4 six ounce pork tenderloin steaks

1/2 cup soy sauce
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon minced ginger
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon sesame oil

4 long slices cucumber

1. Combine soy sauce, garlic, ginger, flour and cornstarch. Rub pork with salt and pepper, toss in cornstarch mixture and refrigerate overnight.
2. Remove pork from the fridge and discard excess marinade. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and fry the pork until golden brown. Drain on paper towel.
3. Whisk together ketchup, sugar, vinegar and honey.
4. Heat vegetable and sesame oil together in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Add the pork and sweet and sour sauce, simmering until pork is tender, about 15-20 minutes.
5. Remove pork from the sauce and wrap cucumber slice around it, securing with a toothpick. Spoon over extra sauce to serve.

Makes 4 servings

4 eggs
2 bags black tea
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
4 scallions, chopped
1 tablespoon sesame seeds, toasted
water
salt and pepper

1. Place eggs in a pot large enough to leave space between them and just cover with water.
2. Bring the pot of water to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and cover. Allow eggs to sit for about 10 minutes to fully cook.
3. Remove eggs from the water and allow to cool to the touch. Lightly crack the shells by rolling on the counter or tapping with a spoon. Return the eggs to the water.
4. Add tea bags to the water and return to a boil. Remove pot from the heat, cover and allow eggs to sit in the tea until they've reached room temperature.
5. Remove egg shells. The tea should have imparted a marbled pattern on the egg itself.
6. Slice eggs in half and scoop out the yolks.
7. Combine yolks, mayonnaise and scallions. Season with salt and pepper.
8. Fill egg whites with the yolk mixture. Garnish with sesame seeds and removed shells, if desired.

Makes 4 servings

1 pound bok choy, chopped
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 medium onion, sliced
2 tablespoons ginger puree
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1-1/2 teaspoons sugar
salt

1. Heat oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Add onion, ginger, garlic and red pepper flakes, frying until lightly browned.
2. Add bok choy and fry for a minute or two to combine.
3. Season with salt, lemon juice and sugar and fry until crisp-tender.

Makes 4 servings

Previously on A Food Year, I attempted to make Sweet and Sour Pork with poor results. I decided to try a completely different recipe with a mostly different preparation method that was recommended to me back then when I failed. Unfortunately for me, I'd lost that recipe over the months between then and now and I was once again winging an attempt at sweet and sour pork. The only part that I remember is that a slice of cucumber was wrapped around it after cooking, so I went with that.

With the Sweet and Sour Pork Tenderloin the results were much better. I also like the idea of using ketchup to turn the sauce red instead of food coloring, which was what I had in the original recipe which made it more pink than anything. I suppose that tomato paste, vinegar and sugar could be substituted for ketchup with identical results, if you were looking to use up a half used jar of tomato paste or didn't happen to have ketchup for some reason. The sauce nicely combined both sweet and sour and really, that's about all you can hope for when making sweet and sour sauce. My only complaint is that I didn't make my cucumber slice long enough and therefore had much difficulty wrapping it around my pork.

The Stir-Fried Bok Choy was not very good. It was sort of spicy and bitter and bland. Bok choy is a really difficult stand alone vegetable, I find. When thawing chicken in the fridge the even salmonella juices escaped and ran into my vegetable crisper, so I'm at a loss for vegetables right now and likely for the next couple of days. This makes for a difficult stir-fry, unless I'm going to make one of soy sauced apples and bananas.

Beforehand I made Marbled Devilled Eggs. I was reading about marbling eggs using tea a bit ago and had to try it out. It did not work as well as I expected, since most of the marbled pattern ends up on the shells, but you can still see a decorative shading on the outside of the eggs. I can see myself doing this again just for kicks, but it doesn't impart a single bit of flavor on the egg itself. The rest is basically just a devilled egg recipe with sesame seeds and green onions. The sesame seeds really didn't add to it at all, but I thought that they'd look pretty.