Stir-Fried Chilli Sesame Pork with Noodles

How did 'stir fry sauce' become so popular?

I'm talking about the sachet of indeterminate brown goo sold next to the vegetables in the chiller section of every supermarket in the land. I bought some once and was appalled to discover that it tastes of nothing at all, but covered the entire meal, the wok and the plates in a sort of cornflour-based mahogany furniture stain.

If you order anything stir-fried in a Chinese restaurant, it always comes unadorned by any sauce, save for soy; unless you specifically order something with a definite flavour, like black bean sauce or oyster sauce or curry sauce or sweet and sour sauce - but in all my years of ordering takeaways, I have never ever been offered brown goo sauce. However, the supermarkets' generic sauce still seemingly remains resolutely a bestseller. Yuck.

Today's recipe is the freshest-flavoured stir fry imaginable. I only use a little soy sauce and sesame oil to flavour the dish, and then sprinkle a liberal amount of fresh medium hot red chillies, as a sort of vegetable garnish to fire up the tastebuds, without numbing them to the flavours of the other ingredients.

Stir fries are the epitome of the perfect weekday meal. Minutes to prepare and cook and easy to serve. Last night, Mrs Ribeye and I ate ours in bed!

Cost-wise, because pork belly slices are so cheap, the ingredients for this dish came in at £5 - which means that for four people, you can provide dinner at a ridiculously low £1.25 per serving. Cheaper and far more delicious than a takeaway and not a single drop of brown goo. Enjoy!

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS: 

600g rindless pork belly slices, cut into 2cm chunks
1 tablespoon sunflower oil
Thumb of ginger, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
600g mixed stir fry vegetables (sweet peppers, carrot, beansprouts, cabbage, onion, sweetcorn etc)
500g cooked egg noodles
3 tablespoons of dark soy sauce
2 tablespoons of toasted sesame oil
Pinches of salt and pepper
3 large medium hot red chillies, sliced into 5mm rings
1 tablespoon sesame seeds

In a wok on a high heat, fry the pork in the sunflower oil until crispy, and set aside. In the meat juices, stir fry the ginger and garlic until fragrant. Add the vegetables and stir fry until soft and translucent. Add the noodles, cooked pork, soy sauce, sesame oil and salt and pepper, and heat through. Transfer to bowls and sprinkle with the red chilli rings and sesame seeds. Serve immediately.