THURSDAY

Pork Tenderloin Stir-Fry with Baby Bok Choy & Mandarins  |  Brown Rice

I woke this morning much the same way I do every morning…Michael’s alarm goes off and he heads into the shower while I lie in bed drifting in between the lightest state of sleep and conscious thought.  By the time he kisses me good-bye, conscious thought has won the tug-of-war over sleep, my mind sorting over the plans and activities of the day before me.  This morning, one of the very first things that came to my mind was:  I did not want to have Spicy Peanut Noodles with Steamed Vegetables for dinner.  Strange isn’t it?  That I could be thinking about dinner at 5:00am in the morning?  I didn’t pay much attention to the lingering thought and went about my morning in the usual manner.  Driving home after dropping the children off at school I became increasingly more unsettled with the idea of our dinner plans for this evening.  Mind you, I have nothing against Spicy Peanut Noodles, in fact, I like them quite a bit…just not today.  The trouble was, I had no idea what I did want for dinner.  Today’s schedule of activities left me very little room for indecision…I needed to be out running errands from just before lunch until the time of school pick-up and then it was on to baseball practice until 6:30pm.  Whatever we were going to have needed to be chosen and purchased on my way home this morning.

I walked into our neighborhood market with an open mind & an empty canvas bag and proceeded directly to the produce area.  Two aisles away from my destination, I could smell these…

Peaches and white nectarines…so very ripe, their abundant juice palpable just beneath a thin layer of skin.  With absolutely no thought as to the role this gem-colored fruit would play in our dinner, I placed six of each into a bag and into my cart.  The next item to catch my eye were these beautiful mandarins…

And as soon as I saw these being freshly stacked in their produce beds I knew what dinner was going to be…

I have made this Pork Tenderloin Stir-Fry so many times since it first appeared in the November 2009 issue of Bon Appétit that I don’t even look at the recipe anymore.  It is a family favorite and, once the meat, citrus & vegetables are peeled and chopped {which can be done in advance and stored in the refrigerator until ready to cook, as I did today} the dish is ready in 10 minutes.  The original recipe calls for the mandarins to be cut into sections and left unpeeled.  We find the skins and pith of this fruit to be thin but very bitter so I always peel our citrus.  You can click here to view the video, “How To Peel Citrus“.

Pork Tenderloin Stir-Fry with Baby Bok Choy & Mandarins {adapted from Bon Appétit via Epicurious}

• 2 pounds of  pork tenderloin, trimmed, cut crosswise into ½-inch-thick rounds, then cut into ½-inch-wide strips
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons Asian sesame oil, divided
• 1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger
• 6 small peeled tangerines,clementines or mandarins, cut into ¾-inch pieces
• ½ cup Asian sweet chili sauce
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• ¼ teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder
• 3 baby bok choy, cut crosswise into 1-inch-thick ribbons, tough bases discarded
• 6 green onions, thinly sliced on diagonal, divided

1. Place pork tenderloin strips in medium bowl; sprinkle with salt and freshly ground black pepper and toss with cornstarch to coat.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon sesame oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add minced ginger; stir 30 seconds. Add pork tenderloin strips; stir-fry until pork is beginning to brown and is almost cooked through, about 3 minutes. Add tangerine pieces; toss 30 seconds. Add sweet chili sauce, soy sauce, and Chinese five-spice powder; boil until sauce in skillet thickens slightly, tossing to blend, about 1 minute. Stir in remaining 1 tablespoon sesame oil, bok choy, and half of sliced green onions. Stir-fry just until bok choy is wilted, 1 to 2 minutes. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Transfer to bowl; sprinkle with remaining sliced green onions and serve with brown rice.

The finished dinner plate…

For dessert, incredibly sweet and juicy fruit…