Curried Pork with Basil

Last night we did an at-home Valentine's cooking date since we have other plans on Friday. I didn't really have a menu planned, but I bought some butterflied pork tenderloins and fresh basil and decided I'd wing it.

Sometimes when you do a lot of guessing and throw a meal together it totally flops. I'm happy to report this was not one of those times. It turned out to be the best meal we've had in awhile!

Thus, I must share the recipe because, one: you should make it and two: if I don't I'll forget what I did. I'm sorry to say that I didn't take pictures throughout the process, only towards the end.

Ingredients:

butterflied pieces of pork
EVOO
kosher salt
pepper
yellow curry powder
turmeric
garlic cloves
cumin
cayenne pepper
fresh basil
fresh lemon juice

About a half hour before you're ready to cook, take out your pork and dust each side with some salt, pepper, and curry powder. Rub it into each side of the pork. I was fine letting it sit on a plate on my counter for 20 or so minutes before I cooked it but you would be welcome to put yours back in the fridge. :)

Next, heat a skillet over medium-high heat with a few Tbsp of EVOO. Be generous with the oil because you'll use the excess later. When the oil is hot, place your pork into the pan and cook for about 3 minutes on each side.

After this, remove your pork from the pan and set aside. Turn your heat to low and add the following to the remaining oil in the pan: two cloves of pressed garlic, the juice from half a lemon, more curry powder, turmeric, cumin, a dash or two of cayenne, and salt and pepper to taste. (I just dumped with the curry, turmeric, and cumin, but a tsp or two of each would be good.)  Stir the seasoning into the oil until it simmers and forms a paste.

Now put your pork loins back in the pan rubbing them into the paste on one side and then on the other. Finally, let them simmer in the paste for a few minutes and add a handful of chopped fresh basil to the top like this:



After a few minutes the pork should be done and ready to serve! We had ours with curried roasted cauliflower and asparagus. (Just toss your vegetables of choice in EVOO, salt, pepper, and curry powder and roast at 400 for about 20 minutes.) Oh, and we splurged on one of those take and bake french baguettes and ate it fresh from the oven with a generous helping of butter. Yum!

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Yum!! Neither of us are pork fans but this looks and sounds fantastic! You should totally sign up for the next Master Chef! ;)

Linda said...

You continue to amaze me....:)

sarah.flyingkites said...

I'm impressed that this "thrown together" meal turned out so well!

leah said...

ditto to sar - i'm impressed. my "thrown together" meals almost always fail. :/

L, Ann and boys said...

mmmmmm...anything with curry. :)

Christen Leigh said...

Yum!! This looks quite delightful!