Peach Glazed Pork Tenderloins with Peach Salsa

I saw a post quite a while ago for peach glazed pork skewers.  It was on Chef Michael Braddock's site.  Now, even though the site is called Curious Foodie, if you Google it, several other sites will come up.  Ditto on Foodbuzz.  You need to find chefbraddock.  Or, follow the link :-)  Among other things, Chef Michael has won pork cookoffs.  You'll see why if you try this recipe.  It's amazing.  Next time we're in the Charlotte area to visit brother, Ken, you can bet we'll be finding his restaurant!!!!

So, way back when we took our little mini vacation, I bought some peaches to make this.  They've been cooling their heels in the refrigerator ever since.  You see, once you make the marinade, you're supposed to marinate the pork for FOUR hours.  And, I'm rarely home for four hours before it's time to cook dinner.  Heck, I'm rarely home for four hours before it's bedtime! 

But, this recipe sounded so incredible that I kept putting it on the menu.  Just moving it forward by a week at a time.  Finally, Labor Day came and it was time to leave the office at 2:00.  Now, remember, it's not all that exciting because we were coming home to weed the herb garden and to lay mulch.  But, still, I had my four hours.  Yes, sir, I had four hours to marinate, time to cook, clean up and still get to bed early enough to make my first appointment this morning without bags the size of grocery bags under my eyes.  What a deal.   

We walked in the door from the office and I headed to the kitchen.  Peaches, hoisin sauce, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, honey, garlic and ginger.  Ready.  Whir them in the processor and dump the marinade over a couple of pork tenderloins.  Now, Chef Michael's recipe calls for pork with real pork fat on it.  Alas, we usually stick with pork tenderloin because of the lack of pork fat.  So, it was that I used a different cut of meat.  Now, let me tell you, I don't think it matters what cut of pork you use, this is fantastic stuff.  I'll probably try it with some canned peaches in the middle of the winter.  Just to see how it works.  And, because it'll taste like summer. 

Along with the peach glazed pork tenderloin, I had this notion that peach salsa would be good.  I hunted and hunted and found recipes that sounded good but didn't sound like they'd go with the pork.  They had lots of other stuff but I wanted VERY simple.  So, I made my own up.  I took a couple of bite's worth out of the bowl and put them in a small bowl then added the sugar and the vinegar just to see how it'd taste.  We both liked it so I doctored up the rest of the salsa that way.  As it turned out, we didn't eat the salsa on top of the pork.  But, it was wonderful anyway.

Peach Glazed Pork Tenderloin

Ingredients:

2 pork tenderloins

for the glaze:
6 very ripe peaches
1/4 c hoisin sauce
3 T soy sauce
2 cloves of garlic
2 T rice wine vinegar
1 T grated fresh ginger
2 T honey



for the salsa:
4 very ripe peaches
1 small jalapeno
1/2 small red onion
1-2 t chardonnay vinegar
1-2 T sugar

Directions:

Put all the glaze/marinade ingredients in the food processor.  Process until very well blended. 

Put the pork tenderloins in a freezer bag.

Pour most of the marinade over the tenderloins.  Reserve some for later.

Prepare the peach salsa.  Peel and chop the peaches.

Mince the jalapeno VERY finely.

Mince the red onion.  Combine the peaches, jalapeno and the red onion. 

The amount of sugar and vinegar you'll need will depend on your taste and the sweetness of the peaches.  Remember you can always add more but it's tough to take away!  Also, as the salsa sits while you're grilling the tenderloins, the peaches will release some juices. 

Grill on direct heat.  Make sure you oil the grill grates first.  We didn't and wished we had!

Now, please go check out Chef Michael's website because he really has some incredible stuff there :-)