Sichuan Inspired Pork Stir Fry by Jack O'Keeffe
| Serves: 2 | Category: Pork | Course: Mains | Machine: Food Processor | Total time (min.): 45 |
A go-to favourite at the local takeaway, this is my homemade version. Sichuan pepper is a magical ingredient. It’s woody, spicey, hot and gives your lips a lovely little tingling sensation. It can be found in good supermarkets, but I always plan a monthly shopping trip to an Asian supermarket to gather all these ingredients plus a lot more!
Ingredients
For the pork:
- 300g tenderloin pork cut into strips
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp cornflour
For the stir-fry:
- 4 whole dried Chinese chillies
- 1 tbsp Sichuan peppercorns
- 1/2 tsp of Chinese 5 spice
- 4 tbsp soy sauce
- 1/2 tbsp cornflour
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp rice wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- 200ml cold water
- 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 1 thumb of ginger, finally chopped
- 6 scallions cut into 1.5-inch pieces
- 2 tbsp sunflower oil
- Cooked rice for serving
Tools
- Multipro Classic Food Processor
Method
- Grab the pork and pop it into a bowl with cornflour and soy sauce, mix and set aside, allow to marinate for 15 minutes.
- Grab a wok or large frying pan and place on a medium heat. Add the whole chillies and peppercorns into the dry pan and gently toast for 1 or 2 minutes. Remove from the pan, place the chillies on a chopping board, cut off the stem and slide all the seeds out into the bin. Pop the peppercorns into a blender or spice mill and blend into a fine dust, set aside and add the chillies to the blender and pulse to break them apart into large chilli flakes, set aside.
- Add a pinch of pepper in a bowl followed by the five-spice, soy sauce, cornflour, sesame oil, sugar, vinegar, oyster sauce, and water. Mix together.
- Place the wok on a high heat followed by a tbsp of oil, add the pork and fry until golden and crisp in batches until all the pork is set aside.
- Turn the heat to medium, add a tbsp of oil followed by the chopped ginger, garlic, a sprinkle of Sichuan pepper and chilli flakes, and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the scallions, return the pork and sauce ingredients. Toss and keep stirring while the sauce comes to a simmer and begins to thicken. Adjust the consistency of the sauce with water if it’s too thick.
- Serve the stir-fry with some fluffy rice and enjoy.
Chef's Notes:
- The chillies and Sichuan peppercorns and VERY spicy, so just put in as much as you think you can handle.