Hunan Pork Dish Review

[cjs]

I have a recipe for "Open-Face Hunan Pork Sandwich" It's a take off from a C@H recipe. Saturday, I roasted a 9 oz. pork piece with just Good Sh*t (hotel seasoning: kosher salt, white pepper and garlic powder), for some easy dinner this week.

I sliced it up and used it in the above sandwich sauce and served over rice - it was just delicious - better than with the sandwich, I think.



For those who have it, this recipe is in the Leftover book, page 56. For those who don't have the book, here is the recipe...

Open-Face Hunan Pork Sandwich

Making use of leftover pork, ham, and bread

While this is a wonderful sandwich, we also love the pork and sauce over rice, noodles and mashed potatoes ~ I think my husband would top a cookie with it. The sandwich is a take off of a recipe from my favorite magazine, Cuisine at Home.

Sauce:
1/2 cup Hoisin sauce
1/4 cup honey
2 Tablespoons ketchup
2 Tablespoons chili garlic sauce
2 Tablespoons rice vinegar
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2 Tablespoons minced fresh ginger
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
3/4 lb. julienned or thinly sliced pieces of leftover pork
Salt and pepper to taste
Sandwich:
4 slices of crusty bread, cut about 1-inch thick
1 Tablespoon butter, softened
Shredded lettuce
1/2 cup chopped green onions

Preheat oven to 450°F.

Combine in a small bowl the Hoisin sauce, honey, ketchup, garlic sauce and rice vinegar; set aside. In a non-stick skillet, over medium-low heat, sauté the ginger in oil for 1 minute until it is fragrant; add the pork along with Hoisin sauce mixture. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Cook just until heated through. Butter one side of each slice of bread; place on a baking sheet and brown in a 450° F. oven until nicely browned.

On four plates start layering with the slice of toast; divide the sliced pork between the plates; top with the shredded lettuce and the green onions. Drizzle any remaining sauce over the sandwich. Makes 4 servings.

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I made the sauce with this change: I only had 1 Tablespoon of Garlic Chili Sauce, so added 1 tsp. Sriracha to the sauce and it made just the right heat for us.

After my ginger had been sauteed for 1 minute, I added the sauce and it just poured into the pan perfectly. Almost looked like a chocolae pie couldn't pass up a picture of it.


I had planned on garnishing the dish with the lettuce and green onions, but darn, forgot.

I had some sauce left, so just guess what I'm going to add it to - a PIZZA!

I think drizzled over a pork and ________, ________ pizza would really jazz it up. Have a batch of sourdough pizza dough going to give it a try.

[Trixxee]

Doesn't that look awesome! Yum.

[Harborwitch]

Jean that looks amazing. I think that's on the menu for this week.

Hunan pork, chiles, scallions, and . . . ?

[Gourmet_Mom]

That sauce sounds AWESOME! I'd add green onions and shredded lettuce coming out of the oven, but I'm stumped on a cheese? Fontina or Gruyere?

[labradors]

Yeah, Jean. I have noticed that a number of recipes originally intended as sandwiches are a lot better NOT as sandwiches. The bread seems to muffle all the great flavour.

Daphne, I know what you mean. Asian cooking just doesn't use cheese that way, so it's difficult to find a cheese that would work well. The Asian flavours just don't match up with most cheese very well. Maybe a good, thick Greek yogurt (but not TOO much of it) would work, instead.