• Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Wok Star Eleanor Hoh

Be a Wok Star!

  • Home
  • About
    • Press
    • Partners/Sponsors
  • Shop
    • Wok Star Amazon Store
    • Wok-Set
  • Experiences
    • Wok Star Supper Club
  • Blog/Reviews
  • Resources
    • Tips
    • Asian Markets in Miami
    • Asian Markets in Broward
    • Videos
  • Contact
  • Subscribe

#LetsLunch

Green Beans 2 Ways

August 9, 2013 By Eleanor Hoh 7 Comments

Eating vegetables is a hot topic, remember when Jessica Seinfeld hid them so her kids didn’t know they were eating them and caused such controversy?  I think that’s the most ridiculous thing.  Kids will grow up never knowing what vegetables look or taste like! I’ve never understood what all the fuss is because growing up, my siblings and I ate vegetables at every meal and loved them. My mom was a fantastic cook, so that may have something to do with it?  She always presented food with loads of flavor and variety, we looked forward to our dinners.
So is it because modern parents dote on their kids too much and give in to their whims? Is it a cultural thing? Would love to hear your take on this topic!
Beans2waysorig
Practicing what I preach – use what I have in the fridge, so green beans but prepared 2 ways, one cold and one hot!  Beans are not in season in Florida, I found out through this handy site where they list vegetables and fruits that are in season in your state.
This month, we are celebrating #Letslunch member, Joe Yonan’s new cookbook: Eat Your Vegetables, Bold Recipes for the Single Cook, congratulations Joe!  Such an important book to inspire folks who don’t have a clue how to prepare them.
JoeYonanEatYourVegetables-1
What’s my favorite vegetable? Very tough choice, there are too many but one of my favorites is Morning Glory (kung kong is what my family usually call this) with hollow stems and cooked tender with pounded chilies in shrimp paste sauce, hmm. When my mom made that, she had to make 2 heaped plates!  If you ever get a chance to have this vegetable, get it and have some for me!
Just a reminder if you’ve not visited my blog before, I don’t use measurements or recipes when I cook, just a pinch of this and that and viola.  So here’s Green Beans, 2 ways, enjoy!

prep1 prep2

Ingredients:
1 lb. approx. green beans blanched with drop of Avocado oil
Green Bean Salad
Handful fresh pineapple cubes
1 plum or Romana tomato cubed
1 scallion chopped
Pinch of cilantro chopped
Annie’s chili lime salad dressing
Make this dish first to prevent discoloration.
1) Blanched all beans in boiling water in my cast iron wok with few drops of Avocado oil to prevent discoloration, great tip I learned from my mom.  Drain after tasting to see if cooked but still very crunchy. Run cold water to prevent cooking.
2) Drain well and plate beans, add all chopped ingredients and toss well in dressing, done!

wokblanche wokfry

beanfry

Green Beans in Spicy Thai Satay Shrimp Paste
Avocado oil
2 cloves Garlic thwacked
knob ginger shredded
red bell pepper, small cubes
I scallion chopped
Pinch cilantro chopped
1 heaped teaspoon of Spicy Thai Satay Shrimp Paste
Method:
1) Wipe out wok, heat it up, then add 2 swirls of Avocado oil and fry up red bell pepper, scallions in garlic and ginger till you can smell yumminess but not burning.
2) Add beans and Satay Shrimp Paste, combine well, it’s done!
#LetsLunch is a virtual lunch where food bloggers from all over the world come up with a theme. I’ve met the neatest food bloggers, if you want to join, post a comment below or on Twitter using #LetsLunch.  Below are everyone’s take on Eating Vegetables!
Annabelle‘s Farmer’s Market Gazpacho at Glass of Fancy
Grace‘s Vegetable Tempura at HapaMama
Jill‘s Fusilli with Corn Sauce at Eating My Words 
Joe‘s Guaca-Chi at Joe Yonan
Linda‘s Chocolate-Zucchini Twinkies at Free Range Cookies
Linda‘s Gateway Brussels Sprouts at Spicebox Travels
Lisa‘s Totally “Free” Veggie Soup at Monday Morning Cooking Club
Pat‘s Umami-Laden Green Beans at The Asian Grandmothers Cookbook
Vivian‘s Kangkong (Water Spinach) with Fermented Beancurd, Chili and Garlic at Vivian Pei

Filed Under: #LetsLunch, blog, cast iron wok, vegetables Tagged With: #LetsLunch, cast iron wok, stir fry, tips, vegetables

Mexican Fried Rice

May 29, 2013 By Eleanor Hoh 22 Comments

Mexican Wok Fried Rice is the perfect dish to incorporate my Asian heritage for Asian Pacific Heritage month for a Let’s Lunch post, pay respect to my mom for Mother’s Day and celebrate Cinco de Mayo on a yacht.

MexWokFriedRice
I think my mom would be tickled that I used my cast iron wok to make a Mexican dish!

Mom&Wokstar

For me, a Mexican dish has to include chorizo but I didn’t realize Mexican chorizo (firm texture) is different from the Spanish kind (soft crumbly), so I experimented with both. I discovered Quijote chorizos, one of the most well known brands is manufactured right here in Miami.   It’s just like Chinese sausage, lots of fat which has to be rendered out, the trick is to fry on medium low heat in the wok and drain on paper towels.
I used the same process to cook this dish as Pineapple Stir Fried Rice except without eggs, different veggies, meat and added in saffron buds to get the reddish yellow color. You can watch my video that shows you how from scratch.  Multi colored bell peppers, onions and tomatoes gave texture and color.  The shrimp was seasoned and fried just like I do for an Asian stir fry, and everything was combined in two batches in the wok.  It was 1am by the time I finished with all the photo taking but I really wanted to show you can successfully make dishes from all over the world in a wok!  Mission accomplished.

CincodeMayoSpread
Top left to right: black bean, tomato, corn, avocado salad. Pam’s refreshing mango, cucumber, jicama salad. Shelley’s healthy chicken salad, pineapple salsa with smoked chipotle sauce to make into a wrap. There was also pulled pork to make into wraps with all the fixings and of course, my Mexican Wok Fried Rice.
Thanks to Pamela & Brett for a glorious yacht day to celebrate Cinco de Mayo!  They were so cute with their radio gear to steer the boat instead of shouting. We all brought a potluck dish to share and everything went really well together.

MexPrep Chopveg QuijoteChorizo

 WokVeg WokChorizo WokShrimp

WokTomatoes Prep MexWokFriedRice

PamBrett CincodeMayoAppetizers CincodeMayoSpread

Let’s Lunch is a virtual gathering of foodies from all over the world. Anyone can join, just use #letslunch on twitter and someone will reach out to you. I’ve so enjoyed interacting with this group even though I’ve not succeeded in contributing on a regular basis. Check out other Let’s Lunchers’ posts to celebrate Asian Pacific Heritage month!
Annemarie‘s Bulgogi Lettuce Wraps at Sandwich Surprise
Emma‘s Korean Barbecue at Dreaming of Pots and Pans
Grace‘s Mom’s Stir-Frying Tips at HapaMama
Karen‘s Non-Traditional Wonton Soup at GeoFooding
Linda‘s Savory Steamed Rice Cake at Spicebox Travels 
Lisa‘s Sesame Eggplant & Noodle Salad at Monday Morning Cooking Club
Lucy‘s Chinese Chicken Salad at A Cook and Her Books
 

Filed Under: #LetsLunch, Asian, blog, Mexican, Mother's Day Tagged With: "Asian Pacific Heritage", "cinco de mayo", "mexican fried rice", #LetsLunch, cast iron wok, stir fry

Gratitude: 5 Minute Wonder Soup

November 9, 2012 By Eleanor Hoh 18 Comments

Gratitude is a very loaded word for me!  The older I get, the more I realize I’ve inherited many traits from my parents.  Good and bad. The good?  Learning to cook from my parents, they had two totally different styles!  The bad, well, we won’t get into it.  My dad is all about using top notch, expensive ingredients.  My mom focuses on homestyle cooking (my kinda cooking).  What they share is not using recipes and it’s such a liberating technique! It’s made me enjoy the challenge of using what I have.  It’s made me tap into my intuition and creative side so I don’t rely on following recipes.  I am truly grateful to my parents for introducing me to this liberating journey to cooking. It’s made me want to tell the world (and I have been), this is how you want to cook if you were stuck on a desert island or not!
After a recent sister reunion, I decided I’d make more of an effort to be grateful for what I have and not take things for granted, be ready to let go when the time is right and be open to new things.  And the most important?  Be grateful everyday because I’ve only got one life, so I need to make everyday COUNT and be the best that I can!  In fact, ‘Gratitude’ is the theme of this month’s #LetsLunch challenge, please check below for more posts from other Lets Lunchers, and  check back for more or get the feed! 
So, with that said, who’s ready for 5 Minute Wonder Soup? I came up with this name because it really takes about 5 minutes from beginning to end.  A dish I learned from my mom.  She came up with this dish because after a hard day of teaching at a boy’s school, she needed to whip something up quickly for a family of 7! It is so easy, fast and tasty, you’ll want to try it immediately.

5 Minute Wonder Soup

Substitutions:
You can substitute other types of meat like pork, beef, lamb, chicken, endless. Use a cut that’s NOT tough and chewy. Slice into thinner bite size pieces so they cook faster. This is the same cutting technique you would use for stir frying.  Good seafood substitutions are baby scallops, fish (salmon, grouper, yellowtail, tilapia), mussels, clams. It’s entirely up to you with vegetables but I want to say Less is More applies here. Otherwise it becomes a 10 minute, not 5 minute wonder soup which is the goal of this dish!  Anything in the cabbage family works, kale (curly or not), napa cabbage, bok choy (white stem or Shanghainese).
Tips for cookware & utensils:
Using a wok of course makes this so much easier because of its wide surface area and depth to work with. Mine is a thin walled, lightweight, round bottom cast iron wok which I use on a portable butane gas stove set on top of my electric stove (click on link to find out why I have this setup!)   But if you don’t have a wok, use the widest pan you have, stainless steel is good.
Accompaniment:
We don’t eat starch like rice or noodles but if you want to, have some red rice or soba noodles, or glass noodles. Make this ahead so they’re ready.

Ingredients:
3/4 lb shrimp, shelled and deveined
1/2 packet tofu puffs, halved into diagonals 
couple of bok choy heads, separate stems and wash well
1 knob of ginger, washed in cold water, dried & shredded
2 cloves of garlic, smashed & diced
1 carton chicken broth (use beef if you’re using beef or lamb)
squirt of tamari
dash of sherry
dash of white pepper
pinch of sea salt 
1 scallion, sliced diagonally really thin or chopped in thin rounds
Few sprigs of cilantro, chopped for garnish (optional or sub with parsley)

3 easy steps for 5 minute wonder soup! 

  1. Fry veggies & tofu first w/half of garlic & ginger, remove from wok to plate. Then fry shrimp with rest of garlic & ginger (just till they turn pink so you don’t overcook them), add to dish of veggies.
  2. Add carton of stock into wok and let it come to a boil, add squirt of tamari, dash of sherry, dash of white pepper and pinch of sea salt. Adjust to your taste.
  3.  Add veggies and shrimp into soup, you’re done!  Serve in big bowls, garnish with scallions and cilantro and ENJOY!

Here are more Let’s Lunch posts, do check back for more…

Gratitude “Plumb” Cake from Lisa at Monday Morning Cooking Club
Gratitude Fried Rice from Linda at spicebox travels
Seafood Chowder from Lucy at A Cook and Her Books
Cracked Black Pepper and Blue Cheese Crackers (gluten free) from Charissaat Zest Bakery
A Thanksgiving tablecloth tradition from Lucy at In a Southern Kitchen
Gratitude Soup from Rashda at Hot Curries and Cold Beer
Pumpkin Muffins with Cinnamon Sugar (gluten free) from Linda at Free Range Cookies
Pumpkin Roll with Pecans from Annabelle at a Glass of Fancy
5-Minute Wonder Soup from Eleanor at Wok Star
Green Tomato Salad from Renee at My Kitchen and I
Asian-Style Pickled Oyster Mushrooms from Joe at Joe Yonan
Pain au levain from Rebecca at GrongarBlog
If you want to join #LetsLunch, just tweet with this hashtag and someone will answer you!  I’ll be sporadically posting on Let’s Lunch due to overload, stay tuned.
 

Filed Under: "one dish wok meals", #LetsLunch, shrimp, soup, toufu, weeknightdinner, wok cooking Tagged With: "wok cooking", shrimp, soup, tofu, weeknightdinner

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Go to page 4
  • Go to page 5
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 7
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Wok Star Supper Club at Hutong

Blog/Reviews

  • Wok Star Supper Club collaborates with Ghee Wynwood for a One-Night-Only Indian 13-dish Feast
  • Slow Food Miami Snail of Approval Tasting Party at Eden Roc: A Night of Delicious Bites Under the Stars
  • Wok Star Supper Club x Hutong: A Flaming Hot Night!

Subscribe to Wok Star Newsletter

Get first dibs to attend Wok Star Supper Club events, receive food updates & restaurant reviews.

Top rated products

  • Wok Star Kit to help you succeed Wok Star Kit
    Rated 5.00 out of 5
    $159.00
  • Wok Mitts Wok Star Mitt
    Rated 5.00 out of 5
    $35.00
  • Wok Star Online Classes Wok Star Online Classes
    Rated 5.00 out of 5
    $27.99

Join Wok Star’s Community

FacebookInstagramPinterestRSSTwitterYouTube

Footer

Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 Wok Star Eleanor Hoh. All rights reserved.