Pork Lo Mein

    Chinese is a favorite of ours and who doesn’t love using chopsticks! My better half (the real cook) loves developing recipes based on food I love. She perfected this one quickly and it has been a regular on the dinner table since. I’m a lucky man!

    Here is what she came up with …..

Ingredients 

8 ounces pork tenderloin sliced thinly (we cut 1 tenderloin into 3rds- freeze two, use one)

Semi-freeze the tenderloin to make it easier to slice thinly (Razor thin works best)

1 can water chestnuts drained and rinsed

1 can bamboo shoots drained and rinsed

10 to 15 snow peas trimmed and halved (leave whole if desired)

2-3 green onions tipped and cut  into two inch lengths. I then split the lengths longways. This isn’t as necessary with the green tops.

baby portobello mushrooms, stemmed, wiped with a damp paper towel to clean, and sliced.

Optional:

     In place of one of the above or as an addition: 1 large carrot sliced at an angle into narrow chips (no thicker than a bamboo shoot) or 1 cup shredded Chinese cabbage. You can pretty much use whatever vegetables you like as long as you keep the ratio to meat and noodles tolerable. Adjust quantities to your taste.

    You can also use chicken, beef, or shrimp, as well as a combination of several. The sky really is the limit with this recipe.

Sauce

4 tsp oyster sauce

2 TBS of soy sauce (I use 1 TBS regular soy and 1 TBS tamari soy)

2 tsp white sugar

2 tsp Chinese rice wine

 2 TBS vegetable oil

1-2 TBS sesame oil to taste

Pasta

    We like to use n. 13 Linguini for the pasta. Some like to use the thick spaghetti.  This is basically preference, use what you like.

    As a rule we use 2 oz. of pasta per serving and that is more than enough per person with the ingredients. If we plan on having it for lunch, we will add two more oz., for a total of six.  

    In a large pasta pot, bring salted (pinch) water to a boil. Once boiling, add pasta and let boil 15 minutes or until done. Refer to the box for the pasta you use for cooking times. Put the pasta in a strainer in the sink to drain. Let it drain well so that it will be slightly sticky. This helps the sauce stick to the noodles. Some people like to add oil to pasta water. I don’t recommend it for this since you want the sauce to coat and stick.

Bringing it all together 

In a wok, heat 1 TBS of the vegetable oil until lightly smoking, add the bamboo shoots and water chestnuts, (or carrots) stir-fry for at least 3 minutes on high heat to cook thru- they will still have some crispness.

Add the snow peas and fry two minutes more.

Add the mushroom and green onion, fry one to two minutes more- both lose crispness quickly so judge by look.

Remove vegetables to a bowl.

Heat remaining TBS of vegetable oil to lightly smoking.

Add the sliced tenderloin- use wooden spoons or chopsticks to separate the meat pieces and spread across the wok. Cook until no pink remains.

Push the meat pieces to the wall of the wok and pour the sauce into the center, it will come to an immediate boil. Let the boil continue for 30 seconds, then add the vegetables back in.

   Then add the pasta, pour about 1 TBS of sesame oil over the pasta, use large spoons or salad scoops to mix the pasta up with the sauce. Add more sesame oil if needed.

     We like to serve this with Pot stickers and a fortune cookie. I also like white pepper on my Lo Mein.

    Sake and Teas work well with this too.

享受