Pork Tenderloin Straight From The Isles

Check that, straight from the aisles, as in the aisles of Whole Foods Market. Nevertheless, this dish is inspired by the flavors of the Caribbean. Since it has started to turn cold for the first time this season, I think it's about time for an escape

As a bit of background, Julia and I honeymooned at the Westin Casuarina in Grand Cayman and took an impromptu trip to The Somerset on Grace Bay in Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands in 2007. This trip was the result of me growing tired of the winter in DC in mid-February and deciding to do something about it. The picture at the beginning of this post was taken at 'Da Conch Shack', also located in Providenciales. I know this limited travel experience to the Caribbean makes me sound a little bit like Michael Scott becoming an authority on it after visiting Sandals Jamaica on 'The Office', but I do love the region and would go down there at any opportunity.

Let me also note that we once took a beautiful trip to Bermuda with the Kyles, but since Bermuda is actually in the North Atlantic, I cannot group it with the islands of the Caribbean and will reserve a later post for my favorite takeaways from Bermuda.

For the tenderloin, I prepared a jerk marinade following this recipe, only I doubled it because I accidentally purchased 2 tenderloins packaged as one with a total weight of about 2 lbs. Just to cheat a little, I also added 1/2 tbsp in total of Jamaican Jerk Seasoning from The Spice House in Evanston, IL to the recipe. I poured the marinade over the tenderloins in a storage bag and refrigerated them for about 6 hours. After 6 hours, I placed the tenderloins in a baking dish, poured the marinade on top, and baked them at 350° for 40 minutes (20 minutes/pound).

Ideally, I should have marinated the tenderloins overnight, but I didn't put it all together until this morning. I have used this recipe before to marinate pork chops as suggested by the author, but I cooked them in the slow cooker and then shredded them to make jerk pork sandwiches. The flavor of the marinade was not very strong after being in the slow cooker so we added some Lawry's Caribbean Jerk Marinade, which has a super strong flavor. I'm hoping the flavor of the homemade marinade will be a little more concentrated with baking.

In keeping with the Caribbean theme, I decided we should have some plantain chips along with the tenderloin. I tried to make some baked plantains recently following this recipe and it didn't turn out very well as the plantains were not ripe enough. For this reason, as well as the fact that we don't own a mandoline, I decided against attempting to make my own. Instead, I purchased some De La Sierra Plantain Slices at Whole Foods in both the Salted and Sweet varieties.

Much to Julia's delight, when we have chips it usually means she gets to enjoy one of her favorite things in the world, dips. I thought that a mango chutney would work well with the plantains, but I wasn't sold on the effort it would take to prepare the recipes I found. Instead, I purchased some 365™ Peach Mango Salsa, which is the Whole Foods brand.

Not one to leave well enough alone, I decided that I WOULD try a recipe I found for a Warm Cilantro Dipping Sauce. Since we had some fresh cilantro left over from a recent Mexican night, I was already part of the way there anyway. A number of people that reviewed the recipe suggested dialing back the olive oil to 1/3 cup, which I decided to do with the idea that I can always add more later if needed.

So let's start with the report on the store bought products. When it comes to the plantain slices, the sweet variety is better than the salted, but both are acceptable. I think I would buy the sweet ones again, but probably not the salted ones. I really liked the 365™ Peach Mango Salsa though, especially with the sweet plantain slices. The salsa has a nice little kick to it to go along with the sweetness from the peach and mango.

As for the homemade Cilantro Dipping Sauce, it turned out OK. I wasn't really sold on the sauce because it tasted too much like it was just olive oil to me, even though I only used 1/3 cup. I decided that instead of wasting time heating the oil on the stove, I would just throw it in the microwave to heat it. After all, I wasn't cooking any of the other ingredients in it so what difference would the method make? Perhaps more even heat from the stove would have changed the flavor, but I'm not so sure. Julia actually liked the flavor of the dipping sauce and even drizzled some over the tenderloin.

Which brings me to the tenderloin and marinade. The marinade turned out really well and The Newtster is pleased. In hindsight though, I should have cooked the tenderloin at 450° for 40 minutes, which was my first inclination. Just to check myself though I searched the internet and found a lot of people recommending 350°. I wound up having to put the tenderloin back in the oven for almost another 30 minutes, which I think dried it out a bit. The quicker the better with tenderloin I suppose. The marinade however was full of flavor and was a very nice complement to the pork. I will definitely make it again. And by the way, green onions smell fantastic.