A fantastic and easy pork tenderloin with a rich, deeply colored, a bit tangy sauce with shallots, broth and port. A simple and unique dish with few ingredients.
We're cooking with 5 ingredients or less, not counting salt and pepper.
Pork loin with port shallot sauce, to be exact. A dish I make as often as this Szechuan pork.
I never really care how many ingredients I use in a recipe. I find it more complicated to use few than to go through a grinding set of detailed spices, vegetables or whatever is needed.
So I adapted a very old staple of mine, a recipe I used to feed many on different occasions over the years. As they put at the beginning of many movies, 'this recipe is formatted to fit this theme'.
Port is the real deal here.
It is strong but a bit sweet at the same time. And, when boiled down for a while, it turns into an amazing thick syrup.
The second place goes to the shallots. They're a bit mellower than garlic and sweeter than onion. The perfect choice when the list of five is almost completed.
And finally, broth.
I use vegetable broth to keep it a bit neutral.
It's almost imperative to start with a lightly salted (a lot of emphasis on the word lightly) because the broth is reduced before adding it to the sauce. And then it keeps on reducing with the port and shallots. So the salt content has to be very low at the beginning.
This goes well with red meats of course. And I've also been known to use it as part of mini bruschettas. Toasted bread, a bit of this very reduced shallot port sauce, a piece of brie cheese on top, warm it a bit in the oven and you're in appetizer heaven. No kidding.
Pork Tenderloin with Port Shallot Sauce
Ingredients
For the pork:
- 1 cup vegetable broth
- 2 pork tenderloins, about ½ pound each
- Salt, just for the pork and freshly ground black pepper
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ cup sliced shallots
- ¾ cup Port wine
Sweet potatoes:
- 2 large sweet potatoes, peeled
- 5 tablespoons olive oil
- Salt and black pepper, to taste
- ½ teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
- Several sprigs of fresh thyme, to serve
Instructions
For the pork:
- In a medium saucepan, boil 1 cup vegetable broth until reduced to half a cup, about 15 minutes.
- Season 2 pork tenderloins with salt and pepper.
- In a skillet, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil. Add pork and sear well on all sides. Remove and reserve on a plate.
- In the same skillet, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil.
- Add ½ cup shallots, some black pepper to taste, and cook over medium heat until just beginning to color, about 3 minutes.
- Add ¼ cup port and let reduce until almost evaporated. Add ¼ cup reduced stock and let reduce again until almost evaporated. Repeat with another ¼ cup of port.
- When the mixture is thick and liquids are syrup-like, add the seared pork back to the skillet and the remaining ¼ cup each of port and reduced broth.
- Let cook for about 15 minutes, turning frequently. This depends on the size of your tenderloins and how cooked you like them. You can also finish cooking them in the oven.
- Remove from heat, transfer pork to a cutting board and let rest for 3 or 4 minutes.
- Meanwhile, check the remaining sauce left in the skillet. If you feel it's too liquid reduce it a bit more while the pork is resting.
- Cut the meat into inch-thick slices, arrange on the plates, and spoon sauce over.
Sweet potatoes:
- Preheat the oven to 375°F/190°C.
- Peel the sweet potatoes and slice them about ¼ inch at the most.
- Drizzle 2 tablespoons of oil on a baking tray and place the potato slices on top.
- Season with salt and black pepper, drizzle with 3 more tablespoons of olive oil and sprinkle some thyme leaves over them. Toss lightly to coat and lay them flat again on the pan.
- Roast for about 15 minutes, turn them over and roast them for about 15 more minutes, until soft but crisp. You might want to increase the oven to 400°F/200° for the last 5-10 minutes if you want them to brown more.
- Remove from the oven and serve immediately with the pork and shallot sauce.
Amanda says
Passing this on to my sister -she's going to love it!
Alice Choi says
Oh my goodness! This Pork looks amazing!!!! I love pork and will definitely give this recipe a try! thank you for sharing!
Patti says
Just love the sauce in this recipe! I'm sure you could use this with chicken as well! Beautiful photos!
Susan says
Just gorgeous! And perfect for autumn.
Stephanie Zielinski says
I have had a hard time finding a pork loin recipe I wanted to try, until now! looks delicious!
Cocoa and Lavender says
The really nice thing about recipes with five or fewer ingredients is that they tend to showcase the main ingredient. I think this can differ from cuisine to cuisine... A spice mixture like curry is one ingredient with up to 20 different spices blended together... The other nice thing is that these are the kind of recipes that inspire novice cooks to get more involved. Brava! It is a beautiful dish! I tend to cook more than bak, and YOU, Paula, have inspired me to bake much more! - David
Megan Wood says
I love pork loin recipes. I will be adding this to my "must make" collection!
Renee Dobbs says
I've been waiting on this recipe ever since you posted the title in the Sunday Supper fb group. I have already bookmarked it and added the ingredients to my shopping list. Awesome.
Terra says
This looks like a perfect comfort food! Your recipe sounds delicious, and love the idea of adding port wine to pork:-) Yum, Hugs, Terra http://www.cafeterrablog.com
Kim Bee says
This is really beautiful. For a baker you sure do cook amazing food. Lol. My son always says I'm a better cook than baker yet my blog is probably 80% baked goods. Weird. Happy Sunday Supper.
Inside a British Mum's Kitchen says
this looks simply gorgeous - so delicious and succulent and fabulous flavors - really special dinner!
Mary x
Erin @ Dinners, Dishes and Desserts says
This looks beautiful! That sauce sounds heavenly over the pork.
Sarah Reid says
This reminds me of something my grandma would cook, in the best way possible!
pinchandswirl says
Paula, this looks amazing! I love pork with port wine. My favorite recipe is one with port wine and dried figs, but now I have to try this one. Shallots with port sound so good...
Amy Kim says
Oh yes, this sounds amazing! And it looks soooo good.