sliced pork sirloin with shitakes and white onion and fresh salmon sashimi

after a rather chill and relaxing weekend, i decided to make another meal sunday nite since i was no longer invited to borders where i could've eaten at the ghetto yummy international marketplace. this dinner was rather easy to make and sometimes i wonder why i don't make stirfry more often. i guess it's one of those comfort zones/food that i can always fall back on when i don't know what to do with a hunk of meat. the salmon sashimi i picked up at 99 ranch on sat for the snapper dinner, but didn't have enough time to prep it for that meal. here's my recipe (sort of, i just wing it with stirfries) for the pork dish.

slice a 1/2 - 1 lb pork sirloin (or whatever boneless chunk of pork is on sale) and marinate for 10 min in the following:
1 T oyster sauce
1 T soy sauce
1 t sesame oil
splash of rice vinegar
cracked pepper

also prep the following:
1/2 white onion sliced
8-10 fresh shitakes sliced in half stems removed
a few leaves of basil chopped
1 inch block of ginger julliened
1 clove garlic smashed

in a large pan, heat some olive oil and toss in the garlic and ginger for 1 minute. add the pork and stirfry, letting the pork brown a little. add onions after a couple of minutes then the shitakes. the add the following to the pan (or you can premix in a bowl):
2 T oyster sauce
2 T soy sauce
1 T sugar
less than a 1/4 c water

add the basil, stir the sauce into the pan and add more ground pepper. let the sauce thicken for a couple of minutes. dot the pan with siracha hot sauce and mix. plate and serve with rice and a big asian soup spoon to get the sauce to your rice.

shitake mushrooms and pork complement each other well, having very earthy tones. the white onion gave a sweet accent (along with the sugar) and the basil caps it all off. i love using oyster sauce as a base because it's so easy and so tasty and it thickens the sauce. it's what i grew up on at home; my mom used it to cook everything.

the salmon is sushi grade and comes in a block that you'll need to slice yourself. using a very sharp knife, slice the fish at a diaganol to produce slender but meaty slices. this particular fish was nice and fatty; it melted on your tongue and tasted very fresh. for $3.60 you'll be sure i'll be eating more sashimi at home vs the 15 bucks you'd have to pay for that amount at a sushi restaurant.

i made quite a meal for myself and i have 2 lunches worth of leftovers, all for about $4/meal. gotta love them stirfries.