Sweet & Sour Crunchy Coated Pork (or Chicken, or Turkey)

Returning, once more, to Ching-He Huang’s Chinese Food Made Easy, this is the first meal I cooked from the book. Everyone loves sweet & sour, no? So, this is my adaption of this recipe, and I think the crunchy coated meat would work in a number of dishes, so I’ll post separately two ideas for a sweet & sour sauce.

Recipe adapted from Ching-He Huang’s Chinese Food Made Easy

Sweet & Sour Crunchy Coated Pork (or Chicken, or Turkey) (serves 2)

• 2 pork loin steaks, fat removed, or 2 chicken breasts, or 2 turkey breast steaks
• 6 tablespoons dry roasted peanuts, or the same amount of whole roasted soya beans and a pinch of salt
• a pinch of ground white pepper
• 1/2 – 1 teaspoon dried red chilli flakes (to taste)
• 2 tablespoons ground nut oil

Place your meat between two sheets of clingfilm on a suitable surface, and then bash with a rolling pin or other appropriate instrument until it’s about half the thickness it was. Cut the meat into large chunks (or leave as whole, large steaks if you wish).

Next, make the crunchy coating for the meat. Tip the peanuts and chilli flakes into a mini-chopper or food processor, and a pinch of ground white pepper, a blitz to a coarsely ground coating.

Pour the coating onto a plate or shallow dish, and then firmly press each side of the meat pieces into the crumbs until well coated.

Heat the ground nut oil in a large frying pan, or wok, and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side, until thoroughly cooked. Serve with this fresh modern take on sweet & sour sauce, or this more traditional takeaway-style one, and egg fried rice.  

Red and Green Sesame Stir Fry with Turkey

This easy stir fry is delicious, and I think this is for two key reasons. Firstly, it’s bright colours are so welcoming and cheery, which considering it has rained throughout July and looks like it will continue to do so for August, is no bad thing. Secondly, one of the key flavours here is fragrant toasted sesame oil, which is just wonderful.

Red and Green Sesame Stir Fry with Turkey (serves 2)

• 150g sugar snap peas (or mange-tout if you like – I prefer the former)
• 2 red peppers
• 1 bunch of spring onions (about 5-6)
• 1 inch long piece of ginger
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 turkey breast steaks
• 150g egg noodles
• 3 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon clear honey
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil + a little extra
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds

Follow the first rule of stir frying – have everything chopped and ready, as once it starts cooking the whole process is quite quick, and you won’t have time to stop! Stir-frying is often touted as a quick way of getting a relatively healthy meal on the table, and this is true if everything is prepared first.

Cook the noodles in boiling water as per the packet instructions. Drain, return to the pan, and dress with a good glug of toasted sesame oil to stop them sticking and to add some delicious flavour. Put to one side.

Heat a small frying pan and toast the sesame seeds in the dry pan until golden brown. When they’re done remove immediately to a small plate to stop them cooking further, and allow to cool a little.

De-seed the red peppers and slice them into batons. Add them to a bowl with the washed sugar snaps. Slice the spring onions and add to the bowl. Finely chop the garlic cloves, and do likewise withthe ginger (or grate it with a microplane) add add to the bowl. Mix well.

In a small bowl, mix together the soy sauce, honey and tablespoon of toasted sesame oil. Add the toasted sesame seeds and mix to coat.

Slice the turkey into 1cm strips. Heat the vegetable oil in a wok, and stir fry the turkey for 3-4 minutes until golden and cooked all the way through. Remove to a plate.

Return the wok to the heat and add the vegetable mix. Add a good splash of water to the pan to generate some steam, and stir fry for 3-4 minutes. The aim here is to heat the vegetables through but to still have plenty of crunch – there’s not a lot worse than a soggy stir fry! Return the turkey to the wok to heat and stir fry for a couple of minutes more to heat through.

In their separate pan, re-heat the sesame oil coated noodles until warmed through. To the meat and veg in the wok, add the soy-honey-sesame dressing, and stir fry for a further minute, until everything is coated and the sauce is hot. Serve the stir fry immediately over the noodles and enjoy!