Pork Faux Mein

In my early days, I promised to give you recipes that used little to no ingredients that you wouldn't know and likely have in your home.  Pork Faux Mein has only one, oddly enough, but tastes almost exactly like Low Mein noodles from a Chinese restaurant.

Much like Low Mein, this recipe is healthy only in that it has vegetables in it.

Ingredients:
1/2 package of uncooked spaghetti noodles
1 lb pork tenderloin, chopped in pieces about the size of the last joint of your thumb
5 tbsp butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
1/2 a red bell pepper, diced
1 carrot, cut in small rounds
1 head of broccoli, cut in small florets
1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup rice wine (you can substitute a very dry white wine if you need to)

Directions:
Snap spaghetti noodles in half.  Boil spaghetti noodles for 9 minutes.  Drain into collander or thoroughly drain in pan.

Melt butter in a large skillet with ginger and garlic over medium high heat.  Fry pork until you can no longer see any pink flesh remaining.  Add in vegetables and stir-fry until broccoli becomes bright green.  Pour in soy sauce and rice wine.  Stir to combine.

Add noodles and stir mixture until almost all the liquid is absorbed.  Serve hot.

Seared Tuna Steaks

February being the month of indulgences (for the blog, anyway) this may not at first glance seem to fit the bill.  But after you go out and buy your tuna steaks, you may understand a little better why I'd put this under the category.  Tuna steaks are expensive!

The very first thing you need for this recipe is a good tuna steak.  Do not get a cheap, on-sale, or suspicious looking tuna steak.  If possible, ask the sales person at the fish market for the best thing they've got. If you happen to be local to Charleston, WV, I'd recommend the fish market in the Capital Market for your fish needs as they've never lead me astray.

Then make sure your steak is the right width: 1 inch wide (approximately).  That is, ladies and gents, the size of the second joint of your pointer finger (as my elementary math teachers liked to say)  This is SUPER important considering it effects your cook time and how well done (or poorly done) your final product is.  Cut if necessary.

Let's go!

Ingredients:
2 1-inch thick tuna steaks, roughly the size of your hand
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
1 tbsp grated ginger
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp lemon juice

Directions:
Combine everything but tuna in a gallon sized plastic bag.  Squish together until combined.  Toss in tuna, press out air, and swish around in bag until the tuna is thoroughly coated.  Put in the fridge for about an hour to marinade, turning occasionally to ensure marinade touches all the tuna.

When you're ready to cook, pull out a non-stick skillet and heat over medium high.  When the pan is hot (toss a few drops of water on it: it should sizzle and large drops should bead up and skitter around the pan) Pull the tuna out of the bag LEAVING ANY BITS OF GINGER AND GARLIC ON THE TUNA and slap it in the pan.  Let cook 3 (pink on inside) to 4 (done on inside) minutes per side, turning carefully with a spatula and serve warm.

Quick and Easy: Chicken Kijiyaki

My thanks to Just Bento and their cookbook for this recipe (slightly altered)


Ingredients:
1 large or 2 medium/small boneless skinless chicken thighs (I know somewhere out there is a health nut saying "Oh, I'm sure it'd be just as good with chicken breasts", let me tell you- it is not.)
3 tbsp reduced sodium soy sauce (my personal quirk: feel free to use regular)
3 tbsp aji mirin (*see below for notes)
1 tbsp sugar

Directions:
Measure out the mirin and soy sauce into a small bowl. Set aside. Measure sugar into a small bowl. Set aside. This is important as the pan will be hot when you add these items. There will not be time to measure them out.

Cut chicken thighs into strips about one finger wide and 2 inches long at most. (If you will be making this recipe or other recipes using thighs like this a lot, cut a bunch and divide it out into ziplock baggies as you can see I do. They'll last several months in the freezer this way)

Set out a large nonstick skillet (you can use a different kind of pan if you'd like, but I find it always tears the chicken up). It has to be big enough so that all the chicken can lay in it, flat, barely touching or not touching at all.

Take a paper towel, fold over four times, then hold over the top of a container of vegetable oil. Flip the bottle over briefly, holding the paper towel to the top, then set it back upright. Rub down the skillet with the paper towel. This ensures the chicken will move easily and not break on lifting.

Place the chicken in the pan, making sure it lays as flat as possible. Heat to medium high. Listen for the oil/grease to start "spitting". After about 3 minutes, flip the chicken strips over. The part now facing you should be slightly browned. After another three minutes, flip those chicken thighs again, looking now for a crisp brown-ness. You may have to change their position in the pan a few times to get the best browning.

As each piece gets the crispy brown sides, pull it out of the pan and set it on a plate. Once all the pieces have been pulled out, add the sugar and mirin mixture to the pan. BE CAREFUL!!! The hot pan often causes the mirin mixture to "pop" back up towards you.

Drop the heat to medium-low and stir until sugar dissolves (no time at all). Add chicken back in and flip it a few times in the sauce until well coated. Take off the heat.

I like to serve mine on rice with edamame on the sides as shown at the top of the recipe.

*A note about mirin: This sweet rice sauce can be found in the foreign foods section of grocery stores. I figure if I can find it at Walmart, just about anyone who really wants to can find it where they are.

This is the type of mirin I prefer to cook with: aji mirin.

This is another type of mirin, which honestly I don't much care for but it generally seems to be cheaper: kotteri mirin