Chinese pork with ginger, carrots and honey

Name: Chinese pork with ginger, carrots and honey
Prep time: 40 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 55 min
Yield: 3–4
Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients: 500 g pork (ham or shoulder), cut into thin strips; 6 tbsp soy sauce, for the marinade; black pepper; chilli, fresh or flakes, to taste; 2 tbsp potato starch, for the marinade, plus 2 tbsp for the sauce; 2 large carrots, cut into medium half-moons; a thumb of ginger: 80% cut into thin matchsticks, 20% minced very fine; 2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed; 2 spring onions (chives in the old post), sliced; 150 ml water + 30 ml soy sauce (about 2 tbsp); 100 ml water + 60 g honey (about 2 tbsp) + 2 tbsp rice vinegar; oil for the wok

“The wok is honest. It only gives back exactly the attention you put in.”

Pork stir-fry with greens and chilli in a wok sauce — Photo: PattayaPatrol, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. A Thai cousin of this dish; mine has carrots instead of greens and no photo yet.

This is the dish that convinced me a wok is worth the cupboard space. Pork marinated in soy and potato starch goes velvety instead of chewy, the ginger cut two ways gives both bite and background, and the honey turns the pan juices into a sauce in the last two minutes. Serve over plain rice and eat while it is still shining.

Serves 3–4 · Time 55 min · Cost low

Ingredients

500 g pork (ham or shoulder), cut into thin strips
6 tbsp soy sauce, for the marinade
black pepper
chilli, fresh or flakes, to taste
2 tbsp potato starch, for the marinade, plus 2 tbsp for the sauce
2 large carrots, cut into medium half-moons
a thumb of ginger: 80% cut into thin matchsticks, 20% minced very fine
2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
2 spring onions (chives in the old post), sliced
150 ml water + 30 ml soy sauce (about 2 tbsp)
100 ml water + 60 g honey (about 2 tbsp) + 2 tbsp rice vinegar
oil for the wok

Steps

Marinate the pork. Toss the strips with 6 tablespoons of soy sauce, pepper, chilli and 2 tablespoons of potato starch. Leave for 30 minutes; this is what makes it tender.
Heat the wok with a good splash of oil until it just starts to smoke. Ginger matchsticks, garlic and spring onion in, fry 30 to 50 seconds until fragrant.
Add the pork and fry, stirring, until browned on all sides.
Add the carrots and fry for one minute.
First liquid: the 150 ml water mixed with 30 ml soy sauce. Fry for 3 to 5 minutes; the carrots should soften but keep a bite.
Second liquid: the 100 ml water whisked with the honey, 2 tablespoons of potato starch and the rice vinegar. Pour in, stir, and cook 2 to 3 minutes until the sauce turns glossy and coats everything. Taste, adjust with soy or chilli.
Serve immediately over rice.

Tips

No wok? A wide frying pan works; roughly double the frying times, since it will not get as hot.
Potato starch is the secret in both places: in the marinade it protects the meat, in the sauce it thickens without flour taste. Cornflour does the same job.
Cut the ginger two ways on purpose: matchsticks for texture, minced for the sauce.

the fan hums all night
over a city of pans —
one of them was mine

#chinese #pork #dinner #quick #wok

8 March 2021 · original on Blogger