This is kinda my take on meat and two veg. I did this sauce quite a bit with pork a year ago or so, and then completely forgot about it. It was just this week, when I was trying to decide what to cook this week, that Danika said I should that port sauce again. I am glad she has a great memory to be honest, heck knows how I forgot about this one, it is awesome (if I do say so myself).

This is really all about this hugely flavorful sauce that goes so great with the pork and the kale. I really enjoy my greans a lot, but they do often need a strong flavor to blast them up a notch or two. This works great for that, as too does the onion sauce used with some pork medallions a week ago or so (http://mattikaarts.com/blog/?p=205). What is even better is that this sauce is so ridiculously simple, yet so bloody tasty. Anyone would think that you had worked this one for hours, but heck no!

Pork Tenderloin Medallions, Thyme roasted potatoes, Kale, Cherry Ruby Port reduction

8 small fingerling or “new” potatoes

1 bunch of Kale

1 lb of Pork Tenderloin, trimmed of most fat

1 cup of dried Rainer cherries

2 cups of Ruby Port

1 tablespoon of dijon mustard

8 sprigs of thyme, leaves removed.

Start by washing your potatoes, and put them into a medium saucepan, and cover with cold water. Bring these to the boil, and cook until just tender when poked with a knife. Preheat oven to 425F, and put a roasting pan in there to get hot.

Meanwhile trim the tenderloin, and cut across ways into 2″ thick medallions. Season both flat sides with salt and pepper.  Slice your kale across ways thinly. Put this in a large saucepan, with about 1/2cup of water. Put the lid on it. Don’t heat it yet.

In a small frying pan, or saucepan put the cherries, port and mustard.

When the potatoes are done boiling, strain them. Take the roasting pan out of the oven, and pour a good swirl of olive oil in. Gently toss in the potatoes, the thyme, and some salt. Toss together, and return to the oven. These will take about 20 minutes to brown.

After about 10 minutes in the oven, heat a large frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add some olive oil, and saute your tenderloin. It will need about 5 minutes a side. At the same time turn the heat up under your sauce, and the greens. You want to boil the sauce until the liquid has reduced by about half. The greens are done when they are no longer tough, but still have a little bite (no one likes soggy old peoples greens… In England we used to joke that our Gran would put the greens on for Sunday dinner when she got up in the morning…).

When the pork is done, transfer the medallions to a warm plate, and cover with foil. Put the frying pan back on the heat, and add a good splash more of port. We are deglazing the pan, and getting those pork juices mixed into some port. Once this has boiled for a bit, add it to the sauce in the small frying pan.

When the potatoes are looking golden brown, remove from the oven and immediately start plating your dinner!  Add the potatoes and greens to the plate, and lay your pork tenderloin over the greens. Spoon on the sauce, just covering the corner of the tenderloins.