With the sunny weather, my gardening spirit is alive and well and on the move. What this means is that my time spent in the kitchen, cooking, is put on the “back burner.” We eat late and I cook quick and light. Light to me is cooking with one pan, maybe two, or how about just a sandwich!
Pork Stir-Fry
You can serve this dish with rice or noodles. Switch the asparagus with snow peas or kale or zucchini. Don’t like pork? Use chicken breasts. Garnish with chopped peanuts and fresh basil.
*Place pork tenderloin in the freezer for 20 minutes to make it easier to slice.
1/2 cup water
2 Tbsp fish sauce
1 Tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp honey, cornstarch and soy sauce
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 Manitoulin Island pork tenderloin (support our local farmers!!!!)
1/4 tsp pepper
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 lb asparagus, trimmed and sliced into bite sized pieces
1/2 cup thinly sliced shallots
2 tsp fresh gingerroot, minced
1 sweet red or yellow pepper, sliced into strips
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
1. In a small bowl, whisk together, 1/4 cup of the water, oyster sauce, fish sauce, honey, cornstarch, soy sauce and red pepper flakes; set aside.
2. Slice pork or chicken into bite-size strips; season with pepper. In large skillet, heat 1 Tbsp of oil over medium-high heat. Stir-fry pork in batches until browned; transfer to bowl.
3. Add remaining oil to skillet; add asparagus (or veggie of choice), shallots, ginger, garlic and pepper strips; stir-fry for 2 minutes. Stir in remaining water; reduce heat to medium, cover and cook until asparagus is tender-crisp, about 4 minutes. Stir in reserved sauce and pork with accumulated juices; stir-fry until pork is heated through and sauce is thickened, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vinegar.
4. Before serving sprinkle with peanuts or sesame seeds and fresh basil.
Brown Rice
Make a large batch of brown rice and you will have extra to use throughout the week. It can then be used to make a salad for lunch, stir-fry for dinner or a rice pudding for dessert. You can cook the rice in plain water with salt or use an organic vegetable stock.
To cook brown rice do the following:
The two-to-one water-to-rice ratio that you’ll find on the back of a bag or box of rice isn’t the best. Use 1 1/4 cup of water to one cup of rice for long-grain brown rice, and 1 1/2 cups of water to one cup rice for short grain brown rice. The 30-minute is a better working time, not the 45-50 that is recommended. Finally let your rice stand for 10 minutes and fluffing with a fork before serving.
