Pork medallions - a delicious meat dish, which is prepared from pork tenderloin. Despite the apparent simplicity, it is rather difficult to cook such meat correctly and tasty. The thing is that there is a very thin line between cooked and over-dried meat. You should also know the different options for marinade, dish sauce and the features of its preparation.
Classic locket
Of course, talking about the classics can only be done indirectly, because the original medallions are made from beef. But recently, it is this dish that is gaining popularity, so to some extent pork medallions in a pan can already be attributed to the classics. For cooking, you need to prepare the following products:
- One pork tenderloin (arbitrary weight).
- Fresh rosemary.
- Sea salt.
- Fresh thyme.
- Olive oil.
- Black pepper peas.
For cooking according to the classic recipe, only such ingredients must be used. In this case, the meat will have a pleasant aroma without the strong smell of many spices.
Cooking process
Begin with the preparation of meat. It is necessary to take a pork tenderloin and select the central part from it. The rest of the meat can be used for any other dishes. Clean the fillet from the film and rinse thoroughly, then dry with paper towels or napkins.
Cut even pieces into 3 fingers thick. It is this size that is considered optimal. When the meat is sliced, it should be folded into a deep container. Pour in about 50 ml of vegetable oil, add fresh herbs, peppercorns and sea salt. Set the medallions aside for approximately 2 hours. If you have time, let the meat marinate all night. In this case, it must be placed in the refrigerator.
The next day, get the prepared pork tenderloin and begin the further process. Now we need foil. You need to cut a sufficiently long piece and fold it along the height of the medallion. Each piece of meat must be tied with this foil. Thanks to this procedure, the tenderloin will keep its shape, and the finished product will turn out to be beautiful and even in shape. Below is a photo of pork medallions, on which you can see how the meat should look.
Heat treatment
Frying medallions is recommended in a grill pan. If it is absent, you can use the usual one, but it should be with a thick bottom. Otherwise, the meat will burn very quickly. Fry medallions for 3 minutes on each side. After that, they need to be laid out on a small baking sheet and baked at a temperature of 190 degrees for 8-10 minutes.
The readiness of the dishes can be very easily checked. To do this, put the little finger and thumb together. Now the finger of the second hand needs to touch the base of the thumb. Remember how tough it was and try the locket. If it is softer, then you can still boldly continue cooking. If it is the same or a little softer, then the dish can be taken out of the oven and served on the table with the selected type of side dish.
Fragrant medallions with mushroom sauce
Pork tenderloin can be cooked very fragrant. Mushroom sauce will perfectly complement the dish and make it unusually original. This recipe for pork medallions in the oven is very similar to the previous one, but much more various spices and herbs will be used here.
List of Essential Ingredients
So that nothing distracts you from cooking, it is recommended to immediately collect all the necessary products, and then start cooking. You will need:
- Pork tenderloin - 1 kg.
- Soy sauce.
- Dried thyme.
- Ground or fresh ginger.
- Balsamic vinegar.
- Olive oil.
To prepare the mushroom sauce, you will need to take 300 g of champignons, one small onion, 200 g of cream, juice from half a lemon, dried basil or marjoram, salt and ground pepper.
How to cook
The process begins with clipping processing. It must be cleaned and cut into pieces of 2-3 centimeters thick. Put the product in a container and set aside. Next, you need to cook the marinade.
To do this, mix in a deep bowl 50 ml of soy sauce, 70 ml of olive oil and 50 ml of balsamic vinegar. Also add ginger and all other spices mentioned in the recipe here. Mix everything thoroughly. It is necessary to dip each pork medallion in the marinade, put in a deep container, pour everything on top with the rest of the mixture and olive oil.
Marinate meat should be from 2 to 12 hours. After that, wrap each piece in foil, as indicated in the previous recipe, and bring to readiness in the oven.
Note! Pork medallions must be fully prepared. Only blood in beef steaks is allowed. If the pork dish is made unfinished, then this can cause serious illness.
Cooking Mushroom Sauce
While the medallions undergo heat treatment, you can begin to prepare the sauce. To do this, take the required number of mushrooms, rinse them in cold water and cut into slices. Peel and chop onions.
Put a frying pan on the fire, heat it well, add butter, put chopped onion, fry until golden brown. After that put prepared mushrooms in a pan. Cook them with onions for 10 minutes, then pour cream, lemon juice, seasonings and salt. Reduce heat, simmer products for about 10 minutes. Then they need to be put in a blender bowl and chopped until smooth.
When all the main elements of the dish are ready, the medallions can be put on plates, pour them with sauce. You can also serve it separately in a saucepan. Garnish the dish with herbs. As a side dish, you can use a variety of products, for example, boiled or fried potatoes, rice, boiled vegetables (broccoli, zucchini, carrots). They should be poured with olive oil and sprinkled with lemon juice. Any meat dish, including pork medallions, goes well with vegetable salad.
Medallions in Bacon with Sesame Seeds
This cooking recipe is considered one of the most original. The peculiarity is that here you do not need to pickle meat for a long time, just 1-2 hours is enough. Bacon will give the dish an unusual taste, and will also keep the shape of medallions. For cooking, you need to purchase these products:
- 800 g pork tenderloin (this is enough to make 4 medallions).
- 50 ml of soy sauce.
- Bacon Slices - 100 g.
- Sesame - 20 g.
- 50 ml of olive oil.
- Fresh rosemary.
- Coriander.
- Cardamom.
Upon preparation, it is recommended to grease the dish with light garlic sauce, which can be made from olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic and parsley.
Oven Pork Medallions Recipe
As in previous cases, the meat needs to be cleaned of the film and washed, then cut into large enough pieces. Marinate in soy sauce, coriander, cardamom, salt and olive oil. You also need to put a sprig of fresh rosemary, which can be used even when cooking meat.
While the medallions are pickling, proceed to prepare the garlic dressing. Take a small container, pour olive oil in it, add spices, chopped parsley and garlic. The taste of dressing should be sour-sharp.
When the tenderloin is marinated, wrap the meat on the side with slices of bacon (using the same principle as in the past recipes used foil). Sprinkle abundantly sesame seeds on top of each piece. In this case, the medallions can not be fried, immediately sent to the oven, which was heated to 190 degrees. Cooking time is about 15 minutes.
If you are unable to determine readiness by the softness of the base of the thumb, do not worry. In this case, you can simply take a thin and sharp knife, pierce them in the center of the meat and look at the juice. If it is barely pinkish or white, then the product can be taken out of the oven, if red - continue cooking.
Now you know how to make pork medallions to make them really tasty and juicy.