Pork Loin with Port Shallot Sauce #SundaySupper

It turns out that I like to be challenged when it comes to recipes and themes. Just a normal dose of inventiveness, let´s not get carried away. 
SundaySupper does that often and today is no exception. Our host is lovely Amber of Mama´s Blissful Bites, and we´re cooking with 5 ingredients or less, not counting salt and pepper. A simple theme, but I needed some brainstorming to come up with something worth posting that I would actually make for myself on a regular basis. I decided to do a savory recipe. Pork loin with port shallot sauce to be exact. A welcome change from the mostly sweet posts that invaded this blog in the last two months. I´m a baker at heart, not a cook.

I never really care how many ingredients I use in a recipe. I find it more complicated to use few than to go through a grinding set of detailed spices, vegetables or whatever is needed. But, even though I live alone, there are many times when the fridge is almost empty and it´s late, I´m hungry and borderline cranky. Though pasta is my absolute staple when it comes to easy dinners, I wanted to do something a bit more interesting, and by that I mean not throwing some peas and ham with spaghetti or processing anything with olive oil and parmesan cheese and call it a pesto, because that´s what I actually do most of the time, either that or chinese takeout.

So I adapted a very old staple of mine, a recipe I used to feed many at different occasions along the years. Like they put at the beginning of many movies, `this recipe is formatted to fit this theme´. Two of the five ingredients were already spoken for, since there´s clearly pork tenderloin involved and it had to be seared in some olive oil. So with the remaining three I made a rich, deeply colored, a bit tangy sauce with shallots, broth and port.

Port is the real deal here. It is strong but a bit sweet at the same time. And, when boiled down for a while, it turns into an amazing thick syrup. The second place goes to the shallots. They´re a bit mellower than garlic and sweeter than onion. The perfect choice when the list of five is almost completed. And finally broth. I use vegetable to keep it a bit neutral. It´s almost imperative to start with a lightly salted (a lot of emphasis on the word lightly), because the broth is reduced before adding it to the sauce. And then it keeps on reducing with the port and shallots. So the salt content has to be very low at the beginning.

This goes well with red meats of course. And I´ve also been known to use it as part of mini bruschettas. Toasted bread, a bit of this very reduced shallot port sauce, a piece of brie cheese on top, warm it a bit in the oven and you´re in appetizer heaven. No kidding.

PORK TENDERLOIN WITH PORT SHALLOT SAUCE

adapted from Bon Appetit

Note: this recipe serves 2, but it´s easily multiplied by two or three. For more than six servings, repeat as many batches as you need. But don´t make one huge large pot of sauce. It doesn´t work; by the time the liquid reduces to a syrup, the shallots are gone.

Potatoes and sweet potatoes (mashed or roasted) are a great side dish for this recipe.

Ingredients

1 cup vegetable broth

2 pork tenderloins, about ½ pound each

¾ cup Port wine

½ cup sliced shallots

4 Tbs Olive oil

Salt (just for the pork) and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

In a medium saucepan, boil broth until reduced to half a cup, about 15 minutes.

Season pork with salt and pepper. In a skillet, heat 2 Tbs olive oil. Add pork and sear well on all sides. Remove and reserve on a plate.

In the same skillet, heat remaining 2 Tbs olive oil. Add sliced shallots, some black pepper and cook over medium heat until just beginning to color, about 3 minutes. Add ¼ cup port and let reduce until almost evaporated. Add ¼ cup of reduced stock and let reduce again until almost evaporated. Repeat with another ¼ cup of port. When the mixture is thick and liquids are syrup-like add the seared pork back to the skillet and the remaining ¼ cup each of port and reduced broth.

Let cook for about 5 minutes. This depends greatly of size of your tenderloins. Remove from heat, transfer pork to a cutting board and let rest for 3 or 4 minutes.

Meanwhile check the remaining sauce left in the skillet. If 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.

Serves 2.

Join us for these fantastic recipes, all with 5 ingredients or less. Here´s is the incredible list the Sunday Supper group gathered for all of you today. Enjoy!

Breakfast, Starters, Butters and Jams:

• Pa Jun or Korean Scallion Pancakes – Kimchi Mom
• Homemade Instant Oatmeal – Home Cooking Memories
• GlutenFree Apricot Bacon Onion and Cheese Spread or Dip – Cooking Underwriter
• Caprese Bites – My Catholic Kitchen
• So Simple Pizza Puffs – Hip Foodie Mom
• Toast Topper #11: Allspice Peach Butter – What Smells So Good?
• Strawberry Balsamic Jam – The Messy Baker Blog

Main Dishes:

• Fresh Basil and Tomato Pasta – I Run For Wine
• Gulasch – Galactosemia in PDX
• Spaghetti with Kale and Sausage – Dinners, Dishes and Desserts
• Appley Kielbasa – The Meltaways
• Shrimp Stuffed Potatoes – Juanita’s Cocina
• Hawaiian Chicken Sandwiches – Supper for a Steal
• Sun Dried Tomato and Sausage Pasta – Small Wallet Big Appetite
• Pork Loin with Port Shallot Sauce – Vintage Kitchen Notes
• Chipotle Honey Lime Pork Tenderloin – Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks
• Crockpot Chicken Tacos – The Hand That Rocks The Ladle
• Roasted Shrimp With Chili-Lime Sauce – Magnolia Days
• Peanut Butter Noodles – In the Kitchen with Audrey
• Soy, Orange Juice and Red Wine Marinated Flank – That Skinny Chick Can Bake
• Beef Tenderloin with Stilton Pecan Butter – Noshing With The Nolands
• Herbed Butter Pork Chops – Brie’s Bites
• Creamy Ham Linguine – The Daily Dish Recipes
• Pesto, Tomato & Feta Pizza – Momma’s Meals
• Quick Black Bean Burritos – Diabetic Foodie
• Lumachine with Fresh Parmesan and Sun-Dried Tomato Sauce – Mama’s Blissful Bites
• Stuffed Shells – Cravings of a Lunatic
• Potato Kugel – From Fast Food to Fresh Food
• Garlic Butter Fried Rice – My Trials in the Kitchen
• Goat Cheese Alfredo – Family Foodie
• Roasted Moroccan Rack of Lamb – Maroc Mama
• Sweet and Nutty Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes – Mama.Mommy.Mom.
• Baked Sweet Potato with Maple-Jalapeno – Comfy Cuisine
• Freezable Bacon Egg and Cheese Sandwiches – Big Bear’s Wife
• Grilled Polenta Cakes – Lovely Pantry

Desserts:

• Nutella Ice Cream – Shockingly Delicious
• Fresh Mint Ice Cream with Mint M&M’s – The Girl in the Little Red Kitchen
• Grilled Mango Parfait with Greek Yogurt & Silvered Almonds – Sue’s Nutrition Buzz
• Honey Macaroons – Pippis In the Kitchen Again
• Strawberry Frozen Yogurt – Damn Delicious
• Homemade Caramel Sauce – Chocolate Moosey
• Easy Chocolate Chilli Fudge – Soni’s Food for Thought
• White-Chocolate Raspberry Puff Pastry Doughnuts – The Weekend Gourmet
• Easy No Bake Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars – In The Kitchen With KP
• Broccoli and Feta Frittata – Kwistin’s Favorites
• Chocolate-Caramel Ice Cream – Basic N Delicious
• Pumpkin and Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake – Baker Street
• Peanut Butter Cup Popcorn – Mom’s Test Kitchen

Beverages:

• Five Most Food Friendly Wines – ENOFYLZ Wine Blog

Please be sure you join us on Twitter throughout the day during #SundaySupper. 

We’ll be meeting up at 7:00 pm(Eastern) for our weekly #SundaySupper  live chat where we’ll talk about our favorite 5 Ingredient Recipes! 

All you have to do is follow the #SundaySupper hashtag, or you can follow us through TweetChat!  

We’d also love to feature your easy go to recipes on our #SundaySupper Pinterest board and share them with all of our followers!