Pork Tenderloin

Editor's Note: This recipe was originally part of a menu by Bobby Flay for a backyard barbecue. My good friend Eddie Rodriguez, a clothing designer (he is the Rodriguez in Wilke-Rodriguez), is my longtime guide to the wonderful world of Cuban flavor. This recipe is my tribute to him. Lime, orange, garlic, cumin, vinegar, and just the right amount of chile heat are, to me, what make Cuban food so irresistible. If you've never tasted a real Cuban mojo, the classic sauce for pork, plantains, and a lot of other staples, prepare to be blown away. I like to grill pork tenderloins, which cook fast and stay juicy. Lean pork tenderloins cook like chicken breasts. They're very simple and very tender, but you have got to get them off the grill before they overcook. As soon as they firm up, they are DONE.

Saturday dinner. From Red Mountain Spa in St. George, Utah. Give lean pork tenderloin a rubdown with executive chef Jim Gallivan's potent adobo chile mix. The spicy bean salsa topper adds fiber but not a lick of fat.

Both the peach relish and the pork benefit from an overnight rest in the refrigerator; the relish mellows in flavor, and the pork becomes even more tender in the fiery marinade.

If you get a package containing two tenderloins of uneven size, you may have to cook the larger one a little longer than the smaller one. Prepare all the sauce ingredients before grilling the pork, then cook it while the pork stands.

Serve this pork on hamburger buns for delicious sandwiches.

This recipe is adapted from George Lang's book The Cuisine of Hungary.

The chutney also works well as an accompaniment to chicken, duck or lamb.

Chinese viceroy Li Hung Chang, visiting San Francisco's Palace Hotel in the 1890s, requested vegetables with a bit of meat "job suey," or "in fine pieces," and chef Joseph Herder obliged.

If you are making the creamed grilled corn and are using a charcoal grill, grill the corn first, then add more briquettes to keep the fire hot while you finish up the corn dish on the stove. Then keep the corn warm, covered, over low heat while grilling the grilled scallions with lemon and pork.

Active time: 10 min Start to finish: 40 min

Each year, some fifteen thousand Iowans enter nearly fifty thousand things in competitions at the State Fair. Categories range from draft horses and monster trucks to quilts and corn-cob mosaics. Of course there are pies and cakes, breads and biscuits, jellies and preserves, plus contests for the ugliest cake, the most creative dough sculpture, and things you can do with breakfast cereal. In 1994 Emma Whitlock of Indianola took first prize in the "Let's Cook Healthy! Iowa Pork" category. Although this isn't a traditional Fair version of pork tenderloins, it's a simple way to give them a sweet twist.

To round out this menu, serve roasted squash, corn muffins and boiled green beans with orange zest. End with vanilla ice cream topped with warm chestnuts in syrup.

Maple syrup brings sweetness and warm color to the pork. Wild rice pilaf, brussels sprouts and a Gewürztraminer would be nice accompaniments.

Velvet restaurant in SoHo serves a pork tenderloin that is the best I've had in this city," says Erika Ferszt of New York, New York."I would like to make it at home."