Sweet & Sour Boneless Pork

I had a pineapple that I needed to find a use for.  I debated over Pina Coladas, ham & pineapple pizza and this.  In the end, this won.  I did a combination of marinade, broiling and then baking.  I served this with fried quinoa in the style of fried rice.

I cubed the semi-frozen pork - it is much easier to cut when it's like that.  I sliced it into chops first, then cubes and I was done in no time at all.  I marinated it in 1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce, 1 teaspoon organic sugar and fresh cracked pepper, to taste.  I put this all in a Ziploc and let it bathe in the fridge overnight.

• 3 lbs boneless pork loin, cut into 1 inch cubes
• Marinade, as per above
• Cornstarch, as needed for coating pork

I put some cornstarch in a bowl and coated each piece of pork with tongs.  I moved these onto a half-sheet pan fitted with a rack.  I coated the rack with cooking spray and put foil underneath.  I put each piece on and then doused them with more cooking spray as well.  

These went under the broiler until browned and crispy, about 10 minutes per side - I flipped them once.  I coated a large casserole dish with cooking spray and moved the pork into it while I made the sauce.  The rack above is a bitch to clean, everything sticks between the grooves and doesn't come off easily.  If this is what the chefs use on their sheet pans, obviously someone else cleans them for them...I rarely use these racks but today kind of called for it.

The pork tasted really, really good at this point.  We could have eaten it right here and been happy.  For the sauce I only put in a smidge of sugar as to me the pineapple is sweet enough and so is ketchup.  

I heated this up in a frying pan:

• 1/2 a fresh pineapple, cored, peeled and cubed (I froze the rest - maybe for some Pina Coladas at another time 😉)
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1/4 cup of ketchup
• 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
• 2/3 cup of water
• 1 teaspoon low-sodium soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons of cornstarch mixed with 1/4 cup of water
• 1 onion, large dice
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 green pepper, larger dice
• 1 stalk of celery, sliced

I put a little grapeseed oil in the frying pan and sautéed the onion, bell pepper, garlic and celery until soft.  

I added in the rest of the ingredients and brought to a boil.  I stirred to combine everything well.  I poured this over the pork and put into a 350°F oven for about a half hour.  

I made the fried quinoa while it was in there.  I had cooked my quinoa in low-sodium chicken stock with fresh cilantro earlier in the day so it came out of the fridge.  I sautéed onion first and then dumped the quinoa in.  I added in sliced green onions, chopped kale and grated carrots.  I scrambled one egg on the side of the pan and stirred it in.  I mixed in a bit of fresh cilantro, sesame seed oil and soy sauce at the end..  Time to serve and I garnished with some toasted sesame seeds.  It looked really pretty!

This was very tasty.  Especially the quinoa.  I really liked it.  The pork lost some of it's crispness while in the oven but it was still good.  Maybe next time I would just coat the pork at the end.  Anyway, no complaints and the fresh pineapple was excellent.