Grilled Marinated Pork Tenderloin with Dijon Mustard Sauce by Tom

Moist and juicy, flavored with soy sauce, ginger, mustard, honey and garlic

This is a recipe that we got from my mother, who got it from my sister Gretchen after she made it when her son graduated from high school many, many years ago.  But Gretchen clarified that she got it originally from my other sister Susi, so it has actually been in the family for a long time.  We had made many marinated pork tenderloins over the years, but never this one exactly.

We pulled the recipe card out of the recipe card box and had planned to make it for our friend Cindy, who was coming over for dinner.  Because we wanted leftovers for later in the week, I actually bought a Family Pack of pork tenderloins at Wegman's, which contained four tenderloins. However Cindy got sick and had to cancel her plans.  So I now had four tenderloins marinating, which was about three too many.

So here is what we did.  I grilled one, and we individually froze the other three along with a little bit of the marinade added to each freezer bag.  This was an experiment to see how frozen marinated pork tenderloins would work and taste.  Bottom line, it worked out just fine.  The thawed tenderloins tasted as good as the originally unfrozen tenderloin.

---Tom

Grilled Marinated Pork Tenderloin

(from Tom's mother who got it from Gretchen who got it from Susi)

Serves 12

Ingredients:
4 pork tenderloins

Marinade

1 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup oil
1 tbsp. ginger
3 tbsp. honey
1 tbsp. Dijon mustard
1-2 cloves garlic, crushed

Dijon Mustard Sauce
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tbsp. Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp Worcestershire sauce 

Mix all of the marinade ingredients in a small bowl.  Do the same for the Dijon mustard sauce in a separate small bowl.  Refrigerate until ready to use as a sauce with the grilled meat.

Place the pork tenderloins in a glass dish and pour the marinade over them.  Cover and refrigerate over night.  Turn the pork tenderloins over about midway through the marinating to insure they are completely marinated.

If you are not going to cook all of the pork tenderloins, place the pork tenderloin in a freezer bag.  Add 1/2 cup of the marinade, or enough to coat it very well.  Squeeze out as much of the air in the freezer bag as you can as you are sealing the bag.  The best way to do this is to roll the tenderloin in the bag and seal the bag at the end after rolling it.  Place in the freezer.

When you want to cook the frozen pork tenderloin, remove from the freezer and place in the refrigerator so that you are defrosting it slowly.  This will take most of the day.

To grill, heat your grill on high heat.  Place the pork tenderloin on the hot grill and do one side for 7 minutes.  Then turn over and grill the other side for 6 minutes.  Now turn off the grill and cook with no heat for another 5 minutes.  

Remove to a cutting board and let it rest for 10 minutes before slicing.

When the grill was off under the pork tenderloin, I grilled asparagus to complement our meal.

Put a dollop of the Dijon mustard sauce on the plate, and add to your meat as you wish.  This pork tenderloin is good with or without the dipping sauce.

---Tom