Wok Star Eleanor Hoh

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stir fry

Thanksgiving Leftovers with Asian Spin

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What to do with all the leftovers from Thanksgiving?  Give them an Asian spin and wok them!  I often do that. It’s fun to repurpose food.

Leftovers like turkey, boiled or roasted brussel sprouts, chestnuts that didn’t make it into the  stuffing, even stuffing and calabaza, squash or sweet potatoes are perfect candidates for a wok stir fry. I like a mixture of crunchy with different textures.  You can make something delicious with any leftovers by adding a dash of tamari, sherry and squirt of lime juice.  Instantly transforms any leftovers into a totally new and delicious dish.

The trick is to do them in batches so they’re not a big mish mash.  Same concept as any stir fry.  Cook different textured veggies separately.  Cook veggies first before your meat because they don’t stick to your wok like meat does.

A wok is the most versatile pan for frying anything (use a stainless steel pan or even a pot if you don’t have a wok, please don’t use non-stick, they’re useless for stir and not supposed to use above medium heat.) So, get all your ingredients lined up so your stir fry takes only minutes from beginning to end.
Happy Thanksgiving!  Oh, one year I did duck instead of turkey, it was totally memorable.  Another year, I gave turkey an Asian twist and slathered my fav 3 seasonings on turkey thighs and grilled them, slurp.
Love to hear how you repurpose your Thanksgiving leftovers.

Ingredients:

boiled or roasted brussel sprouts
handful of chestnuts
handful of cubed calabaza
2 scallions, sliced diagonally
turkey leg torn into bite size pieces
2 cloves garlic bashed
2 slices of fresh ginger sliced and shredded
canola oil 
dash of tamari (San-J tamari is gluten-free and a brand I’ve used for over 20 years)
splash of sherry (or white wine if you have some lying around)
squirt of fresh lime or lemon juice

 Directions:

  1. Heat your wok till you see first wisp of smoke, squirt 3 rounds of oil down sides of wok, quickly add 1 bashed garlic and half of shredded ginger.  Immediately add cubed calabaza, they cook faster than you think.  Turn down heat if they start burning and keep turning them. Taste for doness and plate.
  2. Heat your wok till you see first wisp of smoke, squirt 3 rounds of oil down sides of wok, quickly add other bashed garlic and rest of shredded ginger. Immediately add brussel sprouts and fry till you see burn marks, add in chestnuts. Add to plate of calabaza.
  3. Heat your wok till you see first wisp of smoke, squirt 1 round of oil down sides of wok. Immediately add turkey pieces and fry till warm, add back all the veggies, add dash of tamari, splash of sherry and squirt of lime juice and give one last quick fry with the seasonings. Done!

Wok Picadillo

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I was thrilled to get contacted by Associated Press’ Food Editor, J.M. Hirsch to write an article,  “Asian techniques meet Hispanic ingredients”, which got picked up by many news sites around the world including Taiwan and Trinidad!  My local newspaper, Miami Herald picked this up and did a huge feature story and included 2 more dishes!  It all started on Facebook with a request to find out what spices and ingredients were significant in Hispanic cooking!  Whoosh, an avalanche erupted, I love how social media connects people, so join in the conversation.
What a coincidence my Wok Picadillo goes with this month’s theme, Cross Cultural dishes for #LetsLunch.  A fusion mashup using my technique to ‘season’ the ground beef like I would a stir fry but keeping the olives and raisins for a Hispanic touch. There’s so many interesting similarities between Asian and Hispanic dishes like Paella and Fried Rice or Peruvian Chifa.  I’m constantly encouraging people to use their woks for other styles of cooking or even toasting nuts and spices.

Do visit my #LetsLunch buddies posts below for their take on Cross Cultural dishes. And if you’d like to join, go to Twitter and post a message with the hashtag #Letslunch — or, post a comment below.  Thanks as always to A Tiger in the Kitchen and Cowgirl Chef who started this, connecting us from all walks of life and sharing our food.   Congratulations to Ellise Pierce of Cowgirl Chef with her new cookbook: Texas Cooking with a French Accent, how cool. You can preorder here!


This Cuban Wok Picadillo uses my same cooking process for a stir fry. Many Hispanic students love this approach, you can even see a video of them talking about it here. I learned to use the term “seasoning” instead of “marinading” because I don’t use a ton of liquid to soak my meat like a western marinade, try it you’ll really notice a difference in the texture of your meat!
Do get an rss feed or subscribe to my newsletter in right sidebar because I tend to make revisions to a post after it’s published.  I’ll be experimenting a lot more with adapting other styles of cooking in a wok including my mom’s banana fritters!
Wok Baked Tortilla Omelet and Wok Fajitas (posting soon) are 2 more Hispanic dishes I’ve adapted in my wok, enjoy.
I’d love to hear what Hispanic dishes work well you’ve made in your wok?

WOK PICADILLO

Start to finish: 30 minutes
Servings: 4
1 tablespoon tamari or good (MSG-free) soy sauce
1 teaspoon medium drinking sherry
2 pinches white pepper
2 teaspoons of cornstarch
1 pound 90 percent lean ground beef
1 tablespoon canola or other high-heat oil, divided
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
1/2 medium green bell pepper, cored and finely chopped
1/2 medium red bell pepper, cored and finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, diced
2 roma tomatoes, finely chopped
1/4 cup diced green olives with pimentos
1/4 cup raisins
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon paprika
Juice of 1 lime
Sprigs of fresh cilantro, mint or parsley, to serve

In a medium bowl, whisk together the tamari, sherry, cornstarch and white pepper. Add the ground beef and mix until thoroughly incorporated. Set aside.
Set your wok over high and let heat for 1 minute. Add 1/2 tablespoon of the oil and heat until it shimmers. Add the onion and both bell peppers. As soon as they hit the wok, immediately stir them around the pan. Cook for 5 minutes, or until the onions and peppers are just barely cooked and still firm and colorful.
Transfer the vegetables to a plate. Use paper towels to dry the wok, then return it to the heat.
When the wok is hot again, add the remaining 1/2 tablespoon of oil and heat until it shimmers. Add the garlic first, then immediately add the ground beef.
Use the back of the spatula to spread the beef across the wok as if frying a wide burger. Let the meat sear on one side until golden brown. This gives your meat a crispy exterior with juicy interior. You can test for doneness by flipping beef in the center of your wok where the heat is the hottest. If it is golden brown, flip all the beef and start breaking it up with your spatula.
Once the beef is just cooked (when you don’t see any red, about 7 minutes), return the onion-pepper mixture to the pan. Add the tomatoes, olives, raisins, cumin, oregano and paprika. Mix well, then reduce heat to medium and fry for 5 minutes. Stir in the lime juice.
Serve spooned over rice and topped with fresh cilantro, mint or parsley.
Nutrition information per serving (values are rounded to the nearest whole number): 340 calories; 160 calories from fat (47 percent of total calories); 17 g fat (5 g saturated; 0.5 g trans fats); 75 mg cholesterol; 19 g carbohydrate; 25 g protein; 3 g fiber; 670 mg sodium.


It’s always fun hopping to these blogs to peek at what everyone else cooked up!  Plse come back as I update this list.
Emma‘s Kimchi Bulgogi Nachos at Dreaming of Pots And Pans
Grace‘s Taiwanese Fried Chicken at HapaMama
Jill‘s Southern Pimento-Stuffed Knishes at Eating My Words
Joe‘s Grilled KimCheese Sandwich at Joe Yonan
Linda‘s Project Runway Pelau: Rice & Beans Trinidad-Style at Spicebox Travels
Lisa‘s Sunday Night Jewish-Chinese Brisket at Monday Morning Cooking Club
Lucy‘s Coconut Rice Pudding with Mango at A Cook And Her Books
Nancie‘s Chili-Cheese Biscuits with Avocado Butter at Nancie McDermott
Rashda‘s Mango Cobbler at Hot Curries & Cold Beer
Renee‘s Asian-Spiced Quick Pickles at My Kitchen And I
Steff‘s Chicken Fried Steak at The Kitchen Trials
Vivian‘s Funky Fusion Linguini at Vivian Pei