We made a late morning decision to stay home rather than fight the Mother’s Day crowds at restaurants today. That saved a couple of chairs for lucky Mom’s out there!
I had some ideas for putting together a late started meal that would look better planned, so I rushed off to the store for pork tenderloins, baby white potatoes and asparagus. Luckily for me, one of the stores had sugar snap peas, so I was able make a spring vegetable salad side dish. The potatoes became crispy smashed potatoes, an idea lifted from last night’s dinner.
I didn’t have a recipes for this meal, so I played around and came up with some good stuff!
Pork Tenderloin, Spring Vegetables and Crispy Smashed Potatoes
Ingredients and What I Did
Spring vegetables: asparagus, sugar snap peas, red onion boiled together for about 5 minutes until tender/crisp and bright green, then plunged into an ice bath, cooled, strained and patted dry. They were dressed with . red wine vinegar, salt and pepper and drizzled with olive oil.
Crispy Smashed Potatoes: baby red and white potatoes tossed with olive oil and salt and roasted in a 425º oven until done enough to pierce with a fork. Take about 30 minutes. Halfway through, turn and make sure they are still covered with olive oil. When you can pierce them, gently press them with a potato masher to flatten them to about a half inch high. Make sure the are still covered with olive oil. Return to the oven for about 10 minutes, turn them and give them another 20 minutes too get good and crisp. Remove from oven and let coo.
Pork Tenderloin with Mustard Sauce: I used a pack of two tenderloins so I’d have left overs. Increase the oven temp to 450º. Remove silver skin from the tenderloins carefully. Tuck thin end under tip for even cooking.
I combined smooth Dijon mustard, whole grain Dijon mustard, red wine vinegar and brown sugar adjusting ingredient volume one at a time until it tasted good. At a the end, I stirred in some smoked paprika for color and a hint of smokey flavor. The tenderloins were basted well and put on a rack in a foil-lined baking pan popped them in the oven. At 15 minutes, I checked their internal temperature with a meet thermometer, turnned them over and basted the underside. Back in the oven for 20 minutes, another temperature check, a last turned over and light brush with olive oil to encourage browning. Back in the oven for 8 minutes. One last temperature check and they had reached 145º. Out of the oven and on to a platter, tented with foil to rest for five minutes.
The salad and potatoes were carefully tossed, then plated. I pulled the now dressed potatoes out and made the plating you see above.
Don’t be afraid to experiment with ingredients you know go together to do something like the mustard sauce. Mix the sugar and mustards and use the vinegar for balance and to thin the sauce a little.
