Coffee Rubbed Pork Tenderloin; Tian Sing

One of the dishes I prepared for Thanksgiving dinner. Since dry coffee is the new hotness in meat rubs, I figured I’d give it a try, and, true to the buzz, the coffee does add a rich smokiness to the meat and the pan sauce. I chose to braise as the pork tenderloin isn’t as fatty a cut of meat as the shoulder, which is the cut usually used for the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1x 4.5 lb pork tenderloin roast
• 1 qt no-salt chicken stock
• 3 carrots, paysenne cut
• 1 heart of celery, diced
• 2 onions, diced
• 3 gloves garlic, chopped
• 1/4 stick butter
• 1 cup dry finely ground coffee
• 1 tbsp spanish paprika
• 1 tbsp herbes de provence
• 1 tbsp turbinado sugar
• 1 sprig fresh rosemary
• 3 tbsp all-purpose flour

Instructions:
Mix the dry spices, sugar, and coffee; spread out in a dish wide enough to allow you to roll the meat and get a good, even coating of the coffee mixture on all sides. Wrap the meat in plastic wrap and allow to stand overnight.

In a large stock pot, brown the meat on all sides in the butter and garlic. Once browned, remove from pot and allow to rest while sauteeing the carrots, onion, celery, and flour until the vegetables are soft and the flour is fully cooked through, about 10-15 minutes. Place the pork roast back in the pan and add the chicken stock, stirring to remove any caramelization which has accumulated at the bottom of the pot. Add the rosemary sprig. Cover; reduce heat to medium-low (the temperature of the cooking liquid should be around 160-180F), and allow to simmer for 2 hours.

Remove the roast from the pot and let stand. Strain any leftover cooking liquid and reduce until thick, adding salt and pepper to taste. Pour the reduced cooking liquid over the roast at service.

We served this with a sweet potato puree, some rainbow chard cooked with bacon, some green beans and pistachios, and lots of other Thanksgiving food. Yay!

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We were wandering around downtown shopping for a Christmas dress for Annika yesterday, when over on O’Farrell and Cyril Magnin we found a new dim sum place called Tian Sing having its grand opening. We found the food to be good but the prices to be a little high for dim sum at about $50 without tip for three people. By contrast, our dim sum mainstay, Canton Restaurant on Folsom between 2nd and 3rd is usually around $30 for the same amount of food.

Still, Tian Sing has a great location if you’re looking for a pick-me-up while in the downtown/Union Square area, and for the neighborhood, the prices aren’t bad. We tried all of our usual dim sum orders, including their pork siu mei, ha gow, steamed barbecued pork buns, some pot stickers, a crab and shrimp dumpling, and some crispy deep-fried shrimp dumplings. All of the dishes were good, though the pork siu mei may have been a little overcooked. As usual, late in the meal after we were full, they brought out some interesting dishes we didn’t have room to try: a lobster and scallion “pie”, and some kind of deep fried, nori-wrapped tofu dish.

We were all set to go back to Tian Sing soon until we got the bill. Again, high for dim sum, average for the neighborhood, I guess.