stir fry with pineapple lemon grass sauce and coconut rice

This post contains: a product review, an easy peasy recipe, and asking for a little bit of help from you!

I recently joined up with a team of 5 bloggers from California to compete in a little contest vs. other bloggers representing their own states. Our goal? To showcase our recipes and reviews of sauces from WorldFoods! We were each given a hamper full of various stir fry sauces, pastes and dipping sauces to use in whatever way we’d like. The nice thing about all of these sauces is that they’re good for a wide variety of diets since they have no artificial preservatives, no gluten, no trans fat and no dairy in their products and are suitable for vegetarians, vegans and those with allergy restrictions.

Team California’s overall goal is to get the word out and obtain the most amount of feedback across all of our social networks! If you enjoy my post, please like this post on Facebook or share it on Twitter or pin a photo to Pinterest!

Okay, spiel over. Onto the food!

Out of the eight sauces I received, I decided to start with something easy: a little stir fry with WorldFoods Cambodian Pineapple Lemon Grass sauce. One of the neat things about this sauce? I can pronounce all of the items in the ingredients list! That’s always nice.

To make things interesting, I paired this with some freshly made coconut rice.

I don’t know about you, but I find plain old rice to be incredibly boring. Maybe it was my years of childhood being made to eat rice I didn’t really enjoy, but plain rice isn’t something I ever crave. But add a little flavor and seasoning to it – chicken stock, herbs, lemon – then I’m totally game. I created a simple coconut rice to pair with dinner – all I added to my pot of calrose rice was a big can of coconut water, a pinch of salt and a pinch of white sugar.

The coconut rice I started first since it takes about 20 minutes to do. The calrose rice is my preferred go-to rice as well – but this will work with a different type, too. The pinch of sugar adds another slight bit of sweetness – nothing to outrageous – but gives it a nice little touch that I really enjoy. Fluffy, sticky, and slightly sweet – mmm.

It’s not a really strong coconut flavor, either. It’s mild, a little nutty, and a little sweet. A nice base for a stir fry, if you ask me.

For the stir-fry, I really kept things simple. For my first review of one of their sauces, I really wanted to keep things simple and see how it would stand up mostly on it’s own.

I kept the veggies simple with some sliced up onions, mushrooms and snow peas.

Fact: I love snow peas. I hate frozen green peas. I have no idea what’s wrong with me.

For the meaty portion of this dinner, I sliced up a leftover New York steak that Jake had brought over and 1 piece of pork that had been marinating for a BBQ later in the week (I stole it for my dish!). I stuck the steak in the freezer for a few minutes while I prepped everything else, so it would be oh-so-slightly easier to cut into thin slices.

Annnnnd – that was it for the prep work! Onto to the wok!

Let the stir-frying begin!

After heating my wok to HOLYHELLTHATISHOT temperatures, I added the onions and cooked those for about a minute. Then I tossed in the mushrooms and sprinkled in salt and pepper. Another minute. Then I added the snow peas – another little dash of salt and pepper – I believe in seasoning every layer!

Then I pushed the veggies over to be on their own side of the wok and started frying up the pork. When it looked almost cooked through and white, I added the beef. Cook until the beef is just a little less pink with a nice sear!

Next step: Dump in sauce.

Stir it all around until it looks lovely and bubbly.

Man, that was easy.

I’m sure you’re wondering though, “How the heck does it taste?”

I was actually surprised, to be honest. I like making things from scratch. This isn’t as good as that, of course, but I think it really holds it’s own. The sauce has a nice overall flavor and is devoid of any weird chemical taste that is sometimes present in jarred sauces and bottles. It had a bit of a sweetness to it which I enjoyed but I ended up wishing I had added in some garlic or something else overall.

Would I eat it again? In a pinch, in a rush, in a bout of laziness, yes, I would eat it as-is again. Though I’d want to find another application for it as well. Being my very first taste of one of the sauces though, I wanted to see how it would be on it’s own. And finding that the sauce was pretty decent helps encourage me to be more creative with future recipes involving WorldFoods products!

Stay tuned for more posts involving WorldFoods product reviews as the California Team competes to win the grand prize! Please use my social sharing buttons below to like this post on Facebook or share it on Twitter or pin a photo to Pinterest! Any and all help is very much appreciated!

Also be sure to visit the websites of my teammates as well:

Our team captain, Alex of Ma, What’s For Dinner
Fellow San Diegan Darlene of My Burning Kitchen
Representing Lake Tahoe, Lauren of Lauren Lindley Photography
and another Southern Californian, Stephanie of Easier, Simpler, Better

Coconut Rice
1 large can of coconut water (I used a 17.5 fl oz. can of C2O)
1 and 1/2 cups calrose rice
pinch of salt
pinch of white sugar

Add rice to a stockpot and rinse. I rinsed mine twice until the water was a little clearer.

Add coconut water, salt and sugar to the rice. Add lid and set over medium-high heat until the rice steams and boils.

Remove lid. Once the water starts to evaporate, replace lid. Stir occasionally with a spoon or fork. Cook for about another 17-20 minutes until the rice is tender and all water is gone.

Stir Fry with Cambodian Pineapple Lemon Grass Sauce
1 jar Cambodian Pineapple Lemon Grass Sauce
1 medium onion, sliced
5 large crimini mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
1 New York Steak, sliced (though you can use whatever cut you have)
1 small cut piece of pork (pork shoulder, pork chops, etc.)
large handful of snow peas
oil for stir frying
salt and pepper to taste

Prep your veggies! Slice your meats!

Heat up your wok over high heat. Add oil and onions. Cook for about a minute. Add mushrooms and a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook for another minute. Add snow peas and one more dash of salt and pepper.

Push veggies to one side of the wok and cook your pork until it turns white. Add beef and cook until it’s just seared and still slightly pink.

Add stir fry sauce and cook for 1-2 more minutes, until the mixture is bubbling. Turn off and serve hot.