Lotsa Leftovers

I have to make this quick, because there's a football game on TV that I want to watch.  In an effort to make the best of what we had on hand, The Bride and I selected Caribbean Tenderloin With Black Bean Salsa, which is found on page 180. 

Believe it or not, we actually had almost all of this already.  The only subsitution I made was to swap out the habenero (because screw THAT) with my New Mexico peppers.  Oh, and for those of you ever need it, good luck finding chutney in the Norwood Kroger...it's next to the A1 sauce.  Go figure.  This needed to marinade for four to six hours, so that was the first thing I readied.

Before adding the tenderloins to the marinade, I needed to trim them.  Tenderloins are awesome because they are actually leaner than boneless, skinless chicken breast, and have the advantage of tasting nothing like boneless, skinless chicken breast.  However, they almost always come with a piece called silverskin, which tastes terrible and is, in fact, indigestible.   The first thing to do is pull back the thin layer of fat to reveal the silverskin.

Next you have to use the tip of your knife to get underneath it.

Then pull gently and let your knife slip just underneath it, trying to remove as little meat as possible.

Here the first loin is all trimmed up, with the other loin as you will most likely find it.

Once both were trimmed, I dumped them and the marinade into a Ziploc bag and went about my business for the next few hours.  This mostly involved watching movies on the couch with The Bride.

Once out of the marinade, I wiped off the tenderloins and prepared the rub.  I followed my usual tactic of combining the spices in a spice grinder and using a shaker to apply the mixture.

While The Forge was getting happy, I started in on the salsa.  With that done, I went outside with my timer, temperature probe, and a beer.  When the proper temperature was achieved, I brought them inside.

I sliced them up, plated, added the salsa, and we were ready.

I'll quote The Bride, "THAT.  WAS.  AWESOME!"  I agree.  As always with pork tenderloin, I would have liked a sauce; even just a reduction of the marinade would have taken this dish to the next level.  As it stands, I will be a happy boy with my leftovers tomorrow.