Looking for a way to use up some winter vegetables? Maybe your veggie box is heavy with leeks and broccoli these days–if so, maybe give 7-39: Pork Chops with Broccoli and Leek a try. It’s got big “we have Chinese food at home” energy.
If malls were still a thing, you could probably find something similar at a generic Chinese/pan-Asian restaurant in the half-empty food court.
If you want to round out your combo plate for the full experience, you could make some 8-25: Stir-Fried Beef or 11-6: Sweet and Sour Shrimp to go with it. Maybe throw in some 6-39: Chicken Pot Stickers or 1-15: Chinese Spring Rolls on the side?
“Chinese peas” are usually sold as snow peas in the supermarket, in case you have trouble finding them. You can use snap peas too, if you prefer.
Ingredients. I’m using some homemade porq chops for this recipe, so the now-standard meatless modifications will be made where necessary.
Prepping the vegetables.
Browning my porq. I don’t need to cook them as hard as real meat, but they do still need some time in the pan to develop flavor.
Added the cashews (chopped) as instructed.
See? Not real meat, but still benefits from some browning/cooking.
Blanching my veggies.
Adding the veggies to the pan.
Finishing with the soy sauce, ginger, salt, and pepper.
The recipe states to place the chops on the plate whole. However, these are (were) for lunch meal-preps at the office (back when that was a place that existed outside my house), so I think I’ll slice them first.
In case you were wondering, we do still meal-prep for work lunches at home–I can just be a bit more creative with it now.
Slicing up the chops, using work skills from another job/career/life.
Final picture plate for this project–looks very colorful…but boring.
And how I plated them for work lunches, on top of some homemade fried rice. Take out is a good idea when you can, but it’s not a bad idea to learn how to do it yourself as well.
This dish in particular was a bit bland for my tastes, but has potential with a bit of extra oomph with some seasoning.
Grade: B
