Sweet and sour pork

We were in the mood for some sweet and sour pork, but we were not in the mood to go out to eat.  And, we didn’t feel like preparing a big complicated recipe at home.  Unfortunately, every recipe I found was full of steps that I didn’t feel were necessary, calling for special marinades or a special batter.  So, we decided to invent our own recipe.

Streamlined sweet and sour pork

1 1/2 pound pork loin, trimmed, and cut into small bite-sized cubes

1/2 cup cornstarch

cooking oil (try peanut oil or canola oil)

1 20-ounce can pineapple chunks, packed in water

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white vinegar

1 tablespoon soy sauce

2 – 3 medium carrots, peeled and cut in thin diagonal slices

2 cloves garlic, chopped

2 tablespoons cornstarch

water

5 cups hot cooked white rice

4 chopped green onions

Place the pork pieces in a bowl with the 1/2 cup cornstarch.  Toss to coat.  Pour enough oil into a heavy cast iron pan to cover the bottom of the pan.  Heat the oil on medium-high.  When the oil is hot, add the pork pieces, about 10-12 pieces at a time, and cook, turning once, until cooked through (about 5 minutes per batch).  Drain pork pieces on a paper towel-lined plate, and cover with foil to keep warm.  Continue cooking the pork until all pieces are cooked, adding additional oil to the pan, if necessary.

Meanwhile, drain the pineapple, and pour the juice into a measuring cup.  Add enough additional water to bring the liquid to 1 cup.  Pour the juice/water mixture into a saucepan.  Stir in the brown sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, and carrots.  Heat to boiling; reduce heat to low, and continue cooking until the carrots are crisp-tender (4-5 minutes).  Mix the 2 tablespoons cornstarch and 2 tablespoons water.  Stir into the sauce.  Cook and stir for 1-2 minutes, until the sauce is thickened.  Stir in the reserved pineapple pieces and heat until warm.  Remove from heat.

To serve, place the cooked rice onto a serving platter.  Cover with the cooked pork.  Ladle over the sauce, and garnish with the green onions.  Serves 4.

Pork loin “chops” in champagne sauce

One of the ways to cut the fat in pork dishes is to use pork loin.  We buy a huge pork loin at the store and cut it into two roasts and 4 pork “chops.”  The chops are very lean, and are delicious marinated and grilled, or simmered in the oven on low heat.  One of our favorite ways to eat pork is pork chops, either using Wuppenif’s pork chop recipe, or some variation thereof.  We recently had some champagne left over from another dish, and decided to use it for pork chops.  If you don’t have pork loin chops, just use the leanest pork chops you can find.

Pork loin in champagne sauce 

4 1-inch thick pork loin slices, or lean pork chops

1/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon Herbs de Provence

pinch red pepper flakes

salt and pepper

Canola oil

1 pound fresh mushrooms, quartered

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 cup champagne

1 cup cream

mashed potatoes

Preheat oven to 325-degrees Fahrenheit.  Place the flour, Herbs de Provence, red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper in a plastic bag.  Add the chops, seal the bag, and shake to ensure that all of the meat is well covered by the flour mixture.   Remove meat from the bag, and reserve flour mixture for later.

Heat about 2 tablespoons canola oil on medium heat in a large frying pan.  Add the meat, and cook briefly, about 1-2 minutes per side, until lightly browned.  Remove meat from the pan.  Place the meat in a large covered casserole dish, and cover with the quartered mushrooms.

Add an additional 1 tablespoon of oil to the frying pan (if necessary).  Reduce heat to medium low, and add the garlic and sauté briefly (do not allow it to turn brown).  Turn heat to medium high, and whisk in the reserved flour.  Cook a few seconds until bubbly.  Whisk in the champagne, and continue cooking until slightly thick and bubbly.  Whisk in the cream, and cook an additional 1 minute.  Pour this over the pork loin chops.   Sprinkle lightly with a pinch of Herbs de Provence, and then cover with the lid.  Place in the oven, and bake for about an hour, until the pork chops are tender and cooked through.  Serve over  mashed potatoes.

Sweet and sour pork stir fry

This looks like a complex recipe, but it is not.  Both the sweet and sour sauce and the Teriyaki sauce can be made ahead of time and kept in the refrigerator.  Dave and I keep both of these things on hand, because they taste so good with other foods.  Of course, you can always just buy the sauces ready-made at the grocery store.

I’m not fond of cooked carrots (they’re the only food that I consistently refuse to eat).  However, the carrots in this dish are an exception.  They don’t taste very “carroty” to me…maybe they’re disguised by that infusion of Teriyaki and sweet and sour sauce.

This recipe also calls for pork loin.  This is our go-to meat for practically anything that calls for pork.  We buy an entire pork loin, and then use it for pork chops, pork roasts, and stir fry.  Many times you can buy a pork loin on sale at the market for far less than the fattier chops or pork shoulder.  And because it is low fat, it’s far healthier, too.

Sweet and sour pork stir fry

1 1/2-pounds pork loin, trimmed of fat

2 tablespoons Teriyaki sauce (see recipe below, or just use a bottled Teriyaki sauce from the grocery store)

1/3 cup corn starch

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 – 2 tablespoons peanut oil

2-3 large carrots

1 pineapple (or 1 can pineapple chunks, drained – you can use the juice instead of water or wine in the Teriyaki sauce and/or the sweet and sour sauce)

Sweet and sour sauce (see recipe below, or use bottled sauce from the store)

Hot cooked rice

Cut the pork loin into thin strips, 1/2-inch wide by 2-inches long.  Place the meat into a bowl with the 2 tablespoons teriyaki sauce.  Set aside while you prep the carrots and pineapple.  Peel the carrots and cut into very thin slices on the bias.  Peel and core the pineapple, and cut into 1-inch chunks.

Add the 1/3-cup corn starch to the pork and teriyaki mixture.  Toss around with your fingers.  Heat the sesame oil and 1 tablespoon peanut oil in a large cast iron pan or wok, on high heat.  When oil is hot, add the pork, and cook (in batches, if necessary) until the pork is almost cooked through.  As the pork cooks, remove it with a slotted spoon, and place it into a large bowl.  When all of the pork has been cooked, add the carrots and pineapple to the pan, and cook until lightly browned.  You may need to add additional oil, if necessary.  Return the pork to the pan, and cook 30 seconds until the pork is hot through.  Stir in about half a cup of the sweet and sour sauce, as desired.  Serve over hot cooked rice.  Serves 4.

You may never buy teriyaki sauce again, once you try this easy-to-make homemade version.  It tastes way better than the chemical-laden stuff you get at the grocery store, and it is so easy to put together.  We make big batches of this stuff, and keep it in the refrigerator for making salad dressing, marinating meats, and as a simple seasoning.  This recipe was featured in our December 2011 blog, but here it is again.   We store it in one of those cheap plastic squeeze bottles that you can buy at Walmart for less than a dollar.  Or just pour it into a empty washed salad dressing bottle or a mason jar.

Teriyaki sauce 

¼ cup soy sauce

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon dried ginger (or 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger)

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons dry white wine (or pineapple juice)

2 tablespoons oil

Whisk together soy sauce, sugar, ginger, garlic, wine, and oil.  Use in recipes, or for marinating salmon, chicken, pork, or beef.  This recipe can be doubled or tripled (or more), and poured into a bottle and refrigerated for a month or more.

Sweet and sour sauce for stir fry or dip

2 tablespoons cornstarch

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/2 cup corn syrup

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup water (or pineapple juice)

2 tablespoons white wine

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

1 tablespoon dried ginger

2 garlic cloves, minced

Whisk together the ingredients in a saucepan.  Place over medium heat, and cook 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Bring heat to high, and cook, stirring constantly for a minute until the sauce comes to boiling.  Reduce heat to low, and cook, stirring occasionally 1-2 more minutes.  Add extra water if necessary, to thin the mixture to desired consistency.

So simple pork and mushroom turnovers

We made a 3-pound pork loin recently.  We decided to use some of the leftovers in little puff pastry turnovers.  The result tasted like a savory stroganoff in a pocket.  It was delicious.  If you’re not a fan of pork, feel free to substitute cooked chicken.  If you’re not a fan of mushrooms, feel free to leave them out.  Come to think of it, you could leave the meat out entirely, and use a blend of cubed zucchini and yellow squash, and some sliced mushrooms.  However you decide to prepare this versatile recipe, it looks impressive, and is so easy (thanks to the pre-packaged puff pastry sheets).

Pork and mushroom turnovers

2 tablespoons butter

3 cloves garlic, minced

4 mushrooms, sliced

1/4 cup dry white wine

1 pinch Herbs de Provence

Splash of Worcestershire sauce

8-ounce package cream cheese

2 tablespoons cream

1 3/4 cups cooked cubed pork loin (or chicken)

2 green onions, chopped

2-3 tablespoons seasoned bread crumbs (if needed)

1 17.3 ounce package puff pastry sheets, thawed (2 sheets)

Preheat oven to 350-degrees fahrenheit.

Heat the butter in a large cast iron pan.  Saute the garlic and mushrooms in the butter, until the mushrooms are soft.  Add the wine, Herbs de Provence, and the Worcestershire sauce.  Pinch off small pieces of the cream cheese, and stir the cheese into the mixture, stirring until it is completely blended in.  Stir in the cream and pork loin cubes.  Cook on low heat until the liquid is mostly reduced, about 5 minutes.  Stir in the chopped green onion.  You may add bread crumbs to absorb any excess liquid, if necessary.  Remove from heat.

Cut the 2 puff pastry sheets into 4 squares each.  Divide the pork mixture among the pastry squares.  Fold each square over to make a triangle.  Pinch together the edges.  Place the turnovers onto a greased rimmed baking sheet.   Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown.

Pork loin with sausage

Pork loin can be dry, which is why Dave advocates cooking it with sausage or bacon.

We take a 3-pound pork loin, and butterfly it.  Then, we cover the meat with a little balsamic vinegar and olive oil.  We sprinkle the meat liberally with 6 cloves minced garlic, some Herbs de Provence, freshly ground pepper, and a few sprinkles of marjoram.  We then place whole spinach leaves on top of the meat.  Finally, we place a sausage on top of the spinach, and then roll the meat around the sausage.  Tie the meat securely with string, and then season the outside of the meat with more olive oil and a little freshly ground black pepper.  Roast at 325-degrees fahrenheit for about 1 1/2 hours, or until the meat is cooked through.  It will be tender and delicious.

Teriyaki salmon

I love the flavor of teriyaki, but I’m not a fan of that gluey sugary preservative-laced stuff that they sell in bottles at the grocery store.  And, why buy teriyaki sauce, when we can make it more economically and healthily, at home?  There’s a teriyaki sauce that we’ve been making for years…I can’t even remember where we found the recipe.  It’s delicious, and works for chicken, salmon, shrimp, or pork.

We usually slice chicken breasts into strips,  marinate them in the teriyaki sauce for a couple of hours, and then grill, basting with the marinade.  Last night, instead of chicken, we took two salmon filets, placed them in a glass pan, and then poured over the teriyaki marinade.  We let the fish marinate for 20 minutes, turning once.  We then placed the salmon filets in a hot frying pan, in about a tablespoon of oil (we didn’t use olive oil this time, because we felt its flavor might compete with the teriyaki).  We cooked the filets for about 2 minutes, and then flipped them.  Then we poured on the teriyaki marinade from the glass pan, and let the filets simmer in that until they finished cooking.

We served the salmon over rice noodles, with some sauteed carrots.  Delicious and healthy.

Teriyaki marinade for salmon, shrimp, chicken, or pork   

¼ cup soy sauce

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon dried ginger (or 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger)

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons dry white wine

2 tablespoons oil

Whisk together soy sauce, sugar, ginger, garlic, wine, and oil; set aside.  Pour over a couple of salmon filets, 2 whole sliced chicken breasts, a pound of peeled deveined shrimp, or a pound of pork loin medallions.  Marinate 2o minutes for seafood, or two hours for the chicken or pork.  Cook on the grill or in a hot frying pan, basting with the marinade, if desired.