Asian Experiment

This all started when I went to the local market and was looking in the pork section at the meat counter. I had made a stuffed pork loin a few weeks back for a dinner I was making for Jeremy's bosses. I saw a center-cut pork loin and bought it cause it looked like a great piece of meat. It sat in a fridge for a few day and I contemplated how I wanted to cook it. I really didn't feel like going and making some recipe that I had to buy a million ingredients I didn't have in my pantry, so I started thinking. I love Wasabi and Ginger. I almost always have those at home. So this is what I came up with. A few recipes were borrowed or tweaked and other things, like the stuffing, were made up. Jer must have tasted 5 spoonfuls of the stuffing before I got it right.

Here it is:

Wasabi Panko Stuffed Center Cut Pork Loin

For the stuffing:
2 cups panko bread crumbs
peanut oil
wasabi paste
fresh ginger
soy sauce
cilantro
garlic

In a large frying pan, add 2tbs of peanut oil, sautee the garlic and ginger until softened and aromatic. Add the bread crumbs, toast. Then add the soy sauce, wasabi paste, and cilatro to taste. I added about 2TBS of wasabi, 2TBS of soy sauce and 1/3 cup Cilatro. Mix and check for taste.

For the loin:
Cut off any excess fat. Then proceed to butterfly the loin. (helpful video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eCpL6cj7Rw) Pound the meat to flatten and make even more even thickness. Stuff with stuffing and roll. Tie up with kitchen string.

Roast at 350 degrees until meat temperature reaches 160 degrees as read by a meat thermometer. This took about 1 hour.

Sauce:

In a sauce pan, add peanut oil and heat. Then add 1 TBS grated ginger. Sautee until aromatic. Then, add 1/3 cup low sodium chicken stock, 2 TBS dry sherry or sake if you have it, 1 TBS low sodium soy sauce, 2 tsp. sugar, 2 tsp. Wasabi Paste. Bring to a boil. Taste. The soy sauce and Wasabi can make the sauce seem salty, so add water to dull down the flavor if necessary. Add green onion to finish. Sauce will be a little runny, so in a small bowl I add 1/4 cup water and 2-3 TBS. Corn starch and add it to the sauce to thicken. Sauce can be made ahead of time and heated up before serving.

Fried Wasabi Ginger Rice Cake
2 cups cooked white rice (I like CalRose)
1 TBS grated Ginger
1 TBS chili flakes (I like using the chilis at the bottom of asain chili oil)
3 TBS Shallots
2 TBS Garlic, finely chopped
1 Egg

Mix all ingredients together. Form patties and fry in vegetable Oil at Medium High Heat until crisp and light brown in color. Be careful not to burn them! You can make the patties early and keep them in the fridge before frying. You will want to fry them up right before serving to keep the crispness of the patty.

Sugar Snap Peas (Courtesy of For the Love of Cooking)
2 cups sugar snap peas, trimmed
Vegetable Oil
2 TBS Soy Sauce
1 TBS Rice Wine Vinegar
1-2 Tbs Water
1 tsp Brown Sugar
1 clove Garlic, minced
1 tsp sesame oil
Toasted Sesame Seeds for sprinkling

In a small bowl combine soy sauce, vinegar, water, sugar, garlic and sesame oil. Heat a sautee pan with 2 TBS Veg. Oil until heated well. Sautee the peas for just a minute of so--you want them to be crisp. Then add the sauce and toss to coat. Pull off the stove. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve.

Bon Appetit.