Pork and Poke Stir Fry

A prepared plate of 'Pork and Poke' stir fry.

Everyone should know how to make a decent stir fry. Stir fries are quick, healthy, and delicious. They’re extremely customizable and they can be pretty cheap. They’re a gardener’s godsend, providing the perfect outlet for using up odds and ends from the garden. If you aren’t yet a fellow stir fryer you are missing out on a bonafide life hack.

So many different proteins work well in a stir fry, but for this poke and pork stir fry, I’ve come to really love the pork tenderloin. It not only makes for a great eating experience, but a great cooking experience, too, in that it cooks in about the same amount of time as it takes to prepare everything else, so once you get the rhythm down, everything comes together in the most satisfyingly seamless way and you feel like you have magical powers.

We’ll be cooking with poke weed again today. In my previous post, "Hokey Pokey Minestrone", I explain how to prepare poke safely, so check that out if you haven’t. Including poke does slightly complicate an otherwise very simple meal because there’s only a relatively small window of time each year where you can safely eat this wonderful vegetable, but it’s definitely worth the extra work!

Young poke weed growing naturally.

Stir fries are forgiving of imprecision, so I encourage you to eyeball ingredient amounts, don’t use a timer, and just be loosey-goosey with it. The quicker you throw dinner together, the quicker you can get back outside and enjoy the beautiful spring weather. 

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Ingredients

1/2 of a large pork tenderloin (about 10 ounces)

1 bell pepper sliced into strips

1 onion sliced

3 carrots

8 poke (stalks and leaves)

5 cups of water

4 tablespoons of vegetable oil

2 tbsp flour

1 cup of white rice

6 cloves of garlic

1/2 tsp ginger

1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp vinegar

4 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp fish sauce

Directions

1. Prep the poke. 

2. Get your rice going. Bring 2 cups of water and 1 cup of rice to a boil, then cover and lower heat. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes.

3. Place a foil-lined tray into the oven and preheat to 400 degrees (F).

4. Heat a 12 inch skillet to medium heat, add 1 tbsp of oil, then sear your tenderloin on one side for several minutes 

5. Transfer the tenderloin to the tray in the oven. Cook it until the internal temperature is . Let it rest, degrees (F), then slice it into bite size pieces. 

6. Add 1/2 a cup of water and your carrots to the skillet and boil until your water evaporates.

7. Add the rest of your cooking oil and your other vegetables, and cook for three or four minutes. 

8. Add the pork and flour and cook it for a minute or two. 

9. Now add the remaining ingredients to make your sauce. I like to make the sauce in the pan itself while the stir fry is cooking, but you could also mix all the ingredients together in a jar ahead of time and dump the whole thing in.

10. Turn off the heat and stir everything around.

11. Serve with white rice and garnish with sesame seeds and chives. 

A pan with a finished pork and poke weed stir fry and a bowl of cooked white rice.

Written by Tyler Hill

Board Member, The Shoals Backyard

Foraging Disclaimer:

Foraging for wild edibles should always be done with care and proper knowledge. Misidentification or improper preparation of wild plants can be dangerous or even deadly. Always consult multiple reliable sources before consuming any wild plant, and never eat anything you are not 100% certain you have correctly identified and prepared. The information in this post is for educational purposes only—use your best judgment and proceed at your own risk.