Pork Scallopini with Bacon Caper Jus
What a great way to ensure tender meat. Whack at it. Whack the "hey, how ya doin'" out of it! This works with pretty much anything and basically degrades the muscle to the point where "tough" becomes impossible. Yet, it still holds some level of shape, in the form of a very thin piece of quickly cooked meat. How do you do it? Hit it and ... cook it!
It's professionally done with a meat mallet, but ... I don't have one of those. I personally usually use the back of my knife and just quickly ... Machine-Gun-Kelly-Style ... whack at it with the back of my knife, running it up and down a flattened piece of meat. You can also use the bottom of a pot, which has more surface area. You ... cover more ground (but do less damage). It's better if you put your meat between two pieces of plastic wrap before you attack it. The meat will spread out more evenly and it will splatter a lot less. I personally most often do this with pork or chicken, but ... beef, duck, calamari, abalone ... whatever. It will tenderize it all!
Once the meat is thin and pounded it is cooked quickly in a pan with a light oil. After just moments, it is cooked and removed, where chicken stock, capers, and bacon bits are added. This pulls the good bits off the bottom of the pan. Then, fresh cold butter is swirled into it, giving the jus a nice sheen, enriching it with healthy fats and ... thickening it a little!
Note: I came up with this recipe while eating a zero carb diet, rich in fats. This one is PERFECT for such a way of eating! YUM!
It's professionally done with a meat mallet, but ... I don't have one of those. I personally usually use the back of my knife and just quickly ... Machine-Gun-Kelly-Style ... whack at it with the back of my knife, running it up and down a flattened piece of meat. You can also use the bottom of a pot, which has more surface area. You ... cover more ground (but do less damage). It's better if you put your meat between two pieces of plastic wrap before you attack it. The meat will spread out more evenly and it will splatter a lot less. I personally most often do this with pork or chicken, but ... beef, duck, calamari, abalone ... whatever. It will tenderize it all!
Once the meat is thin and pounded it is cooked quickly in a pan with a light oil. After just moments, it is cooked and removed, where chicken stock, capers, and bacon bits are added. This pulls the good bits off the bottom of the pan. Then, fresh cold butter is swirled into it, giving the jus a nice sheen, enriching it with healthy fats and ... thickening it a little!
Note: I came up with this recipe while eating a zero carb diet, rich in fats. This one is PERFECT for such a way of eating! YUM!
Prep Time15 mins
Cook Time15 mins
Total Time30 mins
Servings: 6 Servings
Calories: 376.21666666667kcal
Ingredients
- 2 each pork tenderloins(or equivalent pork loin)
- 1 tbsp light olive oil
- 1 cup chicken stock or broth
- 1 tbsp capers drained and coarsely chopped
- 1/4 cup bacon bits
- 1 sprig fresh rosemary
- 1/2 cup whole butter (one stick) cut into about 12 cubes
- salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste
Instructions
- Slice your pork at an angle, so that you get thin, but long cuts. You want cuts about 1/2 inch thick.
- Lightly season each piece of pork with salt and pepper.
- Place pork between two sheets of plastic wrap. You can probably fit two pieces within each double sheet of plastic.
- Pound the pork with a meat mallet, large pot or the back of your knife. Pound until the meat is roughly 1/4 to 1/8 of an inch thick. Repeat this process until all the meat has been pounded. Set the flattened meat on the side, still wrapped between the plastic sheets.
- In a large hot sauté pan, over medium-high heat, add your light oil.
- When you see the oil begin to ripple, add your pork. Depending on how the pork was cut and pounded, you may be able to fit multiple pieces. However, you want a single layer of pork, with the entire side of each piece touching the bottom of the pan, for a nice hot searing effect.
- After about 1 to 2 minutes of hot searing pork, flip and do the same thing on the other side. Once the pork is nicely browned and cooked through, set it aside somewhere warm. Repeat this process with each piece of pork, until you have cooked it all.
- In the hot pan, add your chicken stock, bacon bits, rosemary and capers.
- Reduce the sauce by about 1/2, or until it begins to very slightly, but ... noticeably ... thicken.
- Turn the heat off the pan and add a small piece of cold fresh butter to the pan and swirl it around. When one piece of butter is about halfway melted, add a second piece of cold fresh butter. When that second piece is halfway melted, add a third piece. Keep swirling in the cold fresh pieces of butter, until it has created a lovely and luxurious bacon jus. (this is done in this manner, so that the butter is incorporated into the jus, without simply melting and forming an oil slick on the top of the stock. This slow cold swirling method emulsifies it into the stock in a method known as "Monté" (pronounced "Mont-tay")).
- Serve!
Nutrition
Serving: 6g | Calories: 376.21666666667kcal | Carbohydrates: 0.39166666666667g | Protein: 42.136666666667g | Fat: 21.366666666667g | Fiber: 0.086666666666667g