Tender meat, comfort kitchens...

It's about that time of year, the leaves are falling, it's getting colder, and the squash are out in full force. So yes, I'm making pork tenderloin escalopes with Marsala sauce and potato Au gratin. Oh and carving pumpkins with about 15 of my close friends.
Having so many people coming over, I had hoped to make something that I could prep ahead and have ready and waiting. Allowing me to socialize and carve my pumpkin with earnest... It turns out; I'm real bad at timing things to be ready and estimating how long it takes to prep. Or maybe its more that I haven't cooked 2 pounds of pork escalopes before, I enjoy my Sunday morning lie in and last minute department/grocery store trips ALWAYS take longer than you expect. But armed with a newly purchased mandolin and meat tenderizer, I prepped as hard and as fast and as carefully as I could.

...continues after the break

The Important Stuff 

Potato Au Gratin - adapted from Smitten Kitchen 

8 medium Yukon Gold potatoes

2 medium onions

1 pint of milk

3 oz grated Parmesan cheese

3 oz grated Gruyere cheese

3 tbsp butter

Salt & Pepper

Preheat oven to 350 F. Slice the onions and saute in olive oil. Salt and pepper as needed. Peel and slice the potatoes into thin slices. Grease a 9x13 pan with butter. Place a layer of potatoes into the pan, ensuring the slices overlap slightly. Layer some of the sauteed onion on top of the potatoes. Top this with some of the cheese. Repeat until you have used all of your potatoes, do not add cheese to the top layer yet. Pour the milk into the pan until it comes up to the bottom of the top layer, cut up the remaining butter, place onto the top and place in the oven. Cook for approximately one hour, then place the last of the cheese onto the top and cook for another 15 minutes. The potatoes should be done at this point, you can check how well the potatoes are cooked by testing with a knife; if the knife slices easily into the layers, your potatoes are done!

Pork Tenderloin Escalopes

2 pounds Pork Tenderloin

1 cup Flour

2 tsp Thyme

2 tsp Oregano

2 tsp Garlic Powder

1 tsp Pepper

1 teaspoon Salt

Mix the flour, herbs, and spices together. Remove any sinew from the tenderloin by slicing underneath it to create a tab and then whilst pulling on the tab, slice between the meat and the sinew. Then cut the pork into 1/2 inch slices and tenderize the meat until the slices are flat. Lightly coat the pork in the flour mixture and pan fry in olive oil until cooked (approximately 4 minutes per side). 

Marsala Sauce

5 oz Marsala wine

1 large onion

15 button mushrooms

1/2 tsp Thyme

1 tbsp Sour Cream

2 tbsp Butter
Slice the onions and the mushrooms ( I used the mandolin for this as well - always get your money's worth :) but always be careful with sharps). Saute the mushrooms and onions in the butter and thyme over a medium heat until nicely browned. Add the Marsala wine and reduce the mixture down over a medium to low heat. Add the sour cream to pan and stir in. Serve immediately. 

Potato Au Gratin 

The key to a good gratin is in the layering and the mandolin allows you to easily prepare consistently sized slices of potato, quickly. Once you have the potatoes sliced, you will want to arrange these in layers, ensuring that the slices in each layer are slightly overlapped. This will ensure that the gratin cooks consistently and maintains it's well recognised striations when served. The big thing I wanted to try this time though, wasn't necessarily using the mandolin and realising how awesome it is. But I wanted to find a good recipe for gratin that provides all of the cheesy goodness that you expect but without as much of the fat. And so I cam across an interesting version on Smitten Kitchen that used milk instead of cream. It seemed like a simple and almost obvious change but would it work? Turns out it's pretty awesome! Not wanting to make a straight potato version, I decided to add layers of sauted onions, to go along with a mix of parmesan and gruyere cheese.

Pork Tenderloin Escalopes & Marsala Sauce

I find that Pork tenderloin is overlooked a little too much. People seem to favor pork chops or gammon steaks to the tenderloin cut (Yes, bacon is the best. I am not saying it isn't) but my mom always had great uses for pork tenderloin. It's fantastically lean and super easy to prepare. Aside from removing some trickier pieces of sinew, the hardest part for me was knowing what to do with it. In the end I went with a simple escalope, small slices of tenderloin tenderized almost into oblivion and then coated in a light flour/herb mixture before pan frying in olive oil. I figured this was the easiest to keep warm without drying the pork or a stuffing too much (yes, stuffed pork tenderloin was the other top option. Maybe I'll try that next time.). The Marsala sauce was a simple addition to complement the meat (and I'll be honest here, to help in case it did dry out too much).

The Taste Test



The potatoes could have had a little more cheese in it for me, and I definitely did not need quite as much milk as I used originally but I would definitely attempt this recipe again. With adding in other vegetables along with the potatoes, there is an endless amount of potential for this. It makes it much easier to pair with a main dish. Versatile side dishes are always nice to know.

The pork turned out great in my opinion, the amount of herbs in the flour coating was just right. The Marsala sauce however was a little rushed and left me wanting. I needed more time to reduce the mushrooms and onions down to really add to the flavor; but that is more of a chef issue than a recipe.
All in all, everyone seemed to enjoy the meal. And before you all think that I only cook yellow foods, the meal was complemented by fresh green salads that my friends brought over. If you don't feel like salad, I would recommend serving this up with steamed broccoli or carrots and peas - something vibrant to lift the colors on your plate. ~ Bex, the maverick