Pork Tenderloin with Sweet Potato Mash

Today is Thursday.

Thursday is my last night to cook dinner for the family and this week I am mentally army crawling to the final stretches. I am usually almost out of fresh vegetables and I can taste Friday cheat day coming tomorrow. Today I made the world’s easiest dinner, the pre-seasoned pork tenderloin. I was hesitant to make pork twice in the same week, especially in my first week of bloghood, but I had it in the fridge, and still only had sweet potatoes and Romaine on hand, which go perfectly with it.

Here’s what I did for this meal:

Liz’s Sweet Potato Mash 

Ingredients

2 ½ lbs. sweet potatoes (see I measured for you)

3 T. salted butter

Cinnamon

Nutmeg

1 tsp. salt

About ¼ cup milk, more or less Whatever you have is fine. We have 2% here.

1) Peel and dice the potatoes. Put them in a pot of salted water to cover. Bring to a boil. Start your pork now.

3) Stir often with a fork. Check if they are tender by piercing a big piece with the fork whenever you stir. When the fork very easily goes in, your potatoes are cooked. Drain. Return the hot pot to the still-hot burner.

4) Add the butter and a splash of milk to the pot and swirl them around.

5) Dump the steaming hot potatoes back into the pot. They will help melt the butter. Stir.

6) Add salt, about three shakes of cinnamon and one shake of nutmeg to the potatoes.

7) Using a potato smasher, smash and stir until they form a mash. Stick your (clean) finger in and taste them.

8) If they don’t have any flavor, add a little more salt, cinnamon and/or nutmeg. If you like a richer flavor, add another T. of butter. If they aren’t creamy enough, add more milk, little by little. This is how you learn to be a good cook so don’t get frustrated with this step. Tough love here.

9) Your pork won’t be done by this point, so transfer your sweet potato mash to an oven-safe dish and put them in the oven with the pork. Remove when the meat is done and you’re ready to serve.

Pork Tenderloin

Ingredients

Olive oil

Pre-seasoned pork tenderloin I like Smithfield's.

Salt & pepper

1 onion, optional

1 apple, optional

Instructions

    1) Preheat oven to 400°F.

    2) Trim your pork and season with salt and pepper. Heat a heavy cast iron skillet to medium-high and let it get hot. Keep your vent on for this.

    3) Add the pork and brown on all four sides: side one for 3 minutes, side two for 2.5 minutes, side three for 2 minutes and side four for 1.5 minutes. Stir your potatoes during this time.

    4) I almost always chop an apple and an onion and throw them in the pan for the last few minutes. This time I had a red onion and gala apple and they went in between sides two and three.

    5) Poke the thickest part with your meat thermometer set to pork (145°F).

    6) Swirl your onion mix if you used and put the pan in the oven. Now finish your potatoes.

    7) Remove the pan when your meat thermometer alarm goes off. Transfer the tenderloin to a cutting board and let it rest, covered in foil.

    8) After about 10 minutes, slice and serve, topped with onions and apples.

I made salads while the pork rested. Tonight I topped (disguised) my Romaine with chives, strawberries and clementine segments. This whole process took less than 45 minutes.