The First Supper

The finished dish: Three Pepper Pork

Unable to bear another round of eating out, I pushed myself and got the upstairs kitchen mostly unpacked yesterday. I resolved to try the thick-cut boneless butterflied loin pork chop I bought at the Farmer’s Market from Harmony Hollow Farms.

Saturday was a blustery, freezing cold day, with wind ripping through the Hocking River Valley, buffeting the few brave souls who came out to buy and sell at the Farmer’s Market that morning. We made a quick pass through the market, then returned with cash, and beelined over to Rich Blaizer’s stand, and took a good look at the pork he had for sale.

The pork was dark and rich looking, with creamy white fat marbled through the meat. It looked nothing like the pale, water-injected lean pork that is available in the grocery store that gave rise to the ad slogan “Pork–the Other White Meat.” Instead, it looked much more like the pork I was raised eating in childhood, from hogs on my grandparents’ farm.

When I asked Rich what kind of pigs he raised, his face lit up, and he said with a smile, “Durocs.”

I nodded enthusiastically and said, “Good. Those are the ones my Grandpa raised.” We then discussed the superior intelligence and foraging ability of the red-coated Duroc breed, which is very important when you let your pigs run in a pasture like Rich does. A lot of pigs have had the rooting instinct bred out of them, as it is inconvenient when you raise hogs in a confinement setting as most of the factory farm producers do. However, for pasture-raised free-range pigs, being able to root and forage is a necessary survival skill. Rich complained that other breeds would “starve themselves to death” in a pasture, whereas the Duroc was right at home.

Not only are Durocs smart pigs, they are tasty, too. I remembered the sweet flavor of my Grandpa’s pork, and wondered if the pork chop from Harmony Hollow would match my memory of how pork should taste.

I was not disappointed. The meat was sweet, juicy and tender, though not mushy the way a lot of supermarket pork can be. It was firm, with a nice chew to it, without being in the least bit dry or tough. It was, all in all, a superlative piece of pig.

Instead of cooking it as a straight up pork chop, I cut it into thin slices, and used it in a stir-fry. (You know I had to use that wok, didn’t you? I was having withdrawal symptoms from not using it.)

Instead of making a classic, recognizable Chinese dish, I improvised, using the vegetables I had on hand, including some bok choy I also purchased at the farmer’s market. I seasoned it simply with Shao Hsing wine, thin soy sauce, sugar, chili garlic paste, black pepper and Sichuan peppercorn. Oh, and of course, I used the holy trinity of scallions, garlic and ginger.

I ended up calling it Three Pepper Pork, and will likely make it again–probably with some more of that nice free-range pig from Harmony Hollow.

Here is now it goes:

Three Pepper Pork

Ingredients:

1/4 pound pork loin chop cut into thin strips
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon Shao Hsing wine
1 tablespoon thin soy sauce
4 tablespoons peanut oil
3 scallions, cut into thin slices diagonally, white parts separated from the green
4 cloves of garlic, cut into thin slices
1″ hunk of ginger, peeled and cut into thin slivers
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground Sichuan peppercorns
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon chili garlic paste
1 teaspoon thin soy sauce
handfull baby carrots cut jullienne
1/4 pound green beans strung and blanched
1 bunch baby bok choy cut into ribbons
1/8 cup chicken broth

Method:

Marinate the pork in the cornstarch, wine and soy sauce while preparing the vegetables.

Heat wok, add oil, and when it is smoking, add white part of scallions, garlic and ginger, and cook, stirring, until fragrant and beginning to show golden color; about one minute. Add peppercorns, pepper and chile garlic paste, stir fry about 30 seconds.

Drain excess marinade off pork; put meat in wok. Let sit in single layer on bottom of wok until browned–between 45 seconds to two minutes. As soon as it is brown and fragrant, begin to stir vigorously. Add soy sauce and any remaining marinade.

When meat is nearly done, add carrots, then blanched green beans. Keep stirring.

After about a minute, add bok choy, then the chicken broth. Reduce liquid until it coats food, and bok choy is very slightly wilted.

Serve immediately with steamed rice.

The new flat-top electric stove gets very hot, very quickly. It is quite easy to produce a good stir fry filled with the savor of wok hay.

4 Comments

RSS feed for comments on this post.

1. Glad to see you back!

   For all that people disparage electric stoves, I’ve also found that the new ones are quite good. I especially like being able to just slide a pot or pan over when I need to lower temp quickly, not to mention the extra counter space. Although…cleaning up too soon after making dinner can be a bit painful!

   Comment by etherbish — April 5, 2005 #

2. Welcome back Barbara! And oh my, what a wonderful dish you prepared. I want some!

   Now that the snow has finally melted from the roads, I’ve GOT to locate some Sichuan peppercorns and try them again!

   -Elizabeth

   Comment by ejm — April 6, 2005 #

3. Yeah, I think that in a lot of ways, for stir-frying, one of these new-fangled super-hot glass-topped electric stoves is better than a low BTU gas stove. Just use a flat bottomed wok, and if it gets to hot, slide it over to another burner on medium or that isn’t even on at all.

   Hey, Elizabeth! Here’s to no snow–though, we went back to our old house last Sunday to clean and we got caught in a bad snowstorm–whiteout conditions at times, though little of it stuck to anything. But it was amazing to go from a semi-warmish place with daffodils blooming to a snow squall in the matter of minutes. It was as if someone turned a switch.

   Good luck with the Sichuan peppercorns–post to let me know how your cooking with them goes!

   Comment by Barbara Fisher — April 6, 2005 #

4. I think we’ll be in ChinaTown tomorrow, and I’ll look for the peppercorns then. If not, next week for sure!

   Those snowsqualls are quite bizarre, aren’t they? I’m hoping that last weekend’s flurries are the last until next December at least!

   Comment by ejm — April 8, 2005 #

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.