New pork roast for the tasting

This entry begins with the teaser photo you see above because it is the establishing shot for tonight's entry. We actually ate dinner at the table tonight because we had the electricians over today and they put three spots in over the dining room table, something we've never had before. But the table and it's lighting are not the focus of this entry, the focus is on the food. In case you were not let on by the establishing picture, tonight's dinner was delicious! A new winner for the recipe files. This one came from the food section of last Thursday's AJC. The recipe is for Pork Tenderloin with Apples and Prunes. In the picture on the recipe page they serve it with red cabbage and rice. I decided not to make the red cabbage due to time constraints, but Jon did have rice with his, and it soaked up the leftover sauce nicely. But, let me start with the side I did make: zucchini fries. These were popularized while I was visiting Mom and Emily in NC. Now Dad and Jon like them too.

The sauce that went this dish was an interesting accompaniment in itself, there were apple slices and pieces of prune and apricot that spilled out of the meat while it was cooking. Lots of good texture and flavor, and it really complemented the meat.

But now for the meat itself! I was a little skeptical about how excited my eating companions would be about eating prunes, so I decided to get some apricots as well and do one tenderloin with apples and prunes and the other with apricots and prunes so that no one would panic when they saw what I was making. In the end, I really enjoyed both combinations, and I think everyone else did as well. I would certainly consider making both again or even experimenting with other dried fruits that we have in the pantry (the recipe is flexible that way). Although some assembly was required, I found the recipe to be remarkably easy. The most difficult part was finding the right size pot/pan to cook them in (Mom will be happy to know that I used the large and round Le Creuset that she gave me, and it worked perfectly) and procuring the kitchen/butcher twine. Although I have needed it before, I don't have any kitchen twine and I don't know where to buy any (the recipe doesn't offer any suggestions) but, I did know from reading previous recipes somewhere that a modest length of twine can often be acquired from the butcher at the grocery store or wherever your butcher may be. Dad and I tested this theory and found that the butcher was very accommodating and more than happy to provide us with a nice piece of twine large enough to tie up both tenderloins (thank you Publix butcher). The final tricky thing for me was figuring out how to stuff the meat and still get it to tie completely. My solution to this was to let the fruit be stuffed in and spilling out a little. That may have affected the perfect aesthetic quality, but certainly not the taste, and it gave me some nice fallen pieces in the sauce. Anyway, here is the pork so you get a better idea of how it came out.

It was very good, everyone liked it and gobbled it up. I was impressed by how quickly it came together and how well the stuffing complemented the meat. This is certainly something we will be making again, and as the recipe says, it is nice enough to serve to company. Two thumbs up.