Ode To Balsamic

This week, I re-learned a lesson I've been taught many times before: Balsamic Vinegar Rules.

I had a couple of small pork tenderloins in the fridge - it's one of our favorite meats. It's lean but juicy and flavorful, as well as tender, quick-cooking and versatile. My Beloved was out working that day so I planned a really nice dinner on his return. I wanted to do something different (well, different for us) with them, and I hatched the idea of a sort of pseudo-teriyaki treatment that would be grilled outdoors to celebrate our nice, warm weather of late.

So, after lunch I got out soy sauce, powdered ginger (didn't have any fresh), sugar, black pepper, a lemon, and then thought, "Wait!  Balsamic vinegar would be great in this!"  And it was.

I mixed those ingredients together very much by the seat of my pants - no measuring, just dump and stir and sample until it tasted a little more pungent than I wanted the finished dish to taste, poured it all into a zippered baggie and put in the two tenderloins.

Right about then, I got a call that My Beloved would be taking a visiting sales manager out to dinner. I didn't want to cook it all just for myself, so I stuffed it back into the fridge and had a peanut butter sandwich for dinner.

The tenderloin wallowed in the marinade for another full day. In the meantime, my Fairy Godson called to say he was coming up from LA for a visit. Perfect timing!  What would have been too much for My Beloved and me to finish was just about the right amount for three. We stoked up the grill, laid corn on the cob and the tenderloins on the grates, turned them all about three times, and about 20 minutes later, we sat down to eat.

You can see from the photo that the tenderloins were juicy and slightly pink in the middle. One of the reasons I like cooking tenderloins is that the thin end gets a little more done than the thicker middle, so those who fear undercooked pork are relieved and those of us who are willing to risk it get what we like, too.  

The marinade reminded me of Hawaii, but it was less sweet and more tangy than true teriyaki.  The smoky crust complemented the tender middle. At the risk of hyperbole, I'd say the balsamic vinegar sang through the rest of the ingredients like a theme through a symphony. It reminded me once again that Balsamic Rocks.