Craig’s Dinner – Excellent but can you spell S-P-I-C-Y?

I don’t know if the rest of the country is suffering from the effects of this crazy weather with huge sinus and allergy issues, but we are in the Midwest. Craig decided to cure us with dinner this evening. And it was a-may-zing.

We had some of the last of “our” pork in the freezer that needed used, a boneless pork loin. I had seen a recipe on allrecipes.com that looked interesting, Korean, spicy, and super easy. It marinates for at least four hours, and I figured preferably longer is better. That nasty work thing got in the way for me, and Craig ended up doing the prep, with a few substitutes that resulted in an outstanding meal. I boiled down the remaining leftover Sriracha sauce, about a quarter of a cup with the onions. I then added it to a simple stir-fried veggie mixture of garlic, onions, celery, carrots, broccoli, red bell pepper, and zucchini with some soy sauce, ginger, sherry, rice wine vinegar, and thickened with a cornstarch slurry. The entire meal was amazingly tasty, albeit SPICY. And grab your box of tissues!

Korean Spicy Marinated Pork (Dae Ji Bool Gogi)

Serves 8

1/4 C rice wine vinegar           

2 T soy sauce

1/2 C Sriracha sauce

2 T minced garlic

3 T minced fresh ginger root

1/2 t freshly ground black pepper

3 T sugar

3 green onions, cut into 2 inch pieces

1/2 yellow onion, cut into 1/4-inch thick rings

1 boneless pork loin, about 2-1/2 pounds, cut into 1/4 inch slices

Canola oil as needed

Stir together the vinegar, soy sauce, Sriracha sauce, garlic, ginger, freshly ground black pepper, sugar, green onions, and yellow onion in a large bowl. Mix in the pork slices, mixing well until completely coated. Place into a ziplock plastic bag, squeeze out any excess air, seal, and marinate in the refrigerator at least 3 hours, and longer is preferable.

Heat a tablespoon of canola oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add only enough pork slices in batches to fit the pan, and cook until no longer pink in the center, and lightly browned on the outside, about 5 minutes per batch. Remove from the pan to a 200-degree oven to keep warm. Add canola oil as needed and continue cooking the pork until all is cooked. Serve immediately with any accumulated juices.