This is one of those things that you eat and immediately start thinking about when you could eat it next. The marinade is so flavoursome with this lean cut of pork, and sealing it with the crispy crust keeps everything super juicy. Noodles + greens on the side and you have an incredibly tasty and easy meal.
I’ve done my favourite tricky and just used seasoned gluten free flour to get that glorious golden crust. It keeps all the juiciness and flavour in the pork and adds a lovely texture. When you transfer to the oven you may loose some of that bottom crispness, but it actually doesn’t matter as the coating just becomes little marinade flavour bombs in your bowl. Doing it this way means you don’t lose the delicious flavours of your marinade to the bottom of a pan.
You could serve this with whatever green you have on hand but I love the simplicity of some broccoli. Cooked in the same pan as the pork and with the same flavours to boot. This helps keep your ingredients list nice and short and cuts down on clean up time, you know how much I like that!
Coriander haters can use mint instead, or just leave it out entirely. I just like the freshness it brings.
The lovely folks at Family Chef sent me some of their pork to try and when I saw the tenderloin I knew I wanted to perfect this recipe. It’s one of my favourite cuts, lean and tender. I like it more than pork belly!
Starting this recipe the night before will make the pork so much more flavoursome and it will take you all of 5 minutes. If you forget to do that you want to let it marinade for at least an hour!
Serves 4
* read the recipe in full before you begin
Ingredients
600g pork tenderloin, cut in half so you have two manageable pieces
1.5 Tbs ponzu sauce
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1 Tbs Chinese Cooking Wine
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp ground ginger (sub for fresh of you like)
1/2 cup gf flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp Chinese Five Spice
Noodles
2 Tbs sesame seeds
200g ramen noodles, or any noodle!
3 tsp ponzu sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 large head of broccoli, chopped into bite sized florets
1/2 cup spring onion, finely sliced
1/2 cup coriander leaves
Directions
Make the marinade in a sealable container big enough to fit the pork (I cut it in half to make it easier now and when cooking).
To make the marinade combine the 1.5Tbs ponzu sauce with the garlic, ground ginger, wine and 1/2 tsp sesame oil. Add the pork and then seal the container and set aside in the fridge overnight. Turn once in the morning if you remember but no stress if you don’t.
Remove the Pork from the fridge 30 mins prior to cooking if you can. Preheat your oven to 180 C.
Then: in a flat wide bowl combine the flour, salt and five spice. Remove the pork from the marinade and transfer to the flour. Turn, making sure there’s a coating on all sides and no wet marinade is visible.
Heat a non stick fry pan on medium high heat. Add the sesame seeds a d cook until toasted. Remove and set aside in a medium bowl (will add noodles later)
In the same hot pan, add a neutral oil (peanut, light olive or vegetable), enough to lightly cost the base. Add your pork, drizzle a little more oil on top if you don’t hear a sizzle. This will help form a golden crust. Cook on each side until a golden crust has formed. A few minutes each side. Transfer to an oven tray and put it in the oven to finish cooking for 12-15 minutes. You can tell if it’s cooked through by squeezing it, theirs should be a little resistance. You can also cut into it as you’ll be slicing to serve anyway.
No matter what do give it a squeeze first so you can get to know what done feels like. Pork can be served just blushing but shouldn’t be rare. Once you’ve removed it from the oven let it rest for a few minutes.
WHILE THE PORK IS COOKING: Use the still hot non stick pan again to cook your broccoli. Toss it in the remaining oil then add 2 tsps ponzu and 1 Tbs water. Once bright green. Turn the pan off. Leave the broccoli there until ready to serve.
Cook noodles according to packet directions then drain. Add to the sesame seed bowl with remaining ponzu and 1/2 tsp sesame oil. Toss to coat.
Once the pork is cooked, turn the broccoli pan back on to heat up as the pork rests. Add the last 1/2 tsp of sesame oil and then start to serve.
Divide noodles between bowls, add broccoli and herbs. Slice the pork into medallions 1cm or less thick. Don’t stress if some of that crust falls off. Just add it to your bowls along with the pork. Eat!
HH. x
