Monday, July 14, 2008

Nom Nom Nom

I spent the past week at Ocean Isle Beach in North Carolina with my extended family. We rented a beach house and packed in 18 people. Oldest age: 79. Youngest age: 3. It was good times!
I know this blog is supposed to be about dinners, but I really want to share this picture that Wei snapped of my lunch the day we ate at the Giggling Mackerel:


A succulent yet crispy, utterly delicious soft shell crab sandwich. Perfection on a bun. I removed the pickle and onion, but I ate pretty much everything else on the plate. Ahhhhh, vacation.

In other news, someone came to my blog today by googling: Mike wants to make meatloaf. His recipe uses a total of 5 pounds of meat. If he uses a 3 to 1 ratio of beef to pork, how much pork will he use? I was the first result; I have no idea why.

Leave the answer in the comments and I will send you a super special prize! Math isn't my strong suit, and my brain doesn't want to work out the answer right now. I am more interested in the finding out who this Mike guy is and discovering why he is making a FIVE POUND meatloaf. Also, does Mike accept dinner guests?

Stay in school, kids.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Stir-fried Pork with Green Onions and Noodles

Last weekend, Wei and I drove up to the Baltimore/DC area for his brother's wedding. We had an excellent time celebrating and hanging out with his family! While we were over at his parents' house one day, my mother-in-law gave me a copy of Chinese Cuisine by Huang Su-Huei.

If you're interested in learning authentic Chinese cooking from a beginner's standpoint, this book is a great resource. It has a lengthy "how-to" section with tons of pictures depicting different cooking techniques and ingredients. Most of the recipes don't seem terribly difficult, and each page has a large picture of the finished dish to point you in the right direction. The author also notes in which region the dish is found. I'm really looking forward to cooking my way through it!

Last night I chose to make this simple stir fry from Beijing. Since I didn't feel like making rice, I boiled up some spaghetti noodles and tossed them into the wok at the end. You could leave the noodles out and serve this over rice instead.

1 pork tenderloin, trimmed of excess fat and silverskin
2 cloves garlic, chopped
3 really fat green onions, or 6 normal sized green onions, cut into 2-inch lengths
1 tablespoon cornstarch
Soy sauce
Sugar
Rice wine or sherry
Corn or peanut oil
6 to 8 ounces spaghetti noodles, cooked
Ginger oil (or other flavored oil), optional
Sesame oil, optional
White pepper, optional

Cut the pork into 2/3-inch slices. Cover the meat slices with a piece of plastic wrap and bash them around a bit with a meat mallet to tenderize. In a medium sized bowl, mix together the garlic, cornstarch, 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, and 1/2 tablespoon each of rice wine or sherry, water, and sugar. Toss the pork slices in the soy sauce mixture and stir to coat the meat well.

Heat up a few tablespoons of oil in a wok over high heat. Add the pork and stir-fry until both sides are golden brown. Move the meat to one side of the wok and toss the green onions into the middle; stir fry until the onions are fragrant. Add 2 tablespoons of soy sauce and 1/2 tablespoon of sugar to the contents of the wok. Stir in the noodles and keep stirring until everything is mixed together. Finish off with a couple of dashes each of ginger oil, sesame oil, and white pepper. Remove and serve.


Rating: This is awesome

Though very simple, this dish was a satisfying dinner. I loved how it came together so quickly, and having all of my different bottles on the counter next to the wok made me feel like a witch concocting a potion!