Coke stew

I'm going to skip right over the wee mistake I made with this one and just report it as a success -- mostly because I like putting a picture of a big Coke can in the middle of my blog!

• 1 can of Coke (!)
• vegetable oil
• 2 pounds of boneless pork ribs, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 8 garlic cloves, minced
• 4 tablespoons chopped peeled fresh ginger
• 2 bunches of green onions, chopped
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 cup of rice
  

1. Heat oil in large pot over high heat.
2. Add half of pork; sauté until brown on all sides.
3. Transfer pork to bowl.
4. Repeat with remaining pork.
5. Return pork to pot.
6. Turn off heat and pour cola slowly into pot.
7. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer 30 minutes.
8. Add garlic, soy sauce, ginger, and half (or 2/3) of green onions.
9. (Start to cook rice -- the basmati I used takes 45 minutes.)
   
10. Cover and simmer until pork is tender, about 50 minutes longer.
11. Uncover and simmer until sauce is slightly thickened, about 10 minutes.
12. Season stew with black pepper.
13. Fill dinner bowl with cooked rice.
    
14. Scoop stew into center of dinner bowl.
15. Sprinkle with remaining green onions over and around stew.

The recipe says steamed white rice, but boiled brown basmati was just fine. I wish I'd made twice as much so we'd have more leftovers. The recipe calls for 2 pounds of pork ribs, which was more than I'd purchased, so I cut up a pork chop and mixed it in with the other meat. They come out with very different textures: the rib meat gets very tender -- good stew meat; the chop stayed more solid, which the missus says she liked. She prefers the mixture of textures.

She was also very skeptical about a stew recipe that called for a can of Coke, but it was delicious. Not sweet at all.

I'm defintely going to do more pork stews. Much easier to work with than beef.

Next time I'll use more garlic and more ginger.