Sunday, April 23, 2006
Pork and Snow Peas
This is so easy and so good! Simple and quick, too. Rice wine vinegar should be available in the oriental section of your grocery store.
Ingredients:
Pork loin, about 3/4 pound (could be pre-sliced for stir-fry or butterflied for chops--get whatever hunk of loin is the least expensive), sliced thin.
1 6 oz. package fresh snow peas
2 T. plus about 1 t. soy sauce
2 T. rice wine vinegar
garlic or garlic powder
4 T. water
1 heaping t. corn starch
Procedure:
Stir together the soy sauce and rice wine vinegar in a large bowl. If using fresh garlic, add it here. Slice the pork, if you haven't already, and add the pork and the snow peas to the bowl--toss to coat. Pour the water into a small bowl and then add the cornstarch (MUST be in that order) and stir until all the cornstarch has dissolved.
Take about a teaspoon or so of oil (peanut oil is good because it has a high smoking point) and a paper towel and coat the inside of a wok with the oil. Bring the wok to high heat and then begin adding pork strips. (As you take the pork out of the soy sauce mix, give them a bit of a shake--you want as little liquid in the pan as possible at this point.) Add the pork strips around the pan--don't dump in the middle. After about two minutes, begin stirring the pork to turn the strips over. Sprinkle on the garlic powder, if you are using that. Total cooking time is going to be only about 5 minutes, but you want each piece of pork done (white through and browning a bit on the outside).
Now, add the snow peas and the liquid. Stir to coat. Cover the wok with a lid or cookie sheet so that the snow peas begin to steam. After about two minutes, uncover and stir again. Give the water and cornstarch a quick stir and then pour it into the wok. Stir until the liquid thickens (about a minute or two). Turn off the fire and let the pork and snow peas sit in the hot wok while you get the table set, or whatever. Then serve.
Notes:
When you serve this, the pork should be very tender and the snow peas should be very crisp. The sauce should be a bit on the twangy side but with neither the soy nor the vinegar too dominant.
As you can see from the recipe, this goes very fast. It is absolutely essential that you have everything ready once you start.
I have a gas stove, which is great for cooking with a wok. I do not know how this would work with an electric stove--my understanding is that it is harder to get them hot enough, so you might have to add some time?
Keep the soy sauce to vinegar proportion to a 1 plus to 1. The proportion of pork to snow peas can vary according to your tastes, though.
This is not nearly as good with cheaper cuts of pork (pork chops, etc.). If cost is a factor, I would go with the loin, but less of it. Freeze it a bit and slice it real thin--but watch the cooking time! It'll go even faster.
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