A Life Well Seasoned: Ginger-Marinated Pork Tenderloin

Note: This could be made as a vegan recipe by switching to tofu and vegetable stock.

I don’t usually buy tenderloin, be it pork or beef or whatever. It lacks the flavor of other parts. Yes, it’s tender. Yes you pay for tender. Too much I’d say. Rib and Loin is almost as tender, and has more flavor.

So, when confronted, yes CONFRONTED! by a pork tenderloin laying in the refrigerator meat drawer (my better half bought it, and I swear, it was saying “Put up your Dukes!”), first thing I think of doing is adding flavor. And my default go-to is Asian inspired flavor.

I recently bought a beautiful large piece of fresh ginger. It was still looking young and tender, almost adolescent, and it was very aromatic. So, ginger would be my main flavor addition. And Soy Sauce of course.

I dug out the November 2003 issue of gourmet. Here is what I found:

Materials and Methods

As Published	As Made	Recommendations
1 ²⁄₃ cups chicken broth, divided	Actually, the recipe didn’t say “divided” but should have	Use vegetable stock for a vegan option
¹⁄₄ cup soy sauce	¹⁄₃ cup
¹⁄₄ cup packed brown sugar	¹⁄₃ cup
3 tablespoons ketchup or 2 tablespoons tomato paste	4 tablespoons ketchup
3 tablespoons finely grated peeled fresh ginger	4” piece, about ¹⁄₄ cup fluffy chopped ginger, no need to peel – you’ll strain it out for the sauce	Do not skimp. Do not.
3 garlic cloves, minced	4 cloves, sliced. Or more. Don’t be shy.	Go bold or go home disappointed
1 tablespoon cider vinegar or balsamic vinegar	Cider vinegar	Actually, about right. I would never go balsamic, but would go Rice Wine Vinegar, seems more "authentic"
1 (³⁄₄ pound) pork tenderloin	0.80 pounds	Use firm tofu for a vegan option, and I think I'd slice the brick horizontally, as in, to create two slabs to maximize surface area
1 tablespoon olive oil
		Needed about ¹⁄₄ teaspoon of toasted sesame oil in the marinade

As Published

Note: Changes required to make this a vegan recipe do not appear in the "as published" recipe. You will need to adjust.

Whisk together ²⁄₃ cup broth, soy sauce, brown sugar, ketchup, ginger, garlic, and vinegar and pour into a large resealable plastic bag. Add tenderloin and seal bag, then marinate, chilled, turning bag over occasionally, 2 hours.

Bring tenderloin to room temperature, about 1 hour.

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 425°F.

Pat tenderloin dry and reserve marinade. Heat oil in a 12-inch ovenproof skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then brown tenderloin on all sides, turning with tongs, about 3 minutes total. Transfer skillet to oven and roast pork until thermometer inserted diagonally into center of meat registers 155°F, 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer to a cutting board and let stand, loosely covered with foil, 10 minutes.

While meat is roasting, pour marinade through a fine-mesh sieve into a small saucepan and boil until reduced to about ¹⁄₃ cup, 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in remaining cup broth and bring sauce to a simmer. Serve slices of tenderloin with sauce.

Changes I did:

I just put everything into the bag and massaged it all. I set the empty bag in a bowl to hold it erect, added stuff and then more stuff, and when everything was there? I sealed and massaged. It works. One less bowl to clean. Oh, and I left everything out on the counter because I was in a hurry and didn’t have hours to spare. So, marinating was maybe 1.5 hours on the counter, and then the pork (tofu) was on a plate warming to room temp for maybe 20 minutes.

See, in my house, the pork (tofu), the broth, the soy sauce, the ketchup, and the ginger were all out of the fridge. They were cold. And it's winter here in Seattle, and the thermostat is set to 64°F. What, you want warmer? Start vacuuming! That'll get you warm! Really. 64°F is fine. You don't like it? Get off your butt!

The pork (tofu) still needed to warm up after I took it out of the marinade. After 1.5 hours on the counter (in a zip-top bag in a stainless steel bowel), it was still freaking cold.

Discussion

I’ve had it with medieval “English” units. The US is partnered with only the military dictatorships of Myanmar and Liberia in still not using metric. What great company. From now on (well, not always, I will relent, and maybe try a side-by-side version - to be determined), I will often use weight and metric. What pushed me over the edge? I messed up. I thought I was putting ²⁄₃ cup chicken broth into the marinade, but I confused something called a quart with something called a pint. Or a cup. Or a tablespoon. Or a teaspoon. How archaic can you get? What next? Using the length of the foot of a king as a unit of length? UGH! So, I put not ²⁄₃ but ⁴⁄₃ cups into the marinade. Then, later, diluted the “syrup” with twice the amount of stock. And then I realized my mistake and let it boil to syrup again. Despite this, yummy! Actually, seriously, yummy.

Oh, in the last issue of Gourmet, November 2009, on page 40. There was a small piece by John Willoughby titled “Spoon Deceit.” Herein, he told that teaspoon and tablespoon measuring devices out there were quite inaccurate, that the difference between available tablespoon measures varied incredibly: “While the average variance between any given two was between 5 and 10 percent (bad enough, you might say), the variance between the largest and the smallest was a full 33 percent.” So, English units are banned. Deal with it. We’re going metric and mostly by weight. In a future post, I’ll demonstrate with a “tablespoon” of salt.

Regardless, the recipe is wonderful. It works as I amended it, and probably wonderfully as published. I usually kick any recipe up in flavor when I make it, even the first time. If you’re “delicate” don’t. Follow the original. But the point is, it's all about the sauce. You could put this sauce on anything: pork, chicken, fish, tofu, a flip-flop, and it would be good.

Side note: The recipe came from an article feature in Gourmet called “Dinners for One.” And the article was called “Double Take.” What you won’t get on-line is the paragraph preceding the recipe. Which is enlightening. The following is the lead in:

Joyce Goldstein, a San Francisco chef and author of Solo Suppers, recently sent us a note that blended praise with a hint of constructive criticism. “As a single person and professional cook, I think Dinner for One has been a great addition to the magazine,” she wrote. “However, I don’t believe that most people make a salad, entrée, and dessert just for themselves. Instead of preparing a three-course dinner, why not prepare a menu for one dinner that includes planned leftovers to be used in a second meal?” As a theory, it sounded good. So we challenged Goldstein to put it into practice.

Suggested sides were Mashed Sweet Potato with Citrus or Steamed Jasmine rice, and Sautéed Kale.

I cut up some Lacinato Kale and sautéed it with slivered garlic, served the pork with white rice and that lovely sauce, and it was just what was needed.

Oh, again, it's all about the sauce.

Enjoy.