Category: Entrees

Boy’s 5th grade class had a “Far East Fest” yesterday. They have been studying Asia in Global Studies and yesterday was the culmination of weeks and weeks of learning. There were presentations, demonstrations, decorations, libations, and, um…food (I can’t think of a word for food that ends in “-ation”, so we’ll just let that little pattern die right there.)

Boy did a presentation on Samurai Warriors with some buddies. There were demonstrations on origami, abacuses (abaci? abacusi? what’s the plural of that darned word?) and lots of other cool topics. Lots of parents banded together and brought TONS of food. There was Teriyaki chicken, fried rice, lo mein, egg rolls, sushi, potstickers, cool Japanese soda with a marble in the lid, almond cookies, fortune cookies, Korean pears, ginger candy and on and on…. Well, I was tasked with bringing massive amounts of plain, steamed white rice (for the Teriyaki to be served over, etc. and for the kids that are too picky to try the other things.) I took this responsibility VERY seriously. I brought in both my rice cooker (which is large) and my mother’s (which is GIGANTIC) and cooked a whole, large bag of Thai Jasmine rice (over 10 cups). Well, Boy’s fancy school has some pretty adventuresome eaters: the eggrolls were gone; the potstickers were decimated; the sushi was inhaled; the Lo Mein was dispatched (welcome to “Feed Your Kids, the thesaurus edition”), but the plain white rice, well, it was just too plain. Kids took a sampling, but I was left with an AMAZING amount left over. I momentarily considered making the family of raccoons that are currently living under my deck VERY happy, by leaving it for them (they LOVED our gingerbread houses this year), but decided that I didn’t want them to get too friendly and figured I would use the leftover rice (about 15 cups, I think) to make something creative.

So…here’s the first use of this massive amount of leftover rice:

Pork Fried Rice

2 Tbsp dry sherry, divided
2 Tbsp soy sauce, divided
1 Tbsp (about 2 large cloves) garlic, minced or run through a press
1 Tbsp fresh, minced ginger root
1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/2 cup sliced green onion
1 cup frozen green peas, thawed
about 2 cups fresh sugar snap peas
about 1 cup coarsely chopped carrot, blanched or steamed in water (microwave is fine) until slightly softened, and then drained
1 pound boneless pork chops, thinly sliced (loin or sirloin, your choice)
2 Tbsp oyster sauce or hoisin sauce
about 6 cups leftover cooked white rice
peanut oil (about 1/4 cup, but have more on hand, just in case)
a little fresh cilantro, optional

NOTE: This recipe is VERY adaptable. Feel free to use your favorite veggies – whatever you have on hand or whatever might be seasonal (suggestions: small broccoli florets, bean sprouts, snow peas, corn kernels, mushrooms, onion). I bought some canned water chestnuts (Girl’s favorite), bamboo shoots and baby corn, but forgot to put them in. They would have been a nice addition (make sure they’re very well drained and rinsed.) 13-year olds are SO polite when they’re disappointed that you’ve left out their favorite ingredient. Umm…yeah, no.

OK – a word on stir fries: it’s very important that everything is ready to go and “put in place/mise en place” before you get started; you need to be able to move fast to toss things in the pan.

OK – a word on pans. They should be big and wide and heavy (capable of holding lots of heat). Ideally, you would make this in a wok. Oddly, I don’t have a wok, even though I just had a birthday and dropped TONS of hints. Oh, well…

OK – back to mise en place. Here’s mine…

Yes, a cocktail is an essential part of the mise en place. We have used a “Cape Cod” cocktail here (for illustration purposes only, of course.) Cocktails substitutions are OK and will not impact the final flavor of the dish.

OK…let’s get started…

Toss the pork with 1 Tbsp of the sherry and 1 Tbsp of the soy sauce. Set aside for 30 minutes to let it marinate. Drain, discarding the sauce.

Heat about 1 Tbsp of the oil (use a little more if you need it to lightly coat the ENTIRE inner surface of your pan) over medium-high heat, until the oil looks a little “wavy” but has not started to smoke. Add the beaten egg and lightly tilt the pan until the egg makes a thin sheet over the surface of the pan. As soon as the egg has started to cook through on the bottom (do NOT let the egg brown), flip the entire “sheet” of egg over the lightly cook the other side. Err on the side of undercooking here; the egg will finish cooking off the heat and can cook a little more when you toss it into the rice at the end. You want it nice and golden, not brown at all. Remove the egg from the pan and set it aside on a plate.

Add a little bit more oil (1 to 2 Tbsp) to the pan and reheat it to medium-high. Add the pork and very lightly stir it until all of the pork pieces are lightly coated with oil. Keeping the pan on fairly high heat, let the pork pieces rest relatively still. *See note below. When they have browned on one side and are starting to cook in the middle, flip/stir the pieces over to brown on the other side. When the pork is lightly browned on all sides, remove it from the pan and set it aside. Pour the oyster sauce or hoisin sauce over it.

*As the pork cooks, cut the egg into small pieces.

Add a tiny bit more oil to the pan (1 Tbsp) and bring it back up to medium-high. Add the sugar snap peas, carrots, ginger and garlic. Stir to lightly coat all ingredients, making sure to not let the garlic burn. When all ingredients have heated through and peas are starting to turn a brighter green, quickly pour in the remaining sherry and let it boil off, stirring quickly to scrape up browned bits (from the pork) from the bottom of the pan.

Add the red bell peppers and peas and continue stirring until they are slightly softened. Add the pork and hoisin or oyster sauce mixture, stirring gently to warm and combine. *See note below.

Crumble in the rice, about 1/2 cup at a time, breaking up any large clumps with your fingers, until you achieve the desired pork/vegetable/rice ratio.

*This would be a GREAT place to add things like WATER CHESTNUTS, bamboo shoots and/or baby corn, if you want to make your 13-year old happy – but why in the world would you want to do that???

Toss in the egg and green onions.

(Feel free to make a donation to pay for desperately-needed photography classes.)

Pour in soy sauce, and sesame oil and toss gently to distribute. Sprinkle with cilantro, if using. Serve immediately.

Serving size will vary. Plan on a double portion for 11-year old boys. Serve with sriracha for any Hubbys that might be lurking around.

We tried this recipe from Food & Wine tonight. Pretty tasty.

The only thing is, both kids have had their braces adjusted and amended this week and their teeth were really too sore to allow for productive gnawing of meat off of the bones. Poor kids; I ended up cutting the pork off the ribs for them (Hubby was away tonight, having dinner with a work colleague). If I make this again anytime soon, I’ll buy the boneless, country-style ribs. I’m more of a knife-and-fork gal than a finger-food kinda gal, anyway, so that’s probably better for all of us.

I couldn’t find the recommended tamarind concentrate, so I ended up using the “brick” tamarind that has to be soaked and strained before use. It had to sit for a little while (I had plenty of time while the ribs were doing their first 2-hour bake), but it really wasn’t a big deal to do.

I had never used the tamarind paste before and really liked the flavor. These ribs were sweet and sticky, but also salty and savory. The tamarind has a flavor a little bit like dried figs/dates/raisins, somewhere along those lines, but the honey, soy, and chile add a really nice depth to the flavor, so don’t be scared of these ribs if you don’t like raisins (yes, Honey, I was talking to you…). I would recommend upping the amount of ginger in the sauce – it could have used a bit more “kick”. Add a bit more sambal, too, if you’re a fan of spicy foods.

Overall, pretty tasty and VERY easy. They take a long time to bake, but it’s 95% passive – not much “hands on” required, so these would be great for company or for some time when you are planning “fussy” sides.

Casserole, served with Sauteed Spinach

I recently made the ultimate “Costco rookie” mistake: I bought a too-huge package of something (Italian sausage) and then had to scramble for creative uses for all of it. So, I was searching around on epicurious for suitable recipes and came across this one. Here’s a direct link to my saved epicurious “recipe box”, if you’d like to see some other sausage recipes (some are old favorites and some are ones that I’m planning to try soon):
Lara’s epicurious recipe box

This casserole was good: hearty and warm; a perfect cold-weather comfort food. Both kids liked it and the Italian sausage (as opposed to lots of other baked pasta casserole that only call for ground beef) gave it a wonderful flavor. If I make this again, though, I will probably substitute mozzarella for the fontina; the fontina was just a little bit too rich and buttery for us. This would be a great casserole for a crowd, because it makes a TON; in fact, the whole casserole wouldn’t fit into the suggested 9 X 13 pan and I had to use a larger one (be forewarned). If you have a smaller family, or don’t want to eat this for two days in a row, you could prepare it in two smaller, separate dishes and freeze one (cover with plastic wrap) before baking (I do that with baked ziti all the time) for later use. WARNING: it will take a long time (36 hours to 2 days in the fridge?) to thaw, so plan ahead.

HINT: Use the remaining of your can of tomato paste to make a Quick Pizza sauce for make-your-own pizzas the next night. I use a little less water and oil than this recipe calls for, but it’s a good jumping-off point.

Here’s a gratuitous photo of Boy, who wanted his picture taken with the casserole.

This is not gourmet AT ALL and I forgot to take a photo of an individual portion on a plate, but this was surprisingly good. Really! I thought that it looked kid friendly and would be simple, but the meatloaf was really tender and moist and Hubby and I actually enjoyed it, too. We sprinkled some cheddar cheese over the top of it before serving and had a nice salad to go with it.

The recipe is from Southern Living magazine and can be found here. There was a short article on meatloaf variations that included two other recipes. The article can be found here. I have tried the chicken version in the past and was NOT wild about it, but I intend to try the tomato-basil version soon.