Pork Lo Mein

Hello. I have come to the conclusion vacation means going out with a couple friends on the weekend. It was a good recharge. Anyway, today's post came from my Chinese cookbook again. This one had a lot of ingredients I enjoy.

Pork Lo Mein

The finished product

6 oz boneless lean pork, shredded
8 oz egg noodles
1 1/2 tbs vegetable or peanut oil
2 tsp finely chopped garlic
1 tsp finely chopped fresh ginger
1 carrot, julienned
4 cups finely sliced shiitake mushrooms
1 green bell pepper, seeded and thinlyt sliced
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup hot chicken stock
1 1/3 cups bean sprouts
2 tbsp finely chopped scallions


Combine all marinade ingredients in a bowl and marinate the pork for at least 20 minutes. Cook the noodles in a pan of boiling water for 4-5 minutes, or according to the directions on the package. When cooked, drain and set aside. In a preheated wok or deep pan, heat 1/2 tablespoon of the oil and stir-fry the pork until the color has changed. Remove and set aside. Quickly wipe out the wok and reheat. Add the remaining oil and stir-fry the garlic and ginger until fragrant. Add the carrot and cook for one minute, then add the mushrooms and cook for one minute. Toss in the bell pepper and cook for one minute. Add the pork, salt, and stock and heat through. Finally, toss in the noodles, followed by the bean spouts, and stir well. Sprinkle with the scallion and serve.

Results
The recipe has its strengths and weaknesses. This was a wonderful combination of meat and veggies and lo mein is a hit with everyone. The only drawback to the recipe was the sauce lacks flavor due to my toying around with the recipe.

For this recipe I decided to change some things around. I used regular mushrooms instead of shiitake mushrooms, chicken broth instead of chicken stock, bone in pork chop instead of boneless lean pork, and finally I left the scallions out of the recipe.

Timewise, I was done in under half an hour. I marinaded the meat early and most of the veggies were  chopped and ready to go in under 10 minutes. Cooking was a cinch and straight-forward.

The taste of the dish left something to be considered. It was not bad, but it was weak. I decided the taste is what I get for trying to save money by using broth instead of stock.  However, every one ate decent amounts of the recipe despite the lack of flavor and that is what counts in my book.

Overall, this lo mein recipe was a good one if you want something with veggies and pork. I would probably want to try to find a different sauce recipe to give it more flavor if I were to try it again. On a side note, I did have another lo mein  recipe I could post to give an idea of how I like it to taste.

Beef Chop Suey

Hello again. I hope everyone is well. I was feeling ambitious, so I looked in our Chinese cookbook and found a recipe I thought worked.

Yummy Chinese

Beef Chop Suey 

1 lb rib-eye or sirloin steak, finely sliced
1 head of broccoli, cut into small florets
2 tbs vegetable or peanut oil
1 onion, finely sliced
2 celery stalks, finely sliced diagonally
2 cups snow peas, sliced in half lengthwise
1/2 cup fresh or canned bamboo shoots, rinsed and julienned (for fresh, boil in water for 30 minutes first)
8 water chestnuts, finely sliced
4 cups finely sliced mushrooms
1 tbs oyster sauce
1 tsp salt
Marinade
1 tbs Chinese rice wine
pinch white pepper
pinch salt
1 tbs light soy sauce
1/2 tsp sesame oil

Combine all marinade ingredients in a bowl and marinate the beef for at least 20 minutes. Blanch the broccoli in a large pan of boiling water for 30 seconds. Drain and set aside. In a preheated wok or deep pan, heat 1 tbs of the oil and stir-fry the beef until the color has changed. Remove and set aside. In the clean wok or deep pan, heat the remaining oil and stir-fry the onion for 1 minute. Add the celery and broccoli and cook for 2 minutes. Add the snow peas, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, and mushrooms and cook for 1 minute. Add the beef, then season with the oyster sauce and salt and serve.

Results
Overall, a good and not to mention healthy, recipe. It was a little time consuming, but I actually had help with it from everyone. There is something I should note about this recipe: it has been tampered with. I like to toy around with recipes if:
1. I have done this before and want to tweak it up
2. I do not have all the ingredients

The changes are:  I did not have bamboo shoots, so I used bean sprouts. I also used less onion than what the recipe calls (I only used half the onion because fresh onion and my stomach do not get along too well). I also did not use salt in the marinade.

This recipe was not nice on time. It took an hour from start to finish. Part of that was the marinade and the other part was I was cooking brown rice on the side (it takes about 45-55 minutes to cook) since I did not know what Katherine would think of this recipe.

Part of my veggie collection

Chopping up veggies took up some time and thankfully, I had help with that. Jeb would chop up some veggies and Katherine brought them to me. I have come to the conclusion everyone is willing to at least try what they have helped out with.

Although the cooking itself was straight forward, the overall taste begged to differ. I had to add extra oyster sauce to try and get some flavor to the dish. Without it, all you could taste was salt, cooked rib-eye steak, and fresh veggies.  In the end, it took about double the amount to get something flavorful.

Rib-eye steak

The plus side to this dish was I got to try something new: Blanching. It was an easy, painless experience and the broccoli tasted superb.

Once on the table, everyone at least tried it. Jeb and I liked it. Katherine stuck with rice, but did eat her broccoli (and is still eating it when placed in front of her).

All in all, a recipe I would try again either for a rainy day or when Katherine is eating a bigger variety of food. It was a little more time-consuming  than I care to try with a 4-year old. The taste and the challenge is what make this recipe worthwhile. If I try this recipe again, it would be to use a different variety of veggies as well as a food processor on some the veggies that require a finer chop.

Well, time to head out for the night. I hope you enjoyed this post. Until then, keep cooking.

Apple Crisp

Hello all. I hope everyone is enjoying spring (finally!). This week's post comes at Jeb's request. He mentioned one night Apple Crisp sounded good, so I got on the computer and found a good recipe from allrecipes.com.

Apple Crisp II

My own picture of the finished product

10 Cups all-purpose apples, peeled, cored, and sliced

1 Cup white sugar
1 Tbs all-purpose flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 Cup Water
1 Cup quick-cooking oats
1 Cup all-purpose flour
1 Cup packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 Cup butter, melted


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place the sliced apples in a 9x13 inch pan. Mix the white sugar, 1 tablespoon flour and ground cinnamon together and sprinkle over apples. Pour water evenly over all.

Combine oats, 1 cup flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and melted butter together. Crumble evenly over the apple mixture.  Bake at 350 degrees F for about 45 minutes.

Results
I have been looking for a recipe that would work well for a family project. So far, this is the best one. Everyone was able to participate in his/her own way. Katherine washed and brought apples to Jeb. Jeb peeled the apples and I sliced and cored them.  That was the hardest and most time consuming part.

Though it was a time-consuming project, it was an easy one. It took well over half an hour to get the apples in the pan. Peeling, slicing and coring take a lot of time. (Note: If you cook with apples on a regular basis, I would recommend an apple peeler/corer. It will do most of your job for you in relative ease. You can find them online or in just about any store that sells cooking items for relatively low cost.)

 Cooking it was a cinch. The only other prep work involved was mixing a few ingredients in a bowl and that was done in under 5 minutes. Plus the taste was delicious. Everyone ate their first servings with gusto. Sadly, the second servings were left up to Jeb and I. Katherine made us finish off the rest of the apple crisp by ourselves. This was not what I had in mind when I made this, but at least I had help finishing off the pan. :)

Overall, this is a project I would try again. Everyone tried it and it exposed Katherine to something new. If I did make a change to the recipe, I would decrease the amount of water added to the apples before baking. It had a lot more juice in the bottom of the pan than I liked.  Hopefully, the apples will stay moist enough. Until next time, keep experimenting.