New To Us: Golden Honey Pork

Oh, this was good!  This one was really good- way better than I expected, that’s for sure.   This week for a stir-fry I decided to pull out my Big Book of Wok and find a new recipe to try.  Pork called my name, so I turned to the meat chapter and paged through until I found one that didn’t call for chili peppers- because those recipes are best suited for when the garden is growing.  I also wanted to avoid heat, because I wanted kid-friendly.  Generally, the last few times I’ve made a stir-fry, it’s been about the same, veggie-wise.  I’ll use broccoli, carrots, celery, and then add one or two other veggies as I desire- green beans have made quite a few appearances as of late.  It was time to change it up, and this recipe fit the bill perfectly.

Of course, I changed it a bit, and one of those changes, I don’t really recommend.  The biggest change I made was that I took the tablespoon or so of extra marinade and blended it with cornstarch and chicken broth to make a sauce for the stir-fry.  I shouldn’t have.  Oh, it still tasted great, but the pork had this beautiful deep mahogany color to it, and was a touch in the sticky category.  Read= Perfect Chinese Take-out Experience.  But adding the sauce components kind of washed the pork clean, and it lost all that beautiful color- and the sticky glaze-like texture to the outside.  The next time I make this (and there will definitely be a next time!) I will remember not to make this one saucy.  It should have the luscious pork and veggies, but it doesn’t need the sauce at all.

The recipe calls for snow peas and scallions for the veggies, and I (of course) amped this up a bit by adding baby corn, bell pepper, and broccoli, all compliments of a grocery store salad bar.  The snow peas at the store looked terrible, so I also swapped those out for snap peas instead.  Worked beautifully!  Oh, and I also sliced up a handful of mushrooms as well, since they were at the point of needing to be used soon.   I know, I know, so I deviated from the recipe a lot, but since it was simply adding vegetables, I was totally okay with it.   For my pork for this recipe I used a small package of boneless pork ribs- you know, the ones that they trim up to look like ribs, but they don’t really?  Those worked perfectly, and when cut thinly made an extremely tender pork stir fry.

This was such a winner!  There is treasure in this here cookbook, and I need to spend more time digging through it to find more recipes my family will love.

I used the marinade exactly as it is written- I think as long as you stick with that, you can add any veggies you’d like and you’d still have a winner dish.  We ate it over rice since I made it saucy, but next time I plan to serve it with a side of lo mein.

Golden Honey Pork

1 1/4 pound boneless pork loin, thinly sliced against the grain

2 tablespoons sunflower oil

2 handfuls snow peas, trimmed

4 scallions, white and green parts separated and sliced diagonally

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Marinade:

3 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated

Mix together the ingredients for the marinade in a shallow dish.. Add the pork and turn to coat, then let marinate for 1 hour.  Drain, reserving marinade (though there won’t be much left).

Heat a wok until hot.  Add the oil, then half the pork and stir fry it until browned, 3-4 minutes.  Remove from the wok using a slotted spoon and set on one side.  Repeat with the remaining pork.

Put the snow peas and the white part of the scallion into the wok and stir-fry for 1 minute.  Return the pork to the wok along with the marinade and stir fry until the pork is golden and glossy, 2-3 minutes longer.  Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve, sprinkled with the green part of the scallions.