Pork Tenderloin
Pork tenderloin has become a recent favorite of mine. It lives up to its name: tender, especially when you marinate it for a few hours. Pork teams up well with fruity flavors (plum, orange, apple) as well as honey and ginger. I think you'll like the combination of ingredients in this marinade.
Ginger Honey Roasted Pork Tenderloin
(serves 4-5)MCT oil
2 individual pork tenderloins: about 1½ - 2 pounds total combined weight
2 tablespoons fresh minced ginger or ginger juice
½ cup honey
3 tablespoons lemon juice
6 cloves garlic, minced
¼ cup low sodium soy sauce or tamari
½ teaspoon black pepper
¼ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
Trim excess fat from pork; pat dry with paper towels. Place the two tenderloins in a large (gallon size) Ziploc bag.
Mix all remaining ingredients together in a bowl, then pour the mixture into the Ziploc with the pork. Seal it up and keep it refrigerated for at least a few hours, or ideally overnight.
When you're ready to cook, preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a 9"X12" or 10"X13" baking dish with a double layer of aluminum foil, and set the baking dish aside. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat with a heavy drizzle of MCT oil. Remove pork from marinade (save the marinade in the Ziploc, for now) and place both pork tenderloins in the hot skillet; sear briefly on all sides until lightly brown, 1-2 minutes per side.
Transfer tenderloin to prepared baking dish and roast for 10-15 minutes, until a meat thermometer inserted in the thickest part registers 133 degrees F (I use an instant read thermometer that goes into the oven and alerts me when meat has reached the desired temperature). While pork is in the oven, pour marinade into the skillet that you just used to sear the pork. Cook and stir or whisk over medium-high heat for about five minutes while the mixture boils.
When internal temperature of pork has reached 133 degrees, remove pan from oven, and adjust oven to broil setting. Brush meat with some of the leftover cooked marinade. Broil for 1-2 minutes or until golden. Remove pan from oven and turn off the oven. Cover the pan with foil and allow to rest until meat reaches 145 degrees F. Center will be a bit pink, but pork is safe to eat once it is cooked to 145 degrees.
Slice the meat on a diagonal and serve with remaining cooked marinade for each individual person to use as a drizzle.
