Crispy Pork, Cabbage & Peanut Stir-Fry
A basic recipe you can make your own with your favorite flavors.
Stir-frying is a quick meal by nature. The traditional technique calls for a ripping hot vessel and quick hands to keep every ingredient moving at all times. The goal is fresh, crispy vegetables scented with aromatics and wrapped in a sauce that screams with umami. For fewer dirty pans to clean, thicken the sauce in the wok. For the crispest, brightest vegetables, simmer, and thicken the sauce in a separate small pot.
Stir-Fry Sauce Formula
Chinese cuisine is rich with fermented foods that lend umami to nearly every dish and often calls for condiments such as soy sauce, fish sauce, and fermented bean pastes. To create a classic stir-fry sauce you can’t wait to drag vegetables and rice through, aim for a balance of salty, sour, sweet, and spicy flavors.
For example, the sauce below calls for:
Soy sauce (salty)
Rice wine vinegar (sour)
Coconut, brown, or palm sugar (sweet)
Chili flakes (spicy)
Buying
Cabbage. For quicker prep, choose a bag of shredded cabbage (or coleslaw mix) of any variety. Or replace with shredded carrots and trimmed, halved green beans.
Palm sugar. Nuttier and with hints of caramel, palm sugar is native to Asia and less sweet and refined than granulated sugar. The best substitutes in order of superiority are coconut sugar, dark brown sugar, light brown sugar, or raw sugar. The recipe works without any added sugar if your diet or palate prefers it.
Rice: Tradition dictates Jasmine rice, or any medium to long-grain white rice. You can add fiber and vitamins by choosing brown, forbidden (black), or wild rice. Here are a few tips for cooking different types of rice, and how to simmer up all manner of black and purple rice.
Sprouts. If you can’t find fresh mung bean sprouts, canned options are in the Asian foods section. To keep fresh sprouts from softening, spread them out in a thin layer on a plate or prep tray, cover them with a damp towel, and store them chilled. Sprinkle more water on the towel as needed.
Sesame oil. Toasted sesame oil packs more of a punch, but look for any pure sesame oil.
Wrangling a Head of Cabbage
Hacking away at an entire head of cabbage requires cutting board real estate and elbow grease. For the smoothest slicing:
Remove the outer leaves of the cabbage and any beneath it that are excessively dirty and hard to clean, or bruised.
Slice off the stem and discard it.
Cut the head of cabbage in half (lengthwise if cooking an oval-shaped like Napa).
Place a half flat-side down and make thin slices with a large knife, keeping the fingers of your non-dominant hand curled back. Repeat with the second half of the cabbage head.
Friendly reminder, if you don’t partake in cabbage often, the fibrous brassica can cause digestive upset. Either cook it well until very tender or substitute it with easier-to-digest vegetables like shredded carrots, baby corn, and green beans.
On Eating Pork
Heritage or pasture-raised pork is the closest retail version of healthy meat from a wild animal (but not all “pastured” operations are a swine paradise). Nearly all American pork producers operate large-scale, dense operations where the hogs eat mostly corn and soy and live packed like sardines in crates.
In the wild, hogs are omnivorous foragers, rooting their snouts around in the mud and brush for nibbly bug bits and low-hanging fruit. I once visited a heritage pork operation when working at a restaurant in Florida. We rode around in a golf cart with the farmer dodging hogs in the mud living their best life. The environment and respect for the animals I witnessed encourage a healthier, less-stressed hog and more flavorful meat. And the kind I prefer to eat. A local grocery co-op is likely the best place to find such pork.
Chef’s Tips
Add more flavor. Fresh orange or lime juice and zest, spicy bean paste, gochujang paste, or crispy chili flakes in oil all add a fun twist to the standard brown sauce rendition.
Peel and freeze fresh (stem) ginger. A sizeable piece of fresh ginger root can last even an enthusiastic home cook a month or more. Peel the thin skin away with a small spoon when you bring it home and keep it airtight in the freezer. Grate it with a microplane or the small holes of a box grater as needed.
Spice it up. If you are a spice fiend, seek out Sichuan peppercorns for a novel (possibly alarming) mouth-numbing sensation. The peppercorns are popular in their namesake province in China and create a unique sensation that is more unsettling than tongue burning. Spicy broad bean paste and Korean gochujang naturally thicken sauces and add heat and nuance. Pastes can be rather salty, so taste first and dial back the soy sauce if necessary.
Cook meat and tofu first or separately. For the cleanest, crispest vegetables, brown or fry the meat or tofu first, then set it aside and wipe out your wok.
For a thicker sauce. Double the cornstarch measure if you prefer a sticky sauce that is more akin to a glaze.
The Recipe
Prepare all of your ingredients before you begin, grab your longest tongs, and a wok or your deepest sauté pan.
The Ingredients
For the sauce:
½ cup of soy sauce
½ cup of rice wine vinegar
¼ to ½ cup of coconut, brown, or melted palm sugar*
1 to 2 teaspoons of red chili flakes
2 tablespoons of cornstarch mixed with 2 tablespoons of water until smooth
For the stir-fry:
1 pound of ground pork, beef, or tofu**
4 garlic cloves, minced
About 2 tablespoons of grated ginger
1 bunch of scallions, sliced, whites and greens separated
1 head of Napa, red, or white cabbage, sliced thin (or two 10-ounce bags of shredded cabbage or coleslaw mix)
2 to 3 handfuls of shredded or grated carrots
2 handfuls of mung bean sprouts
About ¾ cup of roasted peanut halves
Fish sauce, optional, for garnish
Refined sesame oil (or any high heat tolerant oil) for the pan, as needed
Cooked Jasmine, brown, black, or wild rice, or even quinoa, optional
The Method
Once the pork is browned, the entire cooking process shouldn’t take more than five minutes. Keep the heat high and stir like you mean it. For crispier vegetables, first, simmer the sauce ingredients separately over medium-high heat in a small pot until it all thickens. Then pour the sauce in with the stir-fry in Step 4 below.
Slice, mince, and measure. Prepare all the vegetables as noted above. Measure and whisk the sauce ingredients together in a small bowl. Set all of the prepared ingredients within arm’s reach of the stove.
Brown and crisp the pork or tofu. Preheat a thin layer of oil in a large wok or deep sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the pork and press it into a thin layer. Cook the pork undisturbed until the bottom is nicely browned, then break it up with a wooden spoon and flip the pieces to cook it through. If the heat is properly high, you will hear pops and crackles from the oil. For tofu, I recommend cooking it in ample oil in a separate pan and then mixing it in at the end of stir-frying.
Add the aromatics and vegetables. Add the garlic, ginger, and scallion whites to the pan and cook stirring constantly for thirty seconds. Add the cabbage and carrots and continue to toss and stir constantly for about two more minutes, just until the cabbage softens.
Add the sauce and briefly simmer. Whisk the sauce briefly to recombine the ingredients and pour it into the pan. Turn the heat to high and simmer to thicken it while stirring constantly.
Finish and serve. Mix in the mung beans, peanuts, and sliced scallion greens. Tap in a few drops of fish sauce. Cook for one more minute to heat it all through and serve immediately.
Notes
*If cooking tofu, place it on a plate or prep tray, place another plate on top, and weigh it down with a couple of canned goods. After at least 15 minutes, pat it dry, cut it into cubes, and toss or coat it well with cornstarch or tapioca starch. Fry it in a separate pan in ample oil or roast it in the oven at 400° F on greased parchment.
**Palm sugar is hard to find, and the best is 100% pure palm sugar (always check the label). Sold in small blocks or jars at specialty markets, the softest you can find is the easiest to use. Melt hard palm sugar in bursts in the microwave or on the stove with a tiny splash of water over low heat, then mix to smooth out. Add more water as necessary to prevent sticking.