Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Thai Ginger Pork Curry

Yum
Rachael Ray cannot cook without her EVOO (extra virgin olive oil).  I feel at a loss without onions, garlic and fresh ginger!   I know most of you are very familiar with onions and garlic... but do you know how wonderful fresh ginger is?   I buy fresh ginger in volume because it goes in almost all my Asian dishes, plus it's so good for you too.  I really wanted give this dish some wonderful ginger flavor so I used 3 whopping tablespoons of coarsely grated ginger and it's still not enough in my opinion.  If you are not a friend of fresh ginger, become acquainted with it.  You may soon want to buy it bulk too.  I have some helpful tips and hints about storing ginger at the bottom of the post so you too can have ginger in your life all year long too.

PS.. I mentioned Rachael Ray at the beginning of this post because she is the one that first gave the idea about freezing ginger. So thanks to her my life is "ginger-full". :)


Ingredients
1lb of lean pork sliced into strips
1 cup of chopped fresh tomatoes (or grape tomatoes)
3 Tbs of fresh minced/coarsely grated ginger
3 cloves of garlic minced
1 medium onion coarsely chopped
1-2 green chilies sliced
1 cup of coconut milk
1/4 cup of fish sauce
1 Tbs of soy sauce
1/4 cup water
red chili flakes to taste
black pepper to taste
large handful of fresh Thai basil leaves

You can add any vegetables you like to the curry. I added:
1/4 lb of snow peas
1 cup of shredded bamboo shoots (drained from a can)
1 cup of sliced water chestnuts (drained from a can)
You can add broccoli, zucchini, bell peppers etc...

Directions:

 Add 1 Tbs of canola oil into a wok and get heated on high heat. Then add your fresh ginger and allow to fry for about 30 seconds to flavor the oil.
Then add your green chili, garlic and pork to the wok and stir fry for a few minutes until the pork is almost cooked.
 
Next add your chili flakes, black pepper, tomatoes, fish sauce,water and soy sauce.  Stir fry a few minutes.  Add  your onions and vegetables and fry for a few more minutes. If you use grape tomatoes, pop them so they cook down.

 Finally add your coconut milk and Thai Basil leaves.  I also added my snow peas last because I wanted them to retain their crunch.  Taste for seasoning.  Serve with rice.
Serves 4.  Enjoy.

Tips for storing ginger:



To store your fresh ginger, peel the skin and put in a freezer safe ziploc bag. Then use a mini grater or microplan grater to grate the ginger into recipes. It grates beautifully and you avoid getting big pieces in ginger in your dishes. I also use the microplan grater to grate my garlic as well.

Note: This is a picture of frozen ginger that's more than 3 months old in the freezer. It's still picture perfect and tastes great.

To make Asian cooking even easier try making this ginger-garlic paste


Ginger-Garlic Paste

Ingredients:
Equal parts ginger and garlic. Some canola oil.

Directions:   Put all items into a food processor and blend until coarsely ground. 

 Store in an air-tight container in the fridge for about 1-2 weeks









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