Pork Tenderloin with Ancho Chile-Dried Cherry Sauce
As many of our wine club members know, we like to pair favorite recipes with our wines. Come to our tasting room and chances are you’ll leave with a recipe or two that will go well with the wine you’re bringing home.
Today’s recipe goes great with our Katie’s Côte. A delicious sauce made of Ancho chiles and Cherries perfectly complements the dark fruit aromas and rich black cherry flavors with herbal and mineral notes of our 2012 Katie’s Côte. Enjoy!
Pork Tenderloin with Ancho Chile – Dried Cherry Sauce
2 pork tenderloins
1 Tbs butter
1 Ancho chile (dried)
Water
½ cup dried bing cherries (or other sweet, dried cherries)
1 tsp lemon juice
½ tsp sugar
Preheat oven to 325. Toast ancho in oven for 5 – 8 minutes. Allow to cool briefly, then remove stem, seeds, pith, and tear chile into 1 inch pieces. Place in shallow bowl and cover with boiling water, let it soak for 15 – 20 minutes, until soft. Lift chile from water and puree in blender, adding soaking water as necessary. The intensity of the ancho chile flavor in the sauce will increase as you use more of the soaking liquid.
Place dried cherries in a separate bowl with lemon juice. Cover with 1 ¼ cups hot water and soak for 15 minutes. Add cherries to blender with chile and puree, adding some of the cherry soaking water as necessary. Sauce will be fairly thick. Reserve remaining cherry soaking water. Put ancho – cherry mixture in a small sauce pan, stir in ½ tsp sugar, and heat over a low flame.
Rinse tenderloins and remove silver skin and excess fat. Melt butter in a sauté pan and brown tenderloins on all sides, then place them in a baking pan. Deglaze browning pan with cherry soaking water and boil to reduce liquid volume by one half. Stir this into the sauce mixture. Coat tenderloins with some of the sauce and place in 325 degree oven. Baste with more sauce if necessary during the 30 to 40 minute cooking time. Cook to 150 – 160 degrees, according to your preference. Juices from baking can be added to sauce.
To serve, cut tenderloins into ¼ inch slices and spoon a little sauce over the slices. Serve extra sauce on the side. Accompany with roasted garlic mashed potatoes, fresh steamed vegetable, and Amador Foothill Katie’s Côte.
Serves four to six.
Leftover pork makes dynamite sandwiches. Leftover sauce is also good on grilled or roasted chicken.