We’ve all had those moments when we look in the fridge and just know that something’s gotta give – things in plastic containers, plastic baggies, plastic film, and even some things just as they’ve come from the market.  Saturday night was one of those moments for me.  What to do with a bit of chicken stock, a piece of ginger, couple of carrots, half an onion, 2 stalks of broccoli, a couple of pieces of pork filet – not to mention the various jars of “stuff” lining the shelves.  Among those jars I found black bean sauce, hoisin sauce, mushroom soy sauce, chili-garlic sauce (there were others that said Italian, Mexican, and Middle Eastern, too) and together they said “take out Chinese food.”  Checked to make sure I had some long grain rice – there was just a cup, so I was ready to wok it.  I’ll try to give you the gist of what I did and then you, too, can make a clean out your fridge Chinese dinner – not a feast exactly, but a pretty decent meal.

First I cut the veggies, added a couple of cloves of garlic, and grated the ginger.  Measured out some of the black bean sauce and chili garlic sauce.  Then, cut the pork into little pieces and tossed it in cornstarch.  Combined the black bean and chili-garlic sauces and added a good dose of mushroom soy sauce to the bowl.

I put the rice on to cook – it only takes about 20 minutes at most.

Then, I put a tablespoon of corn oil in a large frying pan – I did forget that my wok is in the country – and put it over high heat.  When it was very hot, I added the pork in batches and fried it until golden and crisp.  Took just a couple of minutes.  Drained it on some paper towel.

Poured off most of the oil and added the veggies, garlic, and ginger to the pan, tossing and turning to get them heated through.  Added about ½ cup of chicken stock along with the black bean sauce mixture and when everything was mixed and a little juicy, I tossed the pork back into the pan and gave the whole mess a couple of whirls.

Presto – dinner was ready just as the rice was perfection.  It made so much that we had leftovers for Sunday lunch.