This is one of my favourite treat meals for the weekend. Its better than a takeaway and not at all difficult to make. A little bit of prep work to make the sauce and marinade the meat an hour or so before you want to eat, and that's as difficult as it gets.
Lets talk about the sauce. It's sweet and sticky and can be used in a variety of dishes, so much so that I've written its own blog for it here. It's got that deep BBQ flavour that you'll instantly recognise and you'll be wondering why you've been buying shop bought. The recipe and directions are below but if you'd like to bookmark it on own its own, head over to the BBQ sauce blog for a look.
This recipe uses pork fillet, also referred to as tenderloin. It serves two and I've allowed 200g of pork per person, which is generous but it's that good you'd be disappointed with any less. I like to cut it into strips for this recipe and I find the easiest way to do that is to cut across into rounds, then cut those in half. I usually stir-fry this with thickly cut mushrooms, spring onions (aka scallions or sibees) and at least one other veg. At the moment I have Pak Choi growing in the garden so I've been taking leaves off that as I need them and using it. Other options would be strips of green or savoy cabbage or even red peppers.
Ideally you'll make the sauce and prep the meat in the afternoon, the meat is nicer if you can give it an hour or so to marinade it the fridge. However, if you don't have time for this step you can miss it out and go straight to cooking.
I always serve this with egg fried rice, get my recipe for it here. However, you could serve with more salad greens or a whole pak choi halved and cooked on the griddle would also be delicious.
The Sauce
Recipe
Half a small onion (approx. 30g) finely chopped
1 garlic clove grated or finely chopped
70g (half a cup) soft dark brown sugar
130g (half a cup) tomato ketchup
1/2 tsp cider vinegar
60ml (qtr. cup) water
Directions
Add a teaspoon of oil to a hot pan, then add the onion and stir so the onion is well coated. Reduce to a low heat and allow the onion to cook gently.
Once you can see the onion is softened, this will take at least 5 mins but could be up to 10 mins, add the garlic.
Stir in the garlic and after one minute add the sugar, ketchup and vinegar.
Stir well and allow the sugar to melt and the ingredients to come together.
Once the sugar is melted add the water and leave to cook on low for a further 5 mins. You can use the cup/ jug you measured the ketchup in for the water. Just fill to half the level that the ketchup came to.
Once cooked allow to cool.
Transfer to a bowl, cover and put in the fridge until needed.
The Stir-fry
Recipe
Serves 2
400g pork fillet/ tenderloin
175ml of bbq sauce (which is all of the sauce from the recipe above)
3 spring onions sliced into 2.5 cm / 1 inch pieces
100g thickly chopped mushrooms
A few leaves of pak choi or green / savoy cabbage sliced
Directions
Slice the pork, add to a bowl, then add one third of the bbq sauce.
Mix the pork and sauce well so that the pork is completely coated. Cover and put in the fridge until your ready to cook. Ideally an hour or two. Store the remaining sauce in the fridge as well.
Remove the pork and the sauce from the fridge about 15mins before you need it. You can use this 15mins to chop your veggies.
Add a tablespoon of oil to a wok or large frying pan and heat.
Once the pan is hot add in the pork, it should sizzle when it hits the pan. Stir-fry on a medium to high heat and when you can see its browned all over add the spring onions.
Allow the spring onions to cook for a few minutes then add in the mushrooms.
After a couple of minutes add the remaining bbq sauce and stir through thoroughly.
Give it a minute or so for the sauce to heat up then add in the cabbage greens. These will only take a minute or so to cook so add these right at the end.
Check your pork is cooked through, it should be by now but I always like to take a piece out and check. If it is serve immediately while hot.
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