Sunday 3 November 2013

Spicy Orange Stir- Fry

Spicy Orange Stir-Fry


Ingredients: 
  • For about 3-4 hungry people
  • About 1 pound Pork tenderloin/boneless chop or boneless Chicken breast/thigh
  • About 2-3 Tablespoons Corn Starch
  • 1 Tablespoon Olive oil
  • 1 Tablespoon Sesame oil
  • 1 Inch fresh Ginger root, finely minced
  • 2 Garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 Shallot or 1 small Onion, finely minced
  • Pepper to Season
  • 1/2 Cup matchstick cut Carrots
  • 1/2 Cup diced Pepper
  • 3 Chopped Celery stalks
  • 4-6 White Mushrooms, diced
  • 1 Tablespoon Sesame oil
  • 1 Tablespoon Corn starch
  • 1/2 Cup Chicken stock
  • 2 Oranges*
  • 2 Tablespoons Soy Sauce
  • 1 Teaspoon-1 Tablespoon Chili-Garlic paste/sauce
  • 1 Teaspoon Ground Ginger
  • 1 Teaspoon Garlic powder
  • 3-4 Green Onion stalks, Chopped
  • Sesame Seeds

Instructions:

  1. Slice the pork or chicken into thin slices that are about 2-3 inches long. Thin and fine slices are much better than thick chunks I think for stir-fry.
  2. Prepare your ginger root, 2 cloves of minced garlic, and either the shallot or the onion. Set aside
  3. Heat up your skillet over medium-lowish heat, and if you are using cast iron season with oil once heated. 
  4. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of sesame oil to the pan. And allow it to heat for about 5 minutes. 
  5. While you are letting the oil heat up in the pan, Dredge the sliced pork or chicken in 3-4 Tablespoons of corn starch. 
  6. I did this by spreading the sliced pork over my large cutting board, sprinkling the cornstarch over all of it and then pouring all the pieces and cornstarch back into a large mixing bowl and then shaking it all around a bit until each piece was finely coated in just a little bit of corn starch. I also suggest giving it a bit of seasoning with pepper right now.
  7. Add the prepared ginger root, garlic and onion to the pan. 
  8. Season with pepper. 
  9. Stir-fry for about 10 minutes.
  10. Add the sliced pork to the pan. 
  11. Stir-fry cook for about 10 minutes or until just cooked. 
  12. Being careful at the beginning to separate each piece from each other, and trying to cook the pieces as evenly as possible. 
  13. While the pork is cooking, prepare the vegetables to go in the sauce, matchstick carrots, diced pepper, chopped celery stalks , and diced mushrooms, or vegetables of your choice.
  14. Once the pork is cooked, remove it from the pan and set aside on a plate. 
  15. Add another tablespoon of sesame oil to the pan. 
  16. Add the vegetables to the pan, and add about 1/4 cup of water. 
  17. Place a lid or cover over the vegetables and steam cook for about 5-7 minutes.
  18. While the vegetables steam cook, prepare the sauce, in a medium bowl combine the tablespoon of corn starch, chicken stock, soy sauce, chili-garlic sauce/paste, ground ginger, and garlic powder. 
  19. Zest both oranges and add the zest to the sauce. 
  20. Squeeze the juice from both oranges into the sauce. 
  21. Whisk everything together so it's well blended. 
  22. Remember that the chili-garlic sauce really does pack a punch so if you don't like a strong spice flavor use only about 1 teaspoon, and I wouldn't suggest more than 1 Tablespoon. It would be overpowering.
  23. After the vegetables have steamed. Stir fry them for about 1 minute more.
  24. Add the cooked pork back to the pan. Heat and stir in with the vegetables for about 1 minute. 
  25. Add the sauce to the pan, reduce heat to low. And simmer for about 10 minutes. Being sure to stir from the bottom to the top so all the brown bits of flavor join with the sauce.
  26. Garnish with sesame seeds and fresh sliced green onion. Serve over steamed rice, or rice noodles.

Enjoy!

Notes:

I still don't feel like I am a natural when It comes to making stir-fry but future husband man has been reasonably encouraging while I keep on trying.

When we go out to Asian-menu based restaurants he always wants to get some kind of orange tasting something, usually chicken or pork. He loves it, I usually like to have a little taste of it at least. I am also still not very adventurous when it comes to new foods either. I'm trying to try more is all I can say.

So after a couple of tries at making orange sauce that doesn't suck when it's done I have selected and fine tuned this one. It doesn't have a particularly strong orange flavor to it because I decided to just use the fresh oranges that I had in my fridge after a very happy grocery shopping trip.

*If you wanted to really increase the orange flavor I would suggest substituting about 4-6 tablespoons of natural orange juice concentrate, like a frozen juice. Look for one without any added sugar, or one with a really low sugar/serving. I would also add an extra table spoon of the soy sauce, as well as one table spoon of lemon juice (to lessen the sweetness), and err on the heavy side of the chili-garlic paste amount I use. That orange flavor from the frozen juice concentrates are pretty darn strong.

Personally I really preferred the light orange taste of the fresh squeezed and zest, but I am well aware that I am not a very good representation for what the world wants.

Also I used pork tonight and it was awesome! (Look I remembered to even take a picture before we completely made it disappear!)

Alright so final words of wisdom, I like to use cast iron when I do actually make a stir-fry, the heavy bottom cooks more evenly, and I like how things develop with cast iron. But any skillet will work. I also didn't quite have all the vegetables that I wanted, which is why there isn't that much color in mine tonight, but you get the idea. But feel free to use whatever vegetables you actually like in it, or none at all. I would totally eat a stir-fry with almost no vegetables in it if I was alone. . .

Serve this with steamed rice, or rice noodles. Or a seasoned rice noodle.

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Have any thoughts? Questions? Comments? Or did you try this?