Pork-Eggplant-Tangerine Stir Fry

Last night, I felt in the mood for some asian flavors. I made a slight adaptation of this recipe and it turned out perfectly. Seriously, the flavors were so good, the pork was insanely tender and tasty, I will definitely be making it again.

One difficulty for beginning cooks is not having a stocked pantry. While I do not possess that many asian ingredients, at this point I have most of the basics.

Which is good, because this recipe used most of them. I started out by slicing 1/2 lb. of pork tenderloin into strips. I also cut up approximately 1/2 of an eggplant into similar sized stripes. I coated all of these in salt, pepper and cornstarch. In the meantime I threw in about a tablespoon of ginger into one tablespoon of sesame oil and one tablespoon of peanut oil which were heating on the stove. I cooked the pork and eggplant for about 5 minutes until the pork was brown on both sides and the eggplant was soft. I then tossed in slices from one tangerine.

The only real issue I had with this recipe was the tangerines. The recipe instructs to leave the skin on and that because it is thinner than an orange peel it will cook nicely and taste delicious. It did not. It tasted kind of bitter and rind-y, as expected. When I make this recipe again (and I definitely will), I will just squeeze fresh tangerine juice into the sauce. After you add the tangerines, cook for about a minute and then add the sauce. I used about 2 tablespoons soy, 1 tablespoon hoisin, and 1 tablespoon sweet chili sauce. However, I believe this is all according to your tastes - go crazy. Get the whole dish nice and hot and then throw in some baby bok choy and green onions.

Cook for another couple of minutes until the bok choy is wilted and then you have some delicious stir fry. Put on some rice and enjoy.

I know I did.

While eating this Ula and I watched Pedro Almodovar's "Laws of Desire" which I had not seen in about 12 years.

It was the first movie I'd seen in awhile that had an NC-17 rating and it was well earned. The first scene shows a very attractive guy being instructed by a male voice off camera to strip to his underwear, make out with himself in the mirror while rubbing his cock against it. Then the underwear comes off and the fingering begins! This is before we see a young Antonio Banderas naked on his back with his legs up around his head. Hello! While this film is a delightfully enjoyable Almodovarian fucked up love/death/sex/obsession story, it is definitely for the kids.