"Honey" Pork & Vegetable Stir-Fry w Noodles

We had a tonne of fresh veges that needed using, including mung beans and an almost ridiculous amount of broccoli (if you read this blog a lot, you'll know about my love of this vegetable, seriously can't get enough!) - this led me to the decision that dinner would be a stir fry of some variation.

So with type-of-dinner sorted, I set about finding a stir fry sauce I could make from scratch, because I'm too scared to make it up completely yet.  Google, my dear friend.  Found a recipe for "Honey Pork Noodle Stir-Fry".  Sounded interesting, and we had all the listed ingredients, so away I went! :)  However, I did think before I started cooking, that having peanut butter in the ingredients list would make it more satay flavoured than honey, but I was willing to try.  (I was right by the way!)

INGREDIENTS

300g pork (diced)

3 packets of chicken 2 minute noodles (I like Maggi, but you can use whatever)

2 teaspoons sesame oil

1 teaspoon crushed ginger

1 tablespoon soy sauce

2 tablespoons peanut butter

2 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce

2 tablespoons honey

3/4 cup chicken stock (I used 2 of the noodle flavour sachets mixed with 3/4 cup hot water - just as good!  And it means you're only left with 1 flavour sachet to wonder what to do with!)

assorted vegetables

- carrots

- capsicum (yellow and red)

- onion

- mung beans

- butter beans

- cabbage

- broccoli

METHOD

• Heat sesame oil, and add the onion, garlic and ginger, cooking until tender
• Add the pork and brown
• Add the soy sauce, honey, chilli sauce, peanut butter and stock (the stock can make it a little runny but meh, just simmer until it thickens haha!)
• Toss in the vegetables, and mix well - I tend to add the veges that are take longest to cook first, like capsicum and carrots, adding the cabbage, and broccoli almost last
• Add in 1 uncooked packet of 2 minute noodles (minus the flavour sachet obviously)
• While that simmers, cook the remaining 2 packets of noodles in the microwave
• Serve the stir fry veges on a bed of the unflavoured 2 minute noodles

I thought this was going to be a bit disastrous because when I added the stock, the sauce it made was super runny, and to me, stir-frys are not really supposed to be swimming in soupy stuff.  I tasted the sauce, and it was yum (although very much resembling satay sauce... not honey!) so I figured it would at least taste nice, if not being the normal stir-fry.  

As for adding the noodles to the mixture as well as serving it on noodles; well heck.  I LOVE 2 minute noodles.  I can't lie to you.  They were a staple of my childhood after school snack diet haha.  They're awesome.  So I'm glad they went so well with this stir-fry, as I didn't fancy rice again (having eaten it for lunch!).

Now that I've tried this, I'm going to be a little more game next time to try my own version.  :)

Recipe Inspiration: http://www.healthyfood.co.nz/recipes/2006/january/honey-pork-noodle-stir-fry

Coconut, Chilli & Lime Pork Sitr-Fry

Ok so this isn't really a recipe, but more just a blog post about what I cooked for dinner tonight.  I had some diced pork, and I had no idea how I was going to cook it.  Then I remembered I had some "Watties Wok Creations" stir-fry sauce sachets.  Yes, the stir-fry sauce was a ready-made packet one.  But I added extra garlic (because garlic is the best) and extra chilli sauce for more kick.

I wanted to rave about vegetables, which is the reason I chose to cook a stir-fry.  I'm on a fresh fruit and vegetable kick at the moment.  I can't seem to get enough.  So in my stir-fry, I had two onions, a carrot chopped into sticks, thin slivers of capsicum (aka bell peppers), mung beans, butter beans, broccoli, and peas.  Out of all of those, only the peas and butter beans came from the freezer.  So much crunch.  So many good vegetables.  So fresh.  Ahhhhhh!

I served it on basmati rice (which I have discovered is much nicer if you rinse the rice before you cook it) cooked with the absorption method.  It's such an easy way to cook rice.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup uncooked rice

drizzle of oil

1 tsp salt

1 & 3/4 cup water

METHOD

• Put rice in a saucepan and drizzle oil over (about 1 tbsp)
• Shake the pot to cover all the rice with oil, and sprinkle salt over
• Add water, cover and put on stove top
• Bring to a boil
• When bubbling, stir with a spoon (to stop rice sticking to the bottom of the pan), replace the lid, and turn the heat off
• LEAVE IT!  DON'T TAKE THE LID OFF, and ignore it for about half an hour
• When ready to serve rice, remove lid and fluff with a fork

Easy peasy!  But I cannot stress enough, that you just leave the rice alone once you turn off the heat.  Gas cooking is amazing for this, as the heat stops immediately.  And don't remove the lid!!!!!!  That's how it cooks.  :)  Rice always turns out perfectly for me with this method.  No need for a special rice cooker appliance (always makes me laugh when people buy those)!