Pork stir fry with bok choy and mushrooms

What I love about stir-fry is you can make many different combinations, depending on what you have. I had:

pork tenderloin
bok choy (washed and roughly chopped)
leeks (washed inside and out, chopped in half-inch pieces)
garlic, peeled and chopped
oyster mushrooms, washed and roughly chopped
soy sauce and/or salt
chili oil
cornstarch
sesame seeds
a couple of teaspoons of onion garlic jam (just happened to have it in the fridge and decided, why not?)


The difficulty with stir-fry is that when you start throwing that many ingredients in, enough to make it interesting, you can end up with a lot! I could have used small quantities of each and saved the rest for later, but honestly, it was fridge-cleaning time. So I ended up using two pans: my cast-iron chicken fryer (skillet, but deeper) and my dutch oven (very deep -- needed because the bok choy starts out big before it cooks down).

Cut up the meat into large bite-size pieces. (Think General Tso's chicken.)
Heat a tablespoon or so of peanut or canola oil in the skillet. If you have a lot, as I did, cook half in another pan so there is only one layer and the pieces aren't completely touching. You want them to brown a little and not just steam. Cook the pork, stirring frequently, until just barely pink inside, then remove it to a platter or bowl. Leave the oil in the pans.

Put the bok choy in the larger pan. Add the garlic and soy sauce. Stir occasionally. When the greens have wilted and the stem parts are soft but still have some crunch, turn off the heat. It actually won't take but a few minutes even for a big pot ful. You can smack a lid on to keep it hot, but it will be going back on the heat later anyway.

Meanwhile, put the leeks and mushrooms in the other pan. Keep 'em moving from time to time so they don't scorch. when they have softened, add the pork back in. Sprinkle in some sesame seeds if you have them. Dash with soy sauce. Stir in the onion-garlic jam, or not.

There will be what may seem to be a lot of liquid in the pan -- not soup, but it's probably going to be more watery than you are used to seeing in Chinese food. Not to worry. Combine a teaspoon of cornstarch with about 1/8 cup of cold water in a small bowl, stirring with a fork until it is thoroughly combined.

Turn down the heat in the skillet to very low and add the cornstarch mixture and stir it in well. See the liquid thicken up into a sauce that glazes everything else. Now add the bok choy/garlic mixture (and its liquid -- it won't hurt). If the result is still not thick enough, make another cornstarch slurry; if it is too thick for your taste, add some white wine or water. Hit it with a few dashes of hot chili oil.

That's it.

You will notice there is no rice in the picture. I don't really like white rice and wasn't hungry enough to make brown rice. Sometimes I make couscous, and in the future I might make quinoa, or use some that's left over.

Now, here's the thing. Substitutions are a snap.
Instead of pork, I could have used chicken, beef, shrimp or even eggplant.
Instead of bok choy I could have used regular cabbage, red cabbage or Napa cabbage
Instead of oyster mushrooms I could have used any other kind of mushrooms
Instead of leeks I could have used onion, shallots or scallions

I still would have wanted the soy sauce and cornstarch, although instead of cornstarch it's even better to use arrowroot. What, you don't have arrowroot kicking around? Me neither, usually.


I could have left out the chili oil and sesame seeds nd onion-garlic jam. I could have added real chilis, or any color of bell pepper, any kind of seed or nut that I like, and just about any other veggie, preferably fresh, but even frozen will do in a pinch: peas, snow peas, carrots, green beans, broccoli. Water chestnuts, canned but drained and sliced. The trick, actually, is to not get TOO carried away, or you will end up with enough to feed a small country. (I would leave out the bok choy, for example, if using a different green thing.)

I could have used a little hoisin sauce or sesame oil or even barbecue sauce.

The other trick is to cut things roughly the same size and then cook each thing only as much as it really needs, so you don't end up with a soggy mess. Sometimes it is best to cook one thing (like the pork) and take it out, cook the next thing, take it out, etc., and then reunite everything just at the end to heat it all through again and get the sauce on everything.