Preston's Uncle Mickey is an amazing cook. At his home, he has one of those giant iron barbecue pits with his name on it. He goes directly to a butcher to get meat. He can cut a whole chicken in half and lay it on the grill and it turns out to be the best chicken you ever had. He has a secret recipe marinade that his friend gave him, but that friend is a great cook too and won't tell Uncle Mickey what's in it, although Uncle Mickey has deduced that one main ingredient of the marinade is coffee. I think it is a point of contention between the two of them.
Over the summer, Uncle Mickey cooked up some pork tenderloin on the grill during a family camping trip to Gruene, TX. It was a little different because he sliced the meat before he grilled it and of course he used the secret recipe marinade. I filled myself up on the little pork pieces before I realized that they were merely the appetizer and were to be followed by a whole chicken and two different types of sausage.
Pork tenderloin always feels like a slow cooker thing to me, but I was itching to grill it up Uncle Mickey style. We couldn't get our hands on the secret marinade, but I did find a good homemade marinade for pork tenderloin by Alton Brown from the Food Network website. It's sweet and tangy, made with lime and honey.
Sweet potatoes and eggplant were the perfect vegetables to go with this pork, especially with the spicy Aloha seasonings I still have left over from our trip to Kauai in July. I actually made this side dish while the family was in Kauai last year and didn't realize how much I would crave the aloha spices from then on. To soften the sweet potatoes, I steamed them in the microwave for a few minutes before adding them to the pan along with a few tsp. of olive oil. After a few minutes, I added the eggplant and the Aloha seasoning and cooked until the eggplant changed color. AND I added a big splash of white cooking wine along the way for moisture.
And as you know, boxed couscous is boxed couscous. takes five minutes.
The perfect thing to top off this meal was a glass of Sauvignon Blanc from Dry Comal Creek Vineyards and Winery. I love their wine. LOVE IT.
On another note, I've noticed that everything I cook looks orange. I need to make an effort to get some more colors in there.
Well, enjoy!
6 comments:
I am so impressed with your cooking talents! Even though I can't eat half of it, I want to!
You can eat 2/3 of it! And I'll make you a tofu steak.
I wanna know what's in that "Aloha Seasoning" thingie!!!
Here are the ingredients:
Hawaiian sea salt, sesame seeds, onion, garlic, carrot, black pepper, red bell pepper, tomato, orange peel, lemon peel, red pepper, nori, citric acid... also listed are organic herbs and spices, so who know what's really in there.
Orange peel and lemon peel...interesting!
After looking at this post again (and have recently watched America's Sweethearts) I can't help but remember the line, "I hear they have a GREAT pork tenderloin."
I have never had pork tenderloin.
haha, yes, it's a very meaty post. I always think about the possibility of you and Chrissy getting grossed out when I post meat recipes.
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