If you’re anything like me, I bet you have an inner mistrust towards one-pan and one-pot recipes. Those recipes are indeed treacherous : you want to make sure you don’t just throw everything into the pot and pray for a miracle, lest you want to end up with a gooey, tasteless mess.
Here’s what to watch out for when making one-pan rice dishes :
- Create texture by pan-frying some of the ingredients first. Here, you pan-fry the pork until golden and crispy;
- Don’t add all the ingredients at the same time. Each of them requires a different cooking time ; adjust accordingly;
- When adding rice, make sure you :
- Rinse it twice or thrice, and
- Toast it in hot oil.
- Trust we, I’ve done it without, and the grains end up sticking to each other, which you really don’t want.
It really is that simple ! Now you can, too, get a tasty weeknight meal with almost no washing up needed, and within 40 minutes.
I came up with this recipe while craving a pork fried rice. I thought ; hey, why not try and improve a simple, indulgent recipe by making it more fragrant and balanced ?
That is how this dish started to have both Chinese and Thai influences.
- The Chinese part is clear in the pork’s seasonings, with the marked taste of the sweet bean sauce and the Chinese five spice ;
- The Thai influence is in the added fragrance and acidic balance, through lime and kombava leaves.
You end up with a perfectly balanced dish, with the indulgent and crispy pork, the freshness from lime, kombava and cilantro, and all the needed greens to fuel you up !
One-pan rice, pork and broccoli – Recipe
Ingredients – Where to find them
- You should be able to find sweet bean sauce, Chinese five spice, and chili oil rice in most Asian stores, possibly even in your grocery store.
- Kombava leaves could be a tad harder to find :
- If your Asian store has a frozen section, you should find frozen kombava leaves here, which are perfect here ;
- If you find them dried, it is fine too, simply double the amount used.
- Careful, for your minced pork, we want it to be quite fat ;
- either get yours from your local Asian store, because Western’s butcher can make it too lean;
- or use sausage meat removed from its casing.
Recipe – Advice & key points
- As written above, make sure you rinse your rice before using. This will prevent it from getting sticky.
- This recipe yields enough fried rice for 4 medium portions as mains, but if you or your family has a large appetite, it will likely yield 3 large portions.
All set ? Let’s cook some take-out level rice !
One-pan rice, pork and broccoli
Description
A quick and wholesome one-pan-rice, relying on a rich pork flavour balanced out by the freshness of lime, kombava and cilantro.
Ingredients
Toppings
Instructions
Instructions
Prep your ingredients
Add oil to a pan on medium-high heat. Cook your pork until browned (5-6mn) (see video!).
Meanwhile, mince your garlic, green chili pepper and your onion.
When the pork is done, lower the heat to medium.
Add five spice. Cook 30 seconds.
Add sweet bean sauce. Cook 2 minutes.
Remove the meat mixture from the pan, leaving the fat in it.
Don't stir your pork too much ; let it brown.Let's cook this rice
To the pan on medium heat, add your onion. Add salt. Let it soften 5mn.
Add your garlic cloves. Cook 30 seconds.
Add washed and drained rice. Cook 2mn until translucent.
Add back half of your meat, and your stock. Cover.
Bring to a boil and lower the heat, letting it simmer until the stock is absorbed, around 20-22mn.
While it cooks, separate your broccoli florets, chop your cilantro, and cut lime wedges.
After the first 8mn, add your broccoli.
Then, 7mn later, add your peas, along with your kombava leave.
Plate it up !
Finally, taste to check whether the rice is done. If not, add some stock and let it finish cooking.
When done, remove from heat. Remove the kombava leave.
Serve into plates. Top each with cilantro, a squeeze of lime, a small handful of fried onions and chili oil to taste.
Et voilà !! You're done !