Health, Wealth, and Happiness Pork and Ginger Soup
Gok Wan's quick and easy pork and ginger soup is bursting with classic Chinese flavours. It can be on the table in under 30 minutes, making it perfect for a midweek dinner.
Introduction
In the kitchen of every Chinese restaurant, woks will be lined up on the range, each one cooking away madly to get the food ready for all the customers who are waiting. Usually there will be a large pot right in the middle of all the woks: the Emperor. This is the main stockpot, and bubbling away in it will be bits of prawns, or meat, or vegetables. Using up the bits of food you don’t need in a dish to prepare a stock allows you to fully appreciate and respect the food that you’re making. Stocks can be frozen and used as a base to make so many other things, such as this delicious pork and ginger soup. Amazing!
Ingredients
| 750ml | chicken stock |
| 2 tbsp | oyster sauce |
| 2 | spring onions, whites bruised, greens chopped |
| a 4cm piece of | fresh ginger, one half peeled and cut into matchsticks, the other half =unpeeled and bruised |
| 1 | clove of garlic, peeled and bruised |
| salt and ground white pepper | |
| 1 tbsp | groundnut oil |
| 100g | pork loin/tenderloin, very thinly sliced |
| 1 tsp | light soy sauce |
| 1–2 bunches of | mature spinach, stalks removed, or 100g baby spinach, washed, a quarter of the leaves shredded |
Essential kit
You will need: a wok
Method
1. Put the stock into a pan and add the oyster sauce, the bruised whites of the spring onions, the bashed ginger and the bruised garlic. Season with salt and pepper and bring to a gentle simmer.
2. Meanwhile heat a wok over a high heat and add a dash of oil. Add the pork and soy sauce and stir-fry, cooking very quickly until sealed on both sides.
3. Place the whole spinach leaves in serving bowls. Top with the pork. Pour over the stock (removing the bruised pieces if you like) and garnish with the shredded spinach, matchsticked ginger and spring onion greens.
