A couple summers ago my sister shared a recipe with me, Pork in the Style of the Moors, and this dish soon became a favorite. I do not know her source of the recipe but it's provenance is southern Spain, a mixture of Moorish spices and Christian pork. It is quick and easy to put together and is loaded with one of my favorite spices - cumin!
This summer I realized I hadn't been making Pork in the Style of the Moors (seriously, that's how my husband and I refer to it - what a mouthful!) as frequently and wondered why it had fallen out of favor. Flavor was the answer, I realized. I had been making 2 pork tenderloins at a time and switched to using a single one and the spices were now too heavy tasting. I altered the recipe, halving some of the spices and cutting back on the marinating time, and this Moorish-Style Pork is back in the summer grilling rotation!
I have also taken some other liberties with this recipe - firstly, shortening the name! Secondly, the original recipe called for toasting then grinding whole cumin seeds which I did the first time (and no disrespect to serious cooks) but this just didn't make a huge flavor difference to me. I use a very dark and earthy cumin (and more pricey) and I go through it quickly. I also skipped the saffron called for in the recipe but what you don't know you will not miss!
Lastly (I think...), I did not cut the pork tenderloin into small cubes and skewer the meat. Well, I did that technique the first several times but realized the timing on the grill was too short and fussy for me (and I hate overdone pork) so I chose to cut the tenderloin into large chunks (5 or 6) before marinating. Without the skewers I'm also able to move the largest chunks to the hot spots or move the thinner "tail" to a cooler spot which makes for more even cooking results. For pork cooking guidelines please check out my Chipotle Pork post. Middle Eastern-Style Potatoes or Cauli-Couscous are great carb sides with this pork entree and the Pepper Salad is a perfect veggie side, I think.
Moorish-Style Pork
Ingredients:
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 & 1/2 teaspoons sweet paprika
- 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon hot paprika
- 1 teaspoon crushed dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon pressed or minced garlic cloves, about 4-6 cloves
- 1 tablespoon chopped Italian (flat leaf) parsley
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- A pork tenderloin trimmed of fat and silver skin, cut into 4-6 large chunks
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| Oil, garlic, lemon juice and pressed garlic are added to the combined dried spices. |
Putting It Together:
Mix together dried spices in a non-reactive bowl. Add olive oil, pressed garlic cloves, fresh lemon juice and chopped parley and stir together well. Dump in the pieces of pork tenderloin and using your hands, rub the mixture into and all around the meat. Cover the bowl and let rest in the refrigerator a minimum of three hours or overnight.
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| Cover and let meat marinate for three hours to overnight in the refrigerator. |
Half an hour before grilling time, remove the meat from the refrigerator. Cold meat and a hot grill can lead to some serious sticking! I like to lay marinated meat on a cooling rack so that I can push off the extra marinade and/or pieces of the marinade that may burn and add a bitter flavor to the meat. Then spritz both sides with olive oil cooking spray and using a very light hand, sprinkle with salt and pepper and it's ready for the grill.
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| Push off extra marinade, spritz with cooking spray, a very light touch of salt & pepper and it's grill time! |
Trimmed pork tenderloin is a Weight Watcher friendly protein choice. A 2-ounce serving of trimmed and cooked tenderloin is 2 Points, a 3-ounce serving is 3 Points. The above marinade adds negligible extra Points if the pound of pork is divided into 4 or more servings.
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| Moorish-Style Pork, Cauli-Couscous and grilled peppers and onion. |
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