new year resolutions

Simple Kale and Mushroom Stir Fry

January 18, 2012 By Eleanor Hoh 1 Comment

2012 is Year of the Dragon, for Chinese New Year, this easy curly kale & oyster mushroom stir fry is perfect and can accompany your other festive dishes! Kung Hei Fat Choy.
Just a little oil in hot cast iron wok, added garlic & ginger, cook down with mushroom juice from rehydrating dried oyster mushrooms, a dash of tamari & sherry, squeeze of lime & poof, it’s done! Less than 10 minutes!
Here is the Grilled Pork to go with this Curly Kale Stir Fry and how to set a festive table so you can celebrate at home with friends and family no matter where you are in the world! Keep it simple and easy but always yummy.
I use only 2 seasonings for my stir fries: San-J Intl.’s black label gluten free tamari and a dash of medium drinking sherry, DELISH!

Rehydrating dried oyster mushrooms from Earthy Delights, I keep juice to cook down Curly Kale!

Stir frying Curly Kale and rehydrated gourmet mushrooms using Earthy Delight’s Tea Seed Oil, it’s perfect for high heat cooking. I put in a squeeze bottle to make it easier for swirling round my wok, it’s very liberating to not have to measure! Everyone loves the freedom of the Squirt, Squeeze, Shake of dispensing their seasonings and once you do it, you can’t go back. Always add oil to a hot wok to prevent greasy veggies.

WOK STAR KIT KICKSTARTS CHINESE NEW YEAR HEALTHY RESOLUT

January 30, 2011 By Eleanor Hoh 1 Comment

Buddha’s Delight, a Wok Star’s modern twist!

Chinese New Year this year falls on February 3rd, and it’s the Year of the Rabbit. My husband is one, so it’s his year to shine. If you’ve missed the western new year’s resolutions to eat healthier, you can kick start it with our Chinese New Year and a new approach to cooking with my Wok Star Kit. My Kit has the both the tools and techniques to help you succeed and Be a Wok Star, hence the name of my blog!

My family usually celebrates New Year Eve with a dish of everything like chicken, fish, shrimp, pork and many veggie dishes as well as fried rice and longlife noodles. These dishes symbolize good luck, health and prosperity, you can find out more about this topic in my other New Year posts below.

I wanted to cook Buddha’s Delight because it uses both fresh and dried veggies to give different textures and flavors. I hope you’ll try this dish even if you don’t have any dried ingredients where you live, it’s not essential but adds an Asian touch. I’ve included gourmet morels and sugar snap to give it a modern twist.

Typical vegetables used in this dish are cabbage or lettuce with Chinese mushrooms, toufu, dried bean curd sticks, glass noodles, fungus, hair moss. My husband had two huge helpings before I could take my final shot in a serving bowl, oops, so the dish above was it! I had to set some aside for my sister to try as she’s arriving tonight. We’re going out New Year’s Day to celebrate at Chu’s with the traditional dragon dance as well as jazz music, yeah, nothing like a mix of east and west. It’s a busy week, also giving a cooking class New Year’s Eve at beautiful Lyons Spa who’s a new venue hosting my classes this year.

Here’s what and how I made my Buddha’s Delight with.

Fresh vegetables I had were napa cabbage, sugar snap peas, carrots and scallions.
Fresh garlic and ginger are mandatory to start off any stir fry.

Dried veggies included Chinese mushrooms, morels, fungus, bean curd sheets, goji berries. These need to be rehydrated in warm water to plump them up.
I cooked the dried ingredients in my clay pot, another wonderful piece of cookware which I love using. It makes everything so juicy and tender. Added dash of tamari, sherry and a little black vinegar.

Because there were quite a lot of different veggies, I stir fried them in batches. It’s important not to overload your wok, it lowers the temperature of your wok and creates juice, resulting in a ‘soupy’ stir fry, a very common mistake.
First, I fried napa cabbage with carrots, always starting with garlic and ginger. Added dash of tamari and sherry.
Next, I fried the sugar snap peas with goji berries and added scallions last. Added dash of tamari and sherry.
Last, I recombined the fresh vegetables and dried vegetables from the clay pot.

I served Buddha’s Delight right from the hot wok! We had it with some curried grilled leg of lamb. Yes, very untraditional but that’s what being a Wok Star is all about.

This Year of the Rabbit, BE A WOK STAR! Kung Hei Fat Choy…

Here are some simple wok dishes to show you eating healthy isn’t about deprivation but ADDING flavors and textures to spice up your appetite and palette. These dishes illustrates easy, mostly one-dish dinners and mostly cooked in my cast iron wok.

Fried or Grilled Fish

Healthy, Delicious Snacks

CHINESE NEW YEAR EATS:
If you don’t want to cook and just want to eat out, here’s a great roundup if you live in Miami.

CHINESE NEW YEAR EVENTS:
Miami Dade College’s Chinese New Year events.
Feb. 1, 2, 20 (main, big event)
This year, they’ve expanded to 2 other campuses! Get details here:

IBPS Fo Guang Shan Temple
An amazing lineup of innovative & multicultural performers blending East and West. I hope to see this.
Sunday, Feb.6: 2pm – 3:30pm
9341 NW 57th St, Tamarac, FL 33351
FREE
Details of performances here.

MY OTHER CHINESE NEW YEAR POSTS:

Chinese New Year, Simple Home Dinner:
Roast Duck, Zesty Shrimp & Veggies

Year of Tiger 2010

Year of Ox 2009

Year of Rat 2008

There are hundreds of Asian food blogs, too many to mention but you can see some here.

My friend, Shulie who I ‘met’ through Twitter has done her homework and posted a list of superb Asian food blogs to celebrate Chinese New Year, honoring some awards.

I love New Asian Cuisine, it’s full of resources, chef features, interesting tid bits and recipes from all over the world. Here’s their Chinese New Year roundup.