(cheerful music) - [Sara] "Sara's Weeknight Meals" is made possible by Sunsweet and by - Cooking is the first kind of love you know.

It was starting when I was child with my grandmother doing fresh pasta, and now I transmitted to all the guests is something make specially for them.

- [Narrator] Oceania Cruises, proud sponsor of "Sara's Weeknight Meals."

- [Narrator 2] Zwilling, makers of Fresh and Save, the vacuum food storage system.

One of the ways Zwilling has been helping cooks do it all in the kitchen for 290 years.

The Zwilling family of cookware is proud to support "Sara's Weeknight Meals."

(gentle music) - I have a friend who eats no meat, except, well pork.

She calls herself a porketarian.

And on that, I must agree.

There is no meat more delicious than that of the pig.

So today we're devoting a whole episode to it.

We'll start with grilled pork tenderloin.

Already great, but when you put it on top of a crisp cucumber and melon salsa and add a creamy feta dressing, oh yeah, that's good.

Perfect for a hot summer night.

And then on Ask Sara, - I wanted to know if you have a process, kind of decide which kind of thickeners you will use for a sauce or a soup.

- Well there's so much to say.

Grace Young is back with her wok.

You're a natural born woker.

(women laugh) - [Grace] We're making Chinese barbecued pork.

(Sara gasps) - Yes.

- Okay.

- Which is fabulous by itself, but we're going to use it for fried rice today, which is out of this world.

- [Sara] Today on "Sara's Weeknight Meals."

(gentle music) - This is the perfect summer meal on a plate, grilled pork tenderloin on top of a salsa made of cucumber, cantaloupe, fresh herbs, red onion, and then topped off with a creamy feta dressing that's been lightened up by buttermilk.

It's also very quick to make.

I'm going to reach for a machine today to make it even faster.

So I'm going to start by getting my red onions soaked because I love onions, I don't mind eating them raw, but they have that oniony flavor, that bite.

How you tone that down is by soaking them in ice water.

(knife chopping) Paper thin, make it small.

That's good.

I need to give it another one little chop here and there, just so that you don't get big, big chunks of onion.

All right.

So that's going to soak for about 20 minutes and I'm just going to park this over here.

And now I'm going to make this creamy dressing.

We do have some cheese.

This is two ounces of crumbled, feta cheese.

I'm going to add 1/3 of a cup of the buttermilk, 1/4 of a cup of mayonnaise, a tablespoon each of fresh lemon juice and olive oil, extra virgin olive oil and I'm going to puree it until it's really smooth and creamy.

(blender whirling) So this looks wonderfully creamy.

Let's have a look.

Isn't that fun?

You just turn it right side round and there it is.

Oh, that looks perfect.

Wow, let me just show you on a spoon, hang on, how creamy it is, how beautifully pureed.

See that.

Isn't that lovely?

Here we go.

But we want a few chunks of the cheese in there too.

So I'm just going to stir the second two ounces in.

Okay, so that's our dressing.

You know, it's funny, 'cause when I was first a chef, I did everything by hand.

You know, how dare you use a machine?

But now I love my machines.

They make life a lot easier, especially when you're trying to get dinner on the table like that.

(fingers snap) Okay, it's time for the pork tenderloin.

I love pork tenderloin because it's lean and yet unlike it's cousin, you know, or its neighbor, pork loin, they lie in the same place next to each other in the animal, the difference between the two is this is very tender.

It's like beef tenderloin.

So, and it doesn't tend to dry out as much as pork loin, which is also very lean.

They're the two leanest cuts.

So I always reach for this over the pork loin, which is bigger, got a bigger eye, but just not my favorite.

So I am oiling the pork tenderloin.

When you're grilling, I've learned this from my friend Elizabeth Karmel, who's been on this show, that you oil the item, you don't oil the grill.

'Cause everybody else tells you to oil the grill and that's wrong.

It makes the grill tacky and have build up and get sticky.

Whereas when you oil the food, as long as the grill is hot, it won't stick.

Okay.

Let me do the other side, then we're gonna just take this out.

There we go.

And just salt and pepper.

You could add more spices if you want.

Now we're going to grill this.

I've been preheating the grill and we're going to do it on medium.

And it's when you think about a pork tenderloin, even though it's round, there's like four sides, if you think of it that way.

So we're going to do about two minutes a side so all of it gets nicely colored and then we'll check its temperature.

It should be at about 140 and then we'll let it rest so all the juices redistribute.

Okay, I think we're ready to go.

I'm gonna go out and put this on the grill.

(happy music) Okay, now while that rests, I'm going to get my salsa together.

I just need, I've got a little bit here.

I'm going to cut another piece.

We need 1 1/2 cups chunked cantaloupe.

(slow music) I'm removing the skin.

You want these to be uniform chunks 'cause we're going to chop it quickly in this machine.

(knife chopping) There we go.

So there's our melon.

Now we're using one of those seedless cucumbers.

I think it's so funny, they say these are seedless.

Yeah, they have seeds, but they're completely edible.

We want less of the cucumber, more of the melon.

(slow music) Okay, so melon goes in first, then the cucumber because it's softer.

You want to put the harder fruit in first.

We're just going to pulse it a few times.

(processor whirls) All right.

That might be it.

Just two pulses.

Nice colors, isn't it?

You should smell it too.

Now this gets our onions, which have had their time to lose their pungency.

Oh, I think that's a little more onion than I want.

I mean, I give amounts.

It's like anything else, you can decide how much you want of everything, but I don't think I'll put quite all these onions in there.

Okay.

Very pretty.

And now we're going to add a little fresh lime juice.

And here we have some salt, a little bit of salt and I'm just going to quick toss this up with my impeccably clean hands and then add our herbs.

Oh, that is so pretty, isn't it?

So here I have some mint.

This is about 3/4 of a cup of mint leaves and if you've never used herbs in a salad, you should use them like you use lettuce.

They are just delicious.

Don't just use them for a garnish at the end.

Now I'm going to do something a tad lazy.

I could pick off, you know, one at a time, the pieces of cilantro.

But instead I'm just going to give this a quick haircut, which will knock off some pieces.

There we go.

That looks nice.

All right.

Okay.

Let's say that was about 3/4 of a cup.

All right, now this is the base and then I'm going to slice my pork and then it goes on top with our dressing.

Okay, let me put this on there and then I'm going to get my pork.

So put a nice mound and don't forget the salt.

The salt is important.

Okay.

I'm going to show you all, let's see here, I'll take my pork off.

See all this juice that was left.

I'm going to add that right to our sauce.

We're doing what Madeleine Kamman, a great cooking teacher and chef from Boston used to say, we are marrying the meat to the sauce because up until now, there was no relationship.

Just stir that in.

There we go.

So let me just take it right from the middle.

Nicely, see the nice little pink glow there.

You could, I mean, depending on how large your pork tenderloin is, you can get three to four portions out of one, 'cause it's a pound and the idea being is to keep it to about four ounces per person.

Okay.

And then we're just going to drizzle our sauce on top.

See how creamy that is.

So there you have it.

My grilled pork tenderloin on a cucumber and cantaloupe salsa, with a creamy feta dressing.

Perfect for hot summer night.

(gentle music) I love doing the segment called Ask Sara because in order to be prepared for my guests and their questions, I have to do a ton of research.

So I learn something too.

Today we have a special guest, Elizabeth Geers, calling from Coatesville, Pennsylvania.

How can we help you today?

- I wanted to know if you have a process, kind of decide which kind of thickeners you will use for a sauce or a soup?

- Well, there's so much to say.

So let's get started with the obvious, which is flour.

And I'm going to show you a slurry.

I've got a cup of chicken stock in here and I've got three tablespoons of cold water and I'm going to add two tablespoons of the instantized flour and this will produce a medium thickened sauce.

- Is it always cold?

- Always cold.

It should be cold.

You should never add your starch straight in.

Dry starch to hot liquid is a disaster.

You need to dissolve it first in a cold liquid.

Very good question.

And here it goes, steady stream, whisking.

(whisk scraping) So after flour, we have corn starch.

It's great to thicken a cheese sauce or a cream sauce of some kind.

The downside is that if you whisk it too much, it breaks down.

It's like you never thickened it.

And also you cannot freeze corn starch.

Okay, moving on next to arrowroot.

Have you ever heard of it before Elizabeth?

- Yeah, I've heard of arrowroot.

It's not so readily available so I'm really, really interested to hear this.

- Arrowroot produces a quite clear sauce.

It's tasteless, so that's a real plus.

It's very good with acidic items, acidic sauces, or this is a jam here.

You can use it for jams.

The downside is that it's not good with dairy or cream sauces and that if you heat it for too long, it will break down.

Okay, and last but not least, we have potato starch.

Now potato starch, we all associate with gluten-free cooking, baking mainly.

And it wouldn't be my first choice as a thickener, but it works perfectly well.

So if it's your only option, use it.

It's got the most potency of all of them.

You don't need as much potato starch as the others to thicken one cup of liquid.

The downside is that it gets sort of gummy after it sat around.

It also will break down if you heat it too high, but there's another option, which is vegetables.

I've got here, a vegetable soup, and you can see that the liquid is quite thin.

Take this very lethal tool.

Do you have one of these?

- Yes.

A hand mixer?

Yes.

- So this is an immersion blender.

I don't want to puree the whole soup.

I just want to puree a little bit and we're just going to whiz some of this.

(blender whirling) Now you can see we've got a much thicker texture.

It's just - All right, more hardy.

- So exactly, hardy.

Okay, well let's - I'm going to try that.

- Good, thank you so much.

I love that question.

It's one of my favorites and it's been a pleasure talking to you.

- Thank you!

You too, Sara.

- And you too can join me, like Elizabeth.

If you send in a question to the website for Ask Sara.

Please do it.

(slow music) - Your wok is talking to you.

- [Sara] Wok Guru Grace Young is one of my favorite guests.

Oh I'm smelling it.

- Isn't that fabulous?

- It's so wonderful.

But recently she took on a new role as an advocate for America's dying Chinatowns.

- Chinatown is on life support and it's quickly slipping away.

- [Sara] Battered by the pandemic, legacy businesses face an uncertain recovery.

- A lot of people had no choice, but to close up - [Sara] Keeping businesses like this open is Grace Young's mission.

- They are linked to our past and when we lose our past, we lose a part of ourselves.

(soft music) - I'm so thrilled to have Grace here today, correct me if I'm wrong, but you're also known as the Stir Fry Guru.

- Exactly.

- And you may or may not be the award-winning author of three cookbooks, fabulous cookbooks.

So I'm so pleased that here we are again, a good buddy from way back.

We go way back, when we were just twelve.

What are we making today?

- We're making Chinese barbecued pork.

(excited gasp) Yes, which is fabulous by itself, but we're going to use it for fried rice today, which is out of this world.

- I'm so excited, all righty.

So we're going to start with the marinade?

- Yeah - Tell me what to do.

- We want two tablespoons of sugar.

- Okay.

- Bean sauce - Okay.

- and you want just a tablespoon of it.

- [Sara] And what is bean sauce exactly?

- Bean sauce is made with soybeans.

It's sort of like Chinese miso.

- Oh.

- Yeah, dark soy sauce.

It's aged a little bit longer.

This is Hoisin sauce.

This has more sugar in it.

- [Sara] I was going to say, this is pretty sweet.

- But a little bit of smokiness too.

And this is the regular soy sauce.

- [Sara] Yes.

And this is all a tablespoon of each one of these, right?

- Right.

Rice wine, Shaoxing rice wine, but don't worry if you can't find it, you can just use dry sherry.

One teaspoon of Asian sesame oil.

- [Sara] Yeah.

- And lastly, a little bit of white pepper.

- Just a pinch?

- Yeah, 1/8 of a teaspoon.

- This is exactly an eighth of a teaspoon.

Okay, so the pork goes right in here?

- [Grace] Yeah.

- Okay, there we go.

- Yeah.

- [Sara] And what kind of pork was it?

- Oh, this is one pound of pork shoulder or Boston butt.

Now we're going to cover it and put it in the refrigerator.

- For how long?

- Well, ideally overnight, turning it occasionally, but if you're in a rush, four or five hours is great.

- Perfect.

- Yeah.

- Well I think you need to hose down (Grace laughing) and I'll get this in here.

(water running) Okay, so this we've marinated overnight and it looks different.

It looks like it's been marinated.

- [Grace] Yeah, it's very, very simple.

All you need to do now is transfer it to this roasting pan that has the rack.

So the most important thing is you want to leave about one inch of space between the pieces.

This is the critical part.

You add about 1/4 of an inch of water and this is what keeps the meat moist as it's cooking.

- So it's sort of a steamy environment.

- Right.

- Now, what is this for?

- So this is honey.

- That's local honey, by the way - Local honey, yep.

The best.

- Came from right near here.

- And we're just going to drizzle a little of the honey on each piece.

- [Sara] Wow.

- And that's what gives it that wonderful glaze.

That's sort of like a roast ham.

- [Sara] Oh, yeah.

- [Grace] So you get this beautiful sticky glaze at the end.

- [Grace] So this goes under the broiler?

- Yes.

- Let's go pop it in.

- [Grace] So you want it four inches from the heat.

- [Sara] Okay.

And how long do you let it go?

- Seven to 10 minutes.

- Okay.

- Okay.

- Wonderful.

- Perfect.

- [Sara] Okay, say you don't want to make it.

Can you buy it?

- So there are a lot of Chinese restaurants in Chinatown where you see roast ducks hanging in the window.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

That's the kind of restaurant where you would typically find Chinese barbecued pork.

And, of course it's excellent from a restaurant, but the homemade is incredible.

It is the best.

So many of my students call this meat candy.

- Wow.

- Ooh, this is looking great.

Yes.

Wow.

That's beautiful.

- Whoa!

- Yeah.

So I'm just turning them over.

Oh my God and that aroma.

Now I'm just going to brush on a little bit more marinade.

- Just a little bit.

- Just a little bit.

- And because this is going back under the broiler, it doesn't matter that the raw meat marinated in this, 'cause this is going to cook under the broiler.

- [Grace] Exactly.

- [Sara] Now this goes back under what?

For another, say.

- [Grace] 7 to 10 minutes.

- [Sara] And cover it with foil if it starts to burn.

- Exactly.

Yep.

- So while that's finishing up, tell me about the work you've been doing in Chinatown.

- Well, during the pandemic, I realized that I had taken Chinatown for granted and it was really on the brink of collapse and it still is.

- You mean, just cause nobody's going.

- Exactly.

I've been trying to do everything in my power to raise awareness that we need to support these historic immigrant communities.

- Right because they'd been around for years and years and years and we depend on them.

I do too.

- They are a sacred part of America.

- Yeah, what do you think?

Should we take a little peek?

- Yeah, I think you're right.

Oh, it's perfect.

Oh my God.

And the aroma, here's our meat candy.

Chinese barbecued pork.

- [Sara] Now how do we know it's done besides the fact that it looks perfect?

- So I use a meat thermometer.

- Of course.

- Of course.

- What temper we looking for?

- 155.

Perfect.

- Now what happens with this?

- So we're going to let it rest 10 minutes.

- (Sara) Okay.

Makes sense.

- and then cut it into one half inch diced pieces.

- Well, so let's go down and talk about fried rice.

- Absolutely.

You could start cutting, chopping the scallions.

- How many do you need?

- Roughly 1/2 cup or so.

- [Sara] Okay.

- So this rice has been cooked the day before and I'm just gonna fluff it again.

If you did freshly cooked rice, it's too hot and moist.

- Really?

- Yeah, and so fried rice becomes sticky and gummy.

- [Sara] You know, I realized that you could also use the leftover Chinese rice, right?

- Yeah, if you're in a pinch and you had some Chinese takeout, you can certainly use takeout rice.

This is a peeled and de-veined shrimp and it's been patted dry.

This is very important.

You don't want it to be sopping wet.

because when you put it into the hot wok with the oil, it's going to spatter and it's also going to take down the temperature of the wok.

- Oh, that makes sense.

- And I'm going to cut this into 1/1 inch pieces and whenever you're prepping ingredients for a stir fry, it's very important to try and cut your ingredients into more or less the same size.

- [Sara] Yeah, that makes sense.

You want these patted dry also, right?

- [Grace] Yes.

- [Sara] And the reason for having them all the same size is 'cause you want them all cooked at the same moment.

- Yeah.

- Now, do you want me to do the pork?

- Yes.

The pork should be 1/2 inch dice.

So let me talk to you about my wok a little bit.

- I know you're very attached to your wok.

You just about sleep with it, don't you?

How does your husband feel about that?

- I know.

This is a flat bottom carbon steel wok.

It's the wok that I recommend in general for most cooks.

It works great on gas, electric.

So it's really important to preheat the wok.

because without that your food is going to stick when you do a stir fry.

- I got it.

- Yeah.

And the other thing that we want to do is line up the ingredients in the order that we're going to use them.

So here's a tablespoon of oil and the shrimp.

Another tablespoon of oil.

Can you grab the peas?

- Oh yes.

So we're just using frozen peas.

About how much?

- One cup, I already measured it.

I test the temperature of the wok with a drop of water.

(wok sizzles) So this is about it.

- Okay, so swirl around.

- Yep.

That's it.

- How am I doing boss?

- Beautiful.

Yeah.

And then immediately add the shrimp.

- [Sara] Okay, anywhere in particular?

- Nowhere.

- Okay, just in there.

- [Grace] Yeah.

And then you can stir fry it.

- Okay, just keep it moving.

- And you want to stir fry this, yeah, for about, just until the shrimp turns orange.

- [Sara] Okay, so I should be sort of just keeping it moving.

Is there a particular motion?

You're probably going nuts watching me.

- No, you're excellent.

You're a natural born woker.

(both laugh) - There you go.

There you go.

- [Grace] So it's just turned orange and so I am going to add the next tablespoon of oil.

- [Sara] Okay, and what's next?

- The rice, all of it.

- How do you add it?

All of it?

Just any particular way?

- [Grace] That's it.

- [Sara] Oh, that was very unceremonious.

(both laughing) That was a very much of a (makes derision sound) right in there.

- [Grace] And the peas.

I can take the peas now.

- [Sara] Okay, and again, anywhere in particular, no?

- No.

- Okay.

Now the thing about Chinese cooking, it makes me so nervous.

It's like doing watercolors.

You spend hours getting all the materials ready and then 30 seconds, you have to get it cooked.

You have to get it painted.

- [Sara] Listen to our pan.

The wok is always talking to you.

Do you hear the sizzle?

- I do.

- So if we hadn't preheated correctly, there would be no sizzle sound.

And that is not good.

And also take a look at the fact there is absolutely no sticking.

So this is natural nonstick cookware.

So now we can add the pork and the scallions.

Yeah, just pour it all in.

Oh, that looks so good.

- doesn't it?

- And now 1/2 teaspoon of salt, roughly, and about a big pinch of white pepper.

- Why white pepper?

I know this is common in Chinese cooking.

- The Chinese don't like black specs.

So in less than five minutes, you've got your meal.

- Now, there you go.

Again, like watercolors.

You're like, get it done.

And then it's done.

- Oh it's so beautiful.

- But yours is beautiful.

My water colors aren't necessarily.

- [Grace] And the best thing is, I always have cooked rice at home and I suddenly realize I need to get dinner on the table and I always have something in the fridge.

- [Sara] This is a perfect vehicle for leftovers.

- Yes.

- Fried rice.

- Yes.

- All right.

Well, if this is it, we're going to go outside in my beautiful garden and have lunch.

- Absolutely.

- Let's do it.

- Okay.

- I'm so excited.

Wow.

- [Grace] I love this.

It's my all time favorite fried rice.

- [Sara] Oh, and the pork.

And it's nice and moist, even though, you know, we cooked it medium well, because it's got all that fat in there.

It keeps it going.

- All my friends who have made this recipe, all my students who have made this recipe, once you've made it, you can't stop thinking about it.

You become an addict for Chinese, homemade, Chinese barbecued pork.

- This is just so ridiculously good.

I'm going to have to make this meat candy.

When I told my son we were going to do this, he's like, "Mom, can I come?"

Well now I'm going to do it.

And now I see how easy it is.

I have to say thank you so much.

And thank you for coming back.

Let's have a little toast.

- Sara, it's been my pleasure and I'm glad you're a new addict.

- Oh my God, yes.

- Thank you.

(soft music) - Next time, we'll go to Chinatown.

- [Grace] Absolutely.

Yes.

- [Sara] For recipes, videos, and more go to our website saramoulton.com.

"Sara's Weeknight Meals" is made possible by Sunsweet and by - Cooking is the first kind of love you know.

It was starting when I was child with my grandmother doing fresh pasta.

And now I transmitted to all the guests, is something made specially for them.

- Oceania Cruises, proud sponsor of "Sara's Weeknight Meals."

- Zwilling, makers of Fresh and Save, the vacuum food storage system.

One of the ways Zwilling has been helping cooks do it all in the kitchen for 290 years.

This Zwilling family of cookware is proud to support "Sara's Weeknight Meals."