What do chicken thighs and eggplant conjure up for me? Spicy brown bean sauce! So that’s what I made…
Because this dish can look a bit brown and the texture of eggplant is soft, I added red bell pepper and shallots for some contrast. So, that’s my thought process when I’m deciding what to cook!
Starting with the same 4 seasonings to marinade chicken (TSPC: San-J tamari, sherry, white pepper, cornstarch) and to make sauce, I then added Koon Chun’s delish brown bean sauce, chili garlic sauce and chili oil to the sauce.
The same stir fry process: fry eggplant, pepper & shallots & scallion in hot oil with bashed whole garlic and shredded ginger. Then add sauce to cook down, plate. Clean out wok with sink brush & hot water, 5 second swish.
Next, stir fry chicken till just done (test by slicing through with spatula for pink), add little sauce to just cover, add to eggplant, DONE!
Enjoy!
cast iron wok
Salad Stir Fry
Clearing fridge to accommodate food for my cooking class came up with a surprise stir fry! I had mostly salad vegetables: snow peas, radish, Persian cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, onion & red bell peppers. So, I decided to fry them in duck fat & sprinkled black sesame seeds right at the end. Just goes to show, you can stir fry any vegetables!
The rosemary slow roast lamb shoulder
a la Jamie Oliver has been so handy. I warmed up in its own juice & added chopped cilantro. Went well with my salad stir fry, seaweed salad and quinoa lentil.
Wok 3 Ways: Steam meatloaf, Fry and Boil
Have you ever had a craving that needs to be satisfied like immediately? I had one of those earlier this week. It’s a dish my mom used to make with ground pork and Tianjian preserved vegetable, it’s so moorish. I call this dish ‘Chinese steamed meatloaf’ because it’s a similar concept to meatloaf: densely packed meat.
Steamed Chinese meatloaf and rapini is such an easy, weeknight dinner!
Both cooked in my wok using three different methods, steaming, parboiling and frying.
Apart from minced pork, Tianjian preserved vegetables and rapini, I always have garlic and ginger, scallions and my handy caddy basket with seasonings and oil for stir frying. This dinner came together quickly. Always prep everything prior to turning on wok and stove!
I usually use ground turkey but fancied pork for a change. The butcher ground about a pound of pork butt fresh for me. I “seasoned” the minced pork with my usual TSPC: tamari, sherry, pepper and cornstarch, then sprinkled 1/2 of shredded ginger on top. My blue and white ‘fish’ motif dish was a perfect steaming dish and can be found at Asian markets. A coup dish is good too.
Tianjian preserved vegetable comes in a lovely ceramic jar. You can recycle those jars to use as a vase or pen holder, I love them. If you aren’t able to get Tianjian preserved vegetable or don’t want to use it, the “seasoned” pork on its own will still taste SUPERB.
Cooking is about making your own rules and having FUN and that’s what Wok Stars do!
When you open the jar, PONG! it’s strong smelling cause it comes from the you guessed it, cabbage family! It’s chopped up already and preserved with salt, so rinse in a little tap water to get rid of some of the salt, then drain well. Because I don’t measure, I used just enough vegetable so you get a bite in each mouthful but not too much! Use chopsticks or a fork to fold the vegetable gently into the pork, the pork should be chunky and intact, not mushy.
Rapini (also known as broccoli rabe) has a slight tang like Chinese broccoli and complemented the steamed meatloaf perfectly. When chopping bottom of the stems, I noticed they were a bit pithy, so parboiling rather than stir frying would make them more tender. This is a good example of my thought process and how it determines what cooking method I use. It’s also one of the reasons why you should not just follow a recipe blindly because if an ingredient doesn’t look good, you should substitute it and not feel like you cannot make the recipe!
Boil a wokful of water till bubbling, squeeze in a few drops of oil to prevent rapini going grey. If you have a lot of mouths to feed, parboil rapini in several batches. I only did one batch and kept rest in fridge. Parboil rapini till a little wilted, test for doneness the way you like to have it, then drain. Place on plate and keep warm. Return wok to stove, wipe very dry. Heat your wok, then add 4-5 swirls of oil into wok and quickly fry squished garlic and rest of shredded ginger. Fry & swish around with spatula till slightly golden. Don’t burn them otherwise they become bitter. Pour this goodness all over the rapini. This dish is DONE.
Yes, another great use of a wok is steaming. My mom showed me how to use wood chopsticks and lay them across the wok as a platform to steam the plate of minced pork and then put the wok lid on, such a clever idea! No steamer rack necessary and the plate used for steaming goes straight to the table. So, make sure you use a plate that’s big enough to spread the pork and has a little dip to it, cause there’ll be a little sauce from the steaming and seasoning, yummy.
Note: I got this tip from one of my favorite Wok Stars: Dr. Maritza Paz. Do NOT use disposable wood chopsticks which are not sturdy so they bend and she nearly lost her dish of food! Melamine chopsticks are O.K.
Sprinkle chopped scallions right before serving. Slice the Chinese meatloaf into wedges and eat with rapini. Notice we didn’t have any rice with this dish and we didn’t miss it, yummy.
Wok 3 ways is another illustration of the versatility of a wok, don’t waste it by using it just for stir frying! Please share ingenious ways you’re cooking in your wok in comments below!