Pork and Tangerine Stir Fry

I’ve started doing this every year. I make a Chinese-style stir fry to eat while watching A Christmas Story. Of course, I don’t wait until it is played all day on Christmas, but I pick a relatively quiet night before Christmas (not so easy to do, as it turns out) and celebrate with a DVD and a theme dinner.

This year, I came across a Pork and Tangerine Stir Fry in Bon Appetit magazine that seemed perfect: a new ingredient to try (Asian sweet chili sauce), a seasonal ingredient (tangerines), and a way to use up the cabbage I had left after making this salad (I replaced the bok choy in the original recipe). And, it turned out to be delicious!

I loved the tangerines in this recipe. I was able to get my hands on some really pretty organic ones, which I recommend, since they are simply cut into wedges with the peel intact. (If you have conventionally-grown tangerines, scrub the skins well before cutting them up.) I like the way they contribute some bitterness (from that intact peel) that goes well with the tender pork and slightly sweet and spicy sauce.

I’d be happy to make this every December, especially if I can continue to get such nice tangerines. I’m not planning on having such a meal for Christmas dinner, though. We’re having roasted meats and sweet treats at my grandmother’s house. And if someone’s dog ruins our meal, we’ll be many miles from a Chinese restaurant.

Pork and Tangerine Stir Fry
Adapted from Bon Appetit magazine

4 tablespoons soy sauce, divided
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 teaspoons sesame oil, divided
1 ¼ pounds pork tenderloin, cut into thin strips
2 tablespoons peanut or canola oil, divided
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced
½ teaspoon Szechuan peppercorns, crushed
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
4 small tangerines, cut (with peel) into thin wedges
4 cups chopped red cabbage
¼ cup Asian sweet chili sauce
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
5 scallions, thinly sliced on the diagonal
½ cup chopped cashews

1. In a medium-size bowl, combine 2 tablespoons soy sauce, cornstarch and 1 teaspoon sesame oil. Stir until smooth. Add the pork and toss to coat. Set aside.

2. Heat 1 tablespoon peanut or canola oil in a wok or large frying pan over medium-high to high heat. (If you’re fast in the kitchen, go for high, otherwise, you might want to try medium-high.) Add the ginger, Szechuan peppercorns and red pepper flakes. Cook and stir 30 seconds.

3. Add the pork and stir fry until browned on all sides and cooked through. Remove the pork from the pan to a clean bowl and set aside.

4. Add the remaining tablespoon peanut or canola oil to the wok and heat over medium-high to high heat. Add the tangerines and cook and stir for 30 seconds. Add the cabbage. Cook and stir until the cabbage is tender-crisp, about 4-5 minutes.

5. Return the pork to the pan. Add the Asian sweet chili sauce, cinnamon, scallions, cashews and remaining 1 teaspoon sesame oil. Cook and stir until the liquids come to a boil and thicken slightly. Serve with rice.

Makes about 4 servings.

Other recipes like this one: Spicy Chicken Stir Fry, Szechuan Broccoli and Water Chestnut Stir Fry, Root Vegetable and Cabbage Stir Fry with Ginger and Lemon

One year ago: Spinach and Artichoke Dip

Two years ago: Spicy Chicken Stir Fry

Indoor Pulled Pork

I believe this is a first on The Messy Apron. I’m going to write about having cooked a large piece of meat. There have been a few stir fries with chicken or with beef, some ground pork here, and a hoisin marinade for various proteins here. Of course I also sprinkle in some flavorful bacon now and then, but a big piece of animal protein as the center of the meal just doesn’t happen particularly often around here.

But it’s coming to the end of the professional football season and I had yet to make a barbecue-flavored shredded meat. I say barbecue-flavored because I have neither the equipment nor, frankly, the know-how to make real barbecue, especially in Minnesota in January. I can still, however, make a flavorful pulled pork, the kind that will fall into tender, savory bites if you just stare at it hard enough, as long as I allow my slow cooker to do all the work.

I made an adaptation of a recipe my mom used to make, often for big family parties like the one she put together when Harry and I were moving from northern Michigan to southern Texas. The meat was very popular, so when we missed our own going-away party because of problems with getting a rental truck for moving (I won’t go into it…you’ll just lose your appetite) it was the one dish that was entirely gone when we finally arrived.

This pulled pork is easy to put together. It requires time, but not your time. You can just dump everything into a slow cooker (aka a Crock Pot) and let it do its thing all day or overnight. The braising liquid is quite flavorful, but the finished product still has good pork flavor, in case you like that sort of thing. It isn’t spicy, but I suppose you could make it so with the addition of some chiles or hot sauce.

For me, most meat is really just a vehicle for spices and seasonings, or a flavorful sauce, so I like to mix this pork with a little more barbecue sauce and serve it on sandwich buns with a side of coleslaw, I suppose it would also be good eaten with a fork in one hand and a chunk of cornbread in the other. This recipe makes a lot, so you can feed a whole crowd of carnivores. Leftovers freeze well, however, so you could also keep a meat-lover or two happy for several days.

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork Recipe
You can also make this with a beef chuck roast of similar size. Use beef broth in place of the chicken broth. If you do not have a slow cooker, this can be made in a covered roasting pan in the oven, but I have not done this, so am not sure about the temperature or time required.

1 cup (250ml) chopped celery
1 cup (250ml) chopped onion
5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 cup (250 ml) ketchup
1 cup (250 ml) barbecue sauce
2 cups chicken broth
2 tablespoons (30 ml) cider vinegar
¼ cup (50 ml) brown sugar
2 tablespoons (30 ml) Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons (30ml) liquid smoke (optional)
1 teaspoon (5 ml) salt
1 4-5 pound (about 2 kg) boneless pork shoulder roast
additional barbecue sauce for serving, if desired

1. Place half of the measurement of each ingredient except the pork in a large slow cooker. Place the pork roast in the slow cooker and cover with the remaining ingredients.

2. Cover the cooker and cook on low heat for 8-10 hours, or until the meat can be pulled apart very easily.

3. Remove the meat from the cooker and place on a large platter. (Discard the cooking liquid.) Shred the meat with forks until it is all pulled apart. Serve on sandwich rolls and with additional barbecue sauce if desired.

Makes at least 10 generous servings. Leftovers can be frozen in a freezer-safe container or wrapping for a month or so.

Lettuce Play

First of all, there’s a new blog you need to start reading. It’s Harry’s (my husband, in case you don’t know him). It’s not a food blog, but a super-cool astronomy and star-gazing blog. It’s called the Messier Pro (and if you know that Messier was French, you can see that he totally stole the title from The Messy Apron!). Anyway, it’s geared toward anyone who likes to look up at night with a goal of helping you get the most out of your telescope, pair of binoculars, or even your pair of eyes. Check it out here, or, I’ve added it to the Other Cool Stuff link list at the right. See you there!

Well, the lettuce is still looming large in quality and quantity in my refrigerator. In addition to the head of dark red leaf lettuce and the baby greens that we received in our CSA box last week, there was a very nice head of green butter lettuce. This stuff is perfect for wrapping around tasty cooked ground meats and flavorful condiments or vegetables. I think such lettuce wraps got a boost in popularity during the low-carb craze, since the lettuce acts as a small, practically calorie-free tortilla.

I’ve had a sort of flavor anticipation (like a craving only more sophisticated…or pretentious) of crunchy vegetables, diced and drowned in big, big flavors, like sour and spicy. I thought a lettuce wrap might just be a good way to turn this anticipation into reality (as well as use up some lettuce.)

This recipe has crunch and lots of Asian-inspired hot and sour flavor. It is very spicy thanks to the whole serrano chile pepper, and the juice of a whole lime brings on lots of sourness and acidity. I bumped up the sour even more with a secret ingredient: rhubarb, which is hard to distinguish from the celery as you’re crunching away, but provides another layer of depth to the sour flavors. Radishes and raw ginger and garlic just serve to make it even more bold, though still balanced. The ground pork makes this a main dish, but also tames the vegetables a bit. I just happened to have to pork in the freezer, but you could use ground turkey or chicken or crumbled tofu if you want, or just leave the protein out and serve the wraps as a side dish or appetizer.

I usually don’t test recipes extensively before posting them on The Messy Apron. That’s why it is a blog and not a cook book. As a result, I am guessing on the number of servings this recipe makes. I only had ½ pound of ground pork, but the veggies and sauce mixture that I put together was enough to serve with twice that amount. The ½ pound was enough to feed 4 people 2-3 lettuce wraps. I served these with a side of basmati rice flavored with ginger, garlic and green onions.


Hot and Sour Lettuce Wraps with Pork

juice of 1 medium lime
1 teaspoon brown sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 serrano chile pepper, stem removed, thinly sliced
½ cup celery, diced
½ cup radish, diced
½ cup rhubarb, diced
½ cup green onion (scallion) finely chopped
¼ cup chopped cilantro
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, cut into thin strips
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound ground pork
1 teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
1 head butter lettuce, well washed and leaves separated

1/2 cup chopped peanuts

1. Combine lime juice, brown sugar, soy sauce, fish sauce, and chile pepper slices in a medium bowl. Add the next 7 ingredients (through garlic) to the lime juice mixture.

2. Place pork, salt and pepper in a medium frying pan. Brown over medium heat until fully cooked. Drain and remove to a plate for serving.

3. To serve, spoon about 2 tablespoons pork into a lettuce leaf. Spoon about 2 to 3 tablespoons of the vegetable mixture over the pork. Sprinkle with peanuts. Wrap in the lettuce leaf.

Serves 6 to 8 as a main dish (makes about 16 lettuce wraps)