Pork Tenderloin With Apples and Sauerkraut

By Caroline Clough in Food on Nov 6, 2006 4:04PM

After last week's disaster, Chicagoist was worried that we were in the beginning stages of a cooking rut. We had visions of overcooking pasta, undercooking chicken, burning peanut butter sandwiches and generally sucking at anything we did in the kitchen. These certainly weren't the good kind of the visions. Nope, no money made or world saved. These were more of the 'shit what are we gonna do with ourselves if every food item we touch turns to bleck' kind of visions. But we've learned that the best way to get over a fear (or scary vision) is simply to get back to it (whatever it may be). That's just what we did last night and we're going to say (knock on wood) that this week's recipe went much better than the yam chips.

What You Need:
4 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon mustard powder
4 tablespoons apple juice
1/2 of one small (about 1 and 1/2 pound) pork tenderloin
1 apple
2-3 cups sauerkraut

What You Do:
1. Cut the tenderloin in half. Put one half to the side for a later dish (you could even freeze it for later later).

2. Cut the remaining tenderloin into about 1-1 1/2 inch slices.

3. Mix the olive oil, garlic salt, dijon mustard, mustard powder and apple juice together.

4. Immerse the sliced tenderloin in the olive oil etc. Marinate for at least one hour.

5. Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.

6. Place the sauerkraut in a small casserole dish. We used a combination of homemade (pink) and store bought (white) sauerkraut. Aesthetically it may have been better if we had stuck to the white sauerkraut.

7. Core and slice the apple and place the slices on top of the kraut.

8. Place the pork slices on top of the kraut and apple bed. Pour the remaining marinade over the whole dish.

9. Cover the dish and bake for about half an hour ... or until the pork is at least 160 degrees (buy a meat thermometer it will revolutionize your life).

10. Eat.