Asian Pork and 5-spice Apples

This is part of my cooking for a month series....
This was quite tasty and is definitely going on the keeper list. The great thing about pork tenderloin is it's a lean protein source. It's so versatile, there are limitless possibilities when it comes to preparing pork tenderloin. A trick I learned from AB is to remove the silver skin from the tenderloin. This clip shows how to do it.

Asian Pork and 5-spice Apples
Serves 8

2T black or balsamic vinegar
2T dry sherry
1T sesame oil
1T tamari
1T cracked black peppercorn
3T chopped fresh tarragon leaves
2 cloves garlic, minced
2lbs boneless pork loin, cut into strips
2T canola oil
3 Golden Delicious apples, cored, halved, and sliced
1t Chinese 5 spice powder
2T packed brown sugar
1/4C freshly squeezed orange juice
1T cornstarch
3T minced chives
4C cooked brown rice

In a large bowl, whisk together vinegar, sherry, sesame oil, tamari, pepper corns, tarragon, and garlic.  Reserve 1/2C of the marinade and refrigerate.  Add pork and toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate for 2-3 hours.
Heat oil in a wok over medium-high heat, add apples, and stir-fry for 2 minutes.  Sprinkle with 5-spice powder, brown sugar, orange juice and continue to stir-fry for 2-3 minutes.
Remove pork from marinade, allowing excess to drip off.  Add pork to the work and cook, stirring often, for 2-3 minutes or until pork is cooked through.
Whisk cornstarch into reserved marinade and stir into pork mixture until thickened. Remove from heat and stir in chives. Cool completely (if freezing).

To Freeze
Place pork mixture and rice in 2 separate gallon bags and freeze.

To reheat
Defrost rice and pork mixture overnight (I do 24 hours). Preheat oven to 350. Place rice in a baking dish and cover with pork mixture.  Cover with foil and bake for 20-25 minutes or until heated through.


My notes
The math on this is off. The marinade doesn't make 1/2C of liquid so I'm not sure where they get that you can reserve a 1/2C of it. I used all the marinade, then pulled the pork out of the marinade and shook off the excess and used the left over for the sauce you make at the end. I also ended up marinating overnight due to unforseen laziness.
I did not freeze this so I cannot comment on how well it froze or reheated.

Apple Bundt Cake

This is one of my favorite cake recipes to make. I usually make it in the fall but Jeff had to take lunch to work for a meeting and requested this cake for the dessert. I found the recipe on a Good Eats discussion board a long time ago. I went back to look for it and could not find it. I'm glad I'm finally putting this recipe online because I only have one printed copy and I always have a small heart attack when I can't find it.

Apple Bundt Cake
Bon Appetit
December 1999
Amanda Denton, Barre VT

4 medium Golden Delicious applices (about 1 1/2lbs), peeled, cored, and into 1/3 in pieces
5T plus 2 1/2 C sugar
2t ground cinnamon
4 large eggs
1C vegetable oil
1/4 orange juice
1T grated orange peel
1t vanilla extract
3C all purpose flour
3 1/2t baking powder
1/2t salt
powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350F. Oil and flour a 12C bundt cake pan.  Mix apple pieces, 5T sugar and cinnamon in medium bowl.  Combine 2 1/2C sugar, eggs, vegetable oil, orange juce, orange peel, and vanilla in a large bowl; whisk to blend.  Stir flour, baking powder, and salt into egg mixture.  Spoon 1 1/2C of batter into prepared cake pan.  Top with half of apple mixture. Cover with another 1 1/2C batter. Top with remaining apples, then batter.

Bake cake until top is brown and tester inserted near center comes out with moist crumbs attached, about 1 hour 30 minutes.  Cool cake in pan on rack for 15 minutes. Run knife around sides of pan to loosen.  Turn cake out onto rack.  Cool at least 45 minutes.  Dust with powdered sugar. Serve lightly warm or at room temperature.

My notes
I generally use an assortment of apples. My favorite cinnamon comes from Penzeys Spices. It is their own special blend, and it's awesome. You can order from them online, honestly you can't go wrong with anything they sell. This store is dangerous! I end up spending a lot of money whenever I go but it is well worth it.

Now, I know I've said it before and I'm going to say it again..... I think it's important to own up to kitchen failures along with the successes. I had a bit of a catastrophe when making this cake. I misread the ingredients and put in 3 1/2 tablespoons of baking powder instead of 3 1/2 teaspoons. This was the result:

Isn't that fun? Hot, smoky, drippy mess. At least I had my pizza stone on the bottom rack so most of the batter dripped onto that. The cake tasted alright, but it sure didn't look pretty. So we kept the ugly cake and Jeff made rice krispy treats instead.