February 21, 2008

Porkquat Stir Fry

Porkquat. Awesome word. I just made it up. Feel free to credit me, (read: you must credit me or else you’ll suffer the curse of the porkquat) whenever you use the word in the future. Right. Anyways, sorry to have left you hanging at the end of my last post by saying “oooh I’m going to be making an awesome leftover dish” and “it uses a brand new-to-me ingredient, whatever could it be?” With an ending like that I’m sure you’ve all been wearing out your refresh buttons, just dying for me to put up this post. Or something like that. I’m sure you’ve deduced by now that my mystery ingredient is none other than the mighty kumquat. Fun to say, fun to eat, what’s not to like? Except possibly those blasted little seeds. Seeds are the bane of my existence. But I digress, prior to this week I had never had a kumquat. Then I started seeing them pop up on blogs everywhere and I’m nothing if not a bandwagon jumper so off I went to Chinatown, determined to get on the kumquat bandwagon.

I walk through Chinatown a few times a week so I’m generally up with whatever’s in season, (or in season somewhere on this earth, I guarantee there are no kumquat farms in downtown Toronto and yet we have kumquats). When I got to my favourite grocery store/fruit stand I saw what I had presumed were kumquats but they were labeled ‘sweet tangerine’. Hmmm. Well this certainly threw a wrench into my machine. I wondered around my store, eyeing the goods and trying to decipher foreign symbols and wonky English translations and after some time I decided that ‘sweet tangerine’ was simply a wonky translation that really meant kumquat. When I got back to my apartment I decided to turn to the ever useful thing the kids call the internet to figure out if my sweet tangerines were in fact kumquats. Since when does google fail me? Results for sweet tangerine netted a whole bunch of sites about some band called The Hush Sound who have a song called Sweet Tangerine and little else. Then I turned to MSN and noticed a fellow Daring Baker was online. I messaged Marce and asked if she had ever had a kumquat before and if she knew if it was the same thing as a sweet tangerine. I think she thought I was a little nutty. Fair enough. Eventually I decided, based on Marce’s suggestion, to compare pictures of kumquats to the sweet tangerines that I held in my clammy hands. Google Images redeemed itself here and I was able to figure out that they were in fact that same thing. Great, I have kumquats, now what do I do with them and how do I eat the little suckers? I’ve seen them used in both sweet and savoury dishes and decided to try my hand at both, beginning with an off the cuff savoury stir fry that utilized none other than the leftover pork roast. Since it was off the cuff, the proportions are all approximate. I was happy with how it turned out so I tried to write it down. After making this dish I put the rest of the pork in the freezer so that you won’t have to see it night after night for weeks on end.


Porkquat Stir Fry


Canola oil, a splash

1 clove garlic, pureed

2 T ginger, grated

A pinch of 5 spice powder

5 kumquats, zested and then thinly sliced

Half a red pepper, thinly sliced

A quarter of a red onion, thinly sliced

6 button mushrooms, thinly sliced

Leftover roast pork, thinly sliced

Wide vermicelli noodles, cooked


Heat oil in a pan and add the ginger, garlic, 5 spice powder and kumquat zest. Fry until fragrant, about 30 seconds and then add the red pepper, mushrooms and onions. When it is just about cooked to your desired doneness, (do you like your peppers crunchy or soft?) add the pork and continue cooking until it is heated through. Toss with noodles and serve.



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27 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am so jealous that you came up with the porkquat idea first! It's freakin' brilliant and you better trademark it fast, or the next thing you know you'll be seeing porkquat on the menu at TGI Fridays (not to say that's bad, just that you really deserve a cut...)

Gretchen Noelle said...

Porkquat!?! Cute! Can't believe these were your first.

Anonymous said...

hahaha! I love the name. Porquat! Do i have to pay you royalties for using it!
:-)

Susan @ SGCC said...

Great idea for the leftover pork. You know, I don't think I've ever had a fresh kumquat either. What is the fruit like? I have a loquat tree. Are they anything like them?

K and S said...

stop swearing....lol!

Anonymous said...

Ok. I'm hungry. What a kick ass combination!

Sara said...

Porkquat is a much better name than Kurk. Or Kumork.

Meeta K. Wolff said...

Porkquat - fantastic. Love the combination Bril. It's simply awesome!

Emily said...

I've never had a kumquat!
You should enter this in the Foodie Joust. The ingredients are pork, citrus, and pepper.

MyKitchenInHalfCups said...

Well, now, isn't that odd. I have leftover pork in the fridge but no kumquats. I think I saw them at the grocery!
Beautiful photos.

Kana said...

I saw kumquats going cheap at the store and this seems like a delicious idea!

Deborah said...

I've never had a kumquat. I'll have to look for them!

Anonymous said...

I will definitely use porkquat in my everyday language, it sounds a bit dirty and naughty.

Also, call me crazy, but I think you can eat the seeds and the whole shebang. I'm not sure though as I've never had kumquats. But I vaguely remember reading somewhere that you can plop the whole thing in your mouth and eat it skins and seeds and all.

LyB said...

I loved this post, so funny! The word kumquat in itself is funny but porkquat is hilarious! That dish looks mighty tasty.

Gabi said...

Love the Porkquat combination!
See I knew that pork would go to good use :)

Farhan said...

Kumquats are unbelievable hard to find in Singapore, and we're spilling over with mandarin oranges. You're lucky you got them! Creative dish! And sweets in the making?

priscilla joy said...

Looks good...kumquats, whenever I hear about those I always think of my goat I used to have named Kumquat!:)

Anonymous said...

Porkquat is fun to say, you're right!

Anonymous said...

hahaha no, i didn´t think you were nutty, though it was indeed a funny conversation to have. And your porkquat is indeed very intriguing. My creativity extended to a nice marmalade-like compote paired with brownies, I would have never though of pairing them with pork.

Lara said...

Very yummy idea! My daughter is enamored with unusual fruits and this looks much easier to deal with that recipes involving horned melons!

Chibog in Chief said...

this is lovely and a refreshing combination: pork and kumquat !! i could already imagine the taste..i love it!!

Anonymous said...

The dish sounds so interesting and I thought the name is simple so CUTE!

And I hope you don't mind sharing 5 facts about yourself coz I've tagged you. :D

T.W. Barritt at Culinary Types said...

I have no experience with "quats" and its very cool that you used them in a savory dish.

Anonymous said...

Such an original recipe! I love them all: the combination, the photos, and the cute name :)

Susan from Food Blogga said...

You know I've been all about the 'quats on my blog lately. So bring on the porkquat!

Greg Turner said...

Thanks so much for the comment on my blog. This dish looks awesome! I'm always wondering what to do with the kumquats from my trees. Now I have one more use :)

Anonymous said...

Great looking dish Brilynn! I'm surprised they don't have kumquat groves in Toronto since the climate is so warm up there!