colorful pork stir fry w/ pineapple teriyaki sauce

shawn told me to make this. he’s really getting into all this food blogging that i am doing. he’s so cute whenever he tells me to take pictures of what i am cooking and he get’s sad when i tell him that i didn’t. this stir fry is shawn’s idea. he was insisting i do it because it’s going to be so colorful, and it was colorful indeed!
the trip to the farmer’s market and another one to safeway checked off all the ingredients i needed for this recipe. we were talking about what he wants me to do for this dish. shawn looked so excited, picking out all the colorful produce and telling me how good it would look. don’t get me wrong, i was excited too, but i was just too focused on how excited he was towards all of these.
i cooked this a week ago, i think. i have been lagging on my posts and i don’t even know why. i have a lot of pictures in my blog folder (yes i have a folder for pictures for my blog, in attempt to be organized) that’s waiting to be posted. i think they’re getting all sad in there and betting who’s going to get posted first. so today, it’s the stir fry. the others can wait. i just might post one of them tomorrow, but i’m not going to tell them that.

a few days later after that successful trip with the bf at the grocery store, i decided to start on the stir fry. after i brought out all the ingredients for this dish, i got overwhelmed. even more after i chopped and sliced everything. i ended up just using a quarter of the head of the cabbage we got. there was a lot, but then i told myself that it’s going to wilt when i start cooking it, then i calmed down. whew.

then there’s the sauce. freaked me out again. and i thought this would taste good with the pineapple teriyaki sauce i made last summer for the chicken kabobs that we ate for camping. okay i was set. i started cooking and used my favorite non stick pan, then i looked at the ingredients i chopped up and sighed. there’s no way that all of that will fit in my pan, but i was too lazy to change the already greased hot pan with onions and garlic already cooking in it. scared sh**less, i stuck with it anyhow. what can you do, i was too lazy and i know if i changed pans/pots it’s one more thing to wash.

so let’s get to it!

pork stir fry with pineapple teriyaki sauce
what you need:
1 lb pork loin, sliced in thin strips (or whatever meat you want to use)
6 cloves garlic, sliced
1 medium sized onion, sliced
1 bell pepper, julienned (whatever color you want)
3 stalks of celery, sliced
3 carrots, julienned
1/4 head of cabbage, sliced
2 limes
1/4 cup chopped basil
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 20 oz. can of pineapple chunks (used sliced pineapples because that’s what i had in stock)
2/3 cup teriyaki marinade, divided
3 tbsp brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp cornstarch
salt and pepper
what to do:
1. in a big bowl or a big ziploc bag, pour 1/3 cup of the teriyaki marinade, juice and zest of one lime, salt and pepper, mix them and throw in the pork slices. let marinate for at least 30 minutes. the longer you let it sit the better it will taste.
2. in a big pan over med high heat, cook pork until brown. set aside.
3. in the same pan, throw in garlic, onion, celery, bell pepper and cabbage. add salt and pepper. cook for about 8-10 minutes.
4. in the mean time while waiting for #3 to get done, make the pineapple teriyaki sauce. to do this, combine 1/3 cup teriyaki marinade, the juice of the canned pineapple, brown sugar, juice and zest of one lime, 1/2 tsp pepper and cornstarch. mix until cornstarch is dissolved. set aside.
5. put cooked pork into the pan.
7. add chopped basil and parsley into the pan. cook for about a minute.
8. then pour in the pineapple teriyaki sauce over the meat and vegetables and wait for it to thicken, and you’re done with that.
9. on another pan over medium high heat, caramelize pineapples by adding a little bit of oil (1/2 a tbsp, depending on the size of the pan, just a thin coat at the bottom), and cook it until you see it get dark brown areas. that’s the sugar from the pineapple caramelizing. then put it on top of the stir fry.

i eat this with rice, but i am pretty sure it is still good if you eat it by itself, but who would do that?! everything’s better with rice, that’s what the filipino in me screams all the time. let me know if it turns out good for you. enjoy!