Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Stamina

Chinese Pork Sauté 

_DSC1464Funny, the flip-flops I wore in tropical climate Hawaii were no longer fashionable here, Cold air forced my toes to curl, we rushed to the parked car. I zipped up my jacket and slouched over against the car window while my husband drove home deep into the night.

I must be creative for the day-after-a-trip meal. I stood in front of the wide open refrigerator for some time and brainstormed what can I make without going to the store. Gross! I removed a liquidized bag of bean sprouts into the trash. I inspect more for spoilage; yup, this is no good…and neither is that. In fact, most of the vegetables are not looking happy. What a waste!

Goody! I found thin slices of pork belly in the freezer! This dish has become our staple since I found it in Today’s Cooking magazine. It consists of a few ingredients and is very quick. Also the pork‘s vitamin B1 will combat fatigue and give you energy…at least that is what it said. Exhausted from trip, we need that.

Sake may be substituted for shokoushu (紹興酒) however this sweet rice fermented cooking wine is the key for flavoring. It’s cheap and you can use it for many other Chinese dishes so you may want to stock in your pantry? We like this pork sauté on warm cooked rice though, over noodle or in buns such as Momofuku’s are excellent choices too._DSC1437

Ingredients for Pork Sauté for 4 (or 2 hungry) people _DSC1434

  • Thinly sliced pork belly meat about 1 pound, cut in two-inch strips
  • 4-5 cloves of garlic, minced
  • Fresh ginger roots 1-2 Tablespoons, minced
  • Shokoushu (紹興酒) 3-4 Tablespoons
  • Brown sugar 4-5 Tablespoons
  • Green onion 4-5 Tablespoons chopped small.
  • Soy sauce 3-4 Tablespoons 
  1. Separate some fatty part of meat from pork belly._DSC1440
  2. Heat non-stick pan and toss the fatty meat in and sauté until the fat is rendered at medium heat.
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  3. Put 1/3 of garlic and all of ginger in the pan and cook until fragrant. Do not burn the garlic
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  4. Put rest of meat in and cook until meat is half way cooked. Turn the heat up to high and put in sugar and shoukoushu. Coat the meat with sauce while constantly moving it around.
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  5. Add soy sauce and sauté more.
  6. Put rest of garlic and turn off heat. Stir for 30secounds or so .
  7. Taste meat and adjust seasoning – we like saucy meat so tend to add more sake and soy sauce. Serve over rice and sprinkle with green onion on top. Optional; Make a well in the center of rice and drop an egg yolk in there. If you prefer thicker sauce, add water diluted cornstarch (1 teaspoon of cornstarch and 3 Tablespoons of water) at the end.
    _DSC1460

 

After a long fright plus one hour drive from the airport, my husband and I still felt very lucky to reunited with our beautiful grand children.IMG_0401We were invited to swim at Turtle Bay Resort’s pool facility. Our son-in-law gave his son a fast ride at pool.IMG_0407Peace!IMG_0414Sharks Cove was other fun place to swim and snorkel. IMG_0423We stopped at Matsumoto for shaved ice afterward.IMG_0435Grand children and their equally gorgeous cousins are very close – play well…occasional fights happen though.IMG_0439Today was not life on the beach day, My husband and I took grand children to movie then hurried to un, deux, trois, we observed granddaughter‘s ballet lesson. Too many popcorn ruined our appetite too. IMG_0415We went to the Zoo zoo,zoo with cousins. Hey look over here girl!IMG_0481Nature is a great artist. Love the gum tree.IMG_0485The Little Prince..like tree…Baobab? IMG_0506

We adults had an amazing meal at Morimoto’s. Here are some from the experience. I wish I was better Iphonographer! Abalone chawan mushi was velvety! Fried pineapple with iberiko topping was in the back.IMG_0458Poke with dashi foam. Oh my!IMG_0464Iron Chef Morimoto was in the kitchen. Mahalo for kindly posing for the photo.This is clearly not good pic but my husband couldn’t ask for an another photo. He was very nice though. IMG_0456This is Molten lava cake.Taste and artistic plating we enjoyed throughout meal!  IMG_0475Lovely beach is short walking distance away.IMG_0444IMG_0450

My husband and I stopped at La Palme D’Or cake shop “our usual travel pattern” before heading to airport.IMG_0516Mont blanc and strawberry shortcake. So so good! or should I say ono?IMG_0519

Back home, Portland made Autumn transformation already.  IMG_0524

Brrrr. Body react for 30 degrees colder.

 

18 comments:

  1. So nice to read about the happy time you had with your beautiful family:) The gum tree is so gorgeous, never seen it before! Ah! There's also something nice about home...home sweet home:) the lovely autumn colours for example...never mind the cold, it too will pass...Cold seem to arrive earlier here too...let's just hide our toes for now:)

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    1. Thank you Annie. I'm so grateful to have beautiful four seasons. I don't get too many butterflies here though...getting too cold I guess.

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  2. Your posts always make me smile, and this one was no exception. It was majorly hot and humid here in Hawaii this past week . . . must've been nice for you to get back to cooler weather. I loved all of your photos . . . great memories. Your grandchildren are so precious and getting bigger and bigger . . . so fast. Nice that you got to reconnect.

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    1. Thank you Jalna. I had a wonderful time in Hawaii and thought about you often. You're such a neat person.

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  3. That dish looks delicious! A wonderful combination of flavors. Your grandchildren are so cute.

    Cheers,

    Rosa

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  4. Fantastic post and Chinese Pork Sauté looks so mouthwatering! Looks like everybody had a great time. By the way you have beautiful family! Thanks for sharing and have a great day!

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    1. Thank you Sandra. You too have a wonderful day!

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  5. I'm sad again. :( When are you coming back?

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    1. It's your turn next. Christmas is great time I think...although we're favor of ditching Christmas again this year and go somewhere nice but not Disneyland. Love you.

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  6. Your photographs make me hungry and dreamy at the same time (as always!). The stir-fried pork looks marvellous! I love such thin pork strips for example in Korean dishes.
    Abalone chawanmushi? I think I will never forget this idea! If I had access to abalone, I'd try to replicate it at once. Unfortunately I have never seen abalone sold here... I have tasted it several times in Japan though and loved it so much!

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    1. Sissi, Thank you for your comment. The abalone chawan mushi was amazing! I hope you could dine in Morimoto and I love to join you.

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  7. You've got my favorite bottle of 紹興酒! ;) Love this simple dish.

    Your Grand Children are beautiful. What a nice trip with great food. Morimoto is my idol. How nice that you've spotted him in the kitchen.

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    1. Thank you Amy. Morimoto iron chef was very nice and friendly. I enjoyed the whole experience.

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  8. your grandchildren are so cute .... i am sure they are having a good time. I would love to have a bowl of that pork.

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    1. Thank you so much for your kind comment. My grandchildren are the best! Ha ha ha.

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  9. Eesh, liquified beansprouts... I know that feeling too well! They always sell them in such huge bags! I couldn't possibly eat so many, lol!

    Your grandchildren are so sweet - I hope one day my son will decide to have (or adopt) children too so I can have some grandchildren to spoil and give too much chocolate to! Of course, at the moment I'm more than happy to enjoy the fact that he's so small and young and has so much to learn. Grandchildren might not be for another 30 years maybe, but something to look forward to some day! :)

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    1. Hi Charles. Thank you for your comment. I tried your bread recipe. It's definitely keeper!
      I know you will be a awesome grandfather some day. Don't spoil them too much though.

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