Pork Stir-Fry à la Nicole

Whaddya do with a hunka-hunka ground pork? I had 1-3/4 lb. (806 g) of it taking up space in the freezer. Combining it with an equal amount of ground beef would have been the usual thing for making meat loaf, meat balls, or burger patties, but with no ground beef on hand, I flapped around, wringing my hands, moaning: “What can I do-o-o …?”

Go online.

Grateful to have found this largesse in the freezer, I was also grateful to www.frugalnutrition.com for the clever idea of turning such a large amount of ground pork into a stir-fry. If truth be told, I actually had twice the ground pork this recipe calls for - something I discovered too late to do anything about it. 

Doubling the pork didn’t seem to matter because everything turned out fine. As cooks often do, I modified the recipe by using whatever I had lurking in the fridge. This was the result.

Pork Stir-Fry à la Nicole:

1 c. (250 ml) uncooked brown rice

1-to-2 tbsp. (15-to-30 mL) canola oil

3/4 lb. (340 g) ground pork or other ground meat (see Meat Note)

1/2 medium white onion, peeled, sliced into wedges

1-1-2 c. (375 mL) sliced mushrooms (see Mushroom Note)

1 c. (250 mL) carrots, rinsed, peeled, and cut into (thick-ish) match stick size (see Shocking Carrot Note)

4 c. (1 L, give or take), angle-sliced celery with leaves, or other greens including (but not limited to) bokchoy, kale, trimmed asparagus stalks, parsley, etc. 

3 or 4 tbsp. (45-to-60 mL) fresh ginger, peeled and minced fine

2 or 3 cloves fresh garlic, peeled and minced fine

1/4 c. (60 mL) soy sauce, divided

3 tbsp. (45 mL) rice wine vinegar

1 tsp. (5 mL) chili flakes

Sesame seeds, toasted, as garnish

3 or 4 green onions, angle-sliced, as garnish

Have all ingredients arrayed and prepared in advance. Ensure Angle-slice celery slightly thick, rather than thin.

Set well-rinsed rice over stovetop or in rice cooker. If you’re unfamiliar with cooking brown rice, see my post for How to Cook Rice (https://nicoleparton.blogspot.com/2012/01/how-to-cook-rice.html) and specifically the section on How to Cook Long-Grain Brown Rice. The amount of brown rice in this recipe will require 1-1/2 (375 mL)-to-2 c. (500 mL) water or chicken stock. 

To wok set over high heat, add canola oil and ground meat, breaking up meat until browned. Remove meat from wok; set aside. Pour off all but 1 tbsp. (15 mL) of oil.

Reduce heat to medium-high. Add onions and mushrooms, sauteéing onions are slightly softened. Add mushrooms, continuing to toss until mushrooms are heated through. Add carrots and celery stalks, tossing a further 3 or 4 min. Stir in ginger, garlic, half soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and chili flakes. 

Reducing heat to medium, cover wok, cooking 5 min., or until carrots and celery are partially cooked, but still crunchy. Remove wok cover, sprinkling remaining soy sauce over dish. Garnish with sesame seeds and green onion. Serves 6.

Meat Note: Dork that I am, I used 1-3/4 lb. (806 g). Over a couple of days, we gobbled up every bit of this very “meaty” stir-fry, not realizing the difference.

Mushroom Note: Gather ’round! Let me tell you how I prepare mushrooms to save time when I need it. Buying mid-sized cremini mushrooms in quantity - this works with most types of mushroom - I dust off the dirt, cutting them into a uniform size with an egg slicer (Younger people may prefer a knife, but I’m old and decrepit and find an egg slicer easier). 

In large skillet, fry mushrooms in butter or margarine. Transfer cooled mushrooms and melted butter or margarine to small freezer-safe containers holding 1/2 c. (125 mL) each. Label and freeze for conveniently quick use in recipes such as this.

And now a full-blown rant!

Shocking Carrot Note: Ignore what’s below if you’re content with the way your carrots smell. Read it if you feel their smell has recently changed for the worse. This blog is read worldwide, so what I’m about to say may or may not apply to you.

I recently came across a couple of interesting questions to Google. The first question was written and answered in 2010: What are carrots supposed to smell like?

Here’s what https://seattlelocalfood.com/2010/11/07/carrots/ replied: 

“Perfect carrots smell like spring, like sweetness in the back of your throat, like everything a carrot seed dreams of growing up to be. Smell your carrots, folks. If they smell good, they'll taste good.”

The second question was written and answered in June, 2022: Why do my carrots smell weird?

Among the several reasons: Your smelly carrots may have been treated with essential oils. hat, my friends, strikes me as unacceptable.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2214799322000236

The journal Current Opinion in Food Science features a study headed Use of essential oils against food-borne spoilage yeasts: Advantages and drawbacks. The paper suggests one reason why not only carrots, but other foods, may smell “different.” 

“Recent scientific studies have demonstrated the effective application of essential oils (EOs) as natural preservatives for controlling spoilage yeasts in foods as: fruit and fruit juices, raw vegetables, cereal-based products, meat-based products, and dairy products. 

“Notwithstanding, the main limitation in using EOs, especially when applied at high concentration, is related to their strong impact on the sensory traits of the treated foods. Hence, to preserve food quality and to assure antifungal activity, the optimal formulation, concentration, and combination of each EO should be defined for each specific food matrix …”

The article summarizes EOs as “natural aromatic volatile compounds extracted from different parts of plants … including compounds containing nitrogen and sulfur with unpleasant odors (e.g. amines, thiols, etc.) …

“Because of the chemical nature of the active substances contained in EOs, great attention to their proper selection for food preservation must be paid. Indeed, not only the aroma and taste may be altered by the use of EOs as protective substances against spoilage yeasts, but also the color, texture, general visual perception as well as tactile and mouth feel during consumption. It is noteworthy that aroma and associated taste have a crucial impact on consumer acceptability of food.”

Conclusion: I first noticed an offensive smell in packaged, peeled baby carrots, several years ago. I stopped buying them. Unless your grocer has an advanced degree in chemistry, s/he probably won’t care. If your carrots smell foul, switch to organic.  

If your local newspaper features a consumer columnist, or your radio or TV station has a consumer broadcaster, draw this to his or her attention. Sure, it’s nerdy science stuff, but essential oils and food don’t belong together. 

Who says? The US Food and Drug Administration, that’s who. Of course, it’s a question of degree and quantity, but when food starts to stink … Too much is too much.