Stir-fried Pork and Dried Tofu

 中文菜谱： 香辣豆干炒肉片

As a Chinese, how can I survive without tofu?  No way.  It is like asking how an American can survive without cheese. 

Tofu is an important part of our food culture which we grow up with.  I am glad to see more and more tofu products appearing in grocery store.  That is good. 

The temperature has been crazily low lately.  I gave up my grocery plan and went search in the refrigerator.  Found a package of dried tofu and a piece of frozen pork.  Good enough to make dinner for two on a Thursday night.  

Ingredients:

1 package of dried tofu (available in Asian grocery store or oriental food aisle in most grocery stores)
200 to 300 g boneless pork shoulder
1/3 package of dried daikon (also available in Asian grocery store), diced
a handful dried chili peppers, cut into small pieces
3 gloves of garlic, peeled and minced
1 pinch of Sichuan peppercorns (also available in Asian grocery store)
2 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon rice cooking wine
1/4  teaspoon sugar
freshly ground black pepper
2 to 3 tablespoon oil for stir-frying
salt to taste
 

Directions:

Thinly slice the dried tofu and pork.  

Heat a wok (I like to use cast iron wok, here's one on amazon) over medium high heat. Add oil and pork, along with salt and black pepper.  Stir fry over high heat until the pork turns golden brown.  Get it out and set aside in a plate.

Add garlic, Sichuan pepper corns, chili pepper and dried tofu to the wok, and stir fry for a couple minutes.  Add dried daikon; stir fry for another couple minutes.  Add the cooked pork, along with rice cooking wine, soy sauce, oyster sauce, salt, sugar and black pepper. 

Cook over medium high heat until both dried tofu and pork are golden brown.

Serve immediately.  

Bon appetite! 

Baked Sweet Potato Wedges with Brown Sugar

中文菜谱：  红糖烤红薯

Here is another super easy and simple snack.  The sweet potatoes I stored in my basement become sweeter half way through the winter.  I simply just bake them with some oil and brown sugar, and it turns out to be a tasty sweet snack.  By the way, it is healthy too! 

Ingredients:

4 to 6 sweet potatoes
1 1/2 to 2 tablespoon oil
4 to 6 tablespoon brown sugar(use more if you have a sweet tooth or the sweet potatoes are not sweet enough)

Directions：

Preheat the oven to 375F/190°C.
Clean and rinse thoroughly the sweet potatoes.  Peel and cut them into wedges.  Add oil, mix until all wedges are evenly coated with oil. 

Place sweet potato wedges on a baking sheet lined with silicone matt (available on amazon) .

Sprinkle with brown sugar on top. 

Bake for 24 to 28 minutes, and serve immediately.

If you want the wedges to be a little bit chewy on the outside, reduce oven heat to 200F/93°C and bake another 10 to 15 minutes. 

They go well with tea or black coffee.

Pan Fried Bacon and Potato

中文菜谱：香煎培根黑椒土豆块

This is our weekend go-to brunch dish.  It is super easy and simple to make, but loaded with tons of flavor.  My husband and I love it so much that we had it as breakfast four days straight during Christmas holiday week.  And we still love it.

There is a local farm near us that produces awesome yellow potatoes.  They come to sell potatoes at local farmer’s market every Wednesday and Saturday. I always buy potatoes from them. When the farmer’s market closed up at the end of October, I bought two buckets of potatoes and stored them in the fridge.  I thought they should last the whole winter.  Well, I was wrong.  They are almost gone in less than 2 months. 

Maybe we eat too much potato, or maybe I am a really good cook...  Hahaha…O(∩_∩)O~

Ingredients：

3 slices of thick cut apple wood smoked bacon
6 to 8 small yellow potatoes
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
2 to 3 sprigs of thyme (optional)
freshly ground black pepper
salt to taste

Directions：

Cut the bacon into bite size.  Clean and rinse the potatoes.  No need to peel them.  Crispy potato skin is a big plus in flavor town.

Heat a cast iron skillet (from amazon)over medium heat.  Add bacon.  Cook until it becomes golden and crispy.  Get them out with a thong.

Add potatoes to the skillet with bacon fat. Cook over medium heat.  Add salt, black pepper, minced garlic and thyme.  Cover; cook until potatoes are cooked through and the outsides become gold and crispy too. Discard the thyme.  

It is indeed a simple and tasty dish.  Remember to flip potatoes from time to time.  It will help prevent them sticking to the bottom because potatoes contain high amount of starch.

If you like potatoes as much as I do, I would strongly recommend this dish. O(∩_∩)O~

Lentil Bean Sprouts Salad

中文菜谱：扁豆小芽菜苗沙拉

I don’t really need to tell you bean sprouts are nutritious, healthy, and good for your body, do I?  I love to grow myself lentil bean sprouts at home.  All I need is quart size mason jars.  It is easy and fun to do so.

My sister and brother-in-law introduced black lentil bean sprouts to us when we were visiting them for thanksgiving holiday.  Black lentil bean sprouts taste better than the yellow one.  They are nutty, crunchy and very refreshing.  I love adding them to my salad, flat bread wraps and sandwiches.  They greatly improve the taste, texture and flavor. 

For each quart size mason jar (which you can buy from amazon),  I use 2 tablespoon black lentils. 

Soak them overnight. Drain well. Cover with cheesecloth or anything you have at hand that can let air in and out.

Rinse and drain the lentil beans once or twice per day.

You will see the sprouts in 2 to 3 days. 

In another 2 to 3 days, they grow longer and bigger.  

In about a week, you can harvest your very own lentil bean sprouts. 

I mostly use them in salad.

Ingredients:

1 tomato, sliced
romaine leaves
1 avocado
A handful lentil bean sprouts
dried cranberry
sliced almond

For salad dressing：

2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 and 1/2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoon honey
salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper

Directions：

Combine balsamic vinegar, olive oil, honey, salt and black pepper in a bow.  Whisk until well mixed.

Remove avocado’s skin and core, dice avocado and cut or tear romaine leaves into bite size.

In a big plate, layer the tomato, romaine, avocado, lentil bean sprouts, dried cranberry and sliced almond. Sizzle with balsamic vinegar salad dressing.

Enjoy！

Almond Milk

 中文菜谱:  生磨杏仁露

I don’t remember when exactly I became a fan of almond milk.  All I remember is that in college we pretty much ordered almond milk as our drinks every single time when my boyfriend took me out on dates. He now is my husband.  We still enjoy a cup of almond milk from time to time when cuddling on couch. 

Ingredients:

2/3 cup blanched almond (skinless almond would make better looking almond milk.  I am fine with whole one.)
2 toasted or pan roasted sweet rice
2 to 4 tablespoon sugar (or to personal taste)
1rolled oats (optional. It makes silkier, smoother almond milk )
3 cup water

Directions:

Soak almond and sweet rice in water for 20 to 30 minutes. 

Combine almond, sweet rice, sugar, rolled oats and water in vitamix.  

Turn it on, gradually raise speed from 1 to 10, and then grind at high speed for 5 minutes.  

In 5 minutes, you have hot tasty freshly made almond milk!

Enjoy!