One thing that is plentiful here in Taiwan is corn! Everything pretty much seems to have corn in it and it’s one of the few canned vegetables we can get here, unless we go to a more American/Western grocery store.  Since we had a number of cans of corn on hand in anticipation of the recent typhoon, we opted to make a stir fry Thai dish we had seen in a couple cookbooks. 

Stir-Fried Pork and Corn

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1/2 lb lean boneless pork, cut into strips
• 1 cup corn kernels
• 3/4 cup green beans, cut into bite size pieces
• 1 clove of garlic, minced  (we like heavy garlic so we used about 3 med sized ones)
• Pinch Thai pepper flakes (depends on how spicy you like your food)
• 2 green onions, chopped finely
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp soy sauce (I prefer low sodium)
• 2 tbsp cilantro, chopped
• Cooked Egg noodles or rice

Directions:

Using a wok, (I highly recommend getting one if you don’t already have one as it really helps keep the hot oil from splattering on you and all over your kitchen), heat the oil and stir-fry the pork until lightly browned. 

Add the corn, garlic, green beans, green onions, and chili flakes, and stir fry another 2-4 minutes.  You can use fresh chopped chilis but I really like using the Thai pepper flakes since they are dried and we always have them on hand. Chilis (along with most vegetables) seem to have a short shelf life here with the heat and humidity so I don’t always have fresh chilis on hand.  The Thai flakes are pretty hot, so be careful if you don’t like spicy food.

Add the soy sauce, sugar, and stir for another minute. 

Remove from the heat and immediately serve over cooked egg noodles or jasmine rice.  We used the remainder of the noodles from the kao soi the night before. 

Serves 2

Close up of stir-fry pork and corn

Additional Recommendations:
We have a vacuum packer and keep a lot of meats and fish on hand.  We buy bulk, season them a few different ways, seal them, and off they go in the freezer.  The pork we used for this was 4 small pieces of pork loin that had a dry rub of salt, pepper, and rosemary.  The pepper flavor really comes through when you freeze the pork already seasoned. 

Also, when we make this again, we are going to try something else with the corn.  By adding the sugar, the corn carmelizes a bit.  It reminded us a bit of an amazing corn side dish at a Sichuan restaurant here that is charred and has a sweet carmelization.  Next time we are going to char an ear of corn on the indoor grill, let cool, and cut the kernals off.  Cook them with a little sugar and soy sauce, and then add them at the end to the dish.  I think the charred sweetness of the corn would be a nice addition to this, especially when you serve a sweeter wine.

Wine Pairing:  2008 Beaujolais

We are primarily red wine drinkers, but Thai food tends to lend itself to being better paired with white wines due to the spicy and complex flavors.  Some Beaujolais are known as the “only red wine that is white” and we opted to try one from our local wine store here.  It ended up working ok but I think more of a rose that is a little sweeter would’ve been a better match.