Stir-fried pork with ginger & honey : another quick, satisfying supper

Harking back to the previous post (Lemony Prawn & Chorizo Rice), this is another one cropped from the Good Food Magazine.

February's magazine seems to have been a fund of interesting recipes, perhaps because the emphasis is on "healthy" instead of "expensive indulgence".  Don't get me wrong, I'm all for a bit of expensive indulgence - but after Christmas and New Year I find I start hankering for sausage & mash, or meatballs & pasta.

Well, this recipe isn't either of those - but it was completely gorgeous.

I'm always keen on a stir fry and a stir fry that involves noodles and pork?  Well immediately I'm interested.  Ordinarily, I'd have got six pork steaks from our local butcher to do this recipe.  However, having bought a pork fillet for the Ballotines, I realised that - at the moment - it's an affordably good source of extremely lean pork.  Unlike the Ballotines, if you're buying just the one fillet then it becomes almost affordable as there is so little waste.

Hubby really liked this dish - as did I.  The only tweak to the original recipe I made beforehand was the inclusion of a red pepper along with the green.  That was largely because I had a spare red pepper sitting in the fridge without a home to go to.  In retrospect, I think I would add some mushrooms to it as they would fit very well within the flavour profile and just add to the interest.

Of course, this then places the stir fry completely outside of son & heir's comfort zone.  He'll eat the pork, noodles & mange tout happily enough, but the peppers received a big negative, as would mushrooms.  In fact, I'll keep on serving this sort of dinner up to him from time to time, ever hopeful that his taste buds will have matured and he'll find the vegetables palatable.  Well, it might happen!

STIR FRIED PORK WITH GINGER & HONEY    (feeds 3)

Ingredients :

3 nests medium egg noodles

3 tsp cornflour

1 tbsp water

3 tbsp soy sauce

1½ tbsp runny honey

1 tbsp sunflower oil

500g pork tenderloin (fillet) cut into thin bite-sized pieces

1 tsp ginger, chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 green pepper, deseeded and sliced

1 small red pepper, deseeded and sliced

a handful of chestnut mushrooms, sliced

150g mange tout

1 tsp sesame seeds.

Method :

1.  Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and cook the noodles according to the pack instructions.

2.  Mix the cornflour with the water, soy sauce & honey and set aside.

3.  Heat the oil in a wok or deep frying pan over a high heat until it’s as hot as you dare.  Then add the pork and cook, stirring regularly, until browned all over.

4.  Add the ginger, garlic, peppers, mushrooms and mange tout and cook until the peppers are demonstrably softened.

5.  Reduce the heat, then add the soy and honey mixture, stirring until the sauce bubbles and thickens – which will be just a moment or two, so don’t leave it!

6.  Add the drained noodles and toss to combine, then serve adding a sprinkling of sesame seeds at the last minute.

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