Friday, June 5, 2009

Cashew Sweet and Sour Pork

Cashew Sweet and Sour Pork
from Our Best Bites

INGREDIENTS:
2 TBS cornstarch, divided
1 TBS cooking sherry or apple juice
1 lb. pork tenderloin or boneless pork chops, very thinly sliced
1/3 cup water
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup cider vinegar
3 TBS soy sauce
3 TBS ketchup
1 TBS oil
1/3 cup chopped cashews
¼ cup green onions
2 tsp minced or grated fresh ginger (I used 1 tsp ground ginger)
2 tsp fresh garlic, minced or pressed
6-8 oz. snow peas, trimmed (I used string beans)
1 8-oz. can pineapple chunks, drained

DIRECTIONS:
1. Now...to get your pork super thin, you'll need to partially freeze it. When it's semi-frozen (or mostly-frozen), you can either cut it very thinly with a sharp knife or pop it into your food processor fitted with the slicing blade.
2. When I say trim your snow peas, I mean get the icky hard parts off. Little baby snow peas are very tender and don't need to be trimmed, but you'll probably have some bigger ones in there. Just snap the corners off and then tug a little to get the tough string that goes along the side of the snow pea.
3. Begin cooking your rice.
4. Combine 1 TBS cornstarch, sherry, and pork. Toss well.
5. Combine 1 TBS cornstarch, water, sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, and ketchup. Stir with a whisk; make sure there are no clumps with the cornstarch.
6. Now collect everything that's going into the stir fry next to the stove so you can access it easily.
7. Heat 1-2 TBS canola oil in a large frying pan or wok over medium-high heat. Add pork and stir-fry 3 minutes. Add nuts, onions, ginger, and garlic. Stir-fry 1 minute. Add snow peas and pineapple. Stir-fry 3 minutes more.
8. Whisk sauce ingredients again and add to pan; bring to a boil. Cook 1 minute, stirring frequently.
9. Serve over hot rice.

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