Cuban Glazed Pork Tenderloin and Grilled Fruit Salsa

Sweet, tangy with just the right amount of spice to please the whole family with this dish.  I usually don't love fruit salsas and won't order anything that comes with a sweet salsa in a restaurant, but this one seemed like a great paring, so I gave it a try, I'm glad I did. 

Don't be put off by the Sauce for this dish, I know 4 whole jalapenos sounds extreme, but if anything, I would spice it up more next time I did this dish - - which I know means this is about perfect for most people!  I always seed the jalapenos, and they are almost never too hot that way.  I buy jalapenos by the pound at my local Asian market, and I usually get through them all before they go bad, yep, I love them that much.

I was inspired to do this dish from a recent issue of FOOD & WINE MAGAZINE (June 2011), but the recipe was for ribs, and I had pork tenderloins, which I prefer anyways, but I took some liberties with some of the ingredients too, especially since they wanted to add sugar to fruit salsa... um, I don't think that's necessary!  

Marinated Pork

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

1/4 cup chile powder

2 tablespoons ground cumin
1 Tbsp garlic, powdered
1-2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp honey

1 tsp Kosher salt & ground pepper

2 pork tenderloins (about 4 lbs total)

Sauce

4 jalapeños, seeded and thinly sliced

8 garlic cloves, smashed

1/2 cup fresh lime juice

1/2 cup honey
1 tablespoon ground cumin

Grilled Fruit Salsa

1 lb fresh pineapple rings, 1/2 " slices
1 fresh mango, cut into wedges
1/2 red onion, 1/2 " slices
1/2 red bell pepper, diced

1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1 jalapeno, seeded and minced

1 large avocado, diced
2 Tbsp lime juice
1 tsp cumin
Salt & Pepper as desired





In a large ziploc bag, add the chili powder, cumin, granulated garlic, salt, honey and olive oil.  Add the pork tenderloins and "massage" the mixture onto all the sides of the pork.  Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or even overnight, which is what I did.

Meanwhile, in a blender, puree the jalapeños with the garlic and 1/2 cup of the lime juice. Blend in the honey and the remaining 1 tablespoon of cumin. Transfer the glaze to a saucepan and simmer over low heat until glossy and thickened, 15 minutes.  Remove half the glaze to use for basting the cooking meat, and the other half of the glaze in a small pitcher to serve with the dinner. 

Preheat the grill.

When hot, grill the pineapple rings, mango wedges and red onion slices over high heat, turning once, until lightly charred, about 5 minutes. Chop all the grilled fruits and onion into a dice and transfer to a bowl. Add jalapeno, cilantro, avocado and 2 tablespoons of lime juice. Season with salt and pepper.  Set aside to cool while you cook the pork.

Turn down the grill to medium, and try to keep the temperature between 350-400 in the grill.  Place the pork and cover and cook, basting each side with the jalapeno glaze as you turn it, because the glaze can burn! It should take about 20 minutes or so.  

Internal temperature of pork should be about 145 degrees if you want to check it with an instant thermometer. The Pork Council just updated their recommended temperates, so many of you may remember it used to be 160.  Let it rest for about 5-8 minutes before serving.  The residual heat will continue to cook the pork and you won't over cook it and dry it out.

Slice the pork and serve with the salsa and the sauce.  Great with rice or quinoa.
This would also be great on tacos or burritos.... oh yum.

Note-
Even if you didn't make the glaze or the salsa, this marinade for the pork was pretty slam dunkin' marvelous... I'm going to try it out on a beef flank steak soom