This is a fantastic and easy pork dish with a rich, deeply colored, a bit tangy sauce with shallots, broth and port. It's a simple and unique recipe that requires few ingredients and rounds up nicely with oven-roasted sweet potatoes.
Few ingredients, unique flavor
This is an adapted old staple of mine, a recipe I used to feed many on different occasions over the years. A dish I make as often as the salsa verde pork chops.
It has a shallot sauce reduced with Port wine, and it's fantastic, especially with the roasted sweet potatoes (sometimes sweet potato puree) we serve it with.
Port is the real deal here. It is strong but a bit sweet. When boiled down for a while, it turns into an amazing thick syrup.
Second place goes to shallots. They're a bit mellower than garlic and sweeter than onion, making them the perfect choice.
And finally, broth. I use vegetable broth to keep it a bit neutral.
The shallot sauce is superb on its own and not just with pork and red meats.
I've been known to use it as part of mini bruschettas: a piece of toasted homemade baguette, a bit of this very reduced shallot port sauce and a piece of brie cheese on top; warm it a bit in the oven and you're in appetizer heaven. No kidding.
Ingredient list
- Pork tenderloin: I like large pieces as they'll be juicier inside by the time you cut them. If you use pork loin steaks, the sauce needs to be considerably more reduced when you add them after searing.
- Port wine: I buy it at the supermarket.
- Shallots.
- Broth: I use vegetable, but meat or chicken also work.
- Thyme: fresh or dried.
- Olive oil: or sunflower oil.
- Salt.
- Black pepper: freshly ground is best.
- Sweet potatoes.
Quantities are listed in the recipe card towards the end of this post. The Ingredients page has more details and lists the brands we use.
How to make pork with shallots
Before you start the dish, prepare the mise en place (measured ingredients) for the pork and the sweet potatoes.
Sweet potatoes
Peel, cut, season and start roasting these before you start with the pork.
Searing
This means that you'll quickly cook and brown the pork on both sides over high heat. It creates a layer that retains the juices inside. The meat will not be evenly browned, and some sides will still be pink.
Vintage Kitchen Tip
It's almost imperative to start with a lightly salted dish (there is a lot of emphasis on the word lightly) because the broth is reduced before adding it to the sauce. Then, it keeps on reducing with the port and shallots. So the salt content has to be very low at the beginning.
Sauce
It's made in the same pan or skillet. The port and sauce mix with any browned bits left behind in the bottom of the pan, giving the sauce a lot of flavor. Have the hot broth and sliced shallots ready before you begin.
Cooking the pork
The pork is returned to the skillet until it's fully cooked as the sauce reduces and thickens.
Serving pork and shallots
- Sweet potatoes: Make fried or roasted fries (as shown here), roasted rounds or mashed sweet potatoes. Use orange or white sweet potatoes; both work.
- Potatoes: same as above, serve with mashed potatoes, fries or roasted wedges.
- Roasted pumpkin wedges.
- Rice: lightly seasoned.
- Applesauce: it should be thick.
- Buttered green beans and/or peas.
- Roasted broccoli and/or cauliflower.
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Pork with Port Shallot Sauce and Sweet Potato Fries
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Ingredients
For the pork:
- 1 cup broth, meat or vegetable
- 2 pork tenderloins, about ½ pound each
- ¼ teaspoon salt, or to taste
- ⅛ teaspoon black pepper, or to taste, freshly ground is better
- 4 tablespoons olive oil, or unsalted butter, or a mix
- ½ cup sliced shallots
- ¾ cup Port wine
Sweet potatoes:
- 2 medium sweet potatoes, about 4 ½ ounces each
- 5 tablespoons olive oil
- salt , to taste
- black pepper, to taste
- ½ teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
Instructions
For the pork:
- In a medium saucepan, boil 1 cup broth until reduced to half a cup, about 15 minutes.
- Season 2 pork tenderloins with ¼ teaspoon salt and ⅛ teaspoon black pepper, or to taste.
- Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork and sear (quick browning while the inside is still raw) well on all sides. Remove and reserve on a plate with the juices that might've collected.
- In the same skillet, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat.
- Add ½ cup sliced shallots, some black pepper to taste, and cook over medium heat until just beginning to color, about 3 minutes.
- Add ¾ cup Port wine¼ cup Port wine and reduce until almost evaporated. Add ¼ cup of the reduced stock and let reduce again until almost evaporated. Repeat with another ¼ cup Port.
- When the mixture is thick and the liquids are syrupy, add the seared pork back to the skillet and the remaining ½ cup broth and ¼ cup of Port.
- 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 2 or 3 minutes to redistribute the pork's juices.
- 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. Place sweet potatoes on the side.
Sweet potatoes:
- Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C).
- Peel 2 medium sweet potatoes and slice them about ½ inch thick. Cut into sticks. You can also leave them as baked rounds.
- Drizzle 2 tablespoons of oil on a baking tray and place the potato sticks 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 in a single layer.
- Roast for about 15 minutes, turn them over and roast them for about 15 more minutes, until crisp but soft inside. You might want to increase the oven to 400°F (200°C) 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.
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