Porcini!

You ever notice that everything sounds better when you say it like a Jawa? Alright, maybe I am the only one. But whenever I think of porcini mushrooms, I have to fight the urge to say in that high pitched Jawa voice-Por-cini!. At a recent Ballard Farmers Market I found myself looking at some mighty fine Porcini mushrooms at the Found and Foraged stall. Now I was hoping he would have Morels which should be everywhere now but for some reason are not available or ridiculously expensive ($50 a pound!). Now the porcini were not cheap but they never are and the price was reasonable enough compared to what I had seen in the past. I picked up one decent sized mushroom, whispered Por-cini! under my breath and headed out into the lovely rain drenched market looking for other goodies. To my surprise I found some perfectly formed squash blossoms with the baby squash still attached. These would have to be added to whatever dish I devised with the porcini.

When I got home I started to have to think about what I would do with this mushroom. It was a little bit of an investment and need to come up with something that would be worth of its stature and price. I wanted something that would reflect the earthiness of the porcini but was fancy of enough dish to justify the price. Thinking about what I had available, I came up with the idea for a pork tenderloin stuffed with garlic butter, basil, thinly sliced porcini, and local asparagus which is dirt cheap right now. To accompany the pork tenderloin I would tempura fry the squash blossoms with the their baby zucchini still attached.

First I preheated the oven to 400 degrees. While the oven preheated, I blanched the asparagus in boiling water for about three minutes to soften them and set their color at bright green. Then I used a mandolin to slice the porcini. This gave me thin slices at the thickness I wanted but the mandolin butchered the shape of the mushroom. To avoid this problem, I would recommend a mandolin with an adjustable blade or barring that just use a good knife to slice the fungi lengthwise.

For the pork, I butterflied the tenderloin and then covered it saran wrap flat side down. Welding my mighty mallet I proceeded to beat the hell out of it until it resembled a flat square about an 1/8 inch thick. I spread the flat side in garlic butter and layered basil and the porcini mushrooms slices about two inches away  from the bottom of the tenderloin. To create a more attractive appearance, I layered the asparagus spears in opposite directions with the cut stems overlapping in the center of the pork cutlet. As a final step, I rolled the whole thing up like a sushi roll and tied it together with string to ensure it didn't unravel during cooking. 

I browned the stuffed pork tenderloin in a 12in pan for about 3 minutes a side using about two tsp of olive oil. I rotated the tenderloin slowly in the pan to ensure even browning and prevent unnecessary spillage. Then I placed the whole thing in a roasting pan and basted it with some of the leftover butter garlic. After about 15 minutes I pulled it out and let it rest for an additional 5 minutes for the flavors to meld and the meat to set. Utilizing a carving knife, I sliced the entire tenderloin into 1" rounds. I plated four of the tenderloin rounds on a plate with two of my tempura fried squash blossoms which I created while the tenderloin was in the oven. Realizing it could probably use a sauce, I deglazed the pan with white wine and whipped up a quick and light au jus for the tenderloin. I have to say this was a very attractive plate: 

Overall the dish was a big success. The garlic butter kept the pork moist and flavorful. And the asparagus, mushrooms, and basil helped elevate the natural earthiness of the dish. The sweet floral notes of the squash blossoms rounded off the palate. It felt like I was eating spring which was my overall objective. However, the flavor of the mushrooms was muted which was a bit of a disappointment given that it was supposed to be the star ingredient. The couple of slices that slipped out and were fried in the olive oil along with the tenderloin were rich and flavorful with a pronounced mushroom taste. Next time I would probably forgot stuffing the tenderloin with the mushrooms and just fry them in olive oil and serve alongside the pork. 

After scraping off the last of the mushrooms slices from the remnants of the tenderloin, I let out a long Por-Cini! and thought about scavenging through next week farmers market like one of my little diminutive Tatooine friends.