My Chef's Hat - Hoisin Pork with Rice Noodles

I have a love/hate relationship with the weeks leading up to Christmas. Love, because it means we are off work for at least a week. Yes, we still have basketball games and the bowl game, but there's no early AM alarm clocks or sitting in the office all day.  Hate, because we get all kinds of treats and goodies in the office. Sure, it's great to get all of that stuff, but my waistline certainly doesn't like it.

About 3 weeks ago a box came to the office, specifically for me. I opened it to find a pork loin 

I've never gotten one of these before, either as a gift or from the grocery store. And besides, I was having a holiday party that weekend and realized it would be perfect to use for that. So I was pretty excited. 

I figured pre-cooked, it wouldn't take more than about 15 minutes to warm up. Well, that's not even remotely close. To do it properly, without cutting it first, takes about 40 minutes. But my goodness is it worth the wait! The whole kitchen smelled amazing, and the meat was incredibly tender and juicy. Even the white meat, which would normally get very dry.

I had some leftover, and rather than just pick at it every time I opened the fridge, I wanted to make a meal out of it. There are tons of recipes on Pinterest for pork loin, both new and leftover. I eventually came across the recipe for Hoisin Pork with Rice Noodles. I was in kind of an Asian mood anyways, so this was perfect.

Here is the official recipe photo

Here's the pork in the overnight marinade

And here is my finished version

This dish was excellent. I was a little worried that doing a stir-fry of the pork loin might make it dry because this was essentially a 3rd cooking. The marinade kept that moisture locked in, and the only pieces I didn't care for were those that were the leanest to begin with. I was convinced I had more than enough marinade, but looking at the recipe photos I could have easily done more. There's really never such a thing as too much marinade. Also, I didn't add peanut butter so that made a difference in the consistency of mine.

There were so many flavors and vibrant colors going on in this dish as well. I roasted the peanuts slightly before adding them on top, and that just added to the overall flavor of the dish. I sauteed my veggies instead of adding them raw, which I do very often. It adds even more flavor while softening the veggies just slightly.

I will definitely be making this again, and soon.

Original Recipe Courtesy of Pinch of Yum