Pork Tenderloin with Figs & Polenta

I cannot reduce sauces. I boiled the crap out of this sauce and still couldn't get it to the consistency required. This isn't the first time, but this time I didn't have the energy to fake it and add a corn starch mixture so at least it looked like I knew what I was doing. If you have any advice, I'm all ears.

Ok, let's move on to this dish's evaluation. This is my first experiment with instant polenta (only had the ready-made produced before) and I liked the result. I would guess my reaction had something to do with the pound of parmesan I added to it, but let's not begrudge our perky polenta. Searing the tenderloin definitely helps retain more moisture, so my resulting pork was lovely. The red wine sauce and fig combination was also notable. I deviated from the recipe for a few reasons: one, it was in Polish. Thanks Google translator for getting most of the recipe converted to English, but there were a few key areas where I had to guess what was happening next. Two: I couldn't get my hands on any fresh figs. Caramelizing dried figs didn't sound like a good fit, so I ended up sautéing them with onions, which was a decent trade off. Two thumbs up from this end. Hope you enjoy this entree too!

Adapted from: http://zmagazynu.blogspot.kr/

Serves 4

Ingredients

Pork Tenderloin

• 350 g pork tenderloin sliced into four steaks
• salt and pepper to season
• 1 T olive oil

Fig & Onion Melee

• 4 dried figs, halved
• half an onion
• 1 T olive oil

Sauce

• 1/4 cup dry red wine
• 2 T red wine vinegar
• 1 T balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 T sugar
• 1 1/2 cup beef stock
• Pepper to season

Polenta

• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/3 cup polenta
• 1/4 cup parmesan
• 1 T mascarpone cheese
• 1 t olive oil
• salt to season

For the Pork

Preheat the oven to 350F. In a skillet, heat the olive oil. Season the pork well with salt and pepper and set aside for 15 minutes. Place in the heated skillet, searing each side for about 2-3 minutes. Place in a baking dish, in the oven for about 10 minutes.

For the Melee

Heat the oil in a skillet on medium heat. Add the onions and saute for a minute. Combine the figs, mixing well until they soften, about 4 minutes.

For the Sauce

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil until the sauce has thickened and is about a third of the original volume. Add the figs and onions to the sauce before serving.

For the Polenta

Bring the milk and water to a boil. Slowly pour in the polenta, stirring continuously. Once the polenta is added, turn off the heat and add the parmesan and mascarpone. Finally, add the olive oil and season with a little salt.