Pork and chili stirfry

I have a Little Brother and a Big Brother. This post is about my Little Brother. It’s really a misnomer as I am barely five feet while he is almost a foot taller than me. He is way way younger than me though. Little Brother came to the lab for a few months. He wanted to learn English so he liked hanging out with us. The trick was to give him his “words for the week”, words he doesn’t know and he has to look up in the dictionary. Otherwise we won’t allow him to join us for dinner!

Going out to dinner was something else. Some foods he does’t know or don’t know the Chinese word for. Well, there’s goes another “words for the week” for him. Before he went back to China, he coooked several Chinese dishes for us. This is one of them. Can’t you see, this is another practice for his English – teaching us how to cook. He must have really learned to speak in English since this dish came out well.

This dish calls for lots of green chili, I’m not sure if jalapeños will do. It is really hot! The original Mexican term, chilli (now chile in Spanish) came from Nahuatl word chilli or xilli, referring to a huge Capsicum variety cultivated at least since 3000 BC, according to remains found in pottery from Puebla and Oaxaca. The fruit of most species of Capsicum contains capsaicin (methyl vanillyl nonenamide), a lipophilic chemical that can produce a strong burning sensation in the mouth (and, if not properly digested, anus) of the unaccustomed eater. Although black pepper and Sichuan pepper cause similar burning sensations, they are caused by different substances—piperine and alpha-hydroxy-sanshool, respectively.

Ingredients:

500 gram pork tenderloin
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 cup green chili, deseeded and cut into strips
1 piece red bell pepper, cut into strips
3 tbsp vegetable oil

1. Cut meat into 1 inch strips. Marinate in soy sauce for at at least 10 minutes.
2. Heat 2 tbsp oil in pan. Add the meat. Reserve marinade.
3. Stir fry meat till cooked then remove from pan.
4. Add the remaining oil in pan and heat. Add the green chili and saute for 30 seconds. Add the meat, mix well then add the reserved marinade.
5. Saute meat and chili till marinade is reduced. Add the red bell pepper then remove from fire.

This dish is best served with steamed rice.

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This is my entry to this week’s Weekend Herb Blogging

hosted by Vanessa of What Geeks Eat.