Pork Tenderloin Medallions in Mushroom Cream Sauce

Serves 4-8 people

Prep time: 20 minutes
Total cooking time: 90-120 minues

You'll need a big pot, preferably a dutch oven, and a few containers while cooking. Also a container you can shake a liquid in. If your Half&Half came in something with a screw top this will work, so will any kind of clean screw-top jar.

Ingredients:

1 Pork Tenderloin (2-4lbs), cut into 2 inch thick slices
1 Pint of Half&Half
2 Trays of fresh Mushrooms, quartered or sliced
A heat resistant oil (canola is my go-to) and/or Butter
All purpose flour
Red wine
1 Tablespoon dried Herbes de Provence (savory, thyme, rosemary, sage)
1 Tablespoon paprika
1 Tablespoon dried garlic powder
Sea salt and fresh/coarse ground black pepper to taste

Something to serve it over: Pasta, rice, mashed potatoes, or steamed vegetables.

Method:

Leave out the half&half at this point, you want it to be closer to room temperature when you need it.

Salt and pepper your tenderloin medallions evenly.

Heat your choice of fat to medium-high heat in your pot and sear the medallions so they get nice and browned.

In the meantime clean/cut your mushrooms, make sure they are not covered in water and salt and pepper them.

Remove the browned medallions from the pot and store them in something, it doesn't matter if they are raw inside as long as they got a nice surface color.

Add your mushrooms, and possibly more fat to your pot if it is dry. Stir until they have released most of their liquid, then add a small glass of red wine and all the herbs/garlic powder/paprika. Deglaze the pot with the liquid you now have in it to get all the flavors and to avoid burning anything.

Turn the heat off and wait until the pot stops bubbling. Then wait another couple of minutes. Start to slowly add the half&half while stirring in the same spot. You want to temper the liquids by adding just a little half&half to begin with and then gradually add more until its all in the pot. If the temperature is too off, it will coagulate and look kind of grainy (but still taste good).

Turn the heat back on to low and start slowly heating the pot up again, make sure everything is mixed evenly in it.

Add some cold water to a shaker/jar/half&half carton and a few spoon fulls of flour to that. Close up the container and shake it vigorously until you have an even slurry. If it separates before you need it, shake it again before you use it.

When the pot is once again bubbling a little (but not boiling!), start slowly stirring in your slurry to thicken to your preference. Be careful how much you use, it will continue to thicken when simmering and turn into jello if you use too much and the only remedy is more liquid (red wine or water.)

Add the meat and its juices back to the pot and cook everything on low until the meat is at least 150F in the middle and looks fully cooked inside. Stir occasionally, it should probably take another 30-60 minutes for the meat to cook. Prepare what ever you are serving it over now.

Enjoy!