Pork Loin

What I love about this recipe is how well fresh Italian pasta works combined with these Asian flavors. It’s a true crossover dish, the pasta adding wonderful flavor and texture to the earthy and spicy notes in the sauce. Pork and eggplant is a natural combination that reminds me of Sichuan cuisine. Chinese eggplants, by the way, have a delicate skin, so when you peel them you can leave on some strips of skin for aesthetic purposes. This stir-fried dish is unwieldy to cook for four servings, so prepare it in two batches.

This Southeast Asian–influenced dish is perfect for summer dining: it is light and refreshing, with tangy sweet-and-sour flavors. I love green papaya, an ingredient that has an appealing crunch and natural sweetness. Lemongrass, another one of my favorite Southeast Asian ingredients, adds a wonderful lemony fragrance. I cook with both at my restaurant.

One of Thailand’s signature dishes, pad thai is as popular in Japan as it is here in America. Rice noodles are easy to overcook, so be sure to prepare this dish in small batches. If you do want to serve four people, prepare enough ingredients for four servings (including doubling the sauce), but cook the recipe in two batches, one after the other. Also, use a nonstick skillet, if possible, because rice noodles can stick to a regular pan.

When I was the chef of Tribute, in Farmington Hills, Michigan, I was always hungry by the time my restaurant closed. (Little known fact: chefs never have time to eat!) So I’d usually stop by a local Chinese place on the way home, which is where I discovered this delicious dish. The chef there introduced me to cooking with zarsai, which are salty and pungent Chinese pickles, usually radishes or a kind of bok choy. Eaten on their own, they make you thirst for a beer, but cooked, they mellow and add great flavor to a dish. I love serving these noodles in a clay pot, or donabe. It gives it a warm and comforting touch, especially in wintertime.

After a couple of decades advertising pork as “the other white meat,” during which pork chops become as lean as chicken, a new type of fattier, richer-tasting pork is finally infiltrating the butcher’s case and restaurant menus. This “new” pork is from older breeds not suited for large-scale intensive farming, so it’s mostly raised by small farmers who use natural farming methods and fewer antibiotics, and allow the pigs to roam freely. This heritage-heirloom-rare breed-pedigreed pork tends to be darker and redder than conventional supermarket pork. Look for it at your local farmer’s market or CSA (Community Supported Agriculture program), online, or at gourmet markets. Regardless of whether you use heirloom or traditionally farmed pork, it is important not to overcook the loin, a fairly lean cut of meat. Be sure to use an instant-read thermometer to gauge the internal temperature.

At certain times of the year, parts of Northern California’s Sonoma County sprout masses of wild mushrooms, and at one time apple orchards covered many of the hills now blanketed with vineyards. Gone today are many of those venerable old trees, but remnants of some orchards remain, as does the heritage that inspired this savory slow-cooked meal.

This recipe was inspired by the traditional pibil-style barbecued pork, in which entire pigs are marinated in an achiote marinade and cooked in an underground pit lined with banana leaves. While you won’t need a pit or an entire pig, these pork skewers evoke the same smoky citrus flavor with much less time and effort. Note: You will need eight 6-inch wooden skewers for this recipe.

There are numerous fillings for fried spring rolls, and this one is my take on an old-fashioned Shanghai filling. The surf-and-turf combination of pork and shrimp is punctuated by earthy bamboo shoots and shiitake mushrooms. Whereas the Cantonese filling on page 79 is savory-sweet (and can be used here), this filling is more robust and offers wonderful depth, so much so that dunking them in a touch of vinegar is all you need to create a wonderful mouthful. Most spring roll fillings are cooked first because the frying is fast, and you want to ensure that the meat is cooked and that there’s a minimum of moisture, so the skins don’t soften up too much as they sit once out of the fryer. When preparing this and other similar fillings, cut the main ingredients so that they match in size and roll up well. I typically buy pork tenderloin steaks and freeze them for 10 to 15 minutes to make them easier to cut. Canned bamboo shoots work well so long as they first are boiled briefly to eliminate any tinny flavor. Spring rolls are great as a snack but also terrific for a light lunch along with a green salad.

Pork roast is such a crowd-pleaser, so next time you make one, why not try it on the smoker? It’s incredibly easy and it doesn’t take much time. It also doesn’t make your kitchen hot and crowded, either. It’s always better, to me, to get the meat cooking outside—it frees up a lot of space for preparing the rest of the meal.

Pork loin is always welcome at any family table or dinner party, and thankfully it turns out to be as easy to make as it is impressive. Assemble it a day or two in advance and just pop the pork in the oven before dinner. The colorful jewel tones of the stuffing make this dish look as good as it tastes. Once you have the basic technique down, you can change the stuffing any number of ways—use different kinds of bread, dried fruit, wine, herbs.

Above the shoulder of a pig from the neck to the hams lie the pork loins. Pigs are equipped with two meaty loins located on the top sides of the spine. Buying whole loins will not break your wallet or your waistline. A three-ounce serving contains about one hundred fifty calories with six grams of fat. These loins can be smoked whole, divided into smaller roasts (typically two to five pounds), or cut into pork chops. This cut should not be confused with the pork tenderloin, which is much smaller (three quarters of a pound to one and a half pounds) and is located in the loin area but underneath the rib cage of the pig. This recipe combines the charring effect of direct grilling and the slow heat of the indirect cooking process to create a tender roast that retains its moisture. I created this recipe for the National Pork Board a few years back. The Apple Bourbon Barbecue Sauce is a sweet complement to the spicy dry rub and smoked flavors. The dish is a nice change from pork chops, which is the traditional use for this cut of meat.

This is a great sandwich to make with leftovers (in this case, leftover pork loin). One of the key elements in this sandwich is the choice of greens. Dandelion greens are bitter, but balance the other flavors of prunes and mustard. If the greens are not to your liking, either try buying smaller-leafed dandelion greens (the larger the leaf, the more pronouncedly bitter) or substitute mustard greens or endive.

This dish is perfect for entertaining a large group because it serves a crowd and looks spectacular, and the rich, velvety fig sauce will knock your guests’ socks off; it’s so sweet you could even serve it over ice cream. Many European cultures have traditional recipes that pair pork with sweet fruit, usually apples. But apples aren’t so prevalent in Italy, and figs are. Lucky for Italians.

Few things are easier to make for a group than a roasted pork loin, but sometimes it can be a little bland. Gilding the sliced meat with a bit of mellow, garlicky sauce ensures your Sunday roast will have plenty of flavor and adds moistness as well.

This recipe calls for lean boneless pork loin, and to avoid added sugar, we use fresh apples instead of applesauce. Tart Granny Smiths contribute great texture and flavor—as does a grainy Dijon mustard.

Stir-fry is a perfect work-night dish. You cook every ingredient from start to finish in the same pan and make the sauce in the pan as well. This all happens in a matter of minutes, when you have all of your ingredients prepared ahead of time, because you are working with high heat. There aren’t many home stoves that have the BTUs of a real wok in a Chinese kitchen, so use a heavy-bottomed skillet like cast iron or a stainless steel pan with a clad bottom, and get it very hot before you start. Gather your ingredients and wait until the pan is almost smoking before you begin cooking. High heat = high flavor and less need for fat. It’s the original nonstick cooking technique.