According to Wikipedia, Hawai'i was ruled by the Kamehameha family from 1810-1893. When the Kamehameha family wasn't training Goku and other saiyans in the art of energy blasts over 9000, they were busy cementing their legacy as Hawaiian kings. They then took steps to establish their claim to fame by shifting their investments in pineapple and flower exports to researching and developing a recipe for a bread that would go down in history. The following recipe incorporates said bread that you surely already know and love. If you have never prepared food for the Grove, there is a holy trinity that makes every dish sacrosanct: easy to prepare + easy to grab/eat + delicious. This recipe fulfills all three of those criteria in spades. The fourth wild card of the holy trinity is costs. If you are preparing your own Grove food, it's probably because you don't have enough money to pay a caterer to do it for you. This recipe costs me about $40, so you are looking at less than $1 a serving. That's pretty damn economical if I say so myself. Enjoy!
What you'll need
- 4-5 lbs. pork tenderloin
- 3 packs of King's Hawaiian bread
- fixins and toppins
For this particular 36 slider recipe I went with a teriyaki pre-marinaded pork tenderloin topped with either orange marmalade or hot jalapeño pepper jelly. The possibilities are endless. You could top it with a grainy mustard, a quick slaw, an apple slice...almost anything goes well with pork tenderloin. Here are some of my other favorite pork tenderloin marinades:
Equal parts (usually 1/2-1 cup each, depending how much meat you got):
- brown sugar
- soy sauce
- cheap bourbon (Jim Beam)
You can then take the marinade and bring it to a rapid boil, then slowly reduce it to make a nice glaze for the tenderloin as well. Or...
- 1 1/2 cup mazola oil
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 worchestershire
- 2 TBS mustard
- 1 TSP salt
- 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
- 1 TBS ground pepper
- 1 1/2 TSP minced garlic
- 1/3 cup lemon juice
Credit: Some random SB Nation post that I can't remember and can't find.
Grill your pork tenderloins at high heat for about 20-30 minutes, flipping occasionally until they reach 140 degrees. Whenever I'm cooking meat for guests, I personally like to use a constant read thermometer because I'm paranoid that I will get other people sick. Weber makes a great thermometer with a long distance reader that will alert you when the temp is approaching your desired reading. After the tenderloin is ready, slice them at about half an inch. Then slice the entire loaves of bread to keep the rolls intact. Your station should look something like this (Smeargle did the cutting)...
Place a slice of tenderloin within each square of bread and then top with your fixins. Next, carefully place the tops back on the sliders, and slide the packaging tray back into the original bag.
When you arrive at the Grove, just pull apart your sliders and set them up in a beautiful Grove presentation. I made sure to identify my sliders with different toothpick arrangements just in case people preferred the spicy or non-spicy option.
I hope y'all enjoy the sliders and we will see y'all in the Grove in two weeks. Until then, beat Bama and Hotty Toddy!