Note: I received free cow cash from Crowd Cow to try some of their products in order to write this post. Opinions are mine alone. This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.
This recipe for Wild Boar Tenderloin with Mushrooms is my first time using wild boar! According to the Crowd Cow website, “Wild Boar meat is similar to domestic pork, but the flavor has a slightly sweet and nutty taste to it, derived from their wild foraging diet. Our Wild Boar Tenderloins are lean with low fat content. Searing, roasting and grilling work well, but be careful not to overcook and dry out these lean cuts of meat.”
To enhance the flavor of the wild boar, I sautéed mushrooms in the same pan that I cooked the meat in with some onions and garlic.
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 (1 lb) wild boar tenderloin
salt and pepper, to taste
2 (8 oz) packages sliced mushrooms
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves, plus more for garnish
I honestly don’t make pork tenderloin much. Unless I’ve slow cooked it, or wrapped it in bacon, I feel like it comes out pretty dry. Which makes it the perfect meat to make using a precision cooker! So since I’ve gotten a precision cooker, this recipe for Sous Vide Herb Crusted Pork Tenderloin has become a staple in my house.
Cooking the pork tenderloin sous vide keeps the meat juicy and tender. Plus, it infuses the meat with whatever herbs you add!
I haven’t posted a beef recipe in quite a while, so I’m happy that the one I’m sharing is absolutely delicious! It’s really simple to make as well! This recipe is from the latest Cooking Light and works great as a weeknight dinner. I paired it with the suggested side, Cilantro-Cumin Quinoa, which was also really tasty.
I found the portion of my steaks to be too big, so the below ingredients is a smaller cut than is shown. The beef tenderloin steaks are topped with a simple bell pepper saute and chipotle butter, so a flavorful dinner is ready in no time!
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil, divided
1/4 cup sliced onion
3 garlic cloves, sliced
1 small red bell pepper, sliced
1 small orange bell pepper, sliced
1/4 cup dry sherry
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
3/8 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
2 (4-ounce) beef tenderloin steaks or 1 (8-ounce) sirloin steak
1 tablespoon butter, softened
1/2 tablespoon finely chopped chipotle chile in adobo sauce
There were a couple of parts to this recipe that made me nervous to try it out: working with fresh ginger and using the broiler. The latter ended up being the more difficult part, but that was due to my all-encompassing fear of burning the beef tenderloin steaks. Overall though, this dish was a lot easier than I made it out to be. I followed this recipe almost exactly, but the original is linked here.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons grated peeled fresh ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons honey
1 1/2 teaspoons lower-sodium soy sauce (or coconut aminos to make gluten free
1/4 teaspoon chili garlic sauce (such as Lee Kum Kee or Huey Fong)
3 (4-ounce) beef tenderloin steaks, trimmed (1 inch thick)
Cooking spray
1/8 teaspoon salt
Hoisin sauce and the chili garlic sauce can be found in the Asian section of your grocery store. Getting to a supermarket for me is kind of a pain but I was able to find the sauce in my corner store.
Before doing anything, preheat your broiler to high. If you’re like me and have zero clue what the broiler even is, chances are it’s within your oven and you just need to press the “broil” setting. Be sure to remove everything from the oven before turning it on.
Broiling is basically the opposite of grilling—the heat source is coming from above instead of below. Because the heat is so high, really keep an eye on anything you are broiling; it can burn very very quickly. Also be sure to have an oven mitt that can withstand high temperatures. The broiler may cause some smoke so be sure to turn your exhaust fan on during cooking. Ok, time to actually start cooking…
Ginger root is much easier to work with than I imagined. It looks so intimidating but I’m glad to have this ingredient on hand—it can be used to treat nausea and is also known to have anti-inflammatory properties. The root can be wrapped in plastic and refrigerated or frozen for long term use.
Boo! …See? Very intimidating
To work with ginger root, use a peeler to peel off the bark-like outer layer for the area you’ll be using. You will begin to smell ginger almost immediately. Yum.
Cut the peeled area off. You can either mince the ginger root with a knife or use a grater. As a warning, the root has a lot of juice to it and can get a bit slippery so be careful of your fingers. I may or may not have lost a piece of ginger when it slipped out of my hands and few across my kitchen. Whoops.
Fresh Grated Ginger
To prepare the hoisin glaze, combine the hoisin sauce, ginger, honey, soy sauce and chili garlic sauce in a small bowl using a whisk to combine. Set this aside.
Hoisin Glaze
The original recipe suggested putting the steaks on a foil-lined broiler pan. I somehow ran out of foil, so I just put them on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray but for cleaning purposes, I’d suggest using the foil. Sprinkle the steaks with salt.
Place the pan into the oven 5 inches from the heat (so 5 inches from the top of the oven… probably around the middle rack). Cook for 2 minutes and turn over. Broil for another 2 minutes and turn steaks over again.
Not that appetizing yet. Just wait…
Brush steaks with half of the glaze and broil for one minute.
Looking better…
Turn the steaks over and brush with the remaining glaze and broil for 2 minutes or until desired degree of doneness.
So, I ended up putting mine in for a good 5ish more minutes, turning the steaks half way through. They came out a bit too rare for me with the original time suggested, but I think this is really up to the person cooking it. I was so fearful that it was going to burn that every 2 minutes I was checking on the steaks, which probably wasn’t helping the whole cooking process.
When it was finally cooked to my liking though, this was one tasty dinner. When making the glaze, I was afraid it might be a bit on the spicy side but it actually ended up having an almost caramelized taste to it, which was a pleasant surprise.
The hoisin glaze would be great on a number of different proteins: chicken, salmon, perhaps even scallops. Using the broiler still makes me a bit nervous though, so I may consider whipping up a batch of this glaze for use on the grill, if it ever warms up in Philadelphia (today is March 28—almost April—and the high is 45. Super.) I hope you enjoy this meal with less stress about broiling than me!
