Pork Tenderloin with Roasted Grapes

5 from 1 vote

Ingredients

2 cups seedless grapes
Olive oil
Black pepper
1 package pork tenderloins, about 1 ½ or 2 lbs.
salt
2 T. soft butter
2 t. Dijon mustard
medium shallot, thinly sliced into rings
1/2 cup white wine
1 cup low-sodium chicken stock
1/2 t. dried thyme
1 T. cornstarch mixed with 1 T. cold water

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400°. Cover a rimmed sheet pan with parchment or foil and scatter the whole grapes on it. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with black pepper. Bake 15 minutes. Transfer the roasted grapes and their juices to a bowl and set aside. Leave the oven on.
While the grapes roast, season the meat with salt and pepper. Mix the butter and Dijon mustard together and spread all over the meat. Heat a film of oil in a skillet over medium heat. Working quickly but one at a time, brown the tenderloins on all sides. Don’t clean the skillet. (But you may want to take it off the heat momentarily so you don’t burn the stuff on the bottom--AKA, the fond.) Put the tenderloins on the sheet pan. Make sure the tenderloins aren’t touching--they need plenty of space between them to roast properly. Roast for 15 minutes, or until a thermometer registers 145°. Remove from the oven and allow the meat to rest.
While the tenderloins roast, sauté the shallot over medium low in the same skillet you just used for the meat. When the shallot is soft, add the wine, stirring to scrape up all the browned bits on the bottom of the skillet--2 or 3 minutes. Add the chicken stock and thyme. Cook over low heat for about 10 minutes. Stir in the cornstarch slurry and cook another minute or two, stirring occasionally. Taste for seasoning and adjust if necessary. Keep the sauce warm.
When the pork has rested, serve with roasted grapes and the pan sauce. This dish is especially good with Pecan Rice, below.

Notes

If making the pecan rice, you can go ahead and toast the pecans at the same time as the grapes if you have room in your oven. Put them in a cake pan or oven-proof skillet and toast for 7 or 8 minutes. Also, if you have two sheet pans and enough room in your oven, you can roast the grapes and the pork simultaneously. Please make sure, though, that you don’t crowd the pork on too small of a pan.)