Braised pork tenderloin with butternut squash and fried polenta

Sunday, I left baby and partner home and I took my 4 years-old to the movies. The movie was very good for little ones, a lovely story about friendship between a bear and a mouse: Ernest & Celestine. After only few minutes, I felt blessed - and a little bit stupid to feel a bit emotional while watching a kid movie with my son - probably the lack-of-rest effect.
I felt so blessed to live in New Zealand, to be allowed to raise my children in this amazing country, to raise them as bilinguals and to share my native language and culture with my growing kiwis. What does it have to do with the movie? The movie was in French! When I left France, I gave up the idea of going to see a French movie with my children. But that was due to my ignorance of New Zealand way of integrating cultures. Not only New Zealand offers an amazing lifestyle, it also accepts and encourage the diversity of cultures. I couldn't tell for other cultures, but as French living in Auckland, we are blessed with a very active community that allows parents like us to pass our culture on our children thanks to playgroups (I love the kiwi culture of playgroups/playcentre, it's just a shame I have limited access to it because I work full-time), the preschools, the bilingual sections in primary schools and the various socialising French events and other festivals. Beyond the language, of course, food is another way to pass on our culture, and not only to our children.
After the movie, I felt even more blessed when I came back home where a meal from an original recipe by my mum had perfumed the entire the house after 2 hours of slow cooking earlier the same day: a braised pork tenderloin with a rustic-tasting but elegant sauce made from onions, carrots, tomatoes and mushrooms. This dish was well-known of all the kids from the neighbourhood in my home-town; this for the holy good reason that it is deliciously rich of flavour, while balanced and not overly fat.

Ingredients (6-8 servings)

Braised pork tenderloin and sauce

- pork tenderloin (1.5 kg), trimmed

- 2 carrots, sliced

- 1 large onion, sliced

- 2 fresh tomatoes, peeled and chopped

- 2 garlic cloves, 'en chemise'*

- 1 sprig of thyme

- 8 mushroom buttons, sliced thick

- 3 tbsp cream

- 1 tbsp olive oil

- water

- salt, pepper

Butternut squash

- 1 large butternut, peeled and diced

- 2 garlic cloves, 'en chemise'*

- 2 sprigs of thyme

- 2 tsp olive oil

Fried polenta

- 200 g polenta

- 1 L. water, salted

- 1 knob of butter

Cooking (2 hours)

Braised pork tenderloin and sauce (2 hours)

1. Heat the oil in an iron pot.

2. Sear the meat on each side (allow for 5-7 mins).

3. Add the sliced onions, the garlic en chemise* and the carrots, stir until slightly coloured.

4. Peeled garlic and put the garlic back in the pot.

5. Season with salt and pepper. Add the thyme and the tomatoes.

6. Cover with water at mid-height. Cover with lid and cook on low to medium heat for approximately one hour and a half. Water the tenderloin with the cooking juice, and flip it, occasionally. Make sure there is always 3 or 4 cm of water at the bottom. Add water as required, but little by little.

7. The meat is cooked when it starts falling apart. Take the tenderloin out of the pot, cover with foil and rest.

8. Cook the mushrooms in the sauce for few minutes and then remove them.

9. At this stage, my mum would filter the sauce and pour it back in the pot with the mushrooms, add the cream and slightly reduce for 8-10 mins.

I personally prefer thicker sauce and hate wasting good food. So I just remove the thyme and then blend the melted onions, the carrots, the tomatoes in the meat juice, and then I add the cream and the cooked mushrooms.
This meal is even better reheated, so there is no problem at cooking it in advance and reheating it later. But reheat the whole pork tenderloin and slice it warm.

Butternut squash (30 mins)

1. Preheat the oven, grill at 200C.

2. Put the diced butternut (2 cm cubes), the thyme and the garlic en chemise* on a baking tray.

3. Spill the olive oil over the butternut and mix with your hands to evenly spill the oil.

4. Season with salt and black pepper.

5. Reduce the oven at 180C and bake for 10 mins. Then flip over the butternut and cook for 10 extra mins or until the butternut is soft. Do not overcook or burn it.

6. Peel the garlic and blend with the butternut.

7. Serve

Fried polenta

1. Bring 1 L. of salted water to boil.

2. Gradually pour the polenta into the boiling water while brisking with wooden spoon to avoid lumps. Do not stop stirring.

3. Cook until all the water is absorbed.

4. Pour into a baking dish, no more than 2-3 cm thick. Cover with foil and let cool down for an hour, or alternatively you can put it in a warm oven to dry it.

5. Cut eight squares or rectangles and fry into butter* until slightly coloured.
6. Serve!

Bon appétit!

Tips

* Garlic en chemise refers to the French cooking term for unpeeled garlic. It is commonly used in roasted or based veggie dish or garlic confit. In the two recipes here, I like to crush the garlic en chemise with the blade of a knife to allow for the garlic flavour to spread in the sauce or veggies. This technique also avoid burning the garlic, which would mess up the whole dish.

* To avoid burning butter, add a drop of oil in the frying pan.