You gotta have a gimmick--Chipotle Pork Medallions

Chipotle Pork Medallions
The Spaghetti Sauce Gourmet Copyright 2006

1 pork tenderloin (about 1 ½ pounds)
1 tablespoon ground chipotle chile
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ cup chicken broth
1 ½ cups refrigerated or jarred tomato sauce with garlic and onion

Slice the pork crosswise into ¼-inch thick medallions. Dust all over with the chipotle chile.

Heat the oil in a large over medium-heat. Add the pork (in batches, if necessary) and cook, turning once, until the pork is no longer pink, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Transfer the pork to a platter and cover with foil to keep warm.

Add the broth to the pan and boil, scraping the pan bottom. Reduce the heat to medium and stir in the sauce and any pork juices from the platter. Simmer for 5 minutes. Serve over the pork.
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This is one of those cookbooks with a gimmick. Every recipe uses some sort of jarred spaghetti sauce, alfredo sauce, pesto sauce, and cheese sauce. From scratch recipes are also given as alternative to the jarred sauces.

Even the cover is a gimmick - it was designed to look like a real jar of sauce (sort of) with a plastic area filled with a goo that looks like spaghetti sauce. Only trouble was, the goo leaked or dried up which is probably why I found this book in Ollie's Bargain Outlet.

I have to say, that for a book with a gimmick, there are some good looking recipes in this book. They're well presented with plenty of photos. Other shortcuts are offered but are easily bypassed if you desire (recipes call for prechopped onion, jarred garlic, etc).

This recipe appealed to me because I had a jar of ground chipotle chile that I was itching to use and most recipes call for canned chipotle. This was pretty good but the seasoning from the jarred sauce was a bit overpowering. This might have been better with a plain tomato sauce or seasoned tomato sauce (canned), not a jarred pasta sauce. I ended up adding quite a bit of the chipotle powder to increase the smokiness so it was quite hot yet strangely addictive. That's the draw of chipotle though, isn't it?

The sauce worked okay with the pork but I sort of felt like it wasn't the best match for the sauce. I might have preferred this with chicken.

Blast From The Past: Maple Walnut Cupcakes from September 2006. I meant to post those as the Blast From The Past on the first day of fall but I forgot.

Question of the Day: Do you like spicy hot foods?