Ginger Pork is the exact same recipe as Canadian Ginger Beef. Except we use julienned pork loin instead. It's an incredible dish with fried, crispy strips of pork tossed in a savory sweet & sour sauce with some heat. You can make it as spicy as desired with added red chili flakes or even by tossing in some red Thai chilies or other chilies.Ginger beef is a once-in-a-blue-moon dish, mainly because of the price. Ginger pork, on the other hand, is made far more often. Because pork loin regularly goes on sale, and when chopping the pork loin down, I always reserve some for this dish; it's just too good. Serve this with some Steamed Rice.
Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 1 lb Pork - julienne, about french fry size
- As Needed Neutral Oil - for Deep Frying
Ginger Pork Batter
- 1 1/4 C Cornstarch
- 1 C Water
- 1 Whole Egg
- 3 Tbl Flour
- 1/2 Tbl White Pepper - Can use Black pepper instead
Vegetables
- 3 Large Cloves of Garlic - julienne, sliced or chopped
- 2-3 Inch Ginger - julienne
- 1 Large Carrot - Julienne
- 1-2 Stalks Green Onions - Julienne, save the tops for garnishing
Ginger Pork Stir Fry Sauce
- 1/4 C Cold Water, Sugar, & Soy Sauce - each
- 1/2 C Chinese Red Vinegar
- 1 Tbl Chinese Cooking Wine - Sake, Shaoxing or Rice Wine
- 1 Tbl Korean Chili Flakes - can exchange with 1-3 Red Thai Chilies
- 1/4 tsp Red Chili Flakes
Instructions
- Prepare Pork & Batter: Combine the ingredients for the batter into a bowl and mix well. Julienne the pork into about the same size as fries. Add it to the batter and mix well. Refrigerate for 2 hours or more. This can also be done first thing in the morning or the night before.
- Prepare Vegetables & Sauce:Combine the stir-fry sauce in another bowl and mix well. Set aside until needed. Place a large pot on the back burner (no heat), enough to hold all the hot oil, and a fine-mesh sieve on top in order to strain out any bits. Wash & prepare the vegetables. Julienne the green onions, saving the tops to slice and use as garnish. Julienne the carrots, garlic, and ginger. Set apart the carrots & ginger to deep-fry with the pork and the green onions & garlic to stir-fry in the wok.
- Deep Frying: Heat over max, with enough oil to come up about halfway up the wok or a bit less, fitted with a thermometer so you can gauge the heat. When the oil hits 375°F, quickly add half of the battered pork, one at a time, and break them apart while frying for 5 minutes. Scoop them out with a spider into a large stainless steel bowl for holding, and repeat with the second batch. Allow the oil to reach 375°F again before adding back in all the ginger pork with the julienned carrots & ginger to fry for 1 minute or so, until the strips crisp right up. Scoop everything out with a spider and set it aside. Empty the oil through the sieve and into the pot.
- Stir-Frying:Place the wok back on the heat (max). Empty the vegetables (garlic & green onions) in and mix. Almost immediately follow with the sauce. Bring it to a boil and hold for 2 minutes. Toss in the crispy strips of pork with carrots & ginger. Toss well to coat evenly and serve right away. Garnish with sliced green onion tops and optionally with sesame seeds.
Notes
Rice: If making steamed rice to serve with this dish. Start deep-frying the ginger pork when 15 minutes of cook time remain for the rice or when the rice is done cooking and just kept warm until the ginger pork is ready. A 1:1 ratio of rice to water is sufficient, maybe with a splash of sesame oil. Use Sekka Select, Calrose, Jasmine, or American rice.