Pork Tenderloin

I really am finding that the one place where I can be happiest these days is in the kitchen, creating something new. It's the one area right now where I can get so caught up in the creative process that I can momentarily forget about everything else. I believe that when we're going through something difficult, hobbies and interests can be a gift to us since they help ameliorate the pain we might be going through without resorting to something that is self-destructive or a historic crutch we've clung to in the past. I suspect that for awhile, the only non-depressing posts in my blog will be related to food, so I'll try to keep a smattering of these throughout my entries.

Because it's fall, I really like cooking with apple cider. I bought some pork tenderloins the other day from Costco and since brining's on my mind, I put them in a brine with about a half gallon apple cider, a half gallon of water, a cup of salt, 1/2 cup of smashed garlic cloves, a bunch of fresh thyme, about a dozen bay leaves and a couple tablespoons of peppercorns. It's a modified recipe I use from Thomas Keller's Bouchon Cookbook.

I popped the pork in the brine before I left for work yesterday and let the brine work it's magic. A brine is much more than marinating. With the large amounts of salt included in a brine, a chemical imbalance is created between the moisture in the meat and the high salinity of the brine liquid. The imbalance forces the salted water into the pores of the meat, bringing with it all the flavor you've introduced into your brine. Given enough time, the flavors will permeate the meat and also make the meat much more moist when it's done cooking. That's why people recommend brining turkeys at Thanksgiving. In this case, six hours was enough time and so when I got home, I fired up the grill and then made a dry rub to put on the pork. I started with some paprika, then added some ancho chili powder, some chipotle powder, a little smoked paprika, a boatload of cracked black pepper, kosher salt, then some dried onion and garlic, a little ground mustard, thyme, dried sage and the surprise ingredient that took it to a different level, and made it very tasty: about a teaspoon of cinnamon. This rub is a keeper and I'm going to try it again and actually come up with measurements so I can have a recipe for it when I need it.

I rubbed that all over the tenderloin, oiled the grill and got it grilling. I saw that it was getting a little more charred than I hoped, so I bopped into the kitchen and mixed up a little quick sauce with apple cider and a lot of spicy ground mustard. I threw a bit of my spice mixture in for good measure, and then added some oil. I started basting the pork with the sauce until it was done.

It was tasty, and one of the easiest meals in the world! This one's a keeper, and it made me happy. When I grin from ear to ear with the first bite, it doesn't matter what cards life deals me--I forget about anything but the food. This is a recipe I'm going to try and recreate sometime, and the addition of the apple cider mustard sauce made it better, so I'm keeping that one. Besides the pork, I fixed a little broccoli to go alongside which made for a happy camper.

I grilled two tenderloins last night which will be dinner for the rest of the week. I had two others that were in the brine. I put them each in a ziploc bag, covered them completely with cider, and placed them in the freezer. I think when I pull them out in about a month or so they're going to be even tastier.