Chinese 5 Spice Pork Stir-fry

Chinese 5 Spice Pork Stir-fry

Chinese 5 Spice Pork Stir-fry is made of sliced pork fillet and veg in a sweet and salty mix of soy sauce, honey, sesame oil and Chinese 5 spice. And a few other ingredients.

pork stir-fryThe original Chinese 5 Spice Pork Stir-fry recipe is correct so I just took some fresh photos to repost it now. I used a larger pork fillet here. So I was a little liberal when putting together the ingredients for the marinade. And the result is the pork looks much darker this time around.

A homemade Chinese takeaway?

I used to buy lasagne all the time. But now that I’ve got a recipe I’m happy with I make it myself instead. And even though it’s not exactly health food, the homemade version has got to be more nutritious, right? So I decided to try to make a homemade version of another treat food – Chinese takeaway.

When I made this I hadn’t got a takeaway for quite some time. My normal order was Chicken Kung Po but I stopped eating chicken for a while. The sauce in this isn’t like a Kung Po sauce at all. But it does have nice mix of flavours and a good salty sweet taste.

I have to admit that I do sometimes get a Chinese takeaway. But these days I order Pork Kung Po instead.

What are your stirfrys like?

I used to make the terrible stirfrys. The worst thing about them was that they often smelled great – making it even more disappointing that they just tasted wrong.

I would either have burnt raw vegetables or limp over-cooked vegetables. I used to use frozen veg. Never use frozen veg in a stir fry.

If I was thickening the sauce with flour I didn’t cook the flour through before adding the sauce. It is very important to make sure the flour is cooked before adding in liquid into it. Otherwise you’ll get a raw flour taste that you won’t be able to cover.

Yeah they were very bad stir-frys.

I only learned how to cook the veg right when I followed a proper recipe for one. You lightly fry the veg first, put aside, and then add it back in at the end.

So if you too find it difficult to get the veg right in a stir-fry the method below is pretty much fool-proof.

And I learned about the importance of cooking the flour through by following a recipe for BĂ©chamel sauce.

I should mention though the recipe below does not use flour this way to thicken the sauce. Instead it uses a mix of cornflour and water – that you do add after the sauce, to thicken it.

I just mentioned about the flour thing because it ruined a good few stirfrys I made – many moons ago.

Ingredients for the Chinese 5 Spice Pork Stirfry
Ingredients for the Chinese 5 Spice Pork Stirfry

Chinese 5 Spice Pork Stir-fry

Prep Time: 35 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Serves 4

Chinese 5 Spice Pork Stir-fry

Ingredients

  • 450g pork fillet, sliced into thin long strips
  • 150g of small head fresh broccoli, chopped into small florets
  • 100g mangetout
  • 1 yellow bell pepper, sliced thinly
  • 2 carrots, chopped into matchsticks
  • 5 spring onions, chopped
  • 1 small tin of water chestnuts, drained
  • 1 small tin of bamboo shoots, drained
  • Fistful of cashew nuts
  • 1 inch fresh ginger root, diced very small
  • 2 large garlic cloves, sliced thinly
  • For marinade
  • 1 tbsp toasted sesame seed oil
  • 1 tbsp oyster sauce
  • 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
  • 1 tsp Chinese 5 spice
  • For sauce
  • 125 ml chicken stock
  • 1 tsp oyster sauce
  • 1 tsp toasted sesame seed oil
  • 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp runny honey
  • 1/2 tsp Chinese 5 spice
  • 1 tbsp cornflour, blended with 1 tbsp cold water

Instructions

  1. Mix the marinade ingredients together in bowl. Mix in the sliced pork and stir around well so that every strip is covered in the sauce. Cover and leave for 30 minutes.
  2. In a large frying pan or wok, dry fry/roast the cashew nuts. When just a little golden, remove from the heat and leave aside for later.
  3. It's a good idea to have all the veg chopped and ready for cooking before you start so that you don't overcook anything. Heat a little sunflower oil in the pan, add half the ginger and garlic. Keep stirring and don't let them burn. Turn the heat up high. Throw in the broccoli, mangetout, pepper and carrot. Again keep stirring to avoid burning. Sauté the veg for about 5 minutes - they should be a little softened but still have a little bite. Remove from the heat and put aside for later.
  4. Mix all the sauce ingredients together in a jug. Heat a little oil in the frying pan on a high heat. Add in the marinated pork. Cook for 2 minutes stirring around every so often. Add in the rest of the garlic and ginger and let cook for another minute. Next pour in the sauce from the jug. Cook until the sauce has thickened. The rest of ingredients will add moisture when added to the pan so be sure the sauce really has thickened first.
  5. Add in the bamboo shoots and water chestnuts, and stir around for another minute. Next add back in the veg and nuts. Finally stir in the spring onions and remove from the heat. Taste and sprinkle in some salt if necessary.
  6. Serve with rice or noodles. Enjoy!
http://twimii.com/recipes/chinese-5-spice-pork-stir-fry/

stir-fry
Colourful with a little bite.
Some Chinese 5 Spice Pork Stir-fry with boiled rice.