Pork Medallions in Peppercorn Sauce

My parents came for a visit on Friday. They were coming in late, but my Mom said she wanted a blog-worthy meal so we had a late dinner. I made these Pork Medallions with Peppercorn Sauce from the Williams-Sonoma Cook Book . They were a little fancy and I served them with steamed green beans and asparagus and a spec-tacular arugula salad with raspberries and breaded goat cheese which I'll post another day.

Here's what I learned: when a cook book says coarsely cracked peppercorns, they don't mean hit some whole peppercorns in a ziploc bag with a hammer. My pepper mills don't have adjustable grind settings, so I had to crack the peppercorns some other way. I tried the bottom of a pan, a mug, a rolling pin, a food processor, and a hammer. Ultimately I used about four times the amount of peppercorns the recipe called for because they stuck to the pork so easily, and we wound up scraping most of them off before eating the pork. Well, my Dad** didn't, but I have a pretty high tolerance for spicy food (I enjoy a good curry sweat) and I was scraping them off, so I think he was just trying to act tough (love ya, Dad). Also, cooking peppercorns have pretty strong fumes. I was pan frying the medallions when my parents arrived and they immediately started coughing when they came in the door. I'm sure this happens to professional chefs all the time.

The recipe insinuated that green pepper corns were likely to be packed in brine. Mine were dried, and I added some red ones too for colour. This seemed to work fine. Other than that, I made this recipe straight from the book. I made way too much thinking that everyone would need three medallions. Most of us ate two. After scraping away a few pepper corns, this was a really tasty and pretty easy dish. I would make it again in a heartbeat. We made sandwiches with the leftovers on Saturday which were also quite tasty.

Tip: the skinny end of the pork tenderloin didn't exactly a medallion make, so I chopped it up and added it to a bag of frozen chopped pork that I'll use to make souvlaki (recipe forthcoming) to prevent waste.

Okay, that's enough talk. Here's the recipe:

Pork Medallions in Peppercorn Sauce
From the Williams-Sonoma Cook Book

Ingredients:
8 pork tenderloin medallions (cut from pork tenderloins), trimmed of excess fat
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp coarsely cracked black peppercorns
1 1/2 tsp coarsely cracked white peppercorns
Kosher salt
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 large shallot, minced
2 tbsp green peppercorns, drained if packed in brine (I subbed half with red peppercorns)
3 tbsp Cognac
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 cup low-sodium beef stock reduced to 1/2 cup

Instructions:
1. Place a baking dish in the oven and preheat to 150 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Dry medallions with paper towel and rub with oil. Let rest 15 minutes.
3. In a shallow dish, press both sides of pork into peppercorns until well coated.
4. Salt one side of medallions and cook them salted-side-down in a large pan over medium-high heat without moving for about 2 1/2 minutes.
5. Salt the tops and flip the medallions cooking for about another minute. Reduce the heat to very low and continue to cook until firm to the touch (about 2 more minutes).
6. Transfer meat to baking dish and return to oven.
7. Wipe out pan with paper towel and add butter and shallot to pan. Cook over medium-high for a couple of minutes.
8. Add peppercorns and cook for another minute.
9. Return meat to pan with any juices and add cognac. Gently shake the pan for one minute.
10. Add cream and broth and simmer for another minute while spooning sauce over meat.
11. Serve topped with extra sauce.


Pairs nicely with a glass of chardonnay and a hood fan.

**Happy Father's Day!