Pork and Veg Leftovers Stirfry

This is a delicious, filling, incredibly quick stir fry I made today from fridge and freezer leftovers that’ll satisfy for lunch, dinner, coming in from the pub, or (if you’re as twisted as me) for breakfast (next-day curries are WAY better though).

Total time spent, including raking about in the fridge and freezer was 10 mins and if I was to guess the cost it’d be £2 at an absolute maximum.

What I Had As Leftovers

1 pork loin chop
A handful of beansprouts
1/4 onion
2 spring onions
1 red birds eye chili
3 slices sandwich ham
1 takeaway-sized portion boiled long grain rice (I make mine in batches using my awesome microwave rice steamer from Lakeland. No fuss, 10 min perfect rice every time).

How To Do It

Prep Work (2 mins)

Cut (forget knives, kitchen scissors are better) pork loin chop (or any leftover fresh meat) into 1 inch strips. HINT: cut the strips perpendicular to the grain of the muscle as the meat’ll turn out more tender.
Wash beansprouts
Roughly chop onion, spring onions and ham
Finely chop chili (I kept the seeds in to add more heat)

How To Cook It (4 mins)

Heat a little olive or ground nut oil (I added a dash to a bit of fat and juices from some sausages I’d just cooked a minute earlier) in a large frying/sauté pan or wok.

Once the oil is smoking, add all prepped ingredients except the rice.

Stir fry for 2 mins.

Add rice.

Stir fry for two mins.

Add a dash of dark soy sauce (optional), serve and enjoy.

“See it all, till tomorrow”

You’re now asking “what has food got to do with communication?” The answer is it has everything to do. Escpecially these days.

Sharing a meal with friends or loved ones has always been a time not just for eating, but for talking and communicating. “What did you do today?”, “what do you think of this…?”, “did you hear the one about…?”  Today’s busy lifestyles don’t always make this possible, but it’s worth it as it brings us closer together and makes memories.

Some family recipes are handed down orally generation to generation. In my experience, it’s not just orally, it’s by sharing the cooking experience. As a child, I learned how to make bread by watching my mum weigh out the ingredients, mixing and kneading, but I also listened to her “commentary.” It wasn’t just an audio-visual experience. In the end is was smell-o-vision and taste-o-vision! The entire package was imprinted into my neural net without a word written down.

Experience is a language all its own.

Now, I don’t know all the weights for bread making off by heart. I cheat by using written recipes. But what is chief in my opinion is that we learn the important things in life not just by reading, but by sharing experiences.

So, even if you can’t get all the family together for a meal, share the preparation and cooking with someone and have a good chat while you’re at it. You’ll not only appreciate the value of homemade cooking more, you’ll learn more about your companion and yourself. As the old British Telecom advert said “it’s good to talk.”

“See it all, till tomorrow”