Another take on au poivre

I couldn’t decide what to do with my half of a pork tenderloin tonight, besides roast it, so I decided to do another take on an au poivre. This time I used red wine, and flavored the pork with a little dry mustard. It was great.

Pork tenderloin au povire (for 2)
1 tablespoon black peppercorns, coarsely crushed [I use my mortar and pestle]
1/2 of a pork tenderloin (about 1/2 lb.)
salt
1/8 tsp dried mustard
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 small to medium shallots, sliced
1/3 cup red wine
1/3 cup chicken broth
1 tablespoon butter

Pat the pork tenderloin dry with a paper towel. Sprinkle salt and dry mustard over tenderloin. Press peppercorns onto one side of the tenderloin.

Heat skillet over medium heat and add olive oil. Once hot, add tenderloin to pan and sear. You can either cook the pork tenderloin entirely in the pan, or move it to the oven to finish cooking (either way, flip it once). I cooked the tenderloin about 4 minutes per side or to about 120*, then moved to a hot oven to finish cooking as I made the sauce [I removed the tenderloin with about 5 minutes left of the sauce, to rest before slicing.]

After removing the tenderloin from the pan, add the sliced shallots and cook until tender. Stir in the red wine and the chicken broth. Increase heat to medium high and cook until liquid has reduced to 1/3–1/4 cup, making sure to scrape up any browned bits in the pan.

Stir in butter. Season sauce to taste, and serve over sliced pork tenderloin.

With the tenderloin, I decided to make a pilaf and some green beans. Since I had some hazelnuts leftover from Valentine’s day, I thought those would be a great complement to the cremini and white mushrooms I had in the fridge, for the pilaf. I was right. Hazelnuts + mushrooms = crazy delicious.

Hazelnut-Mushroom pilaf
1 tsp butter
1 tsp olive oil
1/4 cup sliced onion
1 cup sliced mushrooms [I used cremini and white]
1 clove garlic, minced
1/8 tsp dried sage
1/2 cup wild rice [or any rice/orzo combo you prefer]
1 cup chicken broth [or amount of liquid called for per your rice]
1/4 cup toasted, chopped hazelnuts

Melt butter and oil together in saucepan. Add onions and mushrooms and cook until tender, about 5 minutes, sprinkling with a little salt.

Add garlic, sage and rice and cook an additional 2 minutes. Stir in chicken broth. Simmer covered until done (check the package instructions, it will vary for different types of rice). Stir in toasted hazelnuts.