Ingredients
- 3 tsp cornflour
- 2 tsp soy sauce
- 2 tsp Chinese rice wine
- pinch salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 4 tsp sesame oil
- 250 gm pork cutlet, sliced into thin strips
- 2 tsp vegetable oil
- 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 1 tsp chilli flakes
- 2 cm piece of ginger, peeled and minced (or 2 tsp ground ginger)
- 3 green onions, thickly sliced on the diagonal
- 6 asparagus spears, woody ends removed, sliced on the diagonal into 6 cm sections
- sesame oil to drizzle as garnish
- 1 cup (125 gm) cooked rice
Method
- Mix the cornflour, soy sauce, rice wine, salt, sugar, and sesame oil in a shallow bowl.
- Mix the pork strips into the marinade, covering thoroughly, and let marinate for 15-20 minutes.
- Heat a wok or frypan to high for 2 minutes. Add the vegetable oil and swirl it around.
- When the oil starts to smoke, add the garlic, ginger, and chillies. Stir fry for 30 seconds.
- Add the pork and marinade and stiry fry 2-3 minutes until the pork turns opaque.
- Add the asparagus and green onion and stir fry for 2-3 minutes until some liquid forms in the bottom of the pan.
- Turn off the heat and drizzle with sesame oil.
- Tip onto a plate or bowl and serve with rice.
Notes
The marinade acts as a sauce for the dish. You can make it less “saucy” by halving the amount or not puring it all into the pan.
It doesn’t have to be a pork cutlet, that’s just what I had on hand and it’s easy to cut into strips.
You might find it convenient to prep the vegetables and organise the other ingredients while the pork is marinading – I did.
Fresh ginger is great but dried ground ginger will work.
The whole cooking process should take no more than 7 minutes or the pork will be overcooked. Like all stir fries, it takes active stirring because of the high temperature.
And, yes, a wok is definitely better because the large area and sloped sides make it easier to toss the ingredients at high temperature. But I don’t have a wok and it worked fine.
I use microwavable rice (brown, long grain, or jasmine) because it’s convenient, quick, and tastes fine.
You can substitute other vegetables for the asparagus, including capsicum, green beans, snow peas, bok choy, mushrooms, or a mix of them. Replace the pork with vegetables for a vegetarian dish.