Week 10: NE Patriots vs. Indianapolis Colts- Pork Tenderloin Sandwich

I had never heard of a pork tenderloin sandwich before yesterday, but appearently its a big midwestern favorite. In fact there was even a documentary made, In Search of the Famous Hoosier Breaded Tenderloin, where the filmmakers were on a mission to find the perfect one. It is a sandwich made of either tenderloin or pork loin that has been tenderized by a meat mallet, breaded using either cornmeal or crushed saltines and fried, and dressed as you would a burger- with ketchup, mayo, mustard, lettuce, pickles, tomatoes, and/or onion.

We rarely eat fried food, so at first I wasn't sure I wanted to make this, but I couldn't find much else that I could make, and honestly, it just sounded good! And it was. I found lots of recipes but decided to go with one from allrecipes. I couldn't decided between using cornmeal or crackers, so I went with both. I also saw some dipped in egg rather than water, but I choose to stay with the water, and as this particular recipe called for, we used the pork loin. Ours two pieces came already butterflied, so we just pounded them out and cut them each in half, before proceeding. As written, this makes much more breading than neccesary and I used way less oil than the orginal called for. These were really yummy, but obviously not something I intend on making often, due to the fact its fried. I did see there is a healthier version that is grilled, so we may give that a try in the future.

slightly adapted from allrecipes.com, makes 4 sandwiches
1 pound boneless pork loin (ours was already cut and butterflied)
1 cup flour
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal (or 1/2 cup of crushed saltines, or a mix of both)
sea salt and fresh ground pepper
oil for cooking
4 large sandwich buns
choice of fixings: mayo, mustard, ketchup, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, and onion

Cut 4 1-inch slices of pork. Trim any exterior fat from edges and butterfly each slice by cutting horizontally through the middle almost to the edge so that the halves are connected by only a think piece of meat. Put each butterflied slice between pieces of plastic wrap. Using a wooden meat mallet, or the side of a cleaver, pound vigorously until the slice is about 10 inches across. (Since ours was already cut in two pieces and butterflied, we just trimmed it, pounded it, and then cut it so we had four pieces.)

Mix flour, cornmeal and/or crushed crackers, and garlic powder together in a shallow bowl. Add water to another. Dip the pork into the water, then dredge it through the flour mixture. Proceed with all four pieces. (We had a lot of extra breading leftover.)

Heat 1/2 inch of oil in deep, heavy skillet (I only used about 1/4 inch) and fry pork, turning once until golden brown on both sides, about 5 minutes total. Drain on paper towels and season with salt and pepper. Serve on buns (we toasted ours) with desired condiments and toppings.