Pork and Chicken Liver Chop Suey

Chop suey is just another stir-fried vegetable dish. But say stir-fried vegetables and most Filipinos won’t understand what the heck you’re referring to. Say chop suey, however, and you’re talking on the same wavelength. This pork and chicken liver chop suey was the vegetable dish I served at my 12-year-old’s birthday dinner last Saturday. A variation of my original chop suey recipe, I omitted the fried tofu cubes and the baby corn and, instead, used straw mushrooms and cabbage. For added meat variety, I added some chicken livers to the pork. It was the only vegetable dish I was going to serve and I wanted it to be really good.

Ingredients :

1/4 kilo of pork cutlets
4 chicken livers
1 whole cabbage
1/4 k. of chicharo (snow peas)
1 large, or 2 medium-sized carrots
1 400-g. can of straw mushrooms
2 dozens of quail eggs
2 tbsps. of finely minced garlic
2 white onions, peeled and diced
2 c. of meat broth
4 tbsps. of oyster sauce
4 tbsps. of soy paste or light soy sauce
2 tsps. of tapioca starch
1 tsp. of sesame seed oil
salt, pepper and sugar
4 tsps. of cooking oil

Cooking procedure :

Cut the pok cutlets into strips about 1/4″ wide. Pork cutlets are thin slices of pork meat available in most supermarkets. It is virtually fatless and pre-cut into 1/8″ thick slices. If pork cutlets are not available, you can use any lean cut of pork. Slice the meat thinly before cutting them into strips. Place the pork strips and chicken livers in a bowl and pour the soy sauce over them. Marinate for at least 30 minutes.

Trim the ends and sides of the chicharo.

Core and shred the cabbage into 1/2″ wide strips.

Peel the carrot(s) and cut into rings about 1/8″ thick.

Hard-boil and shell the quail eggs.

Disperse the tapioca starch in the meat broth. Stir in the oyster sauce, sesame seed oil and 1 tsp. of sugar.

Heat the cooking oil in a skillet or wok until it starts to smoke. Drain the pork strips and chicken livers. Fry the chicken livers and cool completely before cutting into smaller pieces. Reheat the oil and stir-fry the pork strips over high heat for about 3-4 minutes. At this size and over very high heat, they will cook very fast. Add the marinade to the starch solution and stir well.

Add the carrot rings to the meat and continue stir-frying for anout two minutes. Add the shredded cabbage and continue cooking over high heat, tossing, until the cabbage strips just start to wilt. Add the snow peas. Cook for another minute. Add the straw mushrooms and the shelled quail eggs. Cook until heated through. Make a well at the center and pour in the starch solution, stirring. When the sauce thickens, add the chicken livers and toss everything together. Season with salt, if needed, and some black pepper.