Fig Chili Glazed Pork Tenderloin and Colcannon My Way

I love fig jam so much. I love it with cheese and I love it straight off the spoon but I really love to cook with it. The high sugar content means lots of yummy caramelization and that makes it a wonderful thing to baste roasted meats with. I kept seeing this recipe everywhere. I sweat to god, if you google pork tenderloin fig jam, this comes up on a bazillion web sites so I figured it must be pretty good. Since it was also Halloween, I made colcannon to go with it and although it might not be the first side dish that comes to mind when making a spicy figgy bit of pork, it was actually quite delicious together and was happily gobbled up and gave some nice, starchy substance to line the tummy in preparation for a candy assault after dinner. Just because I can, this was what left my house after polishing off a big plate of pork and colcannon. I don't know you, but I like to keep my evil demon necromancers happy. He looks pretty cheery, no?

I used less hot sauce than the original recipe called for and then turned it into a pan sauce at the end because we really like a nice pan sauce in this house. I am going to use the rest of the sauce with a bunch of chicken thighs tomorrow because it's way too tasty to waste and I think it would make a fabulous pulled chicken sandwich. It's either that or I just eat with a spoon like soup. This one is absolutely a keeper and will go into the regular dinner rotation in this house.

Fig Glazed Pork Tenderloin
adapted from this recipe at cooking light

1/2 cup fig jam
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1 tsp siracha
1 tbls soy sauce
pinch salt

2 pork tenderloins
olive oil
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
fresh thyme

1 shallot, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup chicken stock


Preheat the oven to 375F

Rub the pork with some olive oil and sprinkle with kosher salt and a few grinds of black pepper and the leaves from a few stalks of fresh thyme. Heat an oven proof pan over med high heat and brown the tenderloins on all sides.

Brush the top with some of the fig mixture and pop it in the oven. Baste with some more of the fig mixture every five or six minutes until the pork is 145F, or probably about 15-20 minutes, depending on the size of your tenderloins.

When it's done, take it out, put it on a serving platter or cutting board and tent it loosely with foil and let it sit for ten minutes while you finish the sauce.

Put the pan you roasted it in on the burner, over med heat.
MAKE SURE TO WEAR AN OVEN MITT OR USE A THICK KITCHEN TOWEL TO HANDLE THE PAN BECAUSE THE HANDLE WILL BE SMOKING HOT FROM THE OVEN AND YOU WILL BURN THE CRAP OUT OF YOUR HAND NOT THAT I WOULD KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THAT BUT I HAVE HEARD THAT THIS CAN OCCUR.
Anyway, throw in the minced shallot and garlic into the pan and saute it around for a minute and then throw in about 1/4 cup of chicken stock to deglaze the pan.  When you have all the good bits stirred up off of the bottom , throw in the leftover fig jam stuff and stir it around and bring it to a boil. After it cooks for a couple of minutes add the other 1/4 cup stock and let it come back to a boil before taking it off the heat.
This will be your yummy sauce that you will pour over the pork after you slice it up. If it's too thick, feel free to add a bit more chicken stock, it's up to you how you like it.

We make colcannon with all sorts of greens. Traditionally it's made with cabbage or kale and we love it with both of those greens but we also love swiss chard. I am really lucky that my kid loves all of these healthy, leafy greens so we can mix it up when we feel like it and he will still love it. I do like to add a sweet potato because it adds some nice colour and sweet potatoes are healthier than plain old potatoes so I feel like the sweet potato sort of cancels out all the butter.

Colcannon My Way

3 big Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into big chunks
1 sweet potato, peeled and cut into chunks
kosher salt
about 3 cups of washed, chopped swiss chard
about 4 or 5 tbls butter plus more to serve
3/4 cup milk
salt and pepper



Put the potatoes and yams in a pot of cold water and add a big pinch of kosher salt. Bring to a boil and cook until really soft. Drain and set aside for a minute.
On a burner over med heat, throw the butter in the pot that you cooked the potatoes in (you have dumped out all of the water of course) and when it melts, add the swiss chard and stir that around and cook it for about 4 or 5 minutes until it's nice and soft and pretty much cooked. At that point, add the milk and bring to a boil before you put the drained potatoes and  yam back in with the chard. Get your masher and mash the potatoes. I like my mashed potatoes to have a tiny bit of texture but if you like them in another bowl before adding them to the milky, buttery greens and just mix it up really well.
Salt and pepper to taste.
To serve, mound a serving of potatoes on each plate and make a little well in the middle to which you will add a nice little pat of butter so that it will get all melty and delicious.