Yet another childhood favourite recipe! Courtesy of my lovely mother, this stir fry comes together in barely any time at all; making this the perfect weeknight meal. Uses pork, pepper, green onion and a hoisin-based sauce; hence the name hoisin pork stir fry! I will confess, when I was a little tot, I was convinced this meal was called poison pork stir fry. At the time, even the name couldn't deter me, this meal was just that tasty!
Stir fries are a great way to cook speedy meals when you don't have much time for supper. They are quickest when using a wok however, a sautée pan will work as well. From start to finish, this meal can be ready in 15-20 minutes, depending on how fast your prep work is.
I've made very few changes to this recipe from my mother’s version. The only minimal change was to up the quantity of sauce. There never seemed to be enough of it while I was growing up. Is anyone else a sauce fanatic? There needs to be enough to generously coat the rice or noodles any stir fry is served over to satisfy my expectations. This sauce is comprised of just 7 ingredients: hoisin sauce, ketchup, soy sauce, rice vinegar, water, garlic and chili pepper flakes. Normally, stir fry sauces have a thickener like corn starch. However, due to the thickness of the ketchup and hoisin sauce, all you need is some heat, a little evaporation and this sauce thickens right up. Plus, thanks to the sweetness in the ketchup, no extra sugar is needed unlike a typical stir fry sauce. The end result is an asian-inspired flavour: a little sweet, spicy and garlicky with lots of umami notes from the soy and hoisin.
Pork tenderloins are a great choice for a meat-based stir fry. They are also pretty reasonably-priced, making them a smart choice budget-wise. To prepare the pork tenderloin, pat it dry with a paper towel, trim some of the fat off and cut it into 1 inch chunks. The serving size of this meal is between 3 and 4 bowls, depending on the size of the loin used. For 4 servings, use a large pork tenderloin! On a wok, the pork chunks can take about 5 minutes to cook, the exterior of each piece should be fully cooked, however if the center is still slightly pink, don't worry. After the chunks are taken off the wok, they will continue to cook as they rest, as well as when they are re-added to the sauce. If you cook them completely at first then when they are cooked again in the sauce at the end, they can become dry instead of the perfect level of juicy. This is a great tip to keep in mind when cooking any meat for a stir fry!
No stir fry is complete without vegetables! For this particular recipe that means pepper and green onion. I’ve recently started using aloha peppers, mainly for their pretty colours - a lovely blend of red, orange and yellow. There’s no need to pick out a favourite colour of bell pepper when you can have all 3 colours in one vegetable! If you can't find or don’t have access to an aloha pepper, then stick to a red bell pepper. Green onions give some nice flavour and a pop of green to the stir fry. Cook most of them at the last minute, but also keep a handful to the side to use as garnish with some sesame seeds.
Finish this dish off by cooking some plain, white basmati rice or some spiral egg noodles. The stir fry will be spooned on top and the sauce will mix in. Keep this meal in mind for a flavourful, quick weeknight supper!
Ingredients:
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3 tbsp hoison sauce
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3 tbsp ketchup
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3 tbsp water
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1 tbsp rice vinegar
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2 tsp soy sauce
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2 cloves garlic, minced
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1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
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1 tbsp olive oil divided
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1 pork tenderloin, cut into 1" chunks
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1 aloha or red pepper
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2-3 green onions, sliced
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cooked rice or egg noodles
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sesame seeds for garnish *optional
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salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
1. In a bowl or measuring cup, whisk together hoisin sauce, ketchup, soy sauce, rice vinegar, water, garlic and red chili pepper flakes. Set aside.2. In a wok, heat up half the oil over medium heat. Add the pork tenderloin chunks, some salt and pepper and stir fry for 5 minutes or until cooked, stirring occasionally. Remove from pan and set aside for later.
3. Add the rest of the oil to the wok as well as the strips of bell or aloha pepper and a dash of salt and pepper. Stir fry for 1-2 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Add the sauce, pork and green onion to the wok, mix together and stir occasionally for 2-3 minutes or until the sauce has bubbled and thickened and everything is heated through.
5. Remove from heat and serve over rice or spiral egg noodles. Garnish with extra green onion and sesame seeds.