EASIEST Chinese Pork Stir Fry and How To Velvet Pork

It's pork stir fry time! But how do you make pork taste like it came from a Chinese restaurant? Easy. You've probably heard of velveting chicken and beef but did you know that velveting is the perfect process to tenderise chewy cuts of pork? Make the most of inexpensive pork cuts like pork shoulder and tenderise them using one simple household ingredient. This pork stir fry will taste just like it came from a Chinese restaurant! This is a pushy recipe Dear Reader!

This is one of my favourite and one of the simplest Chinese stir fries I've ever made. The pork goes from chewy to melt in the mouth and it just takes one simple ingredient that you've probably got in your pantry: bi-carb. You sprinkle 1 teaspoon of bicarb on the meat and mix it with water and then wait for the bicarb to tenderise the meat and then rinse it off! That's it!

Laura was telling me about how people on TikTok have started to come up with ways to make the most of frozen vegetables because of the cost of living crisis. Fresh fruit and vegetables are exorbitant nowadays and it has always been expensive to eat healthily but of course vegetables are so good for you so a lot of people are buying frozen. That got me to thinking about ways to cook inexpensive cuts of meat like pork shoulder.

Pork shoulder is a great cut to slow roast and is best slow cooked for a long time rather than short cooks like stir fries. But thanks to bicarb you can tenderise chewy pork shoulder so that it cooks super quickly in a stir fry! This recipe actually came from the Moo Ping that I made. I experimented with some pork shoulder and it was so tender Mr NQN could not believe that it was the same cut that he had eaten the day before and chomped and chewed on.

Tips for Velveting Pork

1 - Bicarb is best suited for dishes with a sauce but bi-carb can take out the flavour out of pork. You will want to add the flavour back in through marinades, sauces or salt.

2 - Use a cut like pork shoulder. I trim the excess fat from it and cut it into bite sized pieces. Tenderloin is already tender enough and this method is best suited to a tougher or chewier cut.

3 - Semi freeze your pork before slicing it up for an hour or so before slicing it up. It makes the pork much easier to cut into smaller and thinner pieces.

4 - Use 1 teaspoon of bicarb per 500g/1.1lb of pork. Sprinkle the bicarb on top of the pork pieces, add water and mix so that all of the pork is coated in this (you don't want bits of the pork that hasn't been velveted, it's a bit jarring).

5 - Marinate the pork for 30 minutes. It doesn't need long. I leave it covered on the kitchen counter where it defrosts and softens and comes to room temperature so it is ready to cook.

6 - Rinse the pork under plenty of cold, running water in a sieve. Using your hand, make sure to lift up all of the pieces to wash away the bicarb. Your pork is now ready to cook!

7 - You can use your favourite sweet and sour sauce or try my Chinese pork stir fry sauce below!

8 - If you want to velvet chicken or beef have a look at my velveting recipe here.

I have Laura to thank for this idea because my Tiktok is not full of food but true crime, scandals and comedians! I also recently signed up to Threads but I'm not really on it much. I've tried to add it to my rotation but I find Threads can be a bit annoying and clunky. I had to turn off notifications because my phone was going off constantly and I find I can only deal with two types of social media and Instagram is my favourite followed by TikTok.

So tell me Dear Reader, what is your favourite form of social media? And what is it full of? Food? True crime? Comedians?

Chinese Pork Stir Fry

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 10 minutes plus 30 minutes tenderising time

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Serves: 2-3 people

• 500g/1.1lbs pork shoulder, cut into bite sized pieces
• 1 teaspoon bi carb
• 2 tablespoons water
• 300g/10.6ozs green beans, trimmed and halved
• 2 sticks green onion, trimmed and cut into 2 inch batons
• Oil for frying

Sauce

• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped coriander leaves and stems
• 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 1/4 teaspoon white pepper

Step 1 - Place the pork in a bowl and sprinkle over the bicarb. Add water and toss to distribute. Leave on the counter for 30 minutes to tenderise. While the pork is marinating mix the sauce ingredients together in a bowl and prep the vegetables.

Step 2 - When the pork has had its time, place pork in a sieve under cold, running water and wash off all of the bicarb (make sure to rinse all of the meat). Drain in the sieve.

Step 3 -Add 2 teaspoon oil to a frying pan or wok on high heat and add the pork and thick white ends of the spring onion, stirring to cook evenly, around 4 minutes. Cook until halfway cooked. Add the beans and the sauce and stir fry for another 3 minutes or so and then add the rest of the spring onion and cook for 1 minute. Serve with rice.