Sunday, July 13, 2008

Grilled pork served with a Strawberry-Avocado Salsa...

We were able to talk about 7 new recipes we made this week and we picked these as our favorites - the Frozen Strawberry Daiquiri Pie with Strawberry-Rum Sauce, Polpette with Quinoa, Parmesan and Sage and those Cashew Chocolate Tartlets.

I mentioned on Friday that due to the nasty weather that blew through we were not able to get our post up about Thursday's dinner. In an effort to get caught up, I'll talk about this savory Chipotle Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Strawberry-Avocado Salsa dish I made that night which used up the last of the fresh strawberries we picked!

To infuse the tenderloin with as much flavor as possible, we marinated the pork for a couple hours in a mixture of minced chipotle chiles, fresh lime juice, sliced onions and a couple cloves of garlic. While this is sitting in the refrigerator, be sure to give it a couple turns inside the bag to ensure the marinade reaches every inch of that lean piece of meat.

Once we had grilled off the pork (try not to let the internal temperature go much higher than 145 to 150 as pork is so lean these days that it is easy to dry out!), we made sure to let it rest so the juices didn't gush out when we sliced into it. While waiting for it to cool down, we prepared the intriguing sweet and savory salsa to serve along side. You'll want to keep the strawberry pieces somewhat large to stand up against the creamy avocado, so just quarter the berries after removing their hulls. To freshen up the salsa, the rest of the ingredients included sliced green onions, cilantro and a couple squirts of lime juice. I wouldn't recommend preparing the salsa too early as the salt and lime may break down the berries and make the salsa a bit soft and watery.

The chipotles added a deep smoky flavor, but didn't actually impart as much of a fiery punch to the pork as I was expecting! There was a little heat, but it was nicely tempered by that complex and lively salsa. I got one of those "one eyebrow up" looks from Jeff when I started tossing the berries with those creamy chunks of avocado... but he took that look back with a smile on his face one he had his first bite!


2 comments:

  1. I wish my hubby were more adventuresome -- this looks absolutely delicious!

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  2. Judy - I would have never tried this 5 years ago, but once I started trying out new food combinations, I found out just what I was missing!

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