Stuffed Pork Tenderloin with Rice and House Salad

This morning, before I went to work I asked Cookies what do we eat today… and he said… well I won’t repeat what he said 0_o Actually I hate to ask this question, cos it means either we eat chicken nuggets (Cookies favorite actually) – they are homemade though or I’m sitting for an hour thinking what the hell am I going to make this rainy Friday… (One day soon I will explain how do I deal with not having to brood into my coke zero thinking about what to cook.) Unfortunately last 2 days it didn’t work, cos us two brainiacs would have to cook mushroom soup without … mushrooms 0_o

So that led me into brooding over pork tenderloin, which Cookies took out from the freezer (I was hoping he would say he will make fries, but it didn’t work again! DAMN!) So, I’m sitting and brooding, nothing comes to my mind. I browsed my usual places, even allrecipes.com and others… nothing interesting. Most of those recipes needed at least 3-5h marinating. At least! I have 90 min before Cookies is coming back, since I try to be good Polish wifey, and feed my man the moment he comes back from work. I stood a good few minutes in front of the fridge thinking what the freaking hell I can make… then I got enlightened: I should use all the leftover veggies and stuff it into the pork… YAAAY solved!

Ingredients:
1 pound Pork tenderloin

Stuffing:
¼ of yellow pepper (though can be any)
1 small onion
5-6 mushrooms
2 tsp cranberry preserves
1 tsp strawberry jam
3 tbsp shredded cheese (had some leftovers from the chili Cookie made the other day)
salt & pepper

Preparations:
Clean meat in cold water, then dry with paper towels. Cut into 4 pieces, from the thinner end cut a pocket, sprinkle meat with salt and pepper, set aside.

Cube onion, pepper and mushrooms. Pour some oil on the hot pan, add a little butter (not a necessity, just gives more flavor). Toss onions, stew mixing till you start smelling it, then add the rest of veggies. Fry until soft and relatively golden. Salt and pepper it, add cranberry and then the strawberry jam, stir good until glassy, set aside till it cools down. Stuff mixture into meat pockets and close with some shredded cheese, sprinkle some oil on the meat, a tiny bit and toss on grill until not red anymore. Very important note – make sure meat is not too thick it may take very long to cook inside.

I served it with basmati rice and a house salad.

P.S. If you want to know what’s “a house salad” – well as the name says, it is a mix of all vegs you have at home with a dressing of your choice – this time french.

And Cookies took care of dessert 🙂