This stirfry came together on a humble Monday evening–a week ago yesterday, in fact. Normally my husband cooks on Monday nights because my yoga class conveniently interferes with my regular dinner-making time. Heh heh. However, the class happened to be cancelled because my teacher was still traveling back from the Superbowl. And I never thought I’d say this–but I’m so glad yoga was cancelled! Because it allowed me to make this stirfry. And while I love stirfries and have made many in my day, the sauce in this one quickly topped the charts as the awesomest.

Adapted from Kayotic Kitchen’s Pork in Sweet Soy Sauce, this stirfry packs a flavor that had me drinking up the sauce at the end of the meal. It’s very easy to make, and I can promise you will love it.

Ingredients

(Serves 5)

2 lbs boneless pork chops

5 TBS peanut oil, divided

4 TBS dark soy sauce

4 TBS light soy sauce

4 TBS ginger syrup (‘ginger juice’)

6 TBS sriracha (sweet chili sauce)

2 TBS brown sugar

1/2 tsp chili powder

1 tsp curry powder

1 large onion

2 bell peppers (1 red, 1 green)

5 cloves garlic

3 green onions

Now there’s a lot of prep work up front, but if you own a sharp knife and listen to some music, the chopping and mincing and dicing will get done in no time at all.

So! Slice the bell peppers into thin strips and then halve the strips.

Halve the onion lengthwise, then crosswise like so . . .

. . . and slice it into quarter-rings.

Set the vegetables aside.

Now grab your cloves of garlic. You can loosen the papery skin by pressing down hard with the flat of your knife, but it’s easier to just bash them a couple times with a can.

The skin comes off so easily that way! Really–the Pioneer Woman taught me.

Mince the garlic, set it aside.

Slice the pork, and set it aside.

Hint: at the end there will be a quiz asking how many times the instructions ‘set aside’ have been repeated. The winner gets a garbanzo bean.

Grab the green onions and dice them–set them aside too.

Now let’s make that killer sauce. Assemble the ranks!

Combine the dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, ginger syrup, sriracha, brown sugar, chili powder and curry powder, and mix.

Set aside.

On a side note, my ginger syrup was labeled ‘ginger juice,’ but it was thick like a syrup. The ginger flavor is unbelievable. I picked up my bottle at Golden Pacific Market, but I’m sure you could find some at almost any Asian grocery store. And if you don’t have any Asian grocery stores in your neck of the woods, you can even make your own!

So now that everything is chopped and minced and diced and mixed, we’re finally ready to fry! Heat half the peanut oil in a wok or large (12”) cast iron skillet. When hot, add the vegetables and fry for 5 minutes.

They will continue to cook later, so just let them go until they’re starting to get tender and browned. Remove them and reserve them for later.

See? “Reserve them for later.” I totally avoided using “set aside” again–I’m tricky like that. So if you want that garbanzo bean, you’d better watch your back.

Heat another 1 TBS oil in the same skillet. When the skillet is very hot, add half the pork. It’s best to fry the pork in two batches, because an overcrowded pan will cause the pork to steam-cook instead of truly frying. Stirfry the first batch for 3 minutes, then remove it to a plate. FYI, you want the skillet to be so hot that the pork browns pretty much immediately, on first contact with the pan, like so:

Heat the remaining oil, and when it’s très, très hottée, add the rest of the pork. Stirfry for 3 minutes, then add the set aside pork and garlic.

Fry for another minute, stirring frequently. Confession: I did all the pork at one go, and you can see in the bubbles of the picture above that my pork did not fry correctly. Thankfully it was still delicious, though mark my words friends: it could have been deliciouser.

Okay, time to add the vegetables back in . . .

. . . and the sauce.

Give it a good stir.

Now believe me–it will seem like waaay too much sauce. But it’s not. It’s all going to turn out alright in the end. In fact, it will turn out more than alright: it will send you on a rocket to the moon.

Bring it all to a boil, and cook over high heat for about 5 minutes.

The sauce should thicken during this time and start sticking to the pork and veggies. If it’s not thick enough, mix 2-3 tsp of cornstarch with some water, stir, and add the slurry to the sauce.

I added a slurry and the consistency was great.

Stir in the green onions right before serving.

Lookin’ glorious.

Serve over rice.

You can dig into it with a spoon . . .

. . . or with chopsticks. Whatever gets it into contact with your taste buds the fastest.

One of the best parts is simply eating the sauce-soaked rice.

I’m in heaven.

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