Mignons de porc a l’ail

I, Mary-Elizabeth W. Crowe, do solemnly swear, to read a recipe all the way through, before I make my shopping list. I will not merely peruse the ingredient list, ticking off items in my pantry. No. I will read through the preparation steps, noting when things need to be marinated over night, or stacked together like legos.

Why the till death do us part oath? Most of these recipes Kevie-poo and I do feed between 4-6-8 people. Kevin, and I, we’re just 2. Even when toodie pie wants leftovers for the next day, we still cut these recipes down by a third at least. That is all fine, but our precious Mignons de porc a l’ail called for four 10oz tenderloins. So what did we do? We bought one. If I had read the recipe I would have noted that we’d need at least two to layer. Being the crafty quick thinker I am, I sliced the tenderloin lengthwise in one quick swish, much like Uma Thurman lobbing off Lucy Liu’s head in Kill Bill, sans the yellow jumpsuit.

Right from the start I knew this recipe would turn out great. Again, like so many times in this cookbook, the ingredient list gives you the confidence you need to make great food. Pork tenderloin, garlic confit, bacon and white wine, can you do much better? To top it all off, this recipe takes all of 10-15 minutes to prepare, save for cooking/oven time.

After near 5 months in culinary school I know what confit means. Cooked and preserved in one’s own fat. But let’s be honest. What do you think of when you hear confit? Duck? Me too. So imagine me trying to imagine just what the heck duck cooked garlic would entail. Thankfully, after coming to my culinary senses, and flipping to page 262 as instructed, garlic confit is just garlic slow cooked in olive oil. Why not just call it roasted garlic? Gotta do the French thing, don’t you Bourdain?

Speaking of the confit, Mary has recently found her green thumb (I’m not sure she ever really had one (it’s more of a Gucci green)) in the form of an herb garden just outside our door. The thyme, straight from our pot and into the tin foil confit package smelled sublime after about five minutes in the oven. After slicing the tenderloin lengthwise, adding the puree and some thick cut, smoky bacon, and tying it up like the most delicious present ever gifted, it was time to sear. What I’ve found during the course of this book, is that when something calls for searing on “both sides,” searing on all four is twice as nice. High, high heat and a pair of tongs = a smoky room and some great browning, I’m slowly getting over my initial fear of burning down the house due to excessive heat. Some time at the bar of Coastal Kitchen further solidified my belief. High heat = good food.

Dude! I have been telling you that all along! Might I add, that at one point I tried to take over the recipe, deglazing the pan, adding white wine, chicken stock (“ at this point you should, if you can, whisk in a spoon of that good demi-glace from your stash,” Bourdain mocks) and parsley, when Kevin tries to hip check me outta the way whining, “This is my dish. I’m the one who cooks the brassiere type food. You do the weird hippy whole grain Asian stuff. Miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine.”

Recipe Ease: 7. More labor intensive, but worth the work.
Time: 3. Resting in the fridge after working halfway through? This one takes some advance planning.
Make Again: Garlic, Bacon, and pork? Yes. Again, again, again, and again. 10