Apple Brandy-Glazed Pork Tenderloin

Cooking with booze. I'm sure there's a cookbook by this name. And if there isn't, I might have just discovered my next million dollar idea. A few weeks ago, I decided to make this dish, which was featured in one of my holiday issues of Cooking Light. Anyone who reads my blog knows I'm a big fan of pork. And apples. And alcohol. So why not combine the three?

This was a simple recipe but the hardest thing for me to find was brandy. I eventually had to go to one of the higher-price liquor stores to find it and I only had one option for purchase, so this is what I went with. I apologize for the lack of food photo on this, but I made this around the time I spent the better part of a week trying to get my new iPhone fully functional, so I'm guessing the picture got lost during one of many attempted backups. So you'll just have to settle for a picture of booze. With this crowd, I doubt this is that disappointing.

But to be honest, I wasn't crazy about this recipe. It was a little on the bland side for me (I was more interested in the roasted fingerling potatoes I served with it!) So now I have all this brandy...so this won't be the last of my "cooking with booze" posts.

Apple Brandy-Glazed Pork Tenderloin (serves 6)

Ingredients:

3 cups unfiltered apple cider

1/2 cup brandy

3 thyme sprigs

1 large shallot, sliced

2 TB butter

2 tsp. Dijon mustard

1/2 tsp. kosher salt, divided

1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper, divided

1 1/2 lbs. pork tenderloin, trimmed

Cooking spray

Directions:

Combine first cider, brandy, thyme and shallot in a saucepan; bring to a boil. Cook until reduced to 1/2 cup (about 30 minutes). Remove from heat; discard thyme and shallot. Stir in butter, mustard, 1/8 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.

Preheat oven to 475°.

Sprinkle pork evenly with remaining 3/8 teaspoon salt and remaining 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Lightly coat with cooking spray. Place pork in a roasting pan; bake at 475° for 9 minutes. Turn pork over; brush evenly with 2 tablespoons cider mixture. Bake an additional 8 minutes or until thermometer inserted in the thickest portion of pork registers 140°. Let pork stand for 10 minutes.

Slice pork, and serve with remaining sauce.