The F1 Circus Moves to Portugal
The third Formula 1 weekend of 2021-22 sees the championship move to Portugal. I have a few cooks planned this week that I am really looking forward to but I started with Febras assadas (Portuguese barbecued pork). This is a really quick and simple cook.
I didn’t have this cooked planned for this week and stumbled on this dish last weekend whilst doing some research. It looked pretty simple to do and as I had planned a Pork Tenderloin cook for this week I thought it would be a good midweek dish to try.
Preparation and Cook
The first thing to do on this cook is preparing your pork. I took the tenderloin, sliced it in half lengthways and then sliced again so I had 4 pieces of pork. Next, using a meat tenderizer I flattened them out to around 1/2 cm each.
Now I moved on to preparing the marinade, which was a simple case of mixing the ingredients together in a bowl and then adding the pork. I let them marinate for around 1.5 hours (I think less would have been better).
Next, I got the BBQ up to heat. I used the Char-broil 4600S for this cook, and it was a case of cooking the pork for 3 minutes on each side. Finally, I plated and served with Celeriac Chips.
The Verdict
This was a relatively late cook in terms of prep and planning. I chose it because it looked simple, which is ideal for a weekday cook after work. The pork was really tender with some lovely grill marks, but there was too much of a wine taste on the meat. I think the way to resolve this would be to reduce the marinating time which would really help with the overall taste.
Febras assadas
Ingredients
- 1 500g Pork Tenderloin
- 1 Juice and Rind of a Lemon
- 1 tsp Smokey Paprika
- 180 ml White Wine
- 1 tbsp Olive Oil
Instructions
- Start by preparing your Pork. Cut in half lengthways and then cut each piece into 2 equal pieces.
- Wrap each piece of Pork in clingfilm. Using a meat tenderizer, 'bash' the meat until it is about ½ cm thick.
- Now prepare the marinade by mixing the Lemon Rind, Lemon Juice, Paprika, White Wine and Olive Oil in a bowl before adding the Pork.
- I marinated for 1½ hours but I would recommend reducing this to ½ to ¾ of an hour.
- When your BBQ is up to cooking temperature, place the Pork on the grill, directly above the coals if using charcoal.
- Cook for 3 minutes before flipping and then do another 3 minutes on the other side. Use an Instant-Read Thermometer to check the temperature rather than going solely on time. You are looking for a temp around 70°C.
- Remove from the BBQ and let the Pork rest for a couple of minutes before plating up. I then served these with some Celeriac Chips.
