Pork Loin Salad
I got this idea from watching several different cooking shows so I can't really credit any one person or recipe but the majority of it came from Emeril Lagasse, Rachael Ray & Rob Rainford of License to Grill.
I have never grilled a pork tenderloin before but I wanted to give it a shot so I sent my wife to the store to pick up a couple. Well, she came back with a single pork loin instead of a tenderloin but it was pretty big so I decided to cut it in half lengthwise and have 2 meals from it.
Once cut, I took freshly smashed peppercorns (thanks to a baggie and a big spoon), ground ginger and Key West seasoning (Lemon, salt, sugar, basil, thyme and other spices), rolled the pork in it thoroughly coating it on each side.
This is on my little gas grill my wife bought me for Valentines Day...Ain't she a sweetie? I got the grill extra hot to get some good sear marks on the meat and to seal in the juices then turned the left burner on low and the right burner off then moved them all the way to the right and added my smoke pouch of mesquite which I replaced after the first hour with a fresh pouch.
After 2 hours of smoking the pork, I used the ol Texas crutch and wrapped it in foil for 2 hours while maintaining a constant 275 degrees then removed it and let it rest for half an hour...During this time, I sliced one whole red onion and 1 whole bell pepper and coated them with olive oil then sprinkled salt and pepper on them and let them sit about 30 minutes.
While those were sitting, I pre-boiled 3 large ears of corn then cut them in half and mixed up my sweet butter for the corn (butter, sugar to taste, salt, pepper, cilantro). Once the corn was semi-done I brushed it with the sweet butter and moved it to the grill with the peppers and onions, sorry, I forgot the pic here :(
I also sliced up 3 cups of fresh mushrooms which were sauteed in the electric skillet with 2 cloves of garlic and a couple of slices of bacon.
I also sliced up 3 cups of fresh mushrooms which were sauteed in the electric skillet with 2 cloves of garlic and a couple of slices of bacon.
Here are the veggies fresh off the grill
After everything was done and the meat was thinly sliced with the electric knife, I wilted one whole head of lettuce in the skillet to use as the base for my pork loin salad.
Here is the finished product plated up with the corn in the first picture and with garlic breadsticks in the second picture.