Ginger Beef & Satsuma-Imo Bento

Technically, a bento is a Japanese lunch that is served in a box (hence bento).  I didn't put mine in a bento box, but you could use this recipe as a room-temperature lunch.  This is also the first time I have ever cooked satsuma-imo, which is a Japanese sweet potato.  Unlike the orange-ish sweet potatoes you're probably accustomed to seeing on the Thanksgiving table covered in marshmallows, satsuma-imo are a creamy yellow color and are, in my opinion, much sweeter.  They're also much smaller than your average sweet potato, unless I somehow picked up little ones when they're really honkin' huge.  In this recipe I didn't add any sauce to the sweet potatoes, but they almost taste as though they've been cooked with sugar.  It was unexpected, but I think I liked it.  Knowing that, however, I think next time I might nix the added sugar in the beef's sauce.  Try it first with the sugar, but if you find it too sweet, you can leave the sugar out next time.

Ginger Beef & Satsuma-Imo Bento

Ingredients:

3-4 oz. beef, cut into 3/4 in. cubes
1/4 in. ginger root, pealed and shredded
1 tsp. brown sugar
5 tsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. mirin
vegetable oil
2 leaves bok choy
1 satsuma-imo
1/4 in. cucumber, seeded
cooked rice
handful of broccoli
sesame seeds (optional, to serve)

Cut the satsuma-imo into 1/2 in. cubes, but don't peel it.  Boil water in a pot, then add the sweet potato.  Boil for 5-6 minutes, or until soft enough for a fork to pierce easily.  Add the broccoli to the pot and boil 1-2 more minutes.  Drain well, but don't rinse.

Heat a little oil in a pan, then add the beef cubes.  Cook for a minute or so, just until the outside changes color.  Mix together the soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger, and mirin.  Add the sauce to the beef and continue to cook until nearly all of the liquid is absorbed.  The sauce should reduce into a thin glaze on the beef.

Cut the cucumber into 1/4 in. pieces.  Heat up your rice if it is leftover or frozen rice.

To serve, spoon the beef on top of the bok choy leaves, and add the broccoli, sweet potato, and rice.  Separate the broccoli from the satsuma-imo, if desired.  Sprinkle the beef with sesame seeds.

Hajiki & Chicken

All right, I'll be the first to admit that this looks gross.  Sort of reminds you of a beef stew you left in the dutch oven for a few hours too long and the meat and veggies have started to disintegrate.  But trust me on this one, it tastes 1000 times better than it looks!  If you've never heard of hajiki, it's a type of seaweed--specifically an edible brown algae.  Its appearance sort of reminds you of the seaweed you would see slathered on huge boulders in Maine when the tide has gone out (minus all the nasty snails and razor sharp barnacles that I always seem to have a talent for slipping on), but unlike wakame, hajiki doesn't get slimy, which makes it very pleasant for those who don't care for slimy food.  As for the taste, it's somewhere crossed between rice and vegetables, which also makes it quite palatable.  In grocery stores, it's usually sold dried in packages.  You don't need very much--hajiki when soaked will quintuple in size!

This particular dish takes longer than my usual recipes since it needs to simmer for nearly half an hour.  However, this is one that doesn't need to be watched like a hawk, so you can go do something else (like catching up on your homework!) while it's cooking.  Now, that doesn't mean you can put the pot on the stove, bring it to a boil, then skip down the hall to hang out with your best buds for half an hour.  Food does tend to burn when you leave it for too long.  But, this does mean that you can leave the kitchen and go back to your desk, provided you're within smelling distance in case something goes awry and you check on the pot, oh, say every 5 - 7 minutes.

Gross looking, but good tasting!

Hajiki & Chicken  (Serves 2)

1/4 c. dried hajiki
1 chicken breast
3 tofu puffs
1 carrot, pealed
1/2 in. diakon, pealed
vegetable oil
1 1/2 c. water
1 tsp. dashi granules
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
2 tsp. mirin
1 1/2 tsp. brown sugar (although white sugar will work, too)
red pepper flakes (optional, to serve)

Put the dried hajiki in a bowl and cover with cold water.  Leave stand for 30 min., or until quintupled in size.  Drain and rinse really, really well.

Cut the chicken breast into 1/2 in. strips, the tofu puffs into 1/4 in. slices, the carrot into 1/4 in. slices on the diagonal, and the diakon into 1/8 in. strips.

Heat a little oil in a pot (not a pan!!) and add the chicken, tofu, carrot, and diakon.  Stir until coated in the oil and slightly heated.  Add the hajiki to the pot.

Pour the measured water over the contents of the pot (the water should just about cover everything; if not, add a little more water).  Add the dashi granules and stir until dissolved.  Add the soy sauce, mirin, and sugar.  Bring the "soup" to a boil.

Continue to simmer the mixture, stirring occasionally, until almost all the liquid is absorbed, but don't let it boil dry.  This will probably take about 30 minutes, but you should check on it and give it a stir every 5 - 7 minutes.

After the liquid has just about been absorbed/boiled away, turn the heat off and serve.  Sprinkle with red pepper flakes, if desired.

Pork and Hokkien Noodle Stir Fry

What to do with char sui?  You did make some char sui, right?  You didn't burn yourself in the process, right?  Well, so now you have a whole pound of delicious barbecued pork.  What to do with it?  Well, you certainly don't have to eat char sui on its own like yesterday.  It is absolutely delicious in other recipes!  Since I didn't have any meat thawed out today, I had char sui both at lunch and dinner, and I thought I'd share my creations with the world.  I had almost zippo time to be cooking today, so both of these recipes are uber quick and simple.

I used those hokkien noodles again today.  They seem to really be great for stir fries.  This particular recipe didn't make quite as much as I would have liked (either that or I was just really hungry tonight), so if it looks like it's not a lot, just add a little more noodles and/or veggies and pork.  The sauce amount should be fine and dandy.

And if you didn't make your char sui yet, either pick some up in Chinatown, your local Asian market, or get cookin'!!

Pork and Hokkien Noodle Stir Fry

Ingredients:

2 oz. char sui (see Char Sui Pork)
1-2 oz. hokkien noodles
large handful of baby spinach
small handful of canned bamboo shoots
vegetable oil
4 Tbsp. chicken stock
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
2 tsp. shaoxing rice wine
1 tsp. brown sugar

Put the noodles in a bowl and cover them with boiling water.  Leave stand for a few minutes to soften them up and soak some of the grease off. 

Wash the spinach and bamboo shoots.  Drain the vegetables and noodles separately.  Rinse the noodles under cold water and drain again.  Cut the char sui into 1/8 in. slices.

Heat a little oil in a frying pan and add the spinach and bamboo.  Saute until the spinach starts to wilt.  Add the pork and noodles.

Mix together the chicken stock, soy sauce, rice wine, and sugar.  Add the sauce to the frying pan.  Continue to cook 4 - 5 min. until everything is well heated and the sauce is slightly absorbed/reduces a little.  Remove from heat and serve.

Pork and Tofu Puff Noodle Soup

Another recipe for char sui.  This soup also includes tofu puffs that I picked up at the store the other day.  What's that?  You don't like tofu?  Don't be too hasty!  Tofu puffs are deep fried tofu that are very airy, very tasty, and have none of the jiggly, gelatinous texture that some people don't like in tofu. They're about 1.5 in. cubes, nicely golden brown and wonderful in soups.  I look forward to putting them in more recipes, so get your butts over to the grocery store and pick them up!

Pork and Tofu Puff Noodle Soup

Ingredients:

1 oz prepared char sui (see Char Sui Pork)
2 tofu puffs
4 snowpeas, trimmed
1-2 oz fresh shanghai noodles (if you can't find them, any other kind of egg noodle will do)
2 small leaves napa cabbage
1 c. good chicken stock
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
2 tsp. shaoxing rice wine

Boil water in a pot, then add the noodles.  Cook 4 - 5 min. until plump and tender.  Drain and rinse under cold water.  Cut the noodles into roughly 2 - 3 in. lengths. (this isn't absolutely necessary, but it makes it easier to eat in a soup.)

Cut the char sui into 1/8 in. thick slices, the snowpeas in half on the diagonal, the cabbage into 1 in. squares, and the tofu puffs into quarters.

Bring the chicken stock, soy sauce, and rice wine to a boil.  Add the veggies, pork, and tofu.  Cook 2 - 3 min. until the pork is warmed and the vegetables are cooked.

To serve, put the noodles in a serving boil, then spoon the soup over top.

Char Sui Pork

Char sui.  If you've never heard of it, it's Chinese barbecued pork.  And it is one of the most wonderful things I have every stumbled upon.  I have a recipe for it, but it's a pain to make because the char sui sauce includes no less than eight ingredients, some of which I'll never use for anything other than char sui.  I'm in college.  I'm not doing that!  However, I came across pre-made char sui sauce in an Asian market in Chinatown, which had everything all ready to go--just marinade, bake, and eat.  I can do that!  And it was well worth it, even with my little excursion of burning myself.  I burnt myself?  Sure I did.  Not horribly, but it hurt enough for me to be yelling "SHIT, SHIT, SHIT!" in the kitchen and for my suitemate to come out and ask me if I was OK.  Now my fingers burn when I wash my hands.

OK, so I guess I'll bite and tell you the story:  My oven is tiny.  No, I mean reeeeally tiny.  So tiny that my 9" x 13" baking pan nearly takes up the whole thing.  If you read my recipe, you have to fill this pan with water while the pork is baking, so, naturally, the water gets damn hot.  So about 10 min. into the baking process, I decide that I'm going to pull the pork out and have a little peek.  Well, my oven is so tiny that I can't really see in it, so that requires me to pull the rack out.  I had 1 1/2 in. of piping hot water in this pan, and my racks don't slide easily.  The water, all 9000 degrees of it as far as I'm concerned, sloshed out onto my hand.  Sure, I was wearing an oven mitt, but the water soaked right through it and down to my hand.  Can we say it hurt just a little bit?  *cough cough*  Cue me swearing in the kitchen.  But here's the thing.  Even though the water has worked its way down to my skin and is now allowing the searing heat of the oven rack to get to my fingertips, I CAN'T LET GO!  If I let go of the rack, it will tip forward and spill more water on me.  So I gritted my teeth and as quickly and carefully as possible pushed the rack back in the oven and shut the door, whipping off the oven mitts and plunging my hands into ice water.  So there.  I'll tell you right now, don't fill your pan that much.  Just don't do it.

Here's a tip if you've got an oven like mine and your pork's done baking:  Don't remove the pan, don't touch the over rack.  Just pull out the rack the pork is on.  Turn off the oven and leave the door open for everything to cool.  Only if and when the oven and everything in it is cool should you attempt to remove the pan, and you'll probably end up spilling it anyway.  Although, this should be the case only if you're an idiot like me and use some obnoxious amount of water, but I digress.

OK, so I'll shut up and give you the recipe.  You should try this because it's awesome, and makes the most flavorful and tender pork you've ever had!

char sui has a lovely salty/sweet caramel-like glaze

Char Sui Pork

1 lb. pork (pork loin or shoulder is best), cut into quarters
6 Tbsp. char sui sauce, divided
hot cooked rice (either make it fresh or use a frozen rice packet)
vegetables (I used baby bok choy and baby spinach)

Put the pork pieces in a bowl and add 5 Tbsp. of the char sui sauce.  Using your hands, toss the pork around in the sauce to coat well.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator to marinate.  Marinate for MIN. 2 HOURS, up to overnight.  (I let mine marinate between 4 and 5 hours).

Heat your oven to 350 degrees.  Take a large baking pan and fill it no more than 1/2 in. with water (more than that, and your story will sound like mine above.)  Place a rack (a cooling rack works well) on top of the pan of water and add the pork pieces, well coated in the sauce, on top.  Yes, some of the sauce will drip into the water.  That's OK, just don't let the pork dangle into the water.  Put the whole thing into the oven and bake for 30 minutes.  (If you don't have rice already made, start cooking your rice now.)

After 30 minutes, check to see if the pork is done by slicing a piece open at the very thickest part of the thickest piece.  It should be all white on the inside--no pink!  If it needs more cooking, return the pork to the oven and keep checking it every so often (maybe 5-7 min. at a time depending on how raw it was at the first check) until the pork is done cooking.  It should be very juicy.  Remove the pork from the oven and let stand at least 10 minutes.  This helps it suck all the juices back into itself.  DON'T CUT IT YET!!!

Heat the last Tbsp. of char sui sauce in the microwave, just until it's fluid.  Brush this extra sauce all over the cooked pork.

Heat up your rice if you're using leftover rice or a frozen packet, and boil water in a pot for the vegetables.  Add the spinach and bok choy and boil until tender.  Drain well.

Cut your pork into 1/4 in. slices and serve with the rice and vegetables.

Hokkien Noodle & Fish Cake Stir Fry

I got to Chinatown today, and so picked up lots of fresh veggies and two new types of noodles:  hokkien and shanghai noodles.  Essentially, as far as I know, both noodles are very similar except for the fact that hokkien noodles are cooked and oiled.  They're perfect for stir frying, though.  In a normal grocery store, though, they might be just called 'stir fry noodles.'  The sauce I used for this dish is very light and easy, and all the ingredients should be very easy to find.

Hokkien Noodle & Fish Cake Stir Fry

1-2 oz fish cake (any kind of fish cake will do)
2 oz hokkien noodles
1/2 in. diakon, pealed
2 dried shiitake mushrooms
small bunch of broccoli
1/2 carrot pealed
2 small leaves napa cabbage
vegetable oil
1 Tbsp. oyster sauce
2 tsp. fish sauce
1/4 tsp. sesame oil
sesame seeds (optional, to serve)

Put the mushrooms in a small bowl and the noodles in another bowl, and cover both with boiling water.  Soak the mushrooms until they are reconstituted, then squeeze out the excess liquid and cut into strips.  After the noodles have softened, drain the water, rinse with cold water, and drain again.

Cut the fish cake into bite-sized pieces.  Pull the broccoli into pieces, and slice the carrot into 1/2 pieces on the diagonal.  Heat a little oil in a frying pan and saute the fish cake, broccoli, and carrot until browned and softened.

Cut the cabbage into 1 in. squares and slice the diakon into 1/8 in. slices.  Add both to the pan and stir fry 1-2 minutes.  Then add the noodles and cook until heated through.

Stir together the oyster sauce, fish sauce, and sesame oil.  Add the sauce to the pan and stir until coated and heated through.  Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve.

Udon with Sweet Chili Peanut Sauce

Peanut sauce is always so delicious, but unless you've got a food processor lying around or have all the time in the world to be crushing peanuts by hand, making peanut sauce is a pain in the you-know-what!  So I cheat.  Hey, I'm living in a college dorm--I don't have time for that kind of stuff!  What's my secret?  The one thing that's probably on every college kid's menu and within a tight budget:  peanut butter.  Yes, peanut butter.  Melt it down with some water, mix it with some other sauces, and you're good to go!  This recipe should be something that everyone can try.  I'm pretty sure all the ingredients are at least fairly easy to pick up at the local grocery store, but if you can't find diakon, it'll still taste good without it.

Udon with Sweet Chili Peanut Sauce

Ingredients:

1-2 oz dried udon noodles
5 snowpeas
1/2 large carrot or 1 small carrot, pealed
1/2 in. diakon, pealed
vegetable oil
1 Tbsp. peanut butter (either chunky or smooth will work beautifully)
4 tsp. hot water
1 Tbsp. sweet chili sauce (with or without garlic will work)
2 tsp. soy sauce
sesame seeds (optional, to serve)

Cook the udon according to package directions, then drain and rinse with cold water.  Set aside.

Cut the carrot into 1/8 in. slices on the diagonal and the diakon into 1/8 in. thick sticks.  Trim the stems from the snow peas, then slice them in half on the diagonal.

Combine the peanut butter, hot water, chili sauce, and soy sauce together in a small bowl.  Stir well until the peanut butter has dissolved and a smooth paste is formed.  Set aside.

Heat a little oil in a pan, then add the vegetables and cook for 2 minutes.  After the veggies have softened a bit, add the noodles and stir to combine.  Add the peanut sauce and stir until well coated and heated through.  Serve.  Sprinkle with sesame seeds if desired.