Pork Tenderloin Cubano Style
Sheltering at home during the pandemic has made me crave comfort food. I think many of us want dishes we all knew and loved in our childhood. Meatloaf, mac and cheese and fried chicken are especially appealing right now. It’s risky out there and staying with the good old tried and true feels right. It’s part of our current nostalgia for simpler times.
Now that we have been home for several weeks, maybe you’re thinking more about travel and escape.
Although we can’t physically journey to exotic ports of call, that doesn’t mean we can’t take our taste buds on a trip- to Cuba!
I am wildly in love with this new recipe. It’s piquant, meaty, cheesy and tangy all at the same time, with the best flavors of your favorite Cubano sandwich rolled into divine slices. I can hear the rattle of the maracas and feel the heat of the tropical nights. Are those steel drums playing in the distance? Serve the pork with black beans and rice and see if you don’t feel like you’re on vacation. It’s the flavor break we all need right now.
Ingredients
1 pound whole pork tenderloin
2 tablespoons whole grain Dijon mustard
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
3 slices Swiss cheese
3 slices of Black Forest ham, paper thin.
1/3 cup chopped bread and butter pickles
Salt and pepper
Kitchen twine
Cut four pieces of kitchen twine in equal lengths.
Slice the pork tenderloin in half, without cutting all the way through. You want to be able to open it like a book. Pound the meat with a kitchen mallet until it is the thickness of a thin chicken cutlet. Place the lengths of kitchen twine under the meat. Later, you are going to roll it up like a jelly roll and will need the twine to tie it so that it stays in place while cooking. Spread the mustard all over the pork. Sprinkle the chopped cilantro down the center portion of the tenderloin.
Halve the cheese slices and lay them down the center of the pork, lengthwise. Follow with the ham slices. Lastly, sprinkle the chopped pickles down the center. Salt and pepper the meat.
Starting with the long side of the meat, roll it up carefully so that the filling stays inside the roll. Tie the ends of the twine together to keep all the yummy bits from coming out. Having an extra finger in the house helps. If you are by yourself, it may be easier to use toothpicks or skewers.
Grill the pork over charcoal for about 20 – 25 minutes. Allow it to rest for 5 minutes before slicing crosswise into 12 pieces.
The recipe should serve 4 with 3 slices each. Some Cubano lovers mind find it easily consumed by two. No one I know, of course. But with some great sides, it should be plenty for 4.
Bonus: unlike a Cubano sandwich, it’s a low carb delight. If you used dill pickles instead of bread and butter pickles, it might even be Keto. Not being a nutrionist I can’t say for sure. A three slice servicing clocks in at just over 200 calories. Drink a rose wine with the meal (sadly, this is not included in the 200 calories). Enjoy the break in your comfort food routine. You can always have meat loaf tomorrow!
Rolling up some Holiday Goodness – Pork Tenderloin stuffed with Figs and Blue Cheese
This lovely entrée is deceptively simple to make but looks and tastes special enough for holiday guests. The ingredient list is short. The preparation is easy. It’s ready in less than 45 minutes from start to finish. This is a recipe from Cooking Light that I first made years ago. I’m glad I tried it again and reminded myself of how good it is! I think this one will show up on the table on a regular basis now that it’s been rediscovered.
Ingredients
1 (1 pound) pork tenderloin
½ cup dried figs, coarsely chopped.
½ cup crumbled blue cheese
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper
Cooking spray
Apple jelly
Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees.
Slice the pork in half lengthwise, cutting to, but not through, to the other side. I can only hope that makes sense. If you have butterflied meat before, you know what I’m talking about. Open it like a book. A big fat porky book. Cover the meat with plastic wrap. Now, take that kitchen mallet you’ve been dying to use and pound the heck out of it to get it as flat as possible. This is a great way to relieve frustrations and could be a new form of anger management.
You are going to roll up the pork in a few minutes, after you spread the filling on the meat, so this is a good time to cut some pieces of kitchen twine and place them under the meat at about 2 to 3 inch intervals so you will be able to tie the pork together. It’s easier to do this now that after you add the filling
Once you have gotten the pork relatively flat, sprinkle the figs and blue cheese over the pork leaving a ½ inch margin around the edges. Roll up the pork jelly roll fashion and tie with string to hold the pork together securely. Salt and pepper the pork. Place it in on a sheet pan lined in foil and sprayed with cooking spray. I placed it on a rack over the sheet pan when I cooked mine.
Bake the pork for 20 minutes at 450 degrees. Brush pork with melted jelly and cook an additional 5 minutes or until the meat thermometer registers 160 degrees. Let rest for 10 minutes before slicing. Discard twine, slice and enjoy the pretty sight of your nice pork wrapped around the figs and cheese. It makes a wonderful presentation. I’ve noticed some balsamic glazes on the market recently. I found a balsamic fig glaze and drizzled some over the meat slices and found it made a nice flavorful addition. Yum!
As I said this is an excellent dish to make during the holidays. Because it’s delicious and looks fancy? No, because when you whip out the mallet and start pounding, you can release all the pent-up frustration you feel toward your annoying relatives during this blessed time of year. If your bitchy sister’s face looks like a slab of pork in person, so much the better. Have at it! And have a merrier holiday season!