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Balsamic Honey Tenderloin
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How does a barbecue meal come together at your house? Around
here, it takes two. I do the prep in the kitchen and my husband handles the
grilling. It works well for us except that over the years we’ve become so used
to our roles that neither of us is really comfortable with switching over (plus
I am not a big fan of fire of any kind, so our system is okay with me.)
Last weekend we two had a lovely meal out on the deck. We
enjoyed balsamic honey tenderloin, potato and onion packets and coleslaw. The
tenderloin recipe came from Canadian Living/The Barbecue Collection: a really big cookbook full of recipes you’ll want
to try. The recipe said we’d have a delicious crust on the meat, but that
didn’t happen. However, it was so tasty and so melt-in-your-mouth good that we
didn’t miss the crust. The leftover pork was equally good the next day. The
potato and onion packets are something we’ve been making for years (and you
probably have your own version of it, too) so I thought it was a good idea to write
it down somewhere. For convenience, I used bagged coleslaw and tossed it with
bottled coleslaw dressing and a few little extras to make it my own (think
celery seeds, caraway seeds, a teaspoon of sugar and maybe some extra mayo).
MA’s Balsamic Honey Tenderloin
from Canadian Living/The Barbecue Collection Cookbook
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| Pork skinned and marinade mixed |
2 pork tenderloins, about 12 oz each
2 tbsp liquid honey
2 tbsp grainy mustard
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
Remove any silverskin (connective tissue) from the pork.
Mix together honey, mustard, vinegar, oil, garlic, salt and
pepper.
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| Brush with marinade and turn occasionally |
Put the pork in a non-metal dish and pour marinade over it.
Turn the meat to coat. Marinate for 20 minutes or, refrigerated, for up to 1
day. (We marinated ours for about 8 hours.)
Remove pork from marinade, reserving the marinade to brush
on as a glaze as the meat grills.
Place pork on greased grill over medium-high heat. Brush
with marinade. Grill, covered, turning occasionally, until just a hint of pink
remains in centre (about 160ยบ F), about 18 minutes.
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| Sliced and ready to enjoy |
Transfer meat to cutting board; tent with foil and let rest
for about five minutes before slicing.
Makes 4 to 6 servings.
MA’s Grilled Potato and Onion Packets
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| Potato and onion with seasonings |
3 Russet potatoes, sliced thinly - almost, but not quite
through, to the bottom of the potato
1 white onion, thinly sliced
olive oil
sea salt or seasoning salt (I used a roasted garlic and sea salt seasoning)
pepper (I used freshly ground red, white and black pepper)
Cut heavy-duty aluminum foil or two layers of regular foil
into 3 - 12” squares (or larger pieces if needed to accommodate the potatoes).
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| The packet |
On each piece of foil, place a sliced potato. Put slices of
onion between each slice of potato. Spray or drizzle a little olive oil over
the potato and onions. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Repeat with other two
potatoes and remainder of onion slices.
Wrap foil around the potato and onion to make a packet.
Place the packets on the grill over medium high heat. Cover
and cook for 30 to 40 minutes, turning once or twice as they cook.
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| Grilled to perfection! |
Remove packets from grill and open carefully. After all, it
is a hot potato in there. Turn out into serving dish. Hungrier folk may wish to
have a whole packet to themselves and that’s okay, too.
