Need a quick summer meal that won’t take much effort and utilizes fresh herbs from the garden? We’ve got the answer, and a great Washington wine to accompany it.
Brynn recently prepared this dish for her in-laws while they were in town earlier this month and scored big points with everyone at the table. It is also a great summer meal to prepare before indulging in Ann Vogel’s homemade ice cream.
The recipe, pork tenderloin with maple glaze, comes from the Junior League of Seattle’s Celebrate the Rain cookbook. It incorporates sage — which if you have any growing in your herb garden now’s the time to cut a couple sprigs and chop them up for this recipe. It also calls for shallots, Dijon mustard and of course maple syrup.
When we served this we paired a cabernet sauvignon from Kiona Vineyards and Winery, located on Red Mountain. Kiona is one of Brynn’s favorite wineries. The family-run vineyard is the pioneer of Red Mountain, the smallest American Viticultural Area in the state. Some of the state’s top wines are made from grapes that come from vineyards located within the Red Mountain designation.
Kiona has a few cabernet-based wines that range in price and would work for this dish. We paired the dish with the estate cabernet, which is the most expensive of the three at $42. It’s the winery’s flagship wine, coming from vineyards planted in 1975 — the oldest block in the AVA. The wine exudes an earthy element that paired perfectly with the sage and Dijon.
If you can swing it we’d recommend this wine, but we realize not everyone wants to shell out that much money for something that will be consumed in an evening. Your other options include Kiona’s Washington Cabernet, priced at $25, and the Cabernet-Merlot (another one of Brynn’s favorites), priced at $15 and often on sale at the grocery store for even less — think $10 to $12.
The Kiona Cabernet-Merlot is a blend of a number of grape varieties, including Sangiovese (26 percent), Carménère (21 percent) and Syrah (13 percent). Merlot actually only makes up 3 percent of the blend. The result is a wine that balances dark berry flavors and tannins softened by oak aging.
Like the estate cab the cab-merlot offers earth notes on the palate that will pair nicely with the pork tenderloin.
Pork tenderloin with maple glaze
(From Junior League of Seattle Celebrate the Rain cookbook)
Ingredients
2 pork tenderloins (12 to 14 ounces each), trimmed
2 tablespoons minced fresh sage, divided, or 2 teaspoons dried
sage
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup chopped shallots
1 cup chicken broth
3 tablespoons maple syrup
3 tablespoons cider vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
Directions
- Rub the pork tenderloins with 1 tablespoon of the fresh sage (or all the dried sage) and season with salt and pepper.
- Heat 1 tablespoon of butter and the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until sizzling. Add pork and brown all sides (about 4 minutes).
- Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and book (about 15 minutes) until port registers 150 degrees F, turning tenderloins occasionally. Transfer port to platter and tent with foil to keep warm.
- Add shallots to skillet and cook over medium heat until they soften, about 30 seconds. Add broth, maple syrup, vinegar and mustard and scrape browned bits from the bottom of skillet.
- Simmer until liquid is reduced by one-quarter and has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon (8 to 10 minutes), stirring often.
- Whisk the remaining tablespoon of butter until well blended and salt and pepper to taste. Return the pork and an accumulated juices to skillet and turn pork to coat with glaze.
- Remove port from skillet, slice tenderloins into 1/2-inch strips and arrange on serving platter. Drizzle with additional sauce.
