Pork Stir-Fry Over "Lo Mein"

Today is Wednesday.

I know what you're thinking. Chinese New Year is nine days away and Liz most likely thinks it's today and has prepared a dish worthy of dragon parades and fireworks! I knew it! Yep- I went with an AWESOME pork stir fry tonight because I was thinking about my niece, who hails from China, and how it's her birthday tomorrow and she was born on Chinese New Year. I assumed CNY was an annual thing but I guess it's one of those tricky date-changing holidays like Memorial Day. Anyways, Sophia is going to be a FAMOUS ballerina one day so I like to do all I can to show her I am an amazing aunt, probably like a mentor, maybe even an idol to her. The big sister she never had...who ALLLmost honored the Chinese part of the family's heritage correctly. With pork. She's vegan. Whatever, this DOES happen to be gluten and dairy free! So it accommodates some people's diets, just not my niece's. Happy 15th to Sophia.

Couple notes on Asian stir-fry dishes: They require some pantry items that may seem like they are beyond your capacity to purchase...items with foreign and unimaginable names like "sesame oil" and "rice wine vinegar." I know. I know. But actually, all of these ingredients are very easy to find at any grocery store. They are not expensive, they last a long time, and they allow you to make delicious restaurant-quality Chinese food in your very own home. Just drive to the store, strap on a mask or two, head to the International aisle, and reach right next to the soy sauce and grab mirin. Or look riiight next to the vegetable oil and snag some peanut oil. You can do it! Cornstarch is in the baking aisle. You can find it. Deep breaths. They are like little diamonds, hidden in plain sight, completely visible to the naked eye.

The second thing to remember is that while they don't take long to actually cook - like I was working in as little as five second increments tonight (killed my photo-snapping ability) - they do require some work on the preparing end. Since there's a fair amount of slicing and dicing involved with stir-fry meals, it's helpful to know the proper way to chop vegetables. I took a whole class on this. At the end of the recipe I tried to show a few visuals on how to quickly chop the vegetables I used tonight. That's just the kind of blogger I am, always going the extra mile for my little bloglings. This particular dish worked well for morning prep and last minute cooking. I got my ginger, garlic, peppers, and onion ready before lunch and put them in the fridge. The rest of the meal came together easily in about 20 minutes. 

OooooK the answer was that it's based on the MOON. The moon picks the date of the new year! Happy Year of the Ox to all my loyal fans. I should have made ox! Chinese ropa vieja. Hopefully I won't miss so many punny opportunities in the new year. I am just kidding - where would I find ox! Maybe it's right next to the chicken?

Pork Stir-Fry 

Ingredients - Have everything ready to go. Heed me.

2 T. rice wine vinegar

4 tsp. cornstarch 

2 T. soy sauce, plus 2T. more soy sauce Listed this way so you don't make the same mistake I did and dump it all in, thus having to WASTE and redo, my least favorite.

4 tsp. sesame oil

1.5 lb boneless pork loin, sliced into 2" strips

1 tsp. sugar

3 T. peanut oil 

2 tsp. fresh peeled ginger, minced You can use 1 tsp. dried if you don't have fresh, but just get it! It's super cheap and packs a PUNCH. I had sooo much left over that I froze a few minced containers, made ginger cupcakes with some and still have 85% of if in the fridge for next time. Or a neighbor? Any neighbors need ginger? Any neighbors reading this? I'll know soon enough!

2 tsp. garlic, minced 

1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes Annoyingly, I halved this. But my kids are getting so good with spice! They thought this was perfect.

1 red bell pepper

1/2 lb. snow peas, trimmed Yeah I didn't trim. Who has that kind of time?

1 cup cashews

Here's an artful visual of a few vegetables that go nicely in stir-fries.

Instructions 

1) In a large bowl, mix rice wine, cornstarch, 2 T. soy sauce, and sesame oil. Add pork to the bowl and mix, coating the meat with the sauce. Let it marinate for ten minutes.

Bowls of raw meat just aren't pretty.

2) Mix sugar into remaining 2 T. soy sauce and set aside. 

3) Heat a wok or large nonstick skillet over high heat until a drop of water evaporates immediately on it. Add half the peanut oil and coat the wok. Add half the garlic, half the ginger and half the red pepper flakes and let them sizzle for 5 seconds, while stirring. Add the crisp veggies to the wok. Stir-fry, stirring occasionally for about 2 minutes. Add soft veggies and cashews and stir-fry another one or two minutes. Remove veggies to a bowl. Crisp would be peppers, onions, broccoli, carrots, etc. Soft ones are snow peas, mushrooms, tomatoes, zucchini, tiny baby corns? Do you have those?

Vegetables, on the other hand, are gorg.

4) Heat the other half of the oil, garlic, ginger, and red pepper flakes for 5 seconds, then add the pork. Stir-fry, stirring for two or three minutes, until pork is barely cooked through. Add the vegetables back in and add the sugar soy sauce to the wok. Stir everything together and let cook for one minute. Serve over rice, CAULIFLOWER RICE!, more veggies, Asian noodles, or roasted "lo mein"  (spaghetti) squash.

I still saw some pink at 3 minutes, pictured above, so I left it on one minute longer.

 

Liz's Roasted Spaghetti Squash

 Ingredients

1 spaghetti squash Choose one that feels heavy for its size.

Olive oil

Salt

Instructions 

1) Preheat oven to 375°F. Cut squash length-wise down the middle. Scoop out seeds.

2) Spray or brush the inside of the squash lightly with oil. Sprinkle a bit of salt on the insides of both halves. Turn the halves up-side-down (so the skin faces up) on a cookie sheet and roast them until tender, about 45 minutes. Scrape with a fork to release "spaghetti". Or "lo mein" as I so saw fit tonight.

Mini Chopping Lesson:

This is ginger. Hi, Ginger!

Peel ginger with a spoon!

Cut off a small piece and begin slicing it. Turn slices on their flat side, and slice into matchsticks.

From there, you dice. See!

And you save! Those went in the freezer. I use Scotch tape to label.

To slice an onion, just cut off its ends (the knobs), lay it on a now flattened end, and slice in half. Now you peel it. Lay the half flat side down and slice away. I'll teach you dices another time.

The pepper you just hold standing up with the stem up, then slice half off, as close to the stem as you can get. Lay the pepper down on its new flat side, and again cut next to the core as close as you get. Repeat, repeat. You essentially make a square around the core. You end up with four pieces, and slice those after scraping away the seeds. You'll get it.