Curry Fried Rice

This recipe is adapted from one of my favorite Chinese cookbooks, Chinese Rice and Noodles from the Wei-Chuan cooking school in Taiwan. I have made it a bit lighter, and switched out some ingredients for a yummy bowl of rice. This recipe makes one large bowl of rice as a meal, or can serve two smaller side portions.

Curry Fried Rice
3/4 cup cooked leftover cold long grain brown rice
6 ounces lean ground pork
1 cup diced onion
1 small diced carrot
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon Splenda
1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt

Saute pork in a non-stick skillet and drain when cooked through. Wipe away all but a tiny bit of oil and saute onions and carrots until just barely tender. Return meat to pan and mix. Add rice and heat through, adding curry powder, salt and Splenda. Mix and serve. You can also add additional vegetables depending on what you have on hand.

Chinese Barbeque Pork

Char Siu
...or rather "Char Siu Done Light"
I have wandered around on this edible journey to a place where I didn't think I would find myself. I look at the many old recipes I have, and try to fit them into what I am now. I am different than when I started, both physically and mentally. Before I found a recipe and cooked it as it was. Now, I study it and try to transform it to fit what many have called a really strict set of rules. No matter, I say. If you won't be alive to eat in 10 years why bother eating now? And call me stubborn, I refuse to give in. And I refuse to give in to bad tasting food. If this is how I must eat to live, then by zinkies I am eating delicious stuff! 

Char Siu
1 1.5 pound pork tenderloin
1 tablespoon dark sweet soy sauce
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine
1 tablespoon Hoisin sauce
1 teaspoon five spice powder
1/4 teaspoon red food coloring (optional)

Combine sauces, honey and seasoning in a large resealable bag. Place tenderloin in and marinate for twenty four hours. The next day, preheat your oven to 450 F. Drain tenderloin and roast the tenderloin in the oven until it reaches a temperature of 150 F. Let it sit for about 10 minutes. Slice and enjoy.

Traditionally, Char Siu is made with lovely spare ribs or pork belly with lots of sweet glaze. It is brushed with maltose to make it shine. My Char Siu is marinated in a sweet sauce, but most of it drains off before we cook it. The flavor penetrates the meat, but there is no sticky glaze encrusted layer of fat like the original. And if you don't overcook the tenderloin it is sweet and tender. And I have added the red food coloring because we also eat with our eyes, and any Chinese buffet addict like me would want that extra visual cue to complete the experience!

Chicken Balls

We all have our guilty food pleasures. One of mine is the local Chinese buffet. While there are larger and more spectacular buffets in the area, En Lai in Slippery Rock has a small variety of my favorites. It's a far cry from real Chinese food - sort of an American sweetened version of Chinese food. But give me a plate and I pile on Walnut Chicken, Black Pepper Chicken and General Tso's Chicken and love it. And then there are the yummy Chicken Balls. At first I didn't know what they were - alien round fried balls. Hoping I would not encounter seafood, I took a bite and found a seasoned chicken meatball with a crispy crust. This is my interpretation.

Chicken Balls
2 skinless boneless chicken breasts
1 carrot, shredded
3 green onions, sliced thinly
2 egg whites
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon sesame oil

Cut chicken into chunks and combine with egg whites, ginger, soy sauce, cornstarch and sesame oil in a food processor. Process until chicken is a thick puree. Add carrot and onion and pulse a couple of times. Remove mixture into a bowl. Heat canola oil to 375 degrees in a deep fryer or deep heavy pot. Drop spoonfuls of chicken mix into hot oil and fry until golden brown. Remove from oil, drain on paper and serve hot with a drizzle of sweet chili sauce or sweet and sour sauce.

Pork and/or Chicken Adobo

I first tried chicken adobo at Jordan's Restaurant in Grove City. I am still amazed that they are open and located in my town - a very very small town that historically only has two ethnic choices - Italian and Chinese. More specifically, pizza and the ubiquitous pseudo-Chinese buffet. Jordan's serves a small Filipino menu along with pizza and subs to please the uninitiated.  The heck with pizza, give me the adobo!!!! I love it so much I had to create my own version. Be warned - the vinegar flavor in this dish is a delicious kick in the pants!

Pork and Chicken Adobo
2 lbs meat cubes (Pork or chicken, or a combination of both)
1 cup Coconut vinegar (or white vinegar)
1 cup Soy sauce
1 large onion, chopped
1 cup water
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 whole garlic bulb, divided and minced
4 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

Combine meat, vinegar, soy sauce, half of the garlic, bay leaves and black pepper in a container and marinate overnight. Pour meat and marinade and one cup of water into a large pot and simmer until meat is cooked through. Remove meat but keep liquid simmering. In a separate skillet saute onion until golden. Add the remaining minced garlic and saute until fragrant and pour into simmering marinade. Adding extra oil if needed, brown cooked meat and return to pot. Combine cornstarch with a few tablespoons of cold water and pour into pot thicken. Simmer for about a half hour until meat is tender. Remove bay leaves and serve over rice and steamed green beans.

Fried Rice

But Not Too Fried!
This recipe is not the fried rice you find at a Chinese buffet. It isn't greasy or bland, and it isn't predictable. Fried rice is not supposed to be predictable - it's meant to reflects what veggies and meats you had on hand. So this recipe too should be treated with flexibility. If you don't have one thing, add another. Don't eat pork? Use chicken instead. Don't eat meat at all? Add more veggies, egg or tofu. Whatever you do, this recipe will still be packed with flavor and healthy too.

Pictured above is the recipe using steamed brown rice, grilled marinated pork, egg beaters and mixed veggies.

Fried Rice
8 cups of steamed rice
1 pound of marinated grilled meat, cubed
4 eggs, beaten
2 medium onions, chopped
1 package Dole broccoli slaw
2 large carrots, diced
4 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
2-3 tablespoons Sriracha
1/8 teaspoon ground white pepper
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Saute onions and carrots until onions are barely transluscent. Add broccoli slaw and stir for an additional two minutes or until barely tender. Add eggs, meat, rice and seasonings and heat through.  Add more or less soy sauce and Sriracha as desired.

Hoisin Marinade
4 tablespoons Hoisin sauce
4 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice wine
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 minced garlic cloves

Marinate meat (pork, chicken or beef) for at least two hours or overnight.

Beef with Peanuts

This recipe comes from my Grandma Harvey. My aunt Ellen tells me that her recipes came from both her mother Sophia Kraft and my grandfather's mother Ella Harvey. My Grandpa Harvey also went to gourmet cooking school. According to Ellen, she would cook "Japanese, Chinese, Greek, field game,  you name it she cooked it."

Beef with Peanuts
1 pound top round steak, sliced
1/2 cup onions, sliced
4 cups bok choy, shredded
2 cups mung bean sprouts
1 cup raw peanuts
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 teaspoons peanut oil
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Combine broth, soy sauce and cornstarch in a small bowl and set aside.  In a skillet or wok, fry peanuts in peanut oil until golden. Remove peanuts from wok and set aside. Stir fry vegetables briefly until crisp tender and then remove from the wok and set aside. Put beef into wok and stir fry until just cooked through. Add broth and soy sauce mixture and heat until thick. Return vegetables and peanuts to the wok and stir until heated through. Serve over hot rice.

Chicken Pancit

I took a walk through town a couple of weeks ago and discovered a new restaurant. I wasn't too impressed, as it was the typical pizza and sub joint that seem to be the only choice in town. But a closer look revealed that this place featured Filipino food. Wow. Just - wow. Here in Grove City PA, international cuisine is defined as your Americanized pseudo-Chinese buffet (aka Slime-ese) and Italian restaurants. How I long for a bold soul to try something new and authentic here. I had to enter, I had to eat. And so I did. Hidden amongst the usual pizza and sub selections was a small handful of taste treasures waiting to be sampled. Chicken Pancit was the selection I chose, and I took a bit of it home for my daughter Zoë to try. The verdict was that I had to attempt my own version.

The dish echoes my frugal cooking philosophy. A star ingredient, a bit of meat for flavor and lots of inexpensive veggies and noodles. It's like Filipino fried rice, only with less oil as the rice noodles saute in broth instead. My star ingredient is Toyomansi, a Filipino soy sauce with Calamansi - a kind of citrus. You could use soy sauce instead, probably less soy than the amount of Toyomansi called for, and add some lemon, but that would be less fun. We are traveling via tastebud here, and the adventure of finding the ingredient is part of the game. Enjoy!

Chicken Pancit
1 pound chicken (skin and bones removed), chopped
2 2-ounce bundles of rice noodles (Maifun) or bean threads (
1 carrot, shredded
1 small napa cabbage, sliced into 1/4 inch pieces
1 medium onion, sliced
1 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup Toyomansi
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 whole fresh super chili, minced (optional)
white pepper to taste
vegetable oil for stir-frying

Soak rice noodles in a large bowl of warm water for 15 minutes. When the noodles become soft, cut into 3 inch pieces and drain. In a large wok, stir fry the chicken in small amount of vegetable oil and set aside. Add the onions to the wok and stir fry until they start to become translucent. Add the cabbage and carrot and continue to stir fry until they are crisp but tender and set aside. Add the noodles to the wok with the broth, Toyomansi and garlic powder. Allow the noodles to cook in the broth for a few minutes, and when it is mostly absorbed, add the chicken and vegetables. Season with white pepper and serve. The super chili ranks about the same as a piquin chili in Scoville units, so only one little chili with seeds and pith is enough to warm your lips nicely.