Stir-fry Kailan & Crispy Roast Pork
I decided to cook this stir-fry kailan & crispy roast pork (芥蓝炒烧肉) on a whim when I saw roast pork (siu yuk/燒肉 in Cantonese) on promotion at Sheng Siong supermarket. I bought a small slab of roast pork to try out the quality, and at the same time I also grabbed some kai lan for cooking with the roast pork the next day. Even though the roast pork was not looking crispy any more especially after sitting in the fridge overnight, I managed to revive its skin to crispy condition in the air fryer the next day. Besides the air fryer, you can also use a regular oven.
Related Recipes:
More Meat & Veg Stir-Fries Recipes:
- Beef + Kailan
- Beef+ Cabbage Platter
- Chicken + Black Fungus
- Chicken + Shiitake & Scallion
- White Bittergourd & Pork
See Also:
I had my stir-fry kai lan with crispy roast pork with multigrain rice. Even though there was only one side dish, there was ample vegetables & meat on my plate to keep me satisfied.
INGREDIENTS
These are the main ingredients of the recipe:
- (1) & (2): kai lan , also known as Chinese broccoli. There are many varieties of kai lan, on the day I bought baby kailan as it was the freshest at the supermarket. There are a lot of flower shoots in baby kai lan, but I prefer the usual kailan. All varieties of kailan can be used as long as you separate the stems and leaves during stir frying.
- (3) Deli roast pork, revived to crispy condition using the air fryer (I used this method), oven, toaster oven or in the pan.
- (4) Aromatics ginger, garlic and chilli. Added carrot for variety and colour.
- (5) Sauce is made up of oyster sauce, soy sauce, sugar, cooking wine, corn starch, white pepper and water. This is a lazy all-in-one sauce as the cooking wine and cornstarch are all mixed in the sauce in one step. The more I cooked, the lazier I become, but this short-cut works for me :)
MAKE THE DISH
- Fry ginger, garlic, chilli and kai lan stems until the latter starts to soften.
- Add kai lan leaves. Stir fry and then steam with a splash of water for about a minute. The steaming step is great for noob cooks like me who lacked wok hei – steaming the greens help to cook the kai lan to tenderness while retaining its vibrant green.
- Pour the sauce over the contents (pictured above), stir through to coat the bubbly sauce over the kai lan evenly.
- Turn off the heat, add crispy roast pork (either on top of the dish or stir it to mix with the sauce gently) and it’s done!
Stir-fry Kai Lan & Crispy Roast Pork
The crispy roast pork is a nice accent and contrast to the tenderly cooked kai lan. You can regular kailan or baby kai lan (used in this recipe), but do make sure to separate the stems from the leaves when cooking.
Check out the ingredients photos and more pics on the previous page.
Ingredients:
- 1 packet (200-250g) kailan separate leaves from stems; stems slice thinly & diagonally; bigger leaves cut into smaller pieces
- 150g deli roast pork
- 1 tbsp cooking oil
- 3 thinly sliced ginger julienned
- 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 3 chilli padi halved; to taste
- 8 thinly sliced carrot
- 2 tbsp water
Sauce
- 3/4 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1/2 tsp light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp Chinese wine (Hua Tiao/Shaoxing)
- 2 tbsp water
- 1/2 tsp corn starch
- white pepper powder
Directions:
- Revive the roast pork to crispy perfection. In an air fryer, place cold roast pork (from the fridge) skin side up and bake in the preheated air fryer at 200°C (392°F) for 3 minutes, followed by 240°C (464°F) for 3 minutes. Take it out immediately and sliced to bite-sized cuts and set aside. To revive the roast pork in the oven, check out this tutorial.
- Cook aromatics. Heat oil in a pan. Fry ginger, garlic and chilli until aromatic. Add carrot and kailan stems. Stir fry for a minute until the stems start to soften.
- Add kailan leaves and stir fry until the leaves start to soften and reduce in volume. Add 2 tbsp water, cover with lid and let the kailan steam for about 1 minute, or cooked until tender. Do not over steam the kailan as you still want to retain its vibrant green hue.
- Finish up cooking. Give the sauce a good stir and pour it over the contents in the pan. Stir fry until the kailan is evenly coated in the sauce. Turn off the flame. You can stir in the roast pork gently into the dish to mix it well with the sauce, or use the roast pork as a topping to the plated stir-fried kailan.