Recipe: Maple Roast Pork Tenderloin

It's time for another recipe, this time birthday style! Yesterday was my gramma's birthday, and I cooked jher a birthday meal for her and the rest of the family. This was only the second time I'd cooked this particular recipe, but it turned out fabulously and I'm glad I now have a chance to share it on the blog because, really, everyone should try this. It. Is. Delicious.


I didn't take any pictures of the process this time because well, you know, I was concentrating on making sure everything was ready on time. And not burning stuff.


So, without further ado, I will skip straight to the full recipe:


Maple Roast Pork Tenderloin with Apples
Ingredients:
½ cup maple syrup2 Tbsp Dijon or grainy mustard2 Tbsp chopped fresh rosemary (optional)2 Tbsp lemon juice2 Tbsp soy sauce2 ¾ lb pork tenderloins1 Tbsp canola oil1 Tbsp butter3 large Granny Smith, McIntosh or other tart apples, peeled, cored and sliced1 ½ cups apple cider or juice1 tsp cornstarch


Directions:
1. In a small bowl, whisk together the maple syrup, mustard, rosemary, lemon juice and soy sauce. Pour over the pork and marinate for at least 2 hours, or overnight. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.


2. Heat the oil in a large skillet set over medium-high heat. Remove the pork from the marinade, reserving the marinade, and brown the tenderloins on all sides, turning as necessary. This should take about 5 minutes.


3.  Transfer the pork to a baking dish and bake for 20-25 minutes. Transfer the pork to a cutting board, cover it with foil, and let it stand until you’re ready for it.


4.  Meanwhile, add the butter to the skillet (don’t wash it out!) and sauté the apples for 5-7 minutes, until the apples are tender and golden. Transfer the apples to a plate. Add the marinade and apple cider to the pan and bring to a simmer, scraping up any flavourful browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pan.


5.  Pour a small amount of the sauce (about ¼ cup) into a small dish, whisk in the cornstarch until you get rid of all the lumps, and return the mixture to the pan. Simmer for about 5 minutes, until the sauce is slightly thickened. Return the apples to the sauce along with any juices that have collected on the plate.


6.  Slice the pork and serve it topped with the apples and sauce.

Happy Birthday Gramma!

Recipe: Kung Pao Pork + Fried Rice

Today? Today me and the kitchen were not friends. Yet in spite of that, this meal turned out delicious.

But like I said, today was not a good cooking today. I dropped the radishes all over the floor. I put an ingredient from the fried rice into the sauce for the kung pao pork, instead of the ingredient that I made a special trip to the store for today. In the middle of making the fried rice, I discovered that we were out of eggs. We are never out of eggs. Anyways, you get the idea. Luckily both of these recipes are very forgiving.

The pork needs to marinate for about half an hour before you start cooking it, so you do need to think a little ahead of time if you want to make this. While it's stewing in the fridge, get going on chopping up some veggies. You can throw pretty much any vegetables that you feel like in the fried rice, which is partly what makes it so great!

Once the pork is done marinating, brown it in oil in a wok (or frying pan if you're too lazy to get the wok off the top shelf). Not that I would do that. Nope.

Yum, yum, yum. As soon as the pork is browned, pull it off the pan and throw in the veggies: onions, peppers, snow peas. Then pour the sauce over it and bring to a boil.

It'll start to thicken up because of the cornstarch, so you'll want to add the pork back in fairly quickly. Make sure the pork is cooked all the way through, but don't overdo it. You want it to be tender!

In the meantime, while this is all going on, you can be frying up your rice and whatever veggies you decided to add. Normally, of course, there are eggs in fried rice, but as previously mentioned, I didn't have any. Didn't matter. Still turned out great. Whip up a little mixture of sesame oil, soy sauce and chili paste and pour it over the rice. Add some chopped green onions at the last minute, and voila!

Delicious! I like to fry it until the bottom gets just a tiny bit crispy, and then flip it over and let the other side crisp up as well. Yum.

When the pork is done, pile it on top of some rice, top with unsalted peanuts or cashews, and dig in!

Here are the recipes (although admittedly, the fried recipe was only very loosely followed), both taken from The Guy Can't Cook by Cinda Chavich.

Kung Pao Pork
Ingredients:
1 lb (500g) pork tenderloin (or boneless chicken), cut in 1-inch cubes
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp Asian chili paste
1 tsp cornstarch

Sauce:
1 cup chicken stock
2 Tbsp Chinese black bean sauce (or, you know, hoisin sauce. Cuz that's what I did by accident.)
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp Asian chili paste
1 Tbsp cornstarch

2 Tbsp canola oil, divided
1 small onion, slivered
2 tsp ginger, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small dried red chili pepper, crumbled
1 red or yellow bell pepper, diced into 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 cup snow peas
2 green onions, cut into 1-inch lengths
1/2 cup roasted unsalted peanuts or cashews

Directions:
1. Marinate the pork in the soy sauce, chili paste, and 1 tsp cornstarch for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.

2. Meanwhile, make the sauce. In a small bowl, combine the stock, black bean sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar, chili paste and 1 Tbsp cornstarch. Set aside.

3. Heat a wok over high heat for 30 seconds before adding 1 Tbsp of the oil. Add the pork to the hot wok and stir-fry for 2-3 minutes or until it's no longer pink. Remove the pork and set aside.

4. Add the remaining oil to the wok. Add the onion, ginger, garlic, dried chili pepper, bell pepper, and snow peas. Stir-fry for 1 minute. Add the reserved sauce and bring to a boil.

5. Return the pork to the wok. Bring to a boil and heat through. Stir in the peanuts and serve immediately over rice or noodles.

Serves 4.




Special Fried Rice
Ingredients:
Any vegetables you feel like (I used carrots, peppers, and radishes)
3 Tbsp canola oil
1 Tbsp minced garlic
3-4 cups leftover cooked rice, cold
2 eggs, lightly beaten with 1 tsp sesame oil
2 Tbsp light soy sauce
1 Tbsp oyster sauce or hoisin sauce
2 green onions, chopped
Optional: 1/2 lb cooked chicken, roast pork, or turkey, chopped into small cubes

Directions;
1. Wash and chop whichever vegetables you're choosing to use.

2. Place a wok over high heat for 30 seconds, then drizzle with the oil. Immediately add the garlic and stir-fry for 1 minute. Turn the heat down slightly and add the rice, spreading it evenly over the surface of the pan. Stir-fry the rice for 1-2 minutes, and then add the veggies. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes longer, stirring, until the vegetables begin to soften. If you're adding meat to your rice, than do so.

3. Push the rice mixture to one side of the pan and add the beaten eggs, stirring to lightly scramble before mixing into the rice. In a small bowl, whisk together the soy and oyster sauce and drizzle over the stir-fried rice. Toss to combine. Add the green onions and serve immediately.

Serve 4.


And just because kung pao is super fun to say, and I'm a nerd, I'll leave you with this image. I'll leave it to you to figure out why. :)

Recipe: Pork Cutlets Cubano

Hey all! It's time for another recipe. This is my first time trying the recipe, which comes from my second favourite cookbook, The Guy Can't Cook (again by the amazing Cinda Chavich. Are you sensing a theme here?)

First of all, the ingredients:

Now, a couple of things right off. That slimy shiny slab of meat in the foreground? That's pork tenderloin. Yum! The recipe calls for 2 tenderloins, but as I'm only cooking for 3 people, I just stuck with one big one. It should still make plenty! Other notable ingredients? Well that hugely long red pepper is called a "sweet tooth" pepper (ever heard of them before? I hadn't). The recipe actually calls for Hungarian or Cubanelle peppers, but since I could find neither, I decided to stick in another random type and see what happens. I'll let you know below!* Oh, and those rabbit ear looking things behind the red onion? That's our pepper grinder. I didn't notice the placement until just now, but I think it's kind of cute. :)

Anyways, on to the actual cooking! The first step was to mash the cut tenderloin until it was a uniform 1/2 inch thickness. Or at least that's what I was supposed to do. I got a bit lazy, so mine weren't exactly 1/2 inch thick. Or uniform. Oh well. They still turned out.

After that lightly dredge the cutlets in flour (if you want - this is an optional step, but I recommend it).

Brown the cutlets on both sides in oil in a frying pan, just lightly. If you're lazy like me and you made the cutlets thicker than 1/2 an inch, maybe brown them a little longer.

Once they're browned, pull them out of the pan and set them aside. In the same pan, throw in the chopped pepper, red onion and minced garlic. Saute for about 5 minutes. 

Then add some white wine, chicken broth and balsamic vinegar and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and add the cutlets back in, making sure to spoon some sauce and veggies back over top of them.

Cover and simmer for approximately 20 minutes. Flip the cutlets about halfway through to ensure that they cook evenly all the way through. And if you, like me, don't have a cover for your skillet, you can always make a ghetto one like this:

*sigh* Oh well. Whatever works, right? When the pork is tender, pile it on top of some rice and dig in!

I paired mine with some honey roasted carrots and parsnips, which were also delicious. And very colourful on the plate!

Here's the full recipe:

Pork Cutlets Cubano

Ingredients:

2 pork tenderloins (about 375g each) [If you only use 1 like 1 did, the recipe makes enough for 4 people]

4 Tbsp olive oil, divided

2 Cubanelle or Hungarian peppers, seeded and sliced

2 bell peppers (red and/or yellow), seeded and sliced

1 large red onion, slivered

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup white wine

1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup chicken broth

salt and freshly ground black pepper

flour

chopped fresh parsley to garnish

Directions:

1. Using a sharp, pointed knife, remove any silver skin on the outside of the tenderloin. Slip the tip of the knife under the skin at one end to release it, then lift the skin with one hand as you slice it away.

2. Once the meat is trimmed, cut each tenderloin into slices, each about 2 inches thick.

3. Lay the piece of pork on a piece of plastic wrap, cut-side down. Cover with a second piece of plastic and, using a meat mallet or the back of your chef's knife, lightly pound the pieces to an even thickness of about 1/2 inch.

4. To cook the cutlets, season with salt and pepper on both sides, and dredge lightly in flour, if desired. Heat half of the olive oil in a non-stick saute pan over medium-high heat and when the oil is hot, pan fry the cutlets until just brown (about 2 minutes per side).

5. Remove the cutlets form the pan and set aside. Add the remaining oil to the pan and fry the pepper, onion and garlic for about 10 minutes, until the vegetables begin to soften and brown. Sprinkle 1 Tbsp of flour over the vegetables and stir. Add the wine, vinegar, and broth. Bring to a boil, scraping up the browned bits from frying the meat. Return the cutlets to the pan and spoon some of the vegetables and sauce over the meat.

6. Cover the skillet, reduce heat to low and braise for 20 minutes, until the pork is tender. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and parsley.

* Pepper Update: Sweet Tooth Peppers taste exactly like red bell peppers. Maybe a titch sweeter, but otherwise indistinguishable. Ah well. It was worth a try!