Sunday, October 16, 2011

Peking Pork with Scotch and Scallions

I'd bought a pork tenderloin on sale and tossed it in the freezer, uncertain of what I was going to do with it, but sure it would make a good meal at some point. If it weren't for the long cooking time, this dish would be a perfect weeknight meal as it requires very little work. The original recipe calls for a 6 lb boned pork shoulder, but I had a 1kg boneless pork tenderloin, so I reduced the cooking temperature to 275 and cut 30 minutes off the cooking time. The end result was a very nice, moist piece of pork. I substituted regular white onions for scallions because that's what the CSA box gave us. When I inquired if we had any scotch, I was told there was no scotch, but we had 4 different types of whiskey. The boy offered to pick up some Scotch or Irish whiskey, but seemed happier when I decided to use up some of the Crown Royal in the sauce. I also roughly scaled down the marinade to match the amount of meat I had. The original recipe is below, but feel free to mess around with it a bit as it is quite forgiving.

One year ago: Black Bean and Tomato Quinoa

Peking Pork with Scotch and Scallions (from Radically Simple)


Ingredients
6lb boned pork shoulder
1 tbsp olive oil
2/3 cup hoisin sauce
3 bunches scallions, trimmed
4 star anise
1/4 cup Scotch whiskey

1. Preheat oven to 300F (see notes if using a smaller amount of meat). Use a sharp knife to remove the skin from the pork, but leave a small layer of fat. Tie the roast at 2" intervals with kitchen string.
2. Heat oil in a Dutch oven. Add pork, fat-side down, and brown on all sides, about 10 minutes.
3. Remove from heat; spread hoisin over pork.
4. Cut scallions into 2" lengths and scatter over and around the pork with the star anise.
5. Cover and bake 3 1/2 hours, until pork is very tender (see notes if using a smaller amount of meat).
6. Transfer pork to a cutting board.
7. Using a large spoon, remove as much fat as possible from the pan juices.
8. Add whiskey to juices and cook over high heat for several minutes, until syrupy.
9. Cut pork into thick slices and serve with scallions and pan sauce.

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