Maple Pork and Pears with Gorgonzola

4.80 from 5 votes

A simple steam oven roast turned substantial salad, ready to rival any restaurant dinner you've had in recent memory.

Prep Time10

Cook Time15

Total Time25

Course: Appetizer, Main Course

Cuisine: Asian, Western

Keyword: maple pork, maple pork and pears with gorgonzola

Servings:

Calories: 616kcal

12 oz pork tenderloin pork fillet, sinews and fat trimmed off
1 tbs dark soy sauce
1 tbs maple syrup
1 piece ginger about 1"/2.5cm, grated
3 pears cored and cut into eighths (no need to peel, though you could if you like)
4 cups salad greens about 4oz/120g, I use spinach and arugula/rocket
3 oz gorgonzola cheese cut or crumbled into small pieces
1 tbs olive oil

Preheat oven to 200⁰C/400⁰F, combination steam setting. If your oven has variable steam settings, use 30% humidity. If not, don't worry! Just set to combi steam at the correct temperature and the oven will figure out the humidity for you.
Mix the soy, maple and ginger in a small bowl, add the pork and turn to coat.
Lay the pork flat in a baking dish (I use the 2/3 sized solid stainless steel pan which came with my oven) and put the pears around it in a single layer. If there’s any marinade left in the pork bowl, pour this over the meat.
Cook until the pork is tender and juicy, approximately 12-15 minutes. If you have an instant-read thermometer, you want the center of the meat to be 145F/63C. Remove from oven.
Rest the pork for a few minutes while you put the salad together. Put the leaves onto a large platter and arrange the pears on top. Slice the pork into pieces approximately 6mm/¼” thick and lay these over the top. Pour any pan juices over the salad, scatter with the gorgonzola and serve immediately.

Serves 2-3, can easily be doubled.
I love the combination of pork with pears. They’re both relatively gentle in flavour, and their inherent sweetness and earthiness are a great match.
The pork doesn’t need to be seared prior to cooking because we’re going to ‘cheat’ the browning process by coating it with dark soy sauce, which also adds a welcome salty depth. The soy marinade will serve as a sticky dressing for the final dish, too.