fontas food

eating my way through suburbia

Monday, July 26, 2004

The challenge for today? Make something tasty, low in points, and liked by the Spawn! As anyone who has ever cooked for a teenaged girl knows, this is not an easy task.

I decided to do something with pork tenderloin. My idea was to create a "Tower of Pork" and here's how I did it...

First, the ingredients:



1/2 cup citrus fruit juice (I used Dynamo Juice from Trader Joe's)
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
1/2 tsp minced ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tsp. sesame seed oil
1 T. brown sugar

1 pork tenderloin (sorry, I didn't weigh it until after it was cooked)

First, I made the marinade by combining the first 7 ingredients. I stirred it well to make sure that the sugar dissolved completely.

Then, I sliced the pork into 1/4" thick slices:



When it was all sliced, then I pounded it out so that it was very thin. In the picture, you'll see that I cover the pieces with plastic wrap before pounding. This is so that the pork doesn't stick to the mallet.



All the pork went into a container and the marinade went in with it (Everybody into the pool!):



I put the pork in the fridge and let it "steep" for a couple of hours. If you were pressed for time, I think 30 minutes would do the trick too, though.

After marinating, I quickly grilled the pork on my Calphalon grill pan:



It has to be done in batches so I started ahead of time and just set the cooked pork aside. When it was all finished, I gave it a zap in the microwave just to heat it up a bit. Because it's so thin, it cooks very quickly. The marinade might smoke a bit too (because of the sugar) so turn the fan on!

I also strained and reduced the marinade to use as a sauce. I strained it first to remove the garlic and then, in a small pan, boiled it, skimming any foam off, until it was reduced by half. This part is completely optional.

To serve, I shredded some cabbage as a foundation for the "Tower". Here it is, served with rice cooked in chicken broth and steamed bok choy:



Total pointage for the entire meal, with sauce: 7

4 oz. pork: 4
sauce: 1
rice: 2
bok choy: 0

The Spawn liked it. Phew!



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