Dinner Time - Asian Pork & Broccoli

Tuesday Night Dinner @ the Tammar House was Asian Pork & Broccoli......

INGREDIENTS

3 tablespoons dry sherry
(Sherry is not something you have on hand, typically. It is alcohol, though it's more of a cookin alcohol than drinking. A few years ago I bought a bottle, it was not expensive, and it's lasted me forever because most of the time you only use 1 tbl at a time, or so. So if you can, then I'd suggest to buy it because you never know when it pops up in recipes. It's good to have as a pantry item. However....Google Sherry substitutes if you need to, and you'll find there's a lot of options involving vinager and broth, etc it just depends....)

2 tablespoons soy sauce (reduced sodium)
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup chicken broth (um....by the way.....I used vegetable broth because oops! I was out of chicken broth...the substitution was just fine in my opinion)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 lb. pork tenderloin trimmed and cut into 1/2 inch pieces. (I found a pork loin roast at Food Maxx that was reasonable when it came to price. It was in a rectangle shape. No bones or anything. Easy!)
3 teaspoons dark seasame oil (again another great pantry item, lasts forever because a tiny bit goes a long way!)
3 cups (give or take) fresh broccoli florets (chop it up yourself, it's cheaper than buying them already chopped!)
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon grated peeled fresh ginger
3 scallions, chopped

COOK

Whisk together 2 tlb of sherry, 1 tbl of soy sauce, 1 tbl of cornstarch, all of the broth, and the sugar in a bowl until smooth. Set aside.

Combine the pork, the remaining 1 tbl sherry, 1 tbl soy sauce and 1 tbl cornstarch in another bowl. Set aside.

Heat 1 1/2 tsp of the sesame oil in large nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Add pork mixture, cook stirring occasionally until browned, 4-5 minutes or so. Transfer out of skillet.

Heat remaining 1 1/2 tsp of sesame oil in the same skillet. Add broccoli and cook a couple of minutes until darker green. Add garlic and ginger....cook until fragrant and it starts to brown....about 1 minute. Then add pork back into skillet and cook until all flavors are blended, about 1 minute. Add reserved broth (from step 1) and bring to a boil and cook until sauce thickens and coats pork & broccoli, about 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in scallions and serve.

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I made some brown rice to serve with this (put the pork & broccoli/sauce over the rice....makes the food stretch longer... for left overs!) and we also put some chopped up salted peanuts to add a salty crunch. It was still in need of a bit more salt, but TASTE first. Sesame oil tends to be salty so your pallet might taste it differently.

Enjoy!
:-)

Tomorrow is "Hunter Style Chicken" with mushrooms & a tomato sauce. We'll see how it goes....

Gnite! It's American Idol Time!