Pork Noodle Salad

 

My oven broke so I had to improvised. The recipe instructed to bake the pork in the oven, so instead I pan fried it. I don’t have much experience cooking with pork, but boy did I learn one good lesson.

One of my chops were cooked perfectly. I shared that with my bf and it was juicy. The rest was still slightly pink inside. I ended up microwaving it and that was a HUGE mistake. All the juices came out of the pork and what was left was a gray chewy dry piece of meat. It was that bad I ended up throwing the rest away. Luckily I still had the noodles and it had pretty good flavors, so not all was lost. I definitely would make this again and bake the chops. And I’ve learned my lesson, NO MORE microwaving the pork.

Recipe

Prep time: 15 minutes. Cook time: About 30

You need:

• 6 ounces uncooked rice vermicelli
• ¼ cup rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 3 tablespoons mirin
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce

• 1 cup julienne-cut carrots
• ¾ cup thinly sliced red bell pepper (about one small pepper)
• ½ cup thinly sliced green onions
• 1/3 cup thinly sliced fresh basil
• ¼ cup chopped dry-roasted peanuts
• 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
• 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon minced ginger
• ½ teaspoon minced garlic
• 4 (4-ounce) boneless center-cut pork loin chops
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• Cooking spray

Directions

1. Preheat broiler.
2. Cook noodles according to package directions. Drain and rinse under cold water; drain. Place noodles in a large bowl. Add ¼ cup vinegar and next 4 ingredients) through fish sauce; toss well. Top with carrots, bell pepper, green onions, basil, and peanuts.
3. Combine hoisin and next 3 ingredients (through garlic). Sprinkle pork evenly with salt and pepper; place on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray. Brush half of hoisin mixture over pork; broil 3 minutes. Turn pork over rush remaining hoisin mixture over pork; broil 3 minutes or until done. Serve pork thinly sliced over salad.