My wonderful SIL recently returned from a cruise to Panama – lucky her! – she had a great time, but lucky me – she sent me a new cookbook of Mexican recipes. I have tried 3 recipes so far this week and we loved all 3!!!!!!!!! But, hubby all but licked his plate on this one tonight. And this recipe was soooooooooo simple! I did tweak the original recipe to suit us, but the basics are all still there.
2 pound pork tenderloin, cut into pieces
1/3 cup diced dried apricots
1 cup white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon cumin
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon red pepper
4 tablespoons butter
1 cup fresh orange juice
1/3 cup lemon juice
sliced oranges for garnish
mashed potatoes (original recipe called for mashed sweet potatoes but hubby doesn’t care for them)
- In a large bowl combine vinegar, cumin, garlic, red pepper and salt.
- Drop in pork cubes and make sure they are completely coated.
- Cover and refrigerate 6 hours or more.
- Remove pork pieces from marindae, but reserve the marinade.
- Pat the meat dry.*
- In a heavy skillet, melt the butter.
- Brown the pork cubes until golden.
- Add the reserved marinade and bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer until pork is tender (30 minutes or so).
- Stir in orange and lemon juices last 15 minutes.
*Next time I will brown the pork first and then marinade so there is a bit of a crusty edge.
NOTE: Any time you marinade in vinegar, meat will take longer to brown.