If ginger be the food of music, make a stir fry!

In the last few months, I've started singing really seriously again. I'm taking my Grade 8 and everything. Yeah. This means, in foodie terms, that I have an awful lot of raw ginger lying around. Raw cubes of ginger and a couple of lemon slices in hot (not boiling) water is wonder nourishment for a poor, ailing throat and I get through the stuff in buckets.

When I came in from work last night, what luck that in my fridge I didst find a pork chop! A good ol' slice o' pig to help eat up some of the masses of ginger. Luckily, I also had lots of crunchy veg; what follows is a fab stir fry that takes all of half an hour to prepare and make when you come in knackered after work.

A couple of points. THIS mofo greatly helped me with flavours and that:



but of course, a decent vegetable or corn oil with more ginger and some raw chilli would do exactly the same job. Ooh, I feel like Delia recommending a product. I must admit, I served this with spaghetti as I couldn't be bothered to walk all of 10 yards to the shop and buy noodles (and raw chilli for the oil!), but I didn't cook loads and didn't find it was overly carby for quite a heavy accompaniment to a stir fry. Also, I used pre-bought sweet chilli sauce instead of making my own, but, like I said, convenience yeah.


For one Hungry Maz portion:

1 large park chop, cut into bitesize chunks
1 orange pepper, diced (half for stir-fry, half for snacking?)
15-20g/large piece of raw ginger, finely cubed
50g baby sweetcorn, diced
50g sugar snap peas, diced
20g baby button mushrooms, halved
Stir fry oil
Sweet chilli sauce
Cracked black pepper

Work quickly. Have the pork and all the veg chopped and ready to go beforehand. Make sure your wok or, uh, malleable pan, is nicely warmed and then put a good glug of the stir fry oil in. You know the oil's hot enough when it's spitting and there are bubbles rising to the top. Test with a bit of pepper if unsure. When the oil's nicely fizzing, tip the ginger and all the veg in (including mushrooms, the water'll evaporate off pretty sharpish). Keep stirring, cook for two minutes. Throw the pork in, cook for a further five minutes until the pork is only just done. Take off the heat and add a generous squirt of sweet chilli sauce. You want everything just coated, with no excess sauce. No salt needed (think of the sauce!) but crack a lot of black pepper over the top. Serve immediately, feel satisfied.


The other advantage, of course, is that it leaves your throat so happy and raring to go that you can operatically sing into the night and make your neighbours want to leave the area. Mwahahaaaa. Happy nomming.