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RECIPE: ASIAN MARINATED PORK TENDERLOIN

I made this recipe for the first time last night. I was a little nervous, because admittedly I had only baked a pork tenderloin ONCE before. Crazy, I  know!  I just typically braise them for shredding (pulled pork) or grill.  So, the cooking time and temp was an experiment, that I must say ended up pretty tender and juicy!

Chef Anne Burrell's recipe (using 3/4'' cut pork loin chops) was my main inspiration for the dish. Even though I've altered the recipe significantly (evening the cooking time and temperature), the foundation was Chef Burrell's. Since, I am a FIRM believer in giving credit where credit is due, especially when it comes to sharing recipes, I am sticking to my word.

Ingredients  
1 pork loin (cut in half for quicker cooking time!)

1/2 cup soy sauce (I prefer Kekomon's low sodium)

4 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar (original)

2 teaspoons chili sauce (I prefer Sriracha, click here for the exact brand-I use this stuff ALL the time, one sniff and you'll understand the powerful flavor it brings to the party!)

1 inch piece of ginger, finely chopped (fresh please! I buy about one ginger root for less than $1 every

6 months and store it in the freezer....it keeps forever and it a must have ingredient with no substitutions)

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

A couple dashes of garlic salt

1 whole to 1/2 onion, sliced

Extra Virgin Olive Oil (or canola oil), enough to coat the bottom of a saute pan

Instructions
Cut pork loin in half and place in a zip bag with all of the ingredients (except for oil and onion). Squeeze out ALL of the air, and place in fridge to marinated for about  6-8 hours (I did this part on my lunch break)

Take the pork out of the fridge and quickly rinse of the marinade with water (making sure to get all of the ginger and garlic off of the pork, if it remains, it will burn and taste horrible!). Place the pork on a plate lined with paper towels and allow to sit on the cabinet to "rest" for the next few minutes while you complete the next three steps.

Preheat oven to 425 (depending on your oven, you may need to go up to 450 or down to 400...just keep it in that range)

Heat a saute pan over medium high heat then coat with enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan (TIP: you can preserve the life of your saute pans if you allow the pan to heat up BEFORE putting in the oil!)

Season the pork with a little salt and fresh black pepper, then put in the hot saute pan to brown on all sides (it's important that you hear a big sizzle when the pork hits the pan....remember, the goal here is to quickly brown. This is where you are going to lock in major flavor components and is one of the more important steps)

While the pork is browning, line a medium sized baking dish with foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray.

Slice the onions and scatter around on the bottom of the baking dish, creating a bed for the pork.

Once the pork is brown on all sides, place in the foil lined baking dish on top of the bed of onions, add a little liquid to the bottom of the pan (1/2 - 1 cup of water, stock or white wine) and bake (uncovered) for about 20 minutes. 

After 20 minutes, remove from the oven, quickly and tightly cover with aluminum foil. Let sit for the first round of "resting" for 10 minutes.

After that 10 minutes, take out of the baking pan, place on a cutting board and let "rest" for the 2nd round for 3-5 minutes before cutting (this is critical! Do NOT cut until after these two resting periods. Resting allows for the juices to redistribute throughout the meat (where you want it!), versus running out on your cutting board if you hack into it too soon.)

Slice into disc and enjoy! 

Serve with steamed broccoli or snap beans.


Tips
~I increased the cooking time from 15 minutes to 20 because after the 2 resting periods, I sliced into the larger piece to find it a tad pink. If this happens to you (which it should not after 20 minutes in the oven and 2 resting periods), simply put the uncooked piece back in the baking pan into the oven for a few more minutes. I put mine in cut side down.  Just remember before you test it again by cutting, you have to let it rest.  A reliable instant read meat thermometer would also be beneficial to use here.
~An interesting fact is that just this year (May 2011) the USDA revised their recommended cooking temperatures for whole cuts of meat. TO read more, click here.  Remember, however, that there is a culinary term called "carryover temperature" which happens in whole cuts of meat and even eggs. It's a simple concept that means that the internal temperature continues to rise after being removed from the heat-which is why you should always pull eggs off the stove when there are a few minutes shy of being ready!....which knowing that helped my thinking process behing the 1st resting period I mentioned above (whereas the 2nd resting period before slicing is to help the meat stay tender and juice).

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3 comments:

Sarah Folse said...

Two questions...
1) I didn't see where you added the onions to the pork. Did I miss it somehow?
2) When you freeze the ginger, do you just cut off a 1 inch piece from the frozen ginger, or do you let it thaw a little? Once you have your 1 inch piece, do you finely chop it while it's still frozen? I've never frozen ginger, but I'm intrigued!! I love the flavor in foods, but don't always have it fresh, on-hand. And I agree, you cannot substitute it with the powdered stuff!

Jennifer Guillot said...

ONIONS: Yikes! I did forget to explain how I used the onions. I decided to use the onion at the last minute when I noticed one in the fridge that needed to be used. I used the onion to make a bed for the pork - slice it, scatter around the bottom of the pan, then place the pork on top of the onions.

GINGER: I freeze the whole root (wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and placed in a zip bag). When I’m ready to use it, I let it hang out on the counter for a couple of minutes (makes it easier to slice when the initial chill is off of it), then either slice or shave big pieces off with the heel of my knife (similar to how you shave hunks of chocolate off the big bulk blocks), or scrape the skin off of the section I need and grate it directly into the dish.

Sarah Folse said...

January is almost over and still no posts in the new year!! Get on it GG! ;)

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