Oven-baked Cuban-Style Pork Tenderloin

Tonight, I decided to become a bit more adventurous with my cooking. On the docket, my clean palate of pork tenderloin, the perfect meat to test out new spice combinations. Pork is used across a wide variety of cultures and as such has many different flavors associated with it. One of my favorite dishes is a Cuban-style pork that I had while in Ft. Lauderdale. While I was not sure what the specific spices were associated with this meal, I could sense definite garlic notes, a spice of cumin and paprika, and perhaps something else that I couldn't put my finger on. So, I thought, let's try a blend of these three flavors I knew were associated with this incredibly memorable meal at the Las Vegas Cuban Cuisine in Ft. Lauderdale. The taste of this meal that I prepared was truly fantastic. A nice salty, spicy (not hot spicy, but actually full of flavor) piece of pork that remained incredibly moist and tender. I'll definitely make this again!

Here is my recipe:

1 pork tenderloin, cleaned of silver skin
Garlic salt
Olive oil
Paprika
Cumin

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In an oven-ready dish, coat the bottom with olive oil and roll the pork tenderloin in the oil to coat it. Mix together the garlic salt, paprika, and cumin into a single rub. Rub the mixture onto the olive-oil coated pork. Cook for 25-35 minutes, testing for temperature at 20 minutes. Pork should be cooked to 165 degrees and allowed to rest for 5-15 minutes after cooking prior to cutting. The resting of the pork allows the juices to stay in the meat. If you cut the meat open immediately after cooking, the pork will leak all of the fluid and lead to a potentially less tender piece of meat.