Wonderful pork and the creamiest grits.
The hot days of summer will soon be here and you may not want to be cooking that much indoors. For us, we do most of our cooking outdoors once the weather is hot enough to jump in the pool with a glass of wine while the aroma of something on the grill or smoker drifting our way. You have to eat, right, whether you are cooking indoors or outdoors and you can’t eat COLD food all summer anyway.
So, I guess it doesn’t really make much difference if this dish sounds like “comfort food” or not, everyone needs a little comforting every once in a while anyway.
This is one of those recipes that I started with about 4 recipes, pilfered this and that from them all and came up with the one I made for the two of us one night. I had no mashed potatoes so I decided to serve with creamy grits.
One weekend my friend was beaching it with some friends and texted me and asked if I had heard of grits and greens. They were having them for dinner that night and the though intrigued me. I knew I loved grits and adding something green would be visually appearing to the dish. I think they were using kale or chard; spinach my my choice of greens since there just happened to be some in my refrigerator.
Don’t you just love buying those little packages of pork tenderloin. They are so easy to prepare just about any way. Open the package, remove a little of the silver skin, slice and you are ready for this recipe.
(For carb friendly meal, dust your pork chops with either coconut flour or almond flour.)
BLAST FROM THE PAST: Asian Chicken Salad is one of those salads that would be good any summer night with or without a glass of wine.
You can see I used Madeira. I thought I had some marsala but it was no where to be found.
Cut pork tenderloin in 1/2-3/4″ thick slices and then pound out a little thinner.
Dredge the pork slices in flour and shake off excess.
Melt the butter and the olive oil in a skillet. Heat to medium high then add the pork slices.
After browning on one side, flip slices over and brown a few more minutes on the other side.
Add the shallots and brown a minute or two.
After sautéing the mushrooms a few minutes add in the marsala (or Madeira).
Let the alcohol burn off before adding the meat back in.
Stir in the cream. Heat until hot and serve.
With or without the grits, the pork is great.
Pork Marsala with Creamy Spinach Grits
Ingredients
- 1 pork tenderloin cut in 1/2-3/4" slices
- 1/3 c. flour
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. garlic power
- 3 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 1 tsp. fresh oregano or 1/2 tsp. dried
- 3 Tbsp. butter
- 1/4 c. olive oil
- 2 c. sliced mushrooms
- 3 shallots coarsely chopped
- 1 c. Marsala wine
- 1/2 c. cream
- 1 tsp. cornstarch
Instructions
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Grits recipe and ingredients below.
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Mix flour, salt, and garlic powder together in bowl. Dredge the slices of pork tenderloin into the flour mixture so all sides are covered with flour. Set aside.
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Add the butter and olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Place pork slices in the skillet in one layer and sauté turning occasionally util brown on both sides. Remove pork to platter. Add in the sliced mushrooms, shallots and garlic and sauté for 2-3 minutes.
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Stir in the Marsala, scraping the skillet to loosen the brown bits that have stuck to the bottom of the pan. Cover and simmer until the pork is tender and the sauce starts to thicken, about 10-15 minutes. Mix the cornstarch with the cream and stir into the skillet for the last 2-3 minutes of cooking time. If the sauce is too thick you can try adding a little more wine, cream or even chicken broth
Creamy Spinach Grits
Ingredients
- 1 c. water
- 2/3 c. milk
- 1/2 c. quick cooking grits
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 2 Tbsp. butter
- 1 c. frozen spinach thawed and drained
Instructions
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In a small pot, bring the water, milk, and salt to a boil. Slowly stir the grits into the water. Stir continuously until grits are well mixed. Return grits to a boil, cover, lower the temperature, and cook for approximately 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
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Add the spinach in the last five minutes of cooking and stir in the butter. If they get too thick, you can stir in a little milk or cream.
1 Comment
Donna Leibert
May 19, 2014 at 7:46 amI’m definitely doing this one. I love grits.