Pork Tenderloin with Plum Sauce

Mid-January. The rain continues its winter performance and I am writing the second book with an intensity that surprises me — the words coming faster than they came for the first book, the voice more confident, the structure clearer. The second book knows what it is. The first book had to discover itself as I wrote it. The second book arrived with a thesis: I am a woman of two kitchens, and the two kitchens have been in conversation my whole life, and the conversation is the food.

I made hayashi rice — the Japanese beef stew over rice, the yoshoku comfort food that bridges Western and Japanese in a single pot. The stew is rich and dark, the onions caramelized, the demi-glace sauce deep with umami. Fumiko made hayashi rice on cold nights, and I make hayashi rice on cold nights, and the cold nights in Portland are longer than the cold nights in Sacramento, and the stew is correspondingly richer, as if the dish calibrates itself to the climate, getting deeper in proportion to the darkness.

I taught a yoga class this week that was the best I've taught in years — a flow that I had not planned, that emerged from the breath and the room and the twenty bodies moving together, the choreography arising spontaneously, the way a good meal arises spontaneously from the ingredients available. The class ended in silence and the silence was the fullness and the fullness was the practice and I thought: I am good at this. I am good at two things — cooking and guiding breath — and the two things are the same thing. Both require presence. Both require listening. Both require the willingness to stand in front of people and offer something invisible — a flavor, a breath — and trust that the invisible thing will nourish.

Lin finished her own novel this month — a literary fiction about a Korean-American woman navigating divorce and motherhood in Portland. I read the manuscript and it was devastating and beautiful and I wrote her a note that said, "This is the hardest thing you've ever written and the best thing you've ever written," because the phrase has become ours, the phrase that Lin said to me and that I am now saying to her, the phrase that circulates between us like a recipe that two women share, each making it their own.

The hayashi rice had already done its work — warming the kitchen, grounding the evening, reminding me that some dishes don’t need to explain themselves. But on a night soon after, when the tenderloin was already thawed and the plums were sitting dark and ripe in the bowl, I found myself reaching for the same instinct: a rich sauce, a patient braise, something that rewards the willingness to just stand at the stove and listen. This pork tenderloin with plum sauce has that same deep, yielding quality — the sauce almost black at the edges, sweet and savory at once, the kind of thing you make spontaneously and then wonder how you ever cooked without it.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 30 min | Total Time: 45 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs pork tenderloin, trimmed
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
4 ripe plums, pitted and roughly chopped
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1 tbsp unsalted butter

Instructions

Preheat and season. Preheat oven to 400°F. Pat the pork tenderloin dry with paper towels. Combine salt, pepper, garlic powder, and smoked paprika; rub evenly over the surface of the pork.
Sear the pork. Heat olive oil in an oven-safe skillet over medium-high heat. Add the tenderloin and sear on all sides until golden brown, about 2–3 minutes per side.
Roast. Transfer the skillet to the oven and roast until the internal temperature reaches 145°F, about 18–22 minutes. Remove from oven, tent loosely with foil, and rest for 5 minutes.
Make the plum sauce. While the pork rests, return the skillet to medium heat. Add the plums, brown sugar, soy sauce, rice vinegar, ginger, garlic, and chicken broth. Cook, stirring and scraping up any browned bits, until the plums are completely broken down and the sauce thickens, about 8–10 minutes.
Finish the sauce. Remove from heat and swirl in the butter until glossy. Taste and adjust seasoning — add a pinch more sugar for sweetness or a splash more vinegar for brightness.
Slice and serve. Slice the tenderloin into 1/2-inch medallions and arrange on a serving platter. Spoon the plum sauce generously over the top. Serve over steamed white rice or alongside roasted vegetables.

Nutrition (per serving)

Pork Tenderloin with Plum Sauce — A Rich, Dark Sauce for Cold January Nights