ketchup, mustard, red wine vinegar, bourbon, a pinch of salt and the hot sauce in a blender or food processor; puree until smooth. Strain into a small saucepan, pushing the mixture through with a flexible spatula. Discard the seeds.

Cook the mixture over medium-low heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened.

Meanwhile, transfer the hot skillet to the stove top; place over medium-high heat. Add the pork tenderloin, sear for 2 minutes all around, then return the skillet to the oven. Roast for about 8 minutes or until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of the meat registers 145 degrees.

Transfer the tenderloin to a cutting board and cover loosely with aluminum foil. Let it rest for 5 minutes, then cut it on the diagonal into 1/2-inch slices. Arrange on a platter or plates; spoon the blackberry bourbon sauce over them. Serve warm. 

DH’s Rating: 4 Tongues Up

DH: “This is really good . . .” Me: “I hear hesitation. But . . .?” DH: “Well, I guess I’d have to say I like the orange pork tenderloin I grill more than I like this. This is good, really good. But I like the other one better. Is that okay to say?” 

Roger and wilco! Message received. My other recipe lets the pork marinate in orange marmalade, whiskey, onion, and garlic for a few hours. Then I cook down the marinade (to kill raw meat germs and to thicken) for a sauce. We eat that as lunch time sliders the next week, too.