Blackened Pork Tenderloin

Make sure you have a good ventihood for this one because it can get pretty smokey when you sear the tenderloin if you use anything other than clarified butter. The clarified butter doesn't smoke as bad. I got this recipe when I took the Viking Cooking School on my bachelorette trip. Below is verbatim from the book given to us in class. 

Blackening is not a traditional Cajun technique, but it has become synonymous with contemporary Cajun cuisine. Invented by Chef Paul Prudhomme at the world famous Commander’s Palace restaurant in New Orleans, the technique has been widely imitated, expanding from his original blackened redfish dish to a variety of meats and seafood. The traditional preparation calls for using whole butter and extremely high heat, which produces giant clouds of smoke. To cut back not the billowing fumes, our recipe calls for clarified butter. If you do use whole butter, try cooking outdoors or on a stove with a professional exhaust hood turned on high. 

1 (1 pound) pork tenderloin

2 tablespoons clarified butter*

1/2 recipe Blackened Seasoning (You can use the one I posted which is the one the recipe calls for or you can use your own)

1 recipe Creole mustard sauce ( Will post this recipe)

Directions: 1. Preheat the oven to 400°F, Trim the tenderloin, removing all fat and silverskin. Coat the tenderloin with clarified butter, then season generously and evenly on all sides with Blackened seasoning. 2. Place a cast iron skillet ( or heavy-bottomed sauté pan) over high heat until smoking hot. Sear the pork on all sides until a dark brown crust forms, about 3 minutes per side. The pork should be lightly charred. If necessary, transfer the whole pan to the oven and finish cooking until an instant read thermometer registers 140° for medium-rare (or 150°F for medium). 3. Remove the tenderloin front the pan and place on a carving board: tent loosely with aluminum foil and rest for 5 to 10 minutes (this part is really important…the pork with continue to cook during this time without burning it in the oven) 4. Slice the tenderloin into thick medallions. Serve hot or cold with the Creole Mustard Sauce.**

Tips and Techniques:

* To clarify butter: It is simply pure butterfat which has had the milk solids removed in order to raise the smoke point while maintaining rich butter flavor. To clarify butter, melt the butter in a heat sauce pan over medium-low heat. COntinue cooking until the butter fat becomes very clear and the milk solids drop to the bottom of the pot. Skim the surface foam as the butter clarifies. Ladle off the butter fat into another container, being careful to leave all the milky residue in the bottom of the pan. It is much easier to clarify at least one point of butter at a time. One point of whole butter yields approximately 12 ounces of clarified butter.

**Select Cajun and creole ingredients are available in specialty markets or in the spice section of many grocery stores.