Okay, it's been a week since the day of the turkey (chicken!) and the leftovers are either eaten or at least out of the house. Now it's time to move on to the holiday with a fat man breaking-and-entering (no not me), large mammals prancing and pawing on rooftops, forests in living rooms, and more food. Here at At Least The Dog Will Eat It, we've gotten the Christmas decorations mostly finished. There's a few more things to go in the house and I might have a few more on the site.
So, what to do now? Cook more food, that's what! Tis the season of expanding waistlines and carb comas. Much like Thanksgiving, I'm not particularly thrilled with the traditional ham for Christmas. It's sort of like the turkey thing all over again, but with ham. Personally, I don't want the same thing. We usually have Christmas lunch with my parents, so I've already had my fill of ham.
Anyway, I decide to try something different. I'll admit, making Christmas dinner one week after Thanksgiving is a bit odd, but how do I know if it'll work. Also, I just had the urge to make it and I didn't hear any complaints from The Picky Eater. FYI, the apples taste like butterscotch candy, so I don't know that I really need an excuse to make them. Admittedly, it did lead to the attack of the angry garlic. Okay, I lead to the attack of the angry garlic because I was lazy after I finished the meal.
What, you haven't heard of the attack of the angry garlic? Okay, I may be the only person in history that has ever been injured by garlic. Just as a warning, when you mince garlic and don't clean your cutting board, it's like someone super-glued gravel to it. I did not know this (I do now!). I managed to shred the palm of my left hand in a way I would have thought would have required a driveway and a bicycle. Anyway, the mean turned out, the hand has healed (mostly), and tomorrow we leave for Asheville!
On a slightly sadder note, well, I don't know if sad is the right word, but today would have been Gracie The Taste Tester's 18th birthday and "we're gonna keep yah" day. We never really knew how old Gracie was or when her birthday really was. We decided to make it the same day as the anniversary of moving into our house. The vet told us she was 4-6 years old and that life had been hard on her until then. She was severely under weight, sick, and, stank to high heaven. We nursed her back to to health, and packed on the missing 20 lbs. and maybe a few extra just in case. She always seemed happy and was the sweetest little dog we've every had in our house (sorry, Murphy and Siri, you know it's true). I miss you on these cooler evenings, curled up on the couch and getting a marathon belly rub while me and The Picky Eater watched TV. Happy Birthday Gracie!
Bacon Wrapped Colllard And Brie Stuff Pork Tenderloin With Butterscotch Apples And Sauted Mushrooms
My Thoughts
This is a great alternative for the traditional Christmas ham dinner and it gives it a bit of a southern twist. The tenderloin is smokey, juice, and has such a cream filling with the brie and collards. The apples, well, they taste just like butterscotch candy (okay it's bourbon in there, but lets not get technical), and the mushrooms balance everything with a nice buttery and earthy finish.
Difficulty
Hard
Makes
4 Servings
Tools
Time
Prep Time 30 min.
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 30 min.
The How To Do It
Follow the instructions for each dish (included below). I would suggest that you start by sauteing the greens and then getting the tenderloin ready to go in the skillet. Once you've got it in the oven, you have more than enough time to make the apples. Once you've finished the tenderloin and it is resting on your cutting board, there's plenty of time to make the mushrooms. This way you don't get too many things going at once.
Bacon Wrapped Pork Tenderloin
Preheat your oven to 450° F.
While that is heating up, remove the stems from the collards and tear the leaves into relatively small pieces.
In a large sauce pan, place the canola oil and heat it over medium heat and once the oil is hot, add the collards. Stir them to make sure that they are covered in the oil. Add the vinegar and a 1/2 teaspoon of salt, pepper, and granulated garlic and stir them again. Let them cook until they are soft and tender. This can take 15-20 minutes depending on how tough they were to start.
While the collards are cooking, cut the brie into small chunks. Smaller is better, but it can be a bit difficult since brie is a soft and sticky cheese.
Once the collards are finished cooking, set them aside, off the heat.
To prep the tenderloin you will need to cut 4 pieces of butcher's twine, roughly 12-in each.
On a cutting board you will need to slice the tenderloin so that it can be "rolled out". What I mean is, slowly start slicing the tenderloin along the long side, being careful to not cut all the way through. Once you've cut the first piece, open it up and rotate the tenderloin and repeat with the same cut. Keep doing this until you have cut the tenderloin until it will lay out like it is one very wide and thin piece of meat. It's kind of like peeling an apple and not breaking the skin with a pairing knife.
Slide the twine underneath the tenderloin so that it is evenly spaced and the ends are sticking out from either side of the tenderloin.
Sprinkle the interior of the tenderloin with salt, pepper, and granulated garlic. You don't want to use all of it here. Just use enough to season the meat.
Once the collards are cool enough to touch (or you can use tongs), lay the collards across the tenderloin so that it is pretty much covered with a thin layer of greens.
Next add the brie on top of the greens.
Now, very carefully roll the entire thing up length-wise so that it kind-of-sort-of resembles what it looked like before you cut it. Start with one end and as you get it rolled, tie it off with one of the strips of butcher's twine, then move to the other end and do the same. Once you have ends secured, tie off the two middle strands. Make sure that it is tightly rolled and that the butcher's twine is tightly tied. You don't want it to explode with it is cooking.
Now, wrap the tenderloin with the bacon. Make sure that the bacon wraps all the way around. If you do that, and the bacon overlaps itself, it should stick together. Basically the fat is sticky enough that it will adhere to itself. I said in the ingredients that it would take 4 pieces of bacon, but it could take 5 or more, depending on how big your tenderloin is.
In a large cast iron skillet, heat the remaining canola oil. Once it is starting to shimmer, carefully add the tenderloin. Sear it on each side until the bacon starts to get crispy.
Insert your thermometer, set it to 160° F, and slide the tenderloin into the oven and let it roast for roughly 30 minutes. I really do not pay much attention to the time when I am using the thermometer, I just wait for it to say it's done. I know many people are eating pork at medium to even medium rare these days and that's perfectly alright. I like to get it closer to medium well/well when I'm stuffing it because of all the opportunity for cross contamination.
While the tenderloin is roasting, heat a small sauce pan over medium heat. Add the molasses and mustard and whisk them together. Add a pinch of salt and the granulated garlic and whisk again. Let it all simmer for 5-10 minutes, just to let all the flavors come together.
Once the tenderloin is roasted, move it to a cutting board and let it rest for at least 15-minutes. Once it has rested cut it into medallions and drizzle it with the molasses & mustard sauce.
