Hoisin Pork with Garlic Noodles

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Hoisin Pork with Garlic Noodles (dish)

Why this recipe works: Hoisin sauce, with its mix of sauce, with its mix of spicy, sweet, and salty flavors, is the ideal ingredient for dressing up unassuming pork tenderloin. In this dish, we waste the spicy aspect of housing to stand out, so we mute some of the sweetness and add some zing by stirring in fresh ginger and chili – garlic sauce. This mixture is brushed on the pork right at the end of grilling so the flavors bloom and infuse the meat. Chinese noodles have a slightly denser texture than most other types of pasta (spaghetti, for instance), and they’re extra starchy. That means they tend to grab on to the sauce and cling to it more tightly than other noodle varieties. Here, we add flavor to the workaday ingredient with a garlicky dressing of scallions, ginger, and soy sauce that falls in line with the flavor profile of the Hoisin pork.

Ingredients: serve 4 to 6

¼ cup Hoisin sauce

2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger

1 tablespoon chill – garlic sauce

8 scallions, sliced thin

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon soy sauce

2 tablespoon vegetable oil

2 pork tenderloins (1 ½ to 2 pound total salt and pepper

2 (9 – ounce ) packages fresh Chinese noodles

Procedures:

1. Whisk Hoisin, 1 teaspoon ginger, and chili – garlic sauce in small bowl and set aside. In another bowl, combine scallions, garlic, soy sauce, 1 tablespoon oil, and remaining ginger.
2. Pat pork dry with paper towels. Rub with remaining oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill over hot fire until browned on all sides and pork registers 145 degrees, 12 to 15 minutes. Brush with Hoisin mixture and cook 1 minute longer. Transfer to cutting board, tent with foil, and let rest 5 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, bring 3 quarts water to boil in large pot. Add 1 tablespoon salt and noodles and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, 3 to 4 minutes. Reserve ½ cup noodle water, drain noodles, and return noodles to pot. Stir in scallion mixture, adding reserved cooking water as needed. Season with salt and pepper. Slice pork. Serve with noodles.

Quick Prep Tip: Reserving Pasta Water

Many cooks forget to save a bit of pasta cooking water to thin an accompanying sauce, even when a recipe recommends it. Here’s an easy way to remember: Before cooking the pasta, set a colander for draining in the sink, then place a measuring cup inside the colander. The sight of the measuring cup is sure to nudge your memory at the appropriate moment.

Smart shopping Hoisin sauce

According to our tasters, the perfect Hoisin sauce balances sweet, salty, pungent, and spicy elements so that no one flavor dominates. One brand, Kikkoman’s Hoisin Sauce, come closest to this ideal, with tasters praising its initial “burn,” which mellowed into a harmonious blend of sweet and aromatic flavors.