Sauteed Pork, Taro and Korean Mushrooms

This is another example of cooking without a recipe...

1 small thumb of ginger, sliced thinly
1 small onion, sliced thinly
1 piece of pork tenderloin, cleaned, trimmed and sliced into matchstick strips
1 piece of taro, cubed or sliced in strips
1 pack of Korean shimeji mushrooms
2 pieces Korean King Mushrooms, sliced
light soy sauce
oyster sauce
salt and pepper, to taste

Marinate the pork strips in soy sauce and oyster sauce (a 350-gram piece with 2 tablespoons soy sauce and 1 tablespoon oyster sauce, as well as ground black pepper) for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, fry the taro pieces until almost cooked and lightly browned.  Set aside to cool slightly.

Saute the ginger and onions.  Add the marinated pork and cook until half done.  Throw in the mushrooms.  Add chicken stock, 1/4 cup at a time, so the mixture is not too dry.  Finally, add the taro.  Season to taste.  Simmer until done; thicken with cornstarch slurry.

Done!

Pork, Liver and Celery Stirfry

This week has indeed been busy, and I mean even the nights!  We're usually home for dinner but for some reason or another, this week found us having dinner out... for meetings or with friends.  Tonight is actually the first night this week that I cooked dinner!  And it's the weekend already!

This dish is a request from hubby.  It seems we had been having chicken more often than usual so he was missing pork a bit.  He specifically asked for stir fried pork with celery, but when we found really fresh pork liver, he asked if we could have some in the stirfry too.  My reply?  Of course!  I may not be a fan of liver but I do like its flavor (it's the texture that puts me off)

It's quite easy to make, too!

2 small pork tenderloin pieces (about 600 grams total)
150 grams pork liver
about 4 to 5 large stalks of celery, sliced diagonally
4 slices of ginger
1 small onion, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 to 2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
cornstarch slurry

Slice the tenderloin into thin strips then marinate in a tablespoon of soy sauce and some black pepper for about 10 to 15 minutes.  Meanwhile slice the liver into triangles (this is "traditional" shape that I grew up with) and marinate in a teaspoon of soy sauce for 5 to 10 minutes.

Heat a wok until almost smoking and throw in the ginger.  After a couple of seconds add the liver and flash fry a few seconds only.  Remove the liver from the wok.  Saute the onion and garlic.  Add the celery and the pork tenderloin.  Season with another tablespoon of soy sauce (or as preferred) and oyster sauce.  Stir fry until pork is cooked.  Add the liver back to the pan and stir fry another couple of seconds.  Thicken the sauce with cornstarch slurry.

It was perfect on top of rice, on this rainy evening!

Shredded Pork with Enoki

I love mushrooms in general.  Golden mushrooms, or enoki, in particular, is a favorite of mine!  Thank goodness they're more readily available these days.

And here's one of my favorite ways of cooking enoki -

It's an easy stir fry dish that's on the table in about 30 minutes or so... assuming the meat is not frozen, that is.

The best cut of pork for this dish is tenderloin.  Slice about 250 grams of pork tenderloin into strips (my mom called them shreds, hence the title) and  marinate (for about 15 minutes) in a mix of 1 tablespoon shao xing wine, 1-1/2 tablespoons light soya sauce, 1/2 tablespoon sesame oil, 1/2 tablespoon cornstarch and about 1/2 teaspoon crushed black peppercorns.

While the meat is marinating, prepare the other ingredients - (1) about 3 thin slices of ginger, (2) 1 small onion, sliced thinly, (3) scallop or abalone XO sauce, to taste [I use about 1 teaspoon], (4) 200 to 300 grams golden mushrooms, cleaned and pulled apart into "shreds", and (5) 2 egg whites, lighlty beaten.

Heat some oil in a wok until very hot and saute the ginger and sliced onions.  When the ginger browns and the onions are soft, toss in the XO sauce and saute the mixture briefly.   Give the pork shreds a quick stir and drop into the hot wok, stir-frying until the pork shrinks a little (indicating that it's halfway to being done).  The mixture may appear quite oily.  Add the mushrooms and stir (at this point I usually add another tablespoon or so of soya sauce but be careful because some soy sauces are saltier than others; also, a friend of mine adds half a teaspoon of brown sugar and swears that the dish is better, but I've never tried it).  After a several minutes, the enoki should be "sweating" and the dish will appear soupier and less oily.  Do a taste test and adjust the seasonings according to your preference.  Pour in the egg whites while stirring the wok to break apart the egg whites.  Turn off the heat.  Serve immediately!

Chicken and Chives Stir Fry

There were a few interesting items at the grocery today.  Flowering chives made a rare appearance!  And I remembered how my mom loved them!  She simply stir fried them with some chopped garlic and ate them as is.

Lovely and delicate as their flavor is, I really could not prepare them the way my mom did (for one thing they were too pricey!)  Besides, a bunch or two would not turn out a large enough dish or be appropriate to serve as an entree.

Then I remember eating a simple chicken dish in Hong Kong that seemed to me to be simple stir fried chicken breast strips with flowering chives.

So here is my attempt to recreate that dish.

2 to 3 chicken breast fillets
1 tablespoon shao xing wine
1 to 2 tablespoons light soya sauce
fresh ground pepper
1 bundle of flowering chives
cornstarch water (for thickening, if desired)

Slice the fillets into chunks.  Marinate in wine, soy sauce and pepper for about 30 minutes.

Chop the flowering chives into 1 1/2-inch strips.  (I always discard the tough ends and any wilted parts)

Heat oil in a wok until really hot (sizzling!) Stir fry the chives for a few seconds and then throw in the chicken chunks.  Quick fry, adjust seasonings (salt and pepper to taste).  Do not overcook.

The choice to add a thickener is personal.  Usually, if my dish is a bit saucy, I would add cornstarch water.  But it there's not much liquid, then I leave the chicken as is.

Instead of chicken, shelled shrimp, fish fillets, or squid may be used.  Flowering chives are also good as "topping" for noodles, especially long life egg misua dishes.  Another way is to add the chives to scrambled eggs.