Comments on: Moroccan-Style Pork Tenderloin

By: Greg

Greg — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 18:05:54 +0000

Matt–I think I know where you were going when you shared this recipe. For me, it is not necessarily the authenticity of the dish itself (i.e. in the case the use of pork) but the authenticity of the spirit and technique of the recipe. I love the way Moroccan recipes so skillfully combine the sweet with the savory. Unfortunately as the recipe appears in San Francisco Flavors, I don’t think they’ve done justice to the technique.

I too have used pork in Moroccan-influenced dishes. To the above ingredients I have added 1t allspice, 1t ground cumin, 1t ground ginger, 1t kosher salt, 1/2t ground cinnamon, 1/2t ground coriander, and 1/2t cayenne pepper and 1 well-ripened pear and a bit of pear juice. I omitted the red pepper flakes. I have prepared this both in a slow cooker or in a low-heat oven.

If you don’t like pears, I find you can substitute other fruits in their place. Apricots are found in many Moroccan recipes; but again, the spirit of the cooking allows you to use a sweet fruit that you like – it gets balanced so nicely by the deep rich flavours of the spices!

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 01:49:42 +0000

I wonder if I had made a post about Italian Spaghetti and Meatballs if it would have generated so much controversy (well, relatively speaking). But I really do appreciate learning more about Moroccan cuisine and this has definitely given me the opportunity to do so.

In the future I’ll have to take a little closer look at recipe titles before I post them on here. Somehow the connection between Morocco and pork didn’t seem suspect to me when I first saw it.

And, as a sort of penance, I bought a copy of Arabesque and hope to make some Moroccan recipes out of it once I return from Florida. So look for them in the coming weeks (and I’d appreciate knowing how authentic those recipes are).

By: moroccanlamps

moroccanlamps — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 23:27:43 +0000

lol, I’m Moroccan this is the first time in my life that I hear Moroccan pork tenderloin that like saying Chinese French fries or German tacos. It’s probably off the homework of a chef when he had to do his own dish in culinary school. Moroccans don’t eat pork only the very small number of people maybe less than 1%, maybe the included Moroccan spices with pork and that about it. This is a website that contains Moroccan recipes http://www.moroccan-recipes.com/

By: Andysnat

Andysnat — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 00:15:28 +0000

I just noticed this recipe on the wordpress start page, and had to comment about the obvious oddness about having Moroccan and Pork in the same recipe.

I lived in Rabat for a few years, and there are a few pork butchers around, but very few. I’ve eaten bacon in Maroc, (at the American club of all places) and it was nice to have the opportunity.

As to the recipe, I would want to add some dried apricots, some toasted almond slices, saffron and coriander (I think you Americans call coriander “Cilantro”) to get a truly authentic flavour, and I’d probably use lamb rather than pork.

Moroccan cuisine is excellent, and I miss it a lot.

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 22:06:57 +0000

atw, I agree with you. I didn’t really think much of it when I made the recipe the other day but in some ways I wish I had. I merely reproduced the recipe title as it was presented in the cookbook. It was, however, pretty good.

Of course, I did have a Jewish friend that celebrated Passover with ham . It was actually a combination Passover/Easter dinner and he wasn’t what I would describe as observant.

By: atw

atw — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 20:23:29 +0000

Monica is right and I had the same reaction…Moroccans don’t eat pork let alone have a recipe for one. This is the equivalent of claiming that a Jewish recipe includes bacon or, for that matter, pork.

By: Kat

Kat — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 18:32:49 +0000

This looks so good I’m making it tonight…!

And in regards to the title, I think that that is why it is called “Moroccan-Style Pork Tenderloin” not “Moroccan Pork Tenderloin”. It’s a little verbal trick, see?

In any case, I’m willing the clock to move faster just so I can be sitting down to this! I’m going to mix things up even more by making it with green beans…

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 16:52:00 +0000

Monica, I think you might be right. I was just reproducing the name of the recipe as it appeared in the cookbook. The recipe claims that cumin and garlic are traditional Moroccan seasonings. I have no idea how accurate that really is. There does appear to be a small Christian minority (1% of population) that could be the source of the pork recipe.

I’d also think the Moroccan climate would be conducive to raising pigs as the rest of the Mediterranean area is (i.e. Spain and Italy) and I wouldn’t see a reason Morocco wouldn’t be. I’m not particularly familiar with the climate there so I could be wrong.

By: monica

monica — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 15:46:42 +0000

something didn’t sit right with me when i saw the title to this, and after a few seconds i realized that i had never seen any pork products mixed with the word “moroccan.” morocco is mainly a muslim country so they don’t eat pork, but it doesn’t matter since the climate isn’t condusive to raising pigs anyway. i suppose SF flavors is trying to mix things up, putting some warmer spices with pork, which usually works well. but for some reason it still makes me uneasy, the same way it makes me uneasy to see someone putting cheese on shellfish. regardless, it looks tasty, i just wish that the name of the dish was different. (especially since the spices don’t seem particularly essential to moroccan cooking anyway)

By: Loopykd

Loopykd — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 04:38:30 +0000

That looks delicious. I’ll definitely try it. I recently made some tenderloin from Paula Dean that was really wonderful. It marinates in soy, ginger, honey, garlic and brown sugar. We also love tenderloin because we are 3 and it fits us perfectly.