Ingredients:
Preheat oven to 325. Toast ancho in oven for 5 - 8 minutes. Remove stem, seeds, pith, and tear chile into 1 inch pieces. Place in shallow bowl and cover with boiling water, let it soak for 15 - 20 minutes, until soft. Lift chile from water and puree in blender, adding soaking water as necessary. The intensity of the ancho chile flavor in the sauce will increase as you use more of the soaking liquid. Place dried cherries in a separate bowl with lemon juice. Cover with 1 ¼ cups hot water and soak for 15 minutes. Add cherries to blender with chile and puree, adding some of the cherry soaking water as necessary. Sauce will be fairly thick. Reserve remaining cherry soaking water. Put ancho - cherry mixture in a small sauce pan, stir in ½ tsp sugar, and heat over a low flame. Rinse tenderloins and remove membrane and excess fat. Brown tenderloins in butter in a sauté pan, then place in a baking pan. Deglaze browning pan with cherry soaking water and reduce liquid volume by one half. Stir this into the sauce mixture. Coat tenderloins with some of the sauce and place in 325 degree oven. Baste with more sauce if necessary during the 40 to 50 minute cooking time. Juices from baking can be added to sauce. To serve, cut tenderloins into ¼ inch slices and nap with sauce. Accompany with roasted garlic mashed potatoes, fresh steamed vegetable, and Amador Foothill Sangiovese. Serves four. Leftover pork makes dynamite sandwiches. Leftover sauce is also good on grilled or roasted chicken. |