Stir-fry Pork with Vegetables
This is a simple & homely Chinese stir-fry pork with assorted vegetables (baby corn, carrot, snow peas & red capsicum). It is a balanced dish that goes well with rice. A reader asked how to make meat tender when stir frying with vegetables and I have just the recipe for that. I tested with the cheapest cut of stir-fry pork (lean pork) and the meat still turned out very tender.
See Also:
Tips for tender pork after cooking. The first trick was taught by my mum. She told me to always slice meat thinly against the grain at a diagonal angle. The second tip is to marinade the sliced pork in Chinese wine, soy sauce and cornstarch for at least 30 minutes in the fridge, or longer (up to overnight) if you can. This trio-ingredient combo helps greatly to tenderize the meat naturally. Lastly, do not to overcook the pork in the wok. With these simple steps, even the cheap cut of lean pork I used turned out tender and delicious.
Of course, you can still spurge on more premium cuts, such as tenderloin pork (腰肉), shoulder butt (梅花肉) or belly (五花肉). But trust me, the lean pork I bought is so tender after cooking that my family loves it alongside the most expensive cuts I used before. So I’ll probably be buying more lean pork in future to stretch my marketing dollar :)
Stir-fry Pork with Vegetables Recipe
This recipe will work well with lean pork (most economical cut), shoulder butt or belly (mid-range) or tenderloin pork (most premium cut).
Ingredients:
- 100g lean pork sliced thinly & diagonally against the grain
- 1/2 tsp + 1 tbsp cooking oil divided
- 4 baby corn sliced each corn to 2-3 sections diagonally
- half carrot peeled & sliced thinly
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 4 thin slices ginger julienned
- 15 snow peas strings pulled & discarded then trimmed
- 1/4 red bell pepper sliced thinly
- 1 tbsp Chinese wine (Hua Tiao/Shaoxing)
- 1 tsp sesame oil
(A) Marinade
- 1/2 tbsp Chinese wine
- 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
- 2 dashes white pepper powder
- 1/2 tbsp cornflour
Directions:
- Marinade pork in (A) for at least half hour or longer (up to overnight) in the fridge.
- Blanch baby corn & carrot. In a small pot, add some water and 1/2 tsp oil. Boil baby corn and carrot for 3 minutes. Drain and set aside.
- Cook the dish and serve. Heat remaining oil in wok. Add garlic and ginger, stir fry briefly until fragrant. Add marinated pork and stir fry until the meat is cooked on surface (no longer pink). Add the prepared baby corn and carrot to the wok; stir fry for 1 minute. Finally, add snow peas, bell pepper, Chinese wine and sesame oil. Stir fry for another minute and transfer to serving plate.