Pork with Port Shallot Sauce and Sweet Potato Fries
This recipe uses few ingredients, a simple cooking method and is big on flavor! It has a shallot sauce reduced with Port wine, and it's fantastic with the roasted sweet potatoes (or sweet potato puree) we serve it with.
Servings 2 servings
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.
Notes
More servings: this recipe serves 2, and is easily doubled or tripled. For more than six servings, repeat as many batches as you need. I don't recommend making one huge pot of sauce. I tried it, and it doesn't really work; when the liquid is reduced to a syrup, the shallots are almost disintegrated.
Potatoes and sweet potatoes (mashed or roasted) are a great side dish for this recipe.