because you're all dying to know...

i went with the cilantro option afterall. here's a run down of how i made the pork...

marinated it (the pork tenderloin) in:

juice of one lemon
zest of half the lemon
pepper (fresh ground of course...)
4 cloves of garlic grated in with a rasp, but you could mince or use a garlic press (but it doesn't make the meat taste particularily garlicy, just adds a nice flavour)
1 shallot (minced)
loads of fresh cilantro (also minced) i just used the leaves of the whole bunch i bought at the grocery store (moved to late to grow our own this year)
bit of extra virgin (i like my virgins to be extra) olive oil
some red wine (this is a lovely vin de pays my mum brought from france from the winery 50 feet from her front door, but it would be good with a merlot or even a shiraz to marinate - i highly reccomend wines from languedoc)

i put it all in a ziplock baggie (thanks to sue for that idea) along with the pork and just let it sit.

st. snafu's plane was late so it eneded up sitting for longer than inteneded, and really, all the better! so i bet it sat for 2 hours or so?

then i barbequed it. let the bbq heat up to as hot as it was going to get, seared both sides to hold in the juices, turned the heat down to medium, closed the lid and did a quasi roasting and grilling thing.

when it was done (no idea on timing, i just squeeze it with the tongs to feel the consistency of the meat, i like my pork somewhere between medium well and well done. you no longer have to cook the shit out of pork for health reasons, you could in fact have it rare but, well, um, ew. but yeah, a little bit of light pink is about perfect, it means you'll have juicy divinity) i put in on the wooden cutting board to 'rest' for about 10 or 15 minutes. when you're timing when to take it off the bbq remember that it will still cook for a bit during it's 'resting' period (of course, it would appear my blog is frequented by foodies, so i'm sure i'm preaching to the choir here) so you don't want it to be totally finished when you take it off the grill. the 'resting' (just sitting around on the counter doing nothing, i guess if i was just sitting around on the counter doing nothing i would call it resting too...) is important because it helps keep the meat juicy, otherwise lots of juice pours out when you cut it. juice in meat good. keep juice in meat.

st. snafu is going to do a guest post later on today, my guess is she'll talk about what a visit with mainja is like, potential topics may include the food, the house, the taking hours to draw a stupid map, you know, standard things...