I’ve been doing a lot of experimenting with fusion food lately and came up with an Asian/Pennsylvania Dutch style pork and Sauerkraut. Eating pork and sauerkraut has become a yearly tradition for me every New Year, ever since I met my now husband, who grew up in Pennsylvania. It was a tradition for his family to have this meal for good luck every New Year. It’s one of his favorite meals he looks forward to every New Year, though sometimes we might make this in the middle of the year because we were both craving it.
Cooking Method: The pork is cooked on very high heat (5 ½ minutes to a lb), then the oven is turned off, with the heat cooking the rest of the meat through for an additional hour after it’s off. DO NOT open the oven until the hour is finished. That would let some of the heat out. Every oven is different. Originally, the method is to cook at 500 degrees..but from trial and error, and trying this recipe with two different ovens over the years, 500 degrees was way too high. 475-480 was a good average temperature for me. This method of cooking the pork has been a no-fail for me, giving the pork a nice crispy layer on top and juicy, perfectly cooked meat on the inside.
Enjoy!
Asian Style Spicy Pennsylvania Dutch Pork & Kim Chi Sauerkraut
Serving size: about 4-6
Ingredients:
Pork Tenderloin and Rub:
- 1.5 or 2 lbs of Pork Tenderloin
- 1 tablespoon Chinese 5 spice
- 1 tablespoon Garlic Powder
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp Onion Powder
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Pepper
- Vegetable Oil
- Bubbies Spicy Sauerkraut (for less spiciness, use ½ jar of bubbies and ½ pack of regular sauerkraut …my favorite brand is Boar’s Head). Bubbies can by found at Wegman’s. If you can’t find this, just add 1 chopped thai green pepper in with regular sauerkraut when cooking.
- Homemade or store bought Kimchi (a friend’s mom gave me her homemade kimchi…but you can find the recipe here)
- Combine all the seasonings for rub together and massage it into the pork. Refrigerate and let marinate for at least an hour (or overnight).
- To calculate cooking time, it would be 5 ½ minutes per pound. So for 1 ½ lb of tenderloin, cook for 8 ¼ minutes. For 2 lbs, 11 minutes…and so forth.
- When the time is up, turn off the oven and leave the oven door closed for an hour.
- While waiting for the hour to pass, in a large pan, heat a tiny bit of oil and cook the sauerkraut and kim chi together on medium heat until soften. Add a tsp of water if it gets dry. Turn off heat and cover to keep warm.
- When the pork is ready, take the baking dish out of the oven, put the sauerkraut around the pork and mix it in all the juicy goodness from the pork. You’ll notice there will be some some nice charred bits from the pork in some of the juice that will add a nice flavor to the sauerkraut. I like to use the sauerkraut to scrub some of the delicious crust off the sides of the baking dish to get some of that flavor it.
- Cut thin slices of pork and enjoy with sauerkraut!