Sautéed Pork Tenderloin with Prunes

In a small bowl, pour the wine over the prunes and let soak for at least 1 hour or up to overnight.

Trim the silver skin off the tenderloins.

Cut the tenderloins into rounds about 3/4 inch thick. Season the rounds on both sides with salt and pepper.

In a sauté pan just large enough to hold the rounds, heat the olive oil over high heat. When it smokes, add the pork rounds and brown, turning once, for about 3 minutes on each side, or until they feel firm to the touch. If they start to get too brown, turn down the heat.

Transfer the pork rounds to a warmed platter and set aside in a warm spot.

Pour the fat out of the pan.

Drain the prunes, reserving the wine and prunes separately. Measure out 1/2 cup of the wine. Return the pan to high heat and add the 1/2 cup wine and the prunes. Deglaze the pan, scraping up any brown bits on the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon, then stir in the meat glaze, if using. Boil until the wine is reduced by about half; if you have added the glaze, the sauce will develop a lightly syrupy consistency.

Add the cream and boil until reduced to a light sauce consistency. Season with salt and pepper.

Arrange the pork rounds on warmed plates and spoon the sauce and prunes over the top.

Meat Glaze

Meat glaze is made by simmering down (reducing) broth until it has a syrupy consistency. Once you have this glaze on hand, you can use it for making sauces and giving body and flavor to braises and stews. You can reduce meat broth down to about one-fifteenth its original volume, or to a demi-glace, or you can reduce it again by half (about one-thirtieth its original volume) to get glace, or meat glaze. Commercial meat glaze, specifically the excellent More-than-Gourmet brand, is the equivalent of broth that has been reduced to about one-thirtieth of its original volume.To make meat glaze, put 5 quarts beef broth in a pot on the stove top and bring to a gentle simmer. Move the pot slightly off center of the burner and adjust the heat so the liquid bubbles gently on one side (a bubble rises only every second or two). Simmer gently, frequently skimming off the fat and froth as they accumulate with a ladle, until the broth is reduced by about half.

Remove from the heat and strain through a fine-mesh strainer into a smaller pot. Return the broth to the stove top and continue reducing the same way. When it is again reduced by half, strain it into a smaller pot and continue reducing until you have about 2/3 cup.

Transfer to a jar or plastic container, let cool, cover, and refrigerate for up to 3 months or freeze indefinitely. If you prefer to make and use demi-glace, only reduce the broth to 1 1/3 cups and use twice as much in recipes calling for meat glaze.Many cookbooks recommend putting broth in ice-cube trays and freezing it for quick use in sauces and even soups. The problem with this idea is that you need bagfuls of cubes to give body to a sauce or to make a soup. Instead, follow the directions for making meat glaze, but reduce the broth only until it is about one-eighth its original volume. (If you start with about 5 quarts, you will have about 2 1/2 cups.)

Pour the reduced broth into ice-cube trays and freeze. One cube is just about perfect for a sauce that yields four servings.

Reprinted with permission from Meat: A Kitchen Education by James Peterson, © 2012 Ten Speed Press

James Peterson is an award-winning food writer, cooking instructor, and photographer who began his culinary career as a restaurant cook in Paris in the 1970s. Returning to the United States in the 1980s, he honed his French cooking techniques during his tenure as chef-partner at Le Petit Robert in New York. A highly regarded cooking instructor for more than two decades, Peterson teaches at the Institute of Culinary Education (formerly Peter Kump's New York Cooking School). His first book, Sauces, won two 1992 James Beard Awards; Vegetables, Glorious French Food, Cooking, and Baking have earned him four more James Beard Awards. Peterson cooks, writes, and photographs from Brooklyn, New York.