Rosemary Tenderloin With Warm Asparagus Salad

Haven't made tenderloin in a while so trying it again. It's actually pretty easy to cook. Yes it would be better if I cooked part of it in the oven, but who has time to remember it's in there when I've got things on the stove top and a baby to watch. Right? 

Pork Tenderloin
Cornstarch - seals in the juices
Soy sauce
Rosemary
Cumin
Garlic

Warm salad:
Asparagus
Butter
Salt
Costco kale salad (minus fixings)

Marinate the tenderloin and then pan sear...I think 5 min per side? You want it to be medium in the middle. Yes, contrary to what I've been taught all my life, good quality pork can be eaten medium! So much juicier and softer!

The salad is prepared by sauteing the asparagus in butter. As it's getting soft I add the Costco kale salad. And when everything is warmed, but not wilted, it goes onto the plate. The seasoning is kept simple because of time...but let me know what seasoning you find works!

Enjoy!

Chicken Feet Papaya Soup

This is one of my favorite soups...Chicken Feet Papaya soup:

Chicken feet

Papaya
Red dates
Dried Mandarin peel
Pork bone
Ginger

Blanch the chicken feet and pork bone for about 5-10 minutes first. That gets rid of oil and scuzz that comes with using animal bone. This soup is nourishing and the papaya helps with breastmilk production. (Fish and Green Papaya soup is the best for that.)

I have a thermal pot which makes soup really easy to do. As the water heats up to a rolling boil in the metal pot, I prepare and add all the ingredients. I boil the soup for about 45 minutes and then transfer it into the thermal pot where it continues to simmer. A few carefree hours later...it's done! This pot is also awesome for making stews and congee. 

Apple Cumin Pork Tenderloin

Pork tenderloin is actually pretty easy to cook...especially when baking it. I made this similarly to this recipe which was baked with fennel. This time, it's baked with apple. 

Pork tenderloin

Apple

Onion

Cumin

Cinnamon

S&P

I rubbed the tenderloin with the seasoning spices while the onions were browning in a pan. Then I added the pork loin to sear for about a minute on each side. The whole thing is transferred to a baking sheet, apple slices added, covered with foil, and  baked until internal temp of tenderloin is 130 F. Baking time gives me time to cook the Brussels Sprouts and barley.

Warm Israeli couscous salad

 

Another meal where I didn't have enough of anything to make as a main....but the bits and pieces could come together in one of my favorite catch-alls : a salad. Other great catch-alls...stir fry. Stew. Soup. Fried rice. Pita pockets. Lots. =)

Pork cubes

Soy sauce
Israeli Couscous
Cumin
Yams
Gailan
Pine nuts
Butter
Green Onions
Garlic  

S&P

Basically...cook everything separately and then toss together. The only exception are the green onions. That I tossed in at the end when assembling. That way it won't brown and get mushy.

Nine Bean Pork Stew

 

Every now and then I have enough foresight to presoak the handy nine-bean mix from Costco. And then I decide what to do with it the next day. In this case, it was another cold day, and a stew was in order. This was super simple...and quite tasty...

 

Pork chops cubed

Costco nine bean mix - soaked over night, cooked ~40 min, drained
Veggie stock - I used the Trader Joe low sodium one
Thyme
Sage
Onion

Quinoa

The onion and herbs were sauteed together first...then the pork cubes added. Once sufficiently browned, I took the pork out. Then I added the stock and scraped the charred bits off the bottom of the pot. I figure that adds flavor. Once the stock came to a low boil, I added some quinoa for fibre. Once the little curly tails of the quinoa was visible I added the pork back, then I tipped in the cooked beans and simmered everything until the pork was cooked through. My husband added extra heat (i.e. sirracha) to his bowl. Served with a dollop of  sour cream made it so nice.

Variation - don't add pork...and just enjoy a bowl of vegetarian stew. 

Variation - add way more stock...and make it a hearty soup.

Leftover Makeover : Pork Rib Sandwich

Sorry for disappearing there. Ever since I got diagnosed with gestational diabetes my experimental cooking has taken a hit as I tried to figure out what I could/couldn't eat and how much carb/sugar was in everything. It's under control now and I'm starting to cook more again.

Anyways...remember this rib recipe? I deboned the meat and used it in a very yummy sandwich. So yummy. So easy. =) Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Pork Pasta

Alliteration! I'm referring to the "potato pork pasta" bit. Anyways....I had bits of everything in the pantry and fridge and none of it was enough by itself to make a meal for two. So I mixed it all together into a pasta dish. Kinda like how you mix in bits of everything into fried rice.

Butter
Yam
Sweet potatoes
Paprika
Cumin
Garlic salt
S&P
Pork
Pasta
Chipotle mayo


The yam and sweet potato was cubed and pan fried in a bit of butter and seasoning to start things off while the pasta was cooking. I sliced up the leftover chipotle mayo port chop and warmed it with the yam/potatoes, then added the pasta at the end. I added more chipotle mayo as seasoning (because I love chipotle mayo with yam fries) and the end result was tasty and filling.

Chipotle Mayo Pork Chops on Spaghetti Squash

I asked my husband to help marinate the pork chops we got and he creatively put this marinade together:

Chipotle mayo
Soy sauce
Mustard

Quite a tasty marinade I must say. The chops were pan seared...about seven minutes on each side because it was so thick. I've started to be daring and take pork to a medium well instead of fully cooking it. It's so much juicier and tender that way. It was served topped with mango salsa (from Costco). The flavors worked really well together!

As for the spaghetti squash...after it was baked and scraped into a large pan, I added all the little extras for additional flavor and texture and color. Hard to go wrong.

Squash
Onion
Garlic
S&P
Tomato
Cilantro
Parmesan

Not Quite Kim Chi Stew

We finish another bucket of kimchi and all the kimchi juice sat in my fridge waiting to be used. That stuff is too good to be poured down the sink! One day I found the perfect combo of ingredients in the fridge to make something like kimchi stew, but drier. Since I didn't have a whole lot of kimchi juice left.

Napa cabbage
KimChi juice
Sliced pork
Tofu
Green Onions

I pan seared the sliced pork first and then removed it while cooking the napa cabbage. Once it was half done I poured the kimchi juice over it, added tofu, green onions and pork in then just let it simmer until the veggies were soft. Great with rice. Great for a cold day. Enjoy!

Pork Tenderloin & Roasted Fennel

After the success of the medium cooked pork tenderloin last time...I wanted to try again. I browsed cookbooks and the Internet for inspiration and then combined a couple recipes together.

Marinade:
Soy sauce
Garlic
Onion
Honey
Lemon Juice

Pan sear tenderloin. Add cut fennel chunks. Bake until internal temp of tenderloin is 130 F. Remove from oven and tent until temp is 10 degrees higher.
Meanwhile, take the leftover marinade, simmer in a pot until the onions are soft...then pour over the tenderloin and fennel before serving.

Yum.

Apple Rosemary Pork Tenderloin

I do still cook meat! =) A while back I had bought some pork tenderloin on sale. I've never cooked pork tenderloin so I thought it would be good to give it a try. Growing up my family always cooked the pork completely well done. It was dry and tasteless. I didn't know why people liked eating pork so much. After this...I found it was easier and tastier than I thought it would be.

Pork tenderloin
Apple sauce (with chunky apple pieces)
Rosemary
(The apple sauce and rosemary went in between the two pork tenderloin that I then tied together before cooking.)

Rub:
Corn Starch
Salt
Pepper
Cumin

I pan seared all sides then baked at 300 F until the internal temperature was 135 F. Take it out, cover and rest for 10 min.....and it's a perfect medium.

(I didn't even know you could eat pork medium because my family was always afraid of getting worms or food poisoning or something. That's why it was always super well donw for us. But now I know! yum!)

Kimchi Israeli Couscous

What do you do with some leftover kimchi juice that is too good to pour down the drain? This!

Kimchi juice
Pork belly
Green onions
Turnip
Chicken stock
Israeli couscous

I probably could've used more kimchi juice but hey, use what you've got. And I happily didn't have to waste any of its goodness. I started with browning the couscous slightly with green onions. Then threw everything else in (measuring enough liquids for the amount of couscous I used), and covered the pot until it was done. Or until the pork belly was done. It was super flavorful and definitely will make it into rotation (when I use up the next bottle of kimchi). Enjoy!

Pork ribs and Green beans

I have never cooked green beans before...mainly because I never really eat them. But because my husband likes them, I'm trying to incorporate it into our meals. This dish was cooked all in a wok...(does this make it a stir fry?)...not for any reason other than I didn't want to clean extra pots if I didn't need to. =)

Pork ribs

Soy sauce
Corn statch
Sugar
(These three ingredients make up the basic Asian meat marinade...from here you can add whatever other Asian seasoning/condiments you like.)
Satay sauce
Fermented Chili Bean Paste ("dau ban zherng")
 
Green beans

The pork was cooked first. I browned each side then added a little bit of water into the wok and covered it for a few minutes. The pork was then removed and I added the beans next with a little more water to deglaze the wok and steam/fry the beans. I kept it under a lid to keep the heat in for a good five minutes. Then I added the ribs back in and kept stirring/flipping everything until the water dried up. End result was super tasty....though the beans were slightly undercooked. Oops. I forgot to do a taste test. Maybe I need seven minutes for the beans to cook? Next time.

Kimchi Stew

THIS is perfect for a cold day! The tip of my nose is always a little cold and hot stew is the perfect fix. Hot spicy stew. A couple weeks ago we had bought a tub of kimchi from H-Mart....which we inhaled fairly quickly. There was a lot of kimchi juice left in the container and we were starting to think of ways to use it up as to not waste the tasty goodness. So.....it all went into the stew.

Pork belly
Kimchi and all the leftover Kimchi juice
Onion
Carrot
Potato
Sugar




Serve over rice. So yum!

Rosemary Pork Chops

Pork is hard to do well I find. I tend to dry it out and then have to deal with some really chewy meat after. One thing that helps is to not overcook it. Growing up, my immigrant parents/grandparents would be afraid of food poisoning so meats were always cooked to death. Can't blame them considering fridges were a bit of a luxury back then. But now, I try to cook pork "just" under well done and then let it continue to warm while resting is pretty decent. I'm tempted to try pork medium well...but just in case, I'm taking it to well done. For now.

Marinade:
Olive Oil
Soy Sauce
Dried Rosemary
Cumin
Sugar (Brown sugar is better but mine had solidified into a giant block...so white sugar substituted.)

I pan fried about four minutes on each side. And then served with a dallop of spicy mango chutney on top. It was really good! You can see sides of Tomato Zucchini casserole and some brown basmati rice mixed with red quinoa.

Leftover Makeover : Mish-Mash

This one my Hubby put together. (yay!) He had the day off and was rummaging through the fridge for whatever leftovers were still lurking about. This delicious fried rice was what he put together from a tub of curried rice, some BBQ pork/char siu, a small container of soggy napa cabbage/siu choi, some kale leaves and some purple cabbage shreds.

The virbrant green and purple of the veggies, cooked separately from the rice, was beautiful...and super tasty:

Kale
Cabbage
Paprika
Dark soy sauce
Butter & coconut oil
Sugar
Salt

As for the fried rice, the possibilities are endless depending on what leftovers you have. In this case:

Curried rice
BBQ Pork/char siu
Coconut oil
Napa Cabbage/siu choi
Sriracha
Hoisin sauce
Soy sauce (light & dark)

And the best part, I got to eat lunch with my Hubby. =)

Pork Rib Stew & Braised Purple Cabbage

It's getting cold out...and as such, my mind is starting to think of hearty soups and stews. And cooked veggies. This recent experiment turned out decently though I think the pork rib stew flavors could be stronger.

Pork stew:
Pork riblets
Onion
Lime juice
Oregano
Sugar
Chili powder
Soy sauce
Ketchup

Braised Purple Cabbage:
Purple cabbage
Apple
Raisins
Honey
Olive Oil
Balsamic Vinegar
Salt to taste

And the cooked cabbage turned out pretty decently too. My husband had gotten tired of the slaw over the summer so to change the texture I tried this. The apples add a nice sweet/tartness to the mix.

All the above was served with brown basmati rice mixed with red quinoa.

Pineapple Salsa

There's a bit much going on in the photo...but this post is really about the pineapple salsa. There were a few pieces left over from the pineapple we cut up so I decided to use it as a salsa over pork chops. It's got a very summery, sweet and fresh taste...brings out the flavor of the pork really nicely.

Salsa:
Pineapple
Tomato
Cilantro
Shallot
Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper
Honey



But why stop there...I had a bit of salsa left over so the next morning, it went over eggs on toast for breakfast. Yum!

Kidney Cleanse Soup

This is an Asian broth my Mom taught me...it's good for a kidney cleanse. I'd say 99% of Asian soups are medicinal in some way in that it's always good for one thing or another. Asian soups are rarely purely for indulgent tastes like say, creamy clam chowder is.

What I also like about this soup is it's simple ingredients:

Artichoke
Lean pork
Dried dates
Water







(Some of the more "advanced" soups have so many different herbs, roots, seeds, fungi added that I can never remember it offhand. Nor can I keep track of all its medicinal qualities.)

After two or so hours in the crock pot...add a pinch of salt to bring out the flavors and enjoy! Your kidneys will be happier too.