Sweet & Sour Pork with Coconut Rice

I have a confession. I have not eaten red meat in 16 years. And when I say "red meat", I mean beef and pork. I was never a big fan of the flavor, but the reason I chose to stop eating red meat was the fact it always left me with a stomach ache. It made me feel terrible. I understand now why that occurred (which I'll leave for another post discussing meat quality), but I'm still leery of sitting down and eating a solid piece of red meat. That's right - I'm the person who shows up to cookouts and hands the grill master a package of turkey or veggie hot dogs and asks servers in restaurants if they have turkey sausage instead of pork links. That's as hard core as I get with meat.

After a few years of researching organic foods, I'm more open to trying red meat again. I did, however, have a brave moment the other day and bought some organic pork tenderloin from a great local source after being inspired by this Asian recipe. I just didn't think turkey or chicken would match as well as pork, so I held my breath and dove right in.

I think I should have done some more research on cooking pork before trying to cook it after so much time. For some reason I was under the impression that pork and beef shrunk to half its size during the cooking process. Sigh, I know, I know. Don't ask me where I heard that because I have no idea. My fiancé asked me why I made the pork pieces so big, to which I replied the above, and then he gently told me after cutting into the first piece the meat was undercooked and that the shrinkage factor was not as much as I previously assumed. I lugged the plates back into the kitchen, re-cut the meat into smaller pieces, and put it all back in the pan to finish cooking. It seems I'll need to start learning from scratch before trying another red meat dish.

The good news is this dish is fantastic. We both thought it had a great balance of flavors. I love how coconut rice is sweet and a little sticky so it picks up the sweet & sour sauce. The pork was more delicate in taste than I imagined, so it did not overpower the other elements. This dish cooks up quickly, so make sure all ingredients are prepped beforehand. Thankfully my first cooking experience with pork was semi-successful so I'm up for trying more red meat recipes in the future - as long as it's from a safe, organic source.

Sweet & Sour Pork with Coconut Rice

Printable Recipe

Coconut Rice

1 cup uncooked basmati rice

1 1/4 cup water

1/2 cup coconut milk

1/4 tsp salt

Add all ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 min until all the liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat immediately.

Sweet & Sour Pork

1 lb pork tenderloin, cut into 3/4 inch cubes
2 tbsp cornstarch, divided
3 tbsp soy sauce, divided
1 8 oz can pineapple chunks in juice, undrained
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup turbinado
2 tbsp ketchup
1 tbsp olive oil
1 cup onion, chopped
1 tsp ginger, minced
1/2 tsp garlic, minced
1 cup green bell pepper, chopped
1/4 cup green onions, thinly sliced

1/4 cup slivered almonds

In a large bowl, combine pork, 1 tbsp cornstarch, and 1 tbsp soy sauce. Toss well to coat and set aside.

Drain pineapple juice into a medium bowl and add the remaining cornstarch and soy sauce, plus the apple cider vinegar, turbinado, and ketchup. Stir well and set aside.

Heat olive oil in a large pan medium-high, then add pork and sauté for 3 min. Add onion, ginger, and garlic; sauté for 1 min. Mix in pineapple and green bell pepper and sauté for 3 min, stirring frequently. Top with the sauce mixture and bring to a low boil. Cook for 1 min once it begins to boil and then remove from the heat.

Plating: Scoop 1/2 - 3/4 cup coconut rice onto the serving plate and top with 1/2 - 3/4 cup sweet & sour pork. Top with green onions and almonds.

~Yields 4 servings.

~Adapted from Cooking Light.