A man's dinner...pork and potatoes

I bought a pork tenderloin on Monday and marinated overnight in some spices.  I'm not really sure what caused me to crave pork in the first place but it sounded really good and I knew I would have to marinade it overnight so I'm glad that I planned ahead.  This meal began with just pork and wilted spinach but then I felt the plate needed something more.  I happened to already have some potatoes on hand and so I added that to the list too.

To make the pork, I let it sit in a spice rub overnight.  This was made up of:

garlic powder

salt

pepper

chili powder

brown sugar

This went into a plastic bag and sat in the fridge overnight.  

Yesterday, once it was time to cook, I preheat the oven to 530F.  I prepared the glaze for the pork and then poured half of it over the tenderloin then saved the other half for later.  

The glaze was made of the following:

jalapeños

garlic powder

hot sauce

honey

lime

apricot preserves

I put the pork on some aluminum foil on a baking sheet and cooked it in the oven for 5 minutes.  Then turned off the oven, WITHOUT OPENING IT **this is very important**, I let it sit for another hour.  Once the hour passed, I removed it from the oven and let it sit for around 5-10 minutes.  

While the pork was sitting, I started the potatoes.  I used red potatoes since that's what I had and cut them into chunks.  I let them sit in some water to remove some starch and then boiled them until soft, about 12 minutes.  

The ingredients that go into the potatoes were:

potatoes

spicy mustard

basil

eggs

salt

pepper

balsamic

olive oil

While the potatoes were cooking, I fried the eggs and then sliced them.  I also chopped the basil and mixed the liquid ingredients together in a bowl with salt and pepper to taste.  The ratio of vinegar to olive oil is the same as making a dressing, about 1:3.  This can also be done to taste though depending on how tart you like it.  

Also, while things were cooking, I began wilting the spinach.  This doesn't take long at all and is incredibly simple.  I didn't use any oil, to keep it lower cal and just added spinach to my hot pan a handful at a time.  As it began to wilt, I added more until both bunches were cooked.  This finished at about the same time as the potatoes so then I just kept the stove on low for heat.  At this point, I added salt and pepper. 

Finally, once the pork was done, I removed it from the oven and let it sit.  

While it was sitting, I put together the potato salad.  I poured the liquids that were already prepared onto the potatoes and then sprinkled the eggs and basil on top.  Then with a wooden spoon, I lightly tossed the mixture together, making sure the eggs didn't fall apart.  Make sure you time this so it finishes with your entree b/c you want to serve the potatoes warm.  They soak up a lot more of the dressing this way also.  

Final product: 

 

To top the pork, I heated up the previously preserved glaze and then strained it of the jalapeños, pouring it on top of the pork.  The nice part about this glaze is that it had so much spice and flavor, it worked well with the tartness of the potatoes.  This is also why I chose not to add too many flavors to the spinach b/c I didn't want an overkill of flavor combinations.  The spinach was a good "neutralizer" for the other two.