Roast Pork Tenderloin with a Balsamic Fig Sauce

  

  
The most important factor in fine cooking is fine ingredients.  That doesn't necessarily mean expensive ingredients, but it does mean fresh ingredients.  Fresh vegetables, fresh herbs, that is where quality will shine through.  Chefs oftentimes construct their recipes by what is fresh at the market that morning.  That thought, what was fresh and calling out to me at the market, gave me the idea to prepare a fig sauce.  It's not something I had done before, and I would never just go eat a fig.  But as with a cherry or pomegranate sauce for duck, I thought a fig sauce might be nice with pork, so I grabbed the package of figs that appeared at the market one day and this is the result.  The fig sauce recipe below is an amalgam of sources I consulted from Bon Appetit to Joy of Cooking to Martha Stewart.  A balsamic fig sauce sounded fun, and each was built on the combination of figs, a wine to deglaze, balsamic vinegar, and stock support.  I served this with cooked polenta, good itself and even better with this fig sauce on top.  Serves 2.
    
Ingredients:
2 tbsp olive oil
1 pork tenderloin
salt/pepper
1 shallot, diced
1/3 cup port
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp sugar
2/3 cup chicken stock
1 sprig rosemary
8 dried figs, quartered lengthwise
     
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.  In a large fry pan over medium heat, warm the olive oil.  Season the tenderloin with salt and pepper and brown all sides in the fry pan.  Transfer the pan to the oven and roast for 10 to 15 minutes or until an internal thermometer reads 150 degrees F.  
When the tenderloin is roasted, transfer to a plate and cover in foil to keep warm.  Return the fry pan to the stove top over low heat and soften the shallots for approximately 5 minutes.  Increase the heat to medium and add the port, scraping up any cooked bits to deglaze the pan.  Add the vinegar, sugar, stock, rosemary and figs and simmer for 5 minutes.  Spoon out 3 of the figs to a food processor and mince.  Return the minced figs to the sauce and allow to simmer a few minutes more.  Meanwhile, slice the tenderloin into 3/4" medallions and plate, spooning the fig sauce on top.