Pork and Shiitake Mushroom Meat Sauce

中文菜谱： 香菇肉燥

I made a batch of pork and shiitake mushroom meat sauce.  It goes great with rice, noodles and stir-fry.  I once even made Chinese version sloppy joes with it, and it turned out awesome too!

Shiitake is widely popular in Asian countries.  I think it might be the most beloved mushroom there.  The fresh ones have silky, smooth texture. They are my husband’s favorite.  When cooked, they just melt in your mouth.  The dried ones have more intense aroma because of the dehydration process.  They are used in soup, porridge, and dumplings. 

This recipe calls for dried shiitake mushrooms.  They are available in every Asian grocery store.  Yes, that is how much we love them. 

Ingredients:

240 to 300g grounded pork shoulder
 1 medium purple onion, peeled and minced
6 to 8dried shiitake mushrooms
1 clove of garlic, peeled and minced
1 slice of fresh ginger, minced
1/4 teaspoon five spice powder (available in Asian grocery store)
one pinch of white pepper powder
2 tablespoons cooking rice wine
3 to 4 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 to 1 teaspoon sugar
1 1/2 to 2 cups water
salt to taste
2 to 3 tablespoons oil for cooking

Directions:

Soak the dried shiitake mushrooms in water for at least 1 hour.  Drain the water through a coffee filter or cheese cloth.  Set the water aside for later use.

Chop mushrooms finely  with a food processor. 

Heat a wok over medium high heat. Add oil.  Add garlic and ginger.  When the garlic turns color, add ground pork. Stir fry over high heat for a couple minutes; add rice cooking wine and white pepper.  Continue to stir fry until the pork is golden brown. About 4 to 6 minutes. 

Add onion; cook until the onion turns transparent. Add shiitake mushroom, along with five spice powder, sugar, soy sauce and salt to taste.  Stir fry for 1 minute; add water which is used to soak shiitake mushrooms and drained before.  

When it comes to boil, cover with wok lid, and reduce the heat to simmer for 30 to 40 minutes.

Stir once in a while to prevent burning. 

It goes great with almost everything.  My favorite choice is a bowl of freshly cooked rice. 

Mung Bean Starch Noodle Fishes

中文菜谱：麻辣凉粉鱼儿

Mung bean starch noodle fishes, what a cute and lovely name for this dish!  It is another traditional Chinese dish served cold. It is very popular in summer time because it is refreshing and the hot chili sauce is very appetizing.

Don’t be surprised if they don’t look quite like tiny fishes.  I don’t have the special tool to do this at home.  So I use what I have to improvise.  Well, the taste and texture is great. I can promise you that. 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup mung bean starch
3 cup water
3 to 4 tablespoon chili oil sauce (available in Asian grocery store.  I use homemade sauce.)
1 teaspoon Sichuan pepper oil (available in Asian grocery store)
2 to 4 tablespoon soy sauce
3 to 4 tablespoon aged rice vinegar or aged balsamic vinegar
2 to 1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 to 2 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon sesame paste
1 to 2 tablespoon garlic water (minced garlic with water)
4 to 5 tablespoon diced dried pickled daikon (available in Asian grocery store)
2 to 3 tablespoon crushed toasted peanut
chopped green onion
salt to taste

Directions:

Mung bean starch is different from mung bean flour.  You need the starch one for this recipe.  FYI, sometimes the package may say green bean starch.  It is the same thing as mung bean starch.  Don’t get confused.  It is not the same green bean we buy from fresh produce section here. 

Mix starch with 1 cup of water; whisk until well mixed. 

Fill a large glass bowl with ice and water.

Bring the other 2 cups of water to boil.  Reduce the heat to medium. Whisk and gradually add starch mixture.  Keep whisking until the whole batter turns transparent and big bubbles keep coming up from the bottom of the pan.  It takes about 2 to 3 minutes.  Remove from heat.

Drain the cook batter above the iced water through a big spoon or whatever you have with peanut sized holes in it.

When hot starch batter hits the icy water, it transforms into little cute fish shaped noodles.

Remove the ice.  There they are at the bottom. 

Drain them well and place them in another big blow.  Add hot chili oil sauce, soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, sugar, sesame paste, garlic water, diced pickled daikon, green oion, crushed peanut and salt to taste. 

Mix well and serve immediately.  

Spinach Cavatelli Noodles with Pork and Dried Daikon

中文菜谱: 菠菜猫耳朵面

There is about 1/3 bunch spinach left in the refrigerator.  It is not enough to do any stir frying, so I make some spinch cavatelli noodles out of it.

As a matter of fact, in Chinese there is another cute interesting name for noodles in this shape: cat’s ears.  Those pointed tips do look like cat’s ears.   

Ingredients:

1/3 bunch spinach
2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cup bread flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon oil
1/2 cup water
boiling water and a pinch of salt (for blanching spinach)

Directions：

Fill a large bowl with water and ice.

Bring a large pot of water to boil.  Add a pinch of salt and spinach.  Get the spinach out as soon as the color turns dark green, and shock it with iced water.

Drain the spinach.  Place it to vitamix (from amazon) container; add water and blender until smooth; the smoother the better.  

Add flour, salt, spinach mixture and oil to a KitchenAid mixing bowl (from amazon).

Turn on stand mixer, and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic. 

Place dough on a board dusted with flour; shape it into a ball; covered and let it rest for 20 to 30 minutes. 

With a rolling pin, roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch in height. Cut it into thumb nail sized squares. 

Divide them and dust with flour again.

On a gnocchi paddle (from amazon), push down those tiny dough squares and push forward at the same time. You will get those little cute cat ears with marks. 

Dust with flour so that they won’t stick together. 

Every time I make them, that sensational scene from Godfather comes to my mind.   Vincent Mancini and Mary Corleone were making gnocchi.  

It is really nice to cook and enjoy a lovely dinner with your loved one, isn’t it? 

Ok, let’s get back to our cat ears.

Ingredients:

1 piece pork shoulder, (3 to 5 oz) , thinly sliced
a handful of dried chili pepper, cut into halves
1/2 cup dried daikon (available in Asian grocery store), diced
1 teaspoon Sichuan pepper
2 to 3 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice cooking wine
2 gloves of garlic, peeled and thinly sliced or minced
2 to 3 chicken stock or water
freshly ground black pepper
1/4  teaspoon sugar
salt to taste
2 to 3 tablespoon oil for cooking
water (for boiling noodles)

Directions:

Bring a large pot of water to boil.  Add a pinch of salt and spinach noodles.  Cook until they float, about 2 to 3 minutes. Drain them well.

Heat a wok over medium high heat; add oil, garlic and Sichuan pepper corns.  When garlic turns color, add pork, salt, black pepper and rice cooking wine.  Stir fry over high heat until the pork is golden brown.  Add spinach noodles, salt, soy sauce, sugar to taste.  Stir in chicken stock, and cook together for another 1 or 2 minutes. 

Serve immediately. 

Freeze any extra raw noodles and store them in a sealed Ziploc bag. 

Just love the color and taste.

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.