Chilli Pork and Asparagus Stirfry

I spent all of my childhood and most of my early adult life refusing to eat Asparagus and it's no wonder when my only experiences of Asparagus were based entirely on the tinned variety. You see, my mother loves Asparagus but can rarely afford to by the fresh variety so she would buy the tinned version. My father would always refer to it as 'Sparrow's Guts' and given the look, the feel, the smell and the taste of it I always agreed with him.

It wasn't until I worked in an organic fruit & vege store that I was convinced to give the fresh variety a go. I even tasted it raw and a whole new world has since opened up to me. I no longer think of the slimy looking mess that my mother eats- I think of crisp, fresh greens that are delightful with butter, great steamed and add a new dimension to a stirfry.

I can, however, understand why my mother rarely buys fresh as they can be rather expensive- unless you grow them yourself.  But given that this a stirfry- a dish that lends itself to adaption due to its great simplicity- you can vary the quantity that you use if necessary. I find that if fresh Asparagus is on special, then this is the dish I go for and I use the full quantity- 2 bunches- as suggested. If it's not on special but I feel like this dish anyway I cut down the quantity by half and substitute a handful of snow peas, sugar peas or- even cheaper- some fresh green beans and it works just fine.

Ingredients:-
1 1/2 Tablespoons of Oil- The recipe suggests Canola oil but I have an aversion to this as a lot of it is GM and I won't use it. I substitute peanut oil because it has a high smoking point and is great for stirfrys. It may add a slight nutty taste but that's just my preference
600g pork fillets, thinly sliced- I don't always thinnly slice but again that is my preference
3 garlic gloves chopped
2 small red chillies, chopped
1 Tablespoon of fish sauce
2 Tablespoons of oyster sauce
1/4 Cup of chicken stock
2 Bunches of FRESH Asparagus trimmed and sliced diagonally- DO NOT even think about using tinned Asparagus
125g cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 Cup Thai basil ( or standard basil) leaves
Steamed rice to serve- The recipe suggests Jasmine but I use Basmati purely because it has a lower GI value

Heat your wok and then add the oil, swirling to coat the sides. Add the pork in batches frying for 1-2 minutes until brown then place aside to drain. Add a little more oil and add the garlic and chilli frying for about a minute or until fragrant. Add the fish sauce, oyster sauce and chicken stock. Return the pork to the wok and stirfry until the pork is coated with the sauce. Add the Asparagus and stirfry only for a minute or two. The Asparagus should go a bright green and slightly tender. (When cutting asparagus always use your hands to snap off the ends. Let it snap naturally and you will find that you won't get any woody, stringy Asparagus). Add tomato and basil and stir fry until tomato is tender. Serve over rice with a few leaves of basil to garnish.

This recipe comes from the Woolworths Good Taste magazine and I chose it as I particularly like stirfrys because they are easy- One wok, a saucepan for the rice, a chopping board:- that's all you need. And the sauce for this one is rather nice. I have supplemented chicken for pork once just to try it but it doesn't work quite the same so I have since stuck to the original recipe- pretty much. As I said before you can- and I have- substituted snow peas, beans or sugar snap peas for Asparagus, just don't use tinned or frozen vegies for this one as it will spoil it.

Passionfruit Butter- Among other things

Given that my modem went down last week I've had a little extra time to do some cooking. I also benefited from being given a huge amount of passionfruits from a friend. Passionfruits are pretty easy to grow and, generally, those who have a vine-or two- often end a with a glut of them. The beauty of passionfruits is that the pulp can be frozen- my mother does this frequently- and the only down side is that you end up with all these little one or two portion sized containers throughout your freezer. I have sinced learned that another way you can freeze them is whole. Although this definately has the disadvantage of taking up a lot of freezer space, I'm told that it prevents the pulp separating from the seeds- something that helps when you are spreading passionfruit across, or on top of, a dessert like pavlova or cheesecake.

But like many foods there is only so much passionfruit, or passionfruit topped desserts, that you can eat before you can no longer look at a passionfruit without cringing. This is when I go in search of ways to preserve passionfruits without taking up freezer space for the rest of the year.

Once again the book 'A Year in a Bottle' by Sally Wise has come to my rescue and it is from here that I draw these next two recipes:- Passionfruit Curd ( Passionfruit Butter) and Passionfruit Cordial. As I am not a huge jam or spread fan the cordial had more of an appeal to me so I attempted that first.

Passionfruit Cordial
1 Cup passionfruit pulp
1 Cup of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of citric acid- found in most supermarkets with the bi-carb soda

Combine ingredients in a saucepan and mix well. Slowly bring to just below boiling point, stirring to dissolve sugar. Allow to cool. Strain through a fine seive then pour into sterilised bottles. This keeps for up to 12 months.

To make the cordial or even home made fizzy drink just add either water, soda water or mineral water depending on your preference. This syrup is really sweet so using it to make your own fizzy drink means that you can control the sweetness. Sally Wise also suggests using the syrup over icecream or on desserts and I imagine it would work quite well.

The only down side to this recipe is that it takes a lot of passionfruits to make up 1 Cup of pulp- not an issue if you have a shipload of passionfruits as I did- and straining the mixture through a seive does take a bit of time- not a huge amount- but the syrup is thick and you may get impatient waiting for it to drip through the seive. But it is worth it. And how cool are you going to look if you can make your own fizzy drink??


Passionfruit Butter
pulp of 6-8 passionfruits
1 Cup of sugar
2 eggs
125g butter chopped

Combine ingredients in a saucepan and whisk over very low heat until mixture thickens. Do not allow to boil. Strain to remove the seeds if desired- I leave them in to save time and I like the idea of Passionfruit Butter actually looking like it has passionfruits in it. Pour in to sterilised jars, seal and then store in the fridge for up to three weeks.

As I said I am not much of a spread or jam girl but this is quite nice. It's very sweet  so a jar will go a long way. It's also less complicated, less time consuming and less fiddly than making a jam. And, if you've grown the passionfruits yourself, you get the pleasure of turning your very own produce into product to share out amongst friends or give as gifts.

Both  of these recipes are simple ways of using an excess of passionfruits without having a huge list of ingredients. Apart from the citric acid- which can be bought reasonably inexpensively and in small quantities at the supermarket- most people would have the rest of the ingredients already to hand. Just remember to sterilise your bottles and seal your jars to preserve your butter and cordial safely. for information on how to do this see my post on Chilli Marmalade.