You know those ramen noodles that are so popular? Those that you can by four for a dollar? The kids eat them dry, crumbled and seasonned with the salty broth powder that comes with the noodles. Don't ask me how. They make for a quick snack after school, or a light lunch on a rushed day. Did you realize they could make a nice supper?
Tonight for supper we will be having ramen noodle pork stir fry for supper. With a few simple ingredients, a little bit of preparation, maybe a touch of imagination and we'll have a lovely supper.
For 5 people (4 of them children) we'll have:
3 packages of ramen noodles
3 small pork chops (boneless)
1 medium bell pepper
1 medium onion
3 stalks celery
2 medium carrots
Soya Sauce
Garlic
Ginger
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 tsp sesame oil
1/2 cup almonds
First we slice the meat into thin strips, dice/slice the veggies thinly, mince the garlic and ginger. Depending on your speed and ability, this could take anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes. This part is very important because the once the cooking starts there will be no time to cut and prepare the next ingredients. Even having the measured ingredients ready and on hand will make the cooking fast and easy.
Once everything is gathered, cut, and prepared, we can start to cook. First, we heat our sauté pan, add the oil, then the ginger, garlic and pork. Stir and cook at high heat with a bit of soya sauce. Remove the meat from the pan once it is cooked through. It's easier to cook in small batches, so that you can get the best flavours from the meat. Once the meat is cooked, sauté the vegetables quickly, starting with the carrots, then the celery and onions, and finally the bell peppers. At the same time cook the noodles. Once the noodles are cooked, drain, reserving a bit of the broth if you like.
To finish the dish, sauté the almonds quickly, then stir everything together. If you like a little bit of spice, you can always add a bit of chili pepper (to taste) to the vegetables as they cook. Serve the dish hot, with chopsticks if you want. The kids love eating ramen noodles this way. Flavourful, interesting and varied textures, this dish disappears quickly around our home.
You can always add other veggies such as brocoli, bok choy, chinese cabbage...
