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Cooking Experiment Success!
September 16th, 2013 07:57 pmFirst: From my mood when I posted a brief note this afternoon, compared with my mood now, I'm relearning that I really, really, really shouldn't rely on carbs during the day. The instanoodle from Uwajimaya was yummy, but not what I needed.
Second: I just finished cooking a dish from Fuschia Dunlop's Revolutionary Chinese Cooking: Recipes from Hunan Province, and I'm delighted. It's about time I used my wok as a proper wok. I'm only just realizing that I've been scared of cooking with high heat ever since the Three Firetrucks incident -- but damn it, it's my own house, and I don't have to call the fire department if I KNOW there isn't a fire. SO THERE.
I picked a recipe that looked relatively simple, both in preparation and ingredients, because I wanted to be able to taste the one ingredient I was totally unfamiliar with -- fermented black beans. They seem to be a bit sour and a lot umami. I had green bell peppers rather than Italian frying peppers, bacon rather than pork belly, and sherry rather than shaoxing wine, but those were all suggested substitutions. I may try it again when I have more time for shopping -- peppers and pork belly are easy to find. (Not so sure about the wine).
The dish isn't knock-your-socks off, but it's definitely tasty, nicely balanced between greens and meat, and only took 40 minutes to make -- which included rice, rereading the recipe multiple times, and bringing my housemate a hammer and a ziploc bag of pork because I'm crap at judging weight and I needed to know how it compared to a pound. Since I'm a ridiculously slow cook, 40 min is actually pretty good.
Have to note that I roughly doubled the recipe, and any further increase would be impossible, because it really is a true stir fried dish, not a 'stir fry' as my family more colloquially calls them, cooked over medium heat.
I have most of the tin of fermented black beans left, and I THINK that for the first time in several weeks, E and I have a normal weekend. I'm looking forward to a trip out to Hong Phat and a chance to try a few more things from the book.
Second: I just finished cooking a dish from Fuschia Dunlop's Revolutionary Chinese Cooking: Recipes from Hunan Province, and I'm delighted. It's about time I used my wok as a proper wok. I'm only just realizing that I've been scared of cooking with high heat ever since the Three Firetrucks incident -- but damn it, it's my own house, and I don't have to call the fire department if I KNOW there isn't a fire. SO THERE.
I picked a recipe that looked relatively simple, both in preparation and ingredients, because I wanted to be able to taste the one ingredient I was totally unfamiliar with -- fermented black beans. They seem to be a bit sour and a lot umami. I had green bell peppers rather than Italian frying peppers, bacon rather than pork belly, and sherry rather than shaoxing wine, but those were all suggested substitutions. I may try it again when I have more time for shopping -- peppers and pork belly are easy to find. (Not so sure about the wine).
The dish isn't knock-your-socks off, but it's definitely tasty, nicely balanced between greens and meat, and only took 40 minutes to make -- which included rice, rereading the recipe multiple times, and bringing my housemate a hammer and a ziploc bag of pork because I'm crap at judging weight and I needed to know how it compared to a pound. Since I'm a ridiculously slow cook, 40 min is actually pretty good.
Have to note that I roughly doubled the recipe, and any further increase would be impossible, because it really is a true stir fried dish, not a 'stir fry' as my family more colloquially calls them, cooked over medium heat.
I have most of the tin of fermented black beans left, and I THINK that for the first time in several weeks, E and I have a normal weekend. I'm looking forward to a trip out to Hong Phat and a chance to try a few more things from the book.
