My Ultimate Sweet n Sour Pork

There is only one recipe that I am willing to break all of my dinner rules for. Those rules you ask?
1. Quick to make
2. Quick to clean up
3. Relatively healthy
I mean, I'm okay to break one rule for let's say a really good one-pan brussels sprouts & bacon dish that's going to end up being easy to clean up and totally nutritious. Or I'm cool to make a few too many dishes if the final meal was fast to make and great for our health. Orrrr, I'm fine to throw in a quick meaty pizza every so often that only keeps rule 1 and 2. But breaking all three? How dare I!

Sweet n Sour Pork is the ultimate. It's meaty, it's salty, it's sour, it's sweet. It fills you up and leaves you so happy. It feels like the greatest indulgence (and it kind of is). I like to add tons of veggies to mine so I feel somewhat okay with feeding it to my family.

Ingredients

1 lb pork
1/4 cup San-J Tamari
For batter:
1/2 cup water
2 T flour
1 T cornstarch
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 egg
Pinch of salt
For sweet 'n sour sauce:
1 cup water
Pinch of salt
3/4 cup raw sugar
1/3 cup vinegar
1/4 cup ketchup
2 T San-J Tamari
2 T cornstarch

1. Cut pork into small cubes and marinate in tamari* for a few hours. Prepare batter by whisking all ingredients together, then set aside in fridge.
2. Heat a skillet, with about 1cm of oil, to medium high heat. In batches, pick up pork cubes, let soy sauce drip off, and dunk in batter, then place in skillet. Don't overcrowd skillet, this may take a few rounds. Let one side get golden then use a fork or wooden flipper to flip battered pork cubes over and cook until the other side is golden. Remove to a paper towel lined plate and continue until all pork is cooked.
3. Meanwhile, whisk together all sauce ingredients. Place in a small sauce pan and heat until thickened, it should only take a few minutes.
4. Stir together cooked pork, and thickened sauce. You can keep this over a low flame to let the flavours marry. Serve with cooked rice and steamed vegetables.

I love this tamari because it's organic and gluten free! They use a totally natural fermentation process and you can absolutely taste it in the final product: mild yet still rich and salty. I think it makes all the difference in a good Asian dish!

31 Days: Day 18 and 19

Yesterday after I finished my house stuff Calvin phoned to say we were headed to Guelph to help out a friend with a delivery. It actually didn't end up happening but somehow I got to spend a few hours with my mom and dad, which was great. When we got home I made fried rice, carrots from the garden & halibut in the skillet. Then I watched way too much Gene Simmons Family Jewels.

Today I got up early to make the one hour walk (with my mom) to mom & baby yoga at Lululemon. I loved it. By the time we got home we needed lunch so she made an impromptu kale & tomato rice-pasta. Then we folded laundry, convinced ourselves not to do any gardening (it's so rainy!), made coffee & filmed a video about homemade moby wraps (coming soon).

Now I'm seriously debating some hot soup even though dinner is soon, and I think we're yet again watching hockey at 7.

Really looking forward to a cottage trip this weekend!

Spanish Rice

Yesterday on the Food Network, Giada Delaurentiis cooked up the most half-butt version of Spanish rice. It made me pretty mad. From what I can remember she just cooked up white rice in stock and added pancetta. There might have been an onion involved and I think she added a pinch of saffron for colour. Lame.

I quickly made something undeniably more delicious. It's this:

1. Soak 1/2 cup of any dry bean blend overnight. Discard water, rinse, and cook in boiling water until done (40 minutes). Luckily, I was already doing this because of meatless Monday.
2. Cook 3/4 cup dry brown rice in 1 1/2 cups water.
3. In a skillet over medium heat, cook 6 button mushrooms, sliced in a bit of oil. Add 1/2 yellow bell pepper, chopped. Add the cooked rice and beans.
4. Once everything has browned up a little, turn off the heat. Add 1/2 cup medium salsa.

If you're vegan you can stop there, but I had a little "hot wing sauce" made up as an experiment and pouring it over the rice mixture was pretty heavenly. Try making some, and if you have enough, use it on some homemade wings. It's just equal parts melted butter and Frank's red hot sauce, with a small squirt of ketchup. Excellent.