sweet & sour pork and spinach salad

ever since this recipe first showed up in food & wine over a year ago, it's been on heavy rotation in our house. the first couple times we enjoyed it as is - sweet & sour pork lettuce cups, the mixture rolled in butter lettuce - and we quickly learned that although delicious, it simply wasn't enough food to sustain all of us. so i started making variations - first lettuce cups topped with rice and then this, our favorite - sweet & sour pork with rice on top of baby spinach.

sweet & sour pork stir fry

we first made this stir fry in the spring, back before baby #2 was born. it quickly jumped to the top of jason's favorites list as well as mine - it's quick; combines a starch, veg, and protein in one bowl; and our toddler gobbled it up. most importantly, it's easy, so jason and i can hand off cooking - if the baby suddenly decides he's starving while i'm cooking dinner & we need to trade off so i can nurse him - without the other getting lost. leftovers reheat really well. this one makes it onto our table at least once a month.

knock off mongolian beef

if you hadn't realized, i was on vacation last week. we ate some really great food and some really horrible food - more on that later - and while i had great intentions of lining up posts before i left, vacation planning and preparing to be away from work for a week took over, leaving me with little time to post. which also means i have a week's worth of cooking and eating ready to share!

portobello stirfry with udon

almost every week we have stirfry for dinner. so why isn't the stirfry category overloaded with recipes? the formula is too easy, too foolproof to post - a little meat + a lot of vegetables + sauce over rice (jason) or noodles (me). it's really easy, really fast, and you can throw in whatever meat and vegetables you have lying around (it's a great way to use up the last of the carrots/snow peas/mushrooms). and if you make double, it reheats really well for lunch the next day.

teriyaki mushroom, spinach, and chicken salad

need a break from all the pie and cookies and stuffed birds and alcohol and pasta and all the other heavy foods we stuff ourselves with this time of year(...and we haven't even gotten into the thick of it yet)? yea, me too. this salad is perfect this time of year. the mushroom and chicken is perfectly spiced and just hot enough to wilt the spinach ever so slightly. and since it's thrown together in an easy thirty minutes, it's also the perfect weeknight dinner after an evening of battling the christmas crowds.

want a vegetarian meal? skip the chicken and double the mushrooms. you won't miss it.

teriyaki mushroom, spinach, and chicken salad
adapted from mark bittman, as seen in cooking light
30 minutes, serves 4

1/2 pound boneless skinless chicken, cut into bite size pieces
1 pound sliced baby portabella mushrooms
2 tablespoons peeled minced fresh ginger
1 tablespoon (~ 2 cloves) minced garlic
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons mirin, sweet marsala wine, or dry sherry
1 teaspoon rice vinegar
6 ounces baby spinach (about 8 cups)
1 1/2 cups chopped green onions, dark green parts only
vegetable oil, salt, & pepper

1. do all of your cutting and measuring before you start cooking. once you start cooking, it will go fast.
   
2. heat a wok or large skillet over high heat and coat with vegetable oil. add chicken, season with salt & pepper, and cook about 5 minutes, until chicken is cooked through. remove chicken from the pan and set aside.
3. add mushrooms to the pan and season with salt and pepper. cook about 5 minutes until the mushrooms are mostly cooked and almost all the liquid has been cooked off.
4. add 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, ginger, and garlic. cook about 30 seconds, stirring constantly, until fragrant.
5. return the chicken to the pan. add the soy sauce, mirin, and rice vinegar. cook 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.
6. remove pan from heat. toss the spinach and green onions together and serve the chicken and mushroom mixture over the spinach.

chicken & vegetable stirfry with soba noodles

the grocery store was all out of the usual lo mein noodles i use for stirfry and since we had rice last week, i wasn't in the mood for it again. i'm not an asian food connoisseur by any stretch of the imagination, so it took me a while in the aisle to find a substitute. and i settled on soba noodles. and i was pleasantly surprised. lo mein might have competition in my house.

so the noodles were set but i wanted something different for the stirfry - not the usual soy sauce and sesame oil. i wanted broccoli & beef but with more vegetables. so that's exactly what i made. and with chicken instead of beef.

chicken & vegetable stirfry with soba noodles
adapted from steamy kitchen's broccoli beef, serves 2

1 large chicken breast, thinly sliced
1/2 pound broccoli florets
6 carrots, cut into matchsticks
1 cup sugar snap peas
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cloves minced garlic
1 teaspoon cornstarch dissolved in 1 tablespoon water

for the marinade:
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon dry sherry
1/2 teaspoon corn starch

for the sauce:
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 teaspoon dry sherry
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/4 cup chicken broth

1. stir together the marinade. pour into a resealable bag and add the chicken. massage the marinade into the chicken through the bag. marinade for 10 minutes.
2. blanch the broccoli by cooking in boiling water for 2 minutes. rinse in cold water and set aside.
3. stir together the sauce and set aside. start the water to cook the soba noodles. cook and drain according to directions on the package. do not rinse and set aside.
4. heat a large frying pan or wok over high heat and add the vegetable oil. add the chicken and cook until completely cooked.
5. add garlic to the pan and cook about thirty seconds, or until fragrant.
6. add the sauce, broccoli, carrots, and peas and stir to coat. add the dissolved cornstarch and cook 3-4 minutes until the sauce boils. stir in the noodles to coat in the sauce and serve.

honey ginger chicken with peppers stirfry

i have a confession. i can't eat with chopsticks. i always have high hopes going in, but about five minutes into it and scooping up three grains of rice or watching noodles slip off, i frustratingly give up and get out the fork.

but not tonight. no way. tonight, i conquered the chopsticks.

i ate the whole bowl with them. no joke. it took me 30 minutes, but i did it! one more thing to check off the list!

honey ginger chicken with peppers stirfry
adapted from everyday food

1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken, cut into bite size pieces
1/4 cup minced or grated ginger
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 bell peppers, sliced into thin strips
3 cups cooked rice

1. mix together the honey, rice vinegar, and soy sauce in a small bowl and set aside.
2. heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in a wok (or saute pan). add the chicken and cook through, about 4 minutes. remove the chicken and set aside.
3. add the last tablespoon oil, ginger, and garlic to the wok. cook until fragrant, about one minute.
4. add the peppers and cook about 4 minutes.
5. add the honey mixture and bring to a boil. add the chicken and cook until thick, about 5 minutes.
6. serve the chicken, peppers, and sauce over the rice.

turkey in lettuce wraps

i'm sick of leftovers. it's time for asian food. ok, asian inspired food.

i have to be honest, i was real leery of the fish sauce. i psyched myself up to use it until i went shopping for it. i had a hard time finding it on the shelf of the asian section, so a twenty-something woman stocking the shelves helped me. needless to say she did not recommend i use the fish sauce. but i went with it anyway.

one piece of advice: do not smell the fish sauce. it will totally turn you off of whatever dish you're making and the thought of any fish dishes. it is not so good.

before (L) & after (R) adding the sauce

but i'm glad i used it. turns out the sauce was perfectly flavored, but a bit salty. no fishiness whatsoever. and this is definitely quick. and could easily be made with beef.

notes:

• the original recipe called for a shallot. since i didn't have any, two small onions did me just fine.
• i added all of the sauce to the cooked turkey and let most of the water cook out, to thicken the sauce just slightly.
• we had romaine hearts left over from late last week, so we used those. next time i'll definitely go with iceberg. the romaine has a different taste and it comes through.
• next time i'm going to use low sodium soy sauce to make it less salty.

turkey in lettuce wraps
based on everyday food's stir-fried turkey in lettuce wraps

total time start to finish: 30 minutes, 4 hearty servings

1/4 cup soy sauce
4 teaspoons fish sauce
4 teaspoons sugar
vegetable oil
1 onion or shallot, minced
2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound ground turkey
lettuce

1. mix the soy sauce, fish sauce, and sugar until the sugar dissolves.
2. heat a wok over high heat. coat the bottom with vegetable oil and add the onion, ginger, and garlic.
3. cook for about one minute, until the ginger and garlic are fragrant.
4. add the turkey and cook completely. use a wooden spoon to break up the chunks.
5. add the soy, fish, sugar sauce and cook until the liquid is mostly absorbed by the turkey, about 5 minutes.
6. serve inside lettuce leaves.

sizzling beef

since we both worked late tonight, i had somewhat of a dilemma. i needed something quick, but also something that seems too difficult for jason to make. (he's always afraid i'm going to ask him to cook on the night when something 'hard' is planned.) so an easy stir fry it was.

what worked

1. the recipe called for red bell pepper, but since they cost twice as much as green, i went with the green. easy replacement.
2. definitely easy. definitely quick. probably took me 40 minutes start to serving.

what didn't

1. i forgot to buy ginger at the store, so i skipped it. i'm not a huge ginger fan so i didn't miss it much.
2. my saute pan was too small. had i read the recipe all the way through before starting, i would have realized the rice was mixed with the meat and veg. oh well. lesson learned.
3. a little more soy sauce would do it for me. the 2T is a little dry...maybe one or two additional tablespoons added to the veg before mixing with the rice.

the meal is really really easy to make. no crazy chopping. no constant stirring or pot watching. the only thing to watch is the vegetables - the peppers and scallions should still have a slight crunch to them. no one likes soggy vegetables in their stir fry.

the recipe can really be used as a base for any kind of fried rice. pick your protein - beef, chicken, pork - slice it thin and add vegetables. i'm thinking carrots, maybe some water chestnuts. and garlic, a little minced garlic. hmmm...maybe i'll have to try this sometime with sliced chicken breast too (or maybe jason can take a stab at it.)

sizzling beef and scallions
from everyday with rachel ray, december/january 2010

8 oz london broil sliced into short thin strips
2T soy sauce
1/4c + 2T vegetable oil
10 scallions, greens and whites sliced, separately
2/3c chopped red pepper (i used half a green pepper)
1T finely chopped fresh ginger
3 eggs, slightly beaten
1/2t sugar
4c cooked white rice, cooled

1. toss the beef with 1T soy suace. in a large (remember, everything will end up in this pan at the end) nonstick skillet, heat 2T oil over medium-high heat. add the beef until cooked through. the original recipe says 2 min, it took me closer to 8. transfer the cooked beef to a bowl.
2. add 1T oil to the skillet and cook the scallion whites, pepper, and ginger for about 2 minutes, until slightly brown on the edges and starting to soften. stir in the peas.
3. push the vegetables to one side of the pan and add the eggs to the empty side.
4. stir the eggs until they set and mix in with the vegetables. stir the mixture until the eggs are thoroughly cooked. add the egg-vegetable mixture to the beef and stir in the sugar and 1T soy sauce.
5. heat 2T oil in the skillet over medium-high heat and cook the rice until heated through. break up the clumps as much as you can. stir in the beef mixture and the scallion greens.