Chinese Takeout please!

So FP and I started talking about what to make for dinner while we were on a walk with Smiley. We deliberated over jambalaya, spring rolls, pork chops, when we finally decided we wanted something Asian. We both remembered that there was some left over fresh ginger in the fridge from the other day when I made Indian food and we hadn't had pork in a while..... ginger pork it is!
I had never made ginger pork before, but I had a fairly good idea of what the recipe might include. I have been acquiring my normal stocked pantry over the past months, so I was quite confident I had everything necessary at home, except pork of course. Last year FP was quite adamant that I had way too many spices on hand. This year, I have been more secretive in my spice acquirement. About every week I bring home a new spice. He really hasn't seemed to notice that the spice rack has grown from 5 spices to about 12 in the past month!

We casually browsed the grocery store for our supplies, which was a nice change from our normal fast past ``family`` grocery time. During our browsing we actually discovered that the store had both maple syrup and peanut butter! Clearly the three of them had not looked hard enough the times before when they stated to me that there was no absolutely no peanut butter or syrup to be found in this town! Sometimes you just have to browse the aisles and look in the exotic imported food section, that is the key! After spending way too much time in the grocery store and also realizing smiley was still in the car (whoops!), we trucked our supplies home.

Last year I cooked quite a bit alone in the kitchen, but this year has been different. FP and I cook a lot together, which I don't mind at all. He takes directions very well and doesn't argue you with my messy ways haha. So after googling a couple recipes and gettin the main idea of what is in ginger pork, I came up with a recipe. FP helped me carry it out along with some homemade fried rice. The ginger pork was amazing and full of ginger! My mom would have loved that FP insisted I use all the ginger we had left, which I thought was way too much! But it came out tangy, zesty, and perfect. In fact I was tempted to put it in take out boxes and write Chinese all over the sides just to feel like I was eating Chinese take out again! But trust me after making this, you won't miss it.

Ginger Pork

-1lb pork (I used chops, but I think loin may be better) cubed or cut into strips
-1/2 cup gf flour blend, I used arrowhead
-1-2 T olive oil
-1/2 cup chicken broth
-1/2 cup water (or 1 cup water w/ half a gf chicken bouillon cube)
-2 T soy sauce
-2 T rice vinegar
-2 green onions chopped
-1/2 cup broccoli
-1 clove garlic minced
-1-2 tsp. white sugar
-fresh grated ginger
-touch of cayenne pepper

Place cubed pork into bag of flour and coat evenly. Add olive oil to skillet. Brown pork over med. high heat in skillet. Remove and set aside. Combine broth, water, vinegar, soy sauce and cayenne. Bring to a boil. Add in green onions, garlic, sugar, broccoli, ginger, and pork. Simmer for 15 min or until pork is tender.


Fried Rice

-4 cups cooked rice
-2-3 T butter
-2 eggs
-1-2 tsp garlic powder
-1 small glove garlic minced
-1-2 T soy sauce
-2 green onions chopped
-1 carrot chopped into small pieces
-1 tomato chopped
-pepper to taste

Add a T of butter to skillet. Saute carrots in butter for 3-5 min. Then add in green onions, garlic, and more butter if needed. Saute for another 2 min. Add eggs and tomato and stir to combine eggs with onions, tomatoes, and carrots. Once egg is almost cooked, add rice. Add rice, 1 T. butter, and soy sauce. Fry at low-med. heat for 5-7 min. Add garlic powder and pepper while frying. Taste after 5 min and add more soy sauce if needed.