Beijing Beauty: Pork Tenderloins in Asian Glaze

Sunday was a big night.  I got back into some cooking. One of the recipes were supposed to be from A Bite of China Project but my bitter melons decided to deteriorate before I could cook them..so I ended up flipping through my Looneyspoons cookbook and found this one to complement our other dish (which will be posted up tomorrow probably).

For this one, I needed to modify it as it was originally meant for the grill so my boyfriend did the grilling in a pan on the stove.  I’m no good with anything that has oil splattering out of the pan, which actually turned out that the sauce made it bubble more to cook it. At least I got myself a little help while I was frantically running around the kitchen trying to prep the other meal 😉

Before we get into that one (which will be posted later, as I mentioned above), here is how these Beijing Beauty Pork Chops turned out!

For this one, the recipe is from Looneyspoons Collection by Janet and Greta Podelski with the same recipe name Beijing Beauty

Makes 6 servings

3 pork tenderloins (12 oz/340g each)

Glaze

1/4 cup hoisin sauce

2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 tbsp each Dijon mustard and liquid honey

1 tbsp each sesame oil and reduced-sodium soy sauce

1 tbsp grated gingerroot

2 tsp minced garlic

2 tsp grated lemon zest

Directions:

1) To make glaze, combine all glaze ingredients in a small bowl and mix well.  Set aside.

2) Heat up oil in the pan.  Fry the pork in a pan and add in the sauce to simmer.

I would have to judge when you think its ready. I didn’t really check the time exactly but I’m guessing it would take about 15 minutes to cook through on medium heat (?).  Also, you should serve this in slices, but we just sliced it on our plates 🙂

This pork recipe tasted really great! It had hints of sour from the lemon juice but at the same time, it wasn’t too salty or sweet either.  I liked it and would definitely make it again!

Stir-Fried Pork with Vegetables and Pineapple Chunks

In the previous post, I had promised to post up the second part of my Chinese New Year dinner and here it is.  I went into my Looneyspoons cook book and did a recipe that I’ve been planning to do for a while.  I love cooking with pineapples.  Since I already had chicken on the menu, I went ahead to make stir fried pork tenderloin with vegetable and pineapple chunks and its paired with sweet and sour sauce.  Doesn’t that sound delicious?

Here’s how it turned out:

Ingredients:

2 tsp sesame oil

1 1/4 lbs pork tenderloin, cut into cubes or strips

2 tsp grated gingerroot

1 tsp minced garlic

1 1/2 cups each chopped red pepper and sliced carrots

1 cup chopped onions

398mL pineapple

1/4 cup each ketchup and rice vinegar

3 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp (reduce sodium) soy sauce

1 tbsp cornstarch

2 cups white rice

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a large wok over medium-high heat.  Add pork, gingerroot and garlic.  Cook and stir for 6 to 7 minutes, until pork is cooked through and begins to brown.  Remove pork from wok and keep warm.  Add green pepper, carrots and onions to wok.  Cook and stir for about 5 minutes, or until vegetables are tender.

2. Meanwhile, prepare sauce.  In a small bowl, combine ketchup, vinegar, brown sugar, soy sauce, cornstarch. Add sauce to vegetables in wok, along with cooked pork and pineapple chunks.  Cook until sauce is bubbly and has thickened, and pork and pineapple are heated through.  Serve over white rice.

The recipe is inspired from Looneyspoons. The one up there is how I did it because I did make a few changes to the original. They used peanut oil instead of sesame oil.  Also, green bell peppers instead of red peppers, and canned pineapples where they could use a bit of the pineapple juice to add to the sauce.  The sauce had chili powder but I don’t eat that so I took it out. The last thing is that you should match it with rice but they recommend to use brown rice or quinoa.  That is pretty much all that I modified.

Finally, to the actual results! This was awesome tasting.  I’m serious, these two ladies over at Looneyspoons have some amazing skills.  All their recipes that I’ve tried have been pretty great.

The best reward of cooking was to see my boyfriend give me the approving reaction that he liked it.  And he did for the complete meal and I enjoyed it a lot too.  Even have some leftovers for lunch!

Do you cook with pineapples or other fruits for meals? Any ingredient combinations you like in particular?