Oh Honey!

This one comes direct from the table of my Aunt Lucy. So easy and so delicious and so quick. If I had a cockney accent I'd call it a three-fer. You just got to buy yourself a pork tenderloin (which if you happen to be in the vicinity of Manhattan's West Village you can buy at the Florence Meat Market on Jones Street between Bleecker and West 4th. I actually buy a lot of meat there, and put it in the freezer. Very good value!).

So yes, pork tenderloin with honey & sesame. Delicious. The recipe is as follows:

1/2 cup soy
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons fresh ginger (I don't measure it out, I just grate what feels like the right amount of ginger and put it in)
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1/2 cup honey
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 cup sesame seeds

First off marinate the tenderloin ... and no, you don't have to marinate it over night, just for a couple of hours at room temperature. The marinade consists of the soy, the garlic, the ginger and the sesame oil. You can do one of two things: marinate in a bowl, turn and spoon occasionally, or, marinate in a freezer bag, massaging the pork through the bag, making sure that the ginger and the garlic get around.

Then, set out two plates. On one plate put the honey and the brown sugar. On the second plate, lay out the sesame seeds.

Take the tenderloin out of the marinade, which, according to those wiser than me, you have to throw away even if you really don't want to because it smells so good and you're thinking to yourself, "but it's soy, and it's ginger and it's garlic. surely I can keep it." The general wisdom is, you don't keep the marinade. So. Take the tenderloin out of the marinade, pat dry (use a paper towel), and then roll it around in the honey so that every bit of tenderloin has got itself some. It's messy but it's fun (I think anyway), give the tenderloin a good massage, and then move it over to the sesame seed plate, roll it around on that plate 'til the sesame seeds are all over.

Put it in a baking dish, into the oven at 375 degrees F for between 20 and 30 minutes.

Serve it with some Japanese Rice, and, if you like to have a bit of wine with your pork tenderloin, last night we had a pinot noir, recommended by the folks at Gnarly Vines in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. A good companion.