Stir fry roast pork with black sauce, garlic and mint leaves - Featured in Group Recipes

Roast pork is always served during a Chinese Wedding. It is most important to have a roast pig as part of the gifts for the bride. ?Ju? or Pig is the sign of virginity for the bride. If the bridegroom is satisfied that his wife is a virgin, he will send her home to visit her parents with a roast pig complete with tail and ears to show his satisfaction. If not, he will break the pig?s tail and ears to announce that his wife is not a virgin. This, I do not understand. I thought we Chinese are afraid to lose face, so how could a man in those older times be willing to announce to the world that his bride is not a virgin? Go figure!

For a long time, I ate roast pork as it is, simply roasted over a spit to a crusty fat layer over the lean meat. It was my sister in law, Jeanie, who introduced me to stir frying the roasted pork with black sauce, garlic and chili. I love the way she cooks it. In my opinion, this is a better way to eat it because we consume less fat which gets rendered in the frying process. Moreover, the garlic and chili add extra flavor that seem perfectly complimentary and, of course, the frying puts a lovely caramelization on the meat to add even more flavor depth. Still, as I am always tinkering with recipes, I thought of something to add that worked out well. The new ingredient - mint leaves - give this dish a whole new dimension!

Ingredients:

250 gm roast pork

2 cups mint leaves

3 tbs chopped garlic

1 tbs sugar

1 ts soy sauce

1 ts thick black sauce

3 chili padi, finely diced (this is the small Asian chili sometimes called bird chili and it packs a lot of heat. You may want to omit or add less than called out here.)

Method:

Heat the work and add 1 tbs of garlic and the roast pork. Stir fry till you see some oil in wok and add 2 more tbs of garlic. Stir fry to get more oil out of the roast pork for about 5 mins. Add soy sauce black sauce and chilly padi. Stir fry for another another 5 mins. Add sugar and mints leaves and stir fry another 5 mins. Transfer to serving plate and serve hot.(Incidentally, the roasted pork that we start with for this recipe is purchased in any supermarket here and is from the pork belly. No ears or tails .... so your secret is safe.)