A Very General Asian Pork Marinade

My daughter's favorite meal is seared pork, blistered green beans and rice. The rice is optional as is the pork. However everyone else would like more than a plate of green beans for dinner.

I had a huge pork loin sitting in the freezer and the google twitch to find something different than my go to teriyaki marinade. This is sorta what I found. The cumin is an outlier as far as my typical fare. I mean I use it for Indian, Middle Eastern, Mexico and below (Central and South American) food. Also some Spanish dishes. This was good though. I wanted to capture it for future use.

I'm totally known for shooting from the hip while I cook and NEVER ever getting it just the same again later. Most times that's okay unless I struck upon something fantastic. This was fantastic.

Asian Pork Marinade

1 bunch of green onions, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 inch of ginger, peeled and minced
2/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon chili paste
1 teaspoon cumin
3.5 pound pork loin, cut into skinny strips.*

1 large onion, cut in strips

2 tablespoons cornstarch
4 tablespoons water

oil for searing.

Combine all the ingredients in a ziplock bag. Squish it around to cover all the pork, squeeze out the air. Marinate at least 4 hours up to 24.

Heat a heavy skillet. Add a touch of oil and meat drained of the marinade (reserve the marinade). Cook the pork in batches. Move the pork to a shallow dish once it is cooked. After you've cooked all the pork, wipe the pan clean. Add a little more oil and reduce the heat to medium. Cook onions until soft. Add the reserved marinade. Cook until it's simmering. Thicken with cornstarch and water slurry. Add pork back to the pan to cover with sauce. Serve.


*I use pork loin in the small cut because pan searing the meat, it needs to cook quickly and still be tender. If you used a more marbled cut of pork you'd need to cook it low and slow to make it tender. You could combine a the marinade with pork shoulder cut into chunks and braise it or put it in slow cooker. I'm just not much of a slow cooker appliance lover.




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