Ginger Pork with Garlic-Basil Rice

Another boxed rice pilaf. I keep trying out different ones, looking for something tasty and worth buying and I never quite find it. This one is pretty good, for rice from a box, but still not what I'm really looking for. (Probably a good thing, since the only place I know that sells it is no longer selling it.) It was somehow both too salty and too sweet, without having high amounts of sugars or sodium.

Anyway, the star of this meal is the ginger pork, anyway. This has been my go-to recipe for ginger pork for at least 8 years and I've never changed a thing. I can't remember where I originally got it from - it's written in the back of a cookbook that I left at my mom's house when I moved away last and I had to call her a while back to get her to read the recipe to me over the phone so that I could make it.


Ginger Pork, for two

~220g/8 oz pork loin chops, cut into thin strips
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 tsp oil

2 tbsp sodium-reduced soy sauce
1/4 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp dried ginger

1/2 cup water
1 1/2 tsp cornstarch


1. Heat the oil over medium high heat in a frying pan. Cook the pork and ginger for about 2 minutes, stirring frequently to brown all over.
2. Lower the heat to medium, add soy sauce, sugar and ginger. Mix well and continue cooking for another 2-3 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, mix together cornstarch and water until smooth. Add to pork and stir to combine with ginger-soy sauce mixture. Bring to a boil and cook for about 2 minutes or until pork is cooked through and the sauce has thickened.


I know some people don't like to use cornstarch because it can leave a taste behind, but I've never found it to be a problem with this recipe. If there is a problem it's probably the ground ginger, but I've been eating this exact recipe for 8 years and I hate to think of messing around with it, just to use fresh stuff instead.

I didn't feel like cutting vegetables today, but this sauce is really good on stir-fried vegetables as well. I used to make this with half the meat but all the sauce so that I could pour it over vegetables and rice. So tasty and easy, even sauce-making challenged me can make this.