First Sunday Night Dinner!

Tonight's menu: Roasted pork tenderloin, caramelized onion mashed potatoes, and sauteed spinach. Awwwww damn.

Hi guys! I've been making Sunday Night Dinner for a while now, so I wanted to share my weekly meals in the hopes of spreading this tradition worldwide! Lofty goals, children. We must have lofty goals.

Okay tonight - I went with the pork tenderloin. Not generally a favorite protein of mine, as I've always been dissatisfied with the moisture content. Thanks to my dear friend Ina Garten, I tried a method of roasting the tenderloin that I hadn't done before. Honestly I don't know why I didn't think of it before, but I guess that's why she is the Barefoot Contessa. It is a tried and true steak cooking method of sear-then-oven roast.

So. Tenderloin. I overcame my reservations and got a beautiful looking tenderloin from Ralph's for under $6. Dude. This loin comfortably fed my fella and I with plenty of leftovers - it probably could have fed four people. I went with Ina's marinade as a guideline: I threw the tenderloin in a freezer bag with the zest of one lemon, the juice of two lemons (and I put the husks in the bag as well), a tablespoon of dijon mustard, four cloves of chopped garlic, three sprigs of chopped fresh rosemary, a palmful of dried thyme (I would have preferred fresh, but Ralph's didn't have it, c'est la vie), a six count of olive oil (bar talk - I have a bar pour spout on my olive oil bottle, quickly turn it upside down to pour and count to six), a good pinch of kosher salt and some ground pepper. I squeezed and tossed the bag around (after sealing, doy) to fully coat the tenderloin. Let that sucker marinate for at least two hours - it's not a Sunday Night Dinner if you can do this quickly!

Towards the end of the two hours, I began to caramelize some onions for my caramelized onion mashed taters. I thinly sliced half an onion and threw it in a pan with a two count of olive oil and some salt and pepper. I let the onions get some color, and deglazed the pan with some sauvignon blanc. It took probably twenty minutes total. Onions out, set aside. Meanwhile, I threw some quartered new po-tay-toes in a pot of water with two cloves of garlic that I smashed. Brought that to a boil until tender, drained, and immediately put the hot potatoes and garlic back into the pot. Now comes the butter. Remember, kids, it's Sunday Night Dinner; this is no time to skimp on the butter. Two tablespoons into the pot. What. Don't judge. Throw on the cover and let that beautiful butter melt. After melted, mash those suckers with a little milk or half and half, salt, pepper, and your beautifully caramelized onions. Shoooot. Put the cover back on and keep it warm until you are ready to eat.

Multi tasking here! While your taters are going, heat a cast iron or other oven safe pan over medium high heat with a two to three count of olive oil. When the oil is good and hot, take your tenderloin out of the marinade and carefully place in the hot pan. That sizzle is golden. I browned the tenderloin all around with a little more salt and pepper to form a nice, moisture locking crust. Don't blacken, just get a nice brown crust. The use of a meat thermometer at this point is clutch. I have one that is digital, so the readout stays out of the oven, whilst the pin and the connected cord go into the oven. Skewer that sucker in the thickest point and put the entire pan into the oven. You want the thickest part of the tenderloin to be at 137 degrees. When it reaches that point, put away your fear and take it out of the oven. Out, I say! Out of the oven and out of the pan, and for the love of all things holy, let. it. rest. For at least five minutes. All of those juices that you locked in by searing need to be redistributed.

While the meat was resting, my adorable sous chef made some sauteed spinach: a two count of olive oil in the pan that I caramelized the onions in with some chopped garlic. Let the garlic cook for thirty seconds to flavor the oil and toss three to four good handfuls of fresh spinach in. Add some S and P and let the spinach wilt, it really should take no more than five minutes. I like to keep a bit of crunch to the sauteed spinach.

Oh man, all of this work is what a Sunday night dinner is all about. The tenderloin was sliced on an angle. The middle was pink - this is perfect! The ends were more well done, so choose to eat which portion you like. Me, I thought the pink center was perfect and moist, and not the chewy toughness that I was expecting. It was like butter. You may have realized I do so enjoy butter. The caramelized mashed potatoes and the sauteed spinach were really nice compliments, along with my glass of sauvignon blanc. We had some crusty french bread and butter too, because dammit: it's Sunday night. It's your night to splurge.

Try it, eat up, and enjoy. Don't be afraid of the juicy pink center of the tenderloin. Don't be afraid of the tenderloin, period, like I was! And please, kids, don't skimp on the butter. It's what Sunday nights were meant for.

-D