Monday, October 15, 2012

Grilled Pork Tenderloin & My First Aioli

This post was to be about grilled pork tenderloin but since I got the meat too salty, I’ll make it about aioli instead.  I rarely remember to make a sauce for meat but finally did and I headed over to site of the sauce/aioli queen, Jenn, from Jenn’s Food Journey and used her recipe for Greek Aioli but substituted Montreal Steak Seasoning (also used on the pork) for the Greek seasonings.  It was a little too tangy for me as made and didn’t have enough seasoning flavor so I added more Montreal and some sugar.

Now, it was not only too tart, but also too salty, from the Montreal, and I decided it would be a good salad dressing but not right for this meal.  I have a long way to go Jenn.  While I do have CRS, I recalled that Chef Dennis over at A Culinary Journey With Chef Dennis had recently posted a recipe for homemade Montreal Steak Seasoning and I had everything but the dill, so I made this Aioli (omitting the salt component):

1/2 C. Mayo (I started with ¼ C.)
1/2 t. Dijon mustard
1/4 t. paprika
1/4 t. black pepper
1/8 t. garlic powder
1/8 t. onion powder
1/8 t. ground coriander
1/16 t. ground cayenne

It was good as made, but a little too flavorful, so I doubled the mayo to get the recipe above and I thought it was very good and it went well with the meat.

We sided the pork with grilled asparagus that was marinated in Ken’s Northern Italian with Basil and Romano dressing and potatoes that were sliced and steamed then grilled with a basting of garlic butter (Emeril’s Essence on some of them).

The potatoes were pretty good and similar to roasted but they needed some herbs.  For someone accustomed to fresh grown asparagus, what we had was awful – this stuff can only be used for moist heat cooking (or I’ll just wait til next spring).  I thought the aioli was the best part of the meal – there’s hope for me Jenn – so I put it on everything. 

I'm now responding to your comments and hoping you will stop back by - photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

10/03/12 event date

13 comments:

  1. I struggled with my first aioli too, so it's all good! And, I will admit that when I've used store bought seasonings, I've made them a bit too salty myself - that's why I make so many of them.. practice makes perfect!! Sorry you had some struggles, but glad the final result was "the best part of the meal"!!

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    1. I wish you'd go ahead and publish a cookbook so I could easily find your recipes :-)

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  2. I made my first aioli over the summer. Amazing. It adds such a great component to a dish! I really love the idea of a homemade steak seasoning too!

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    1. I'm looking forward to making the Montreal Steak Seasoning once we use up our supply.

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  3. As usual, it all looks good and yummy to me!

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    1. Thanks Angela - Is the frost on the pumpkin up that way yet.

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  4. Living in California we are spoiled for Asparagus. I will only eat it when it is in season. I thought Aioli was made with olive oil and egg yolks?

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  5. Larry, Well...the meal looks good at least! One of our favorite meals is roast pork, roasted potatoes and grilled asparagus with Bearnaise sauce. Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

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    1. With good ingredients and proper pork cooking, it would have been great.

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  6. It sounds great and now I'm inspired to try aioli!

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    1. After this, I'm now I'm inspired to try some more.

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  7. I just tried to make a sour cream based dip using Montreal. And it was too salty also. That stuff is delicious but goes a long way. I love making aioli's. Look forward to your future experiments. Too bad about the asparagus, but the meal looks really good.

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  8. I did a similar thing Wednesday (made a sauce but then didn't use it because wasn't good enough). It looks like your second one hit your tastes just perfectly. That Ken's dressing sounds like a GREAT marinade for the asparagus. Have you tried it on chicken? I need to get me some of that.

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