Recipe for Stir Fry with Pork and Veggies

It's Tuesday and time for Sweetnicks' ARF/5-A-Day event where she encourages food bloggers to post recipes featuring antioxidant rich foods or fruits and vegetables. I made a commitment that I would do this event every week so I'd be forced to try new veggies, but this week I ended up using some veggies that were hanging around in the fridge, That's good too, because I also made a resolution not to waste food. I actually used the red pepper tops that I had saved from last week's ARF dish, Stuffed Peppers with Cabbage, to make this. How's that for thrifty? I used pork for this, but you could also make it with chicken, or just stir-fry the veggies too and it would still taste great.

I took a class in Chinese cooking once, and learned the following principles about how to stir-fry, which have really helped me make great Chinese dishes:

Principles of Chinese Cooking

1. Preheat the wok (before you put the oil in).
2. Season the oil (with whole pieces of garlic and ginger root, which you remove when you add the food to be cooked).
3. Symmetry of cut (all pieces must be cut the same size and shape).
4. Have all ingredients cut and sauces mixed before you cook.
5. Use very high heat and cook fast.

This recipe is from The South Beach Diet Quick and Easy Cookbook, which I like more and more as I use it. I actually followed the recipe pretty much, simply changing the proportions a bit so there was less meat and more sauce. Next time I'd add a teaspoon of cornstarch or arrowroot to thicken the sauce.

Stir Fry with Pork and Veggies
(Makes 2 generous servings, recipe from The South Beach Diet Quick and Easy Cookbook

Ingredients:
1/2 cup sugar free apricot preserves (I used Smucker's Sugar Free Apricot Preserves)
3 T soy sauce
2 T peanut oil, (could use canola oil or grapeseed oil but I prefer peanut oil for stir frying)
2 pork chops, cut into small pieces (next time I would cut mine into thin strips)
1 tsp. minced garlic
2-3 cups broccoli flowerets, bite size (not too small)
1 cup red pepper, cut into bite size pieces
1 cup snow peas, cut in half
4 green onions, cut into 1" pieces

Instructions:

Combine apricot preserves and soy sauce and set aside. Be sure all vegetables are cut before you start to cook.

Heat wok or frying pan over high heat about 1 minute. Add 1 T oil and heat about 30 seconds, then add pork and stir fry, stirring frequently, until lightly browned and no longer pink. If your heat is high enough this will only take about 3 minutes. Remove meat.

Add second T of oil, heat a few seconds, then add garlic and cook 30 seconds. (Don't let it get brown.) Add broccoli, peppers, and snow peas and stir fry for about 3 minutes. Then add green onions and meat and cook 1 minute.

Add soy sauce mixture and cook 1-2 minutes more, until sauce thickens slightly. (You could add 1 tsp. cornstarch to the soy sauce mixture if you wanted a thicker sauce. I would do that next time.) Serve hot, over brown rice or Uncle Ben's Converted Rice if desired.

Printer Friendly Recipe

South Beach Suggestions:

In the cookbook, this is considered a phase two recipe, even when it's served without rice, since even the sugar-free apricot preserves have quite a bit of natural sugar.