January 28, 2020 Lunch – PPI Miso Noodle and Dumpling Soup. Dinner – Stir Fried White cooked Pork with mixed Vegetables and Raw Rice and Texas Chili

January 28, 2020 Lunch – PPI Miso Noodle and Dumpling Soup.  Dinner – Stir Fried White cooked Pork with mixed Vegetables and Raw Rice and Texas Chili

I always change recipes to see what I can do to make them more interesting.  Today are two examples.

I did not eat breakfast.

When I returned from my dental cleaning appointment around 12:00 I heated yesterday’s Noodle soup and added 4 oz. of tofu diced, an additional T. of red Miso , 6 chicken mini-dumplings, two additional leaves of Napa cabbage, more Chinese cooking wine, water, and garnished the soup with green onion rings and seasoned it with lime juice, hoisin, and sriracha.

It was even more delicious today.  The increased Miso gave the soup thickness, enhanced flavor, and a reddish color.

After lunch I thawed a pork boneless loin steak and the leg of lamb we shall marinate tomorrow for our Friday night dinner in Taos.

Charlie came over after lunch and we talked for a while and traded books.  I then worked on my three new cases and at 4:30 rode the short loop.

This recipe is repeated in greater detail below. When I returned at 5:15 Suzette was home said she wanted to start cooking the Texas Chili for the Super Bowl.  She chopped three onions, a small head of garlic, sautéed that with six pounds of ground beef, six 15 oz. cans of diced tomatoes, quartered mushrooms, and a large can of red beans plus chili seasoning,  Tomorrow we will add oregano and cumin.

White cooked pork with mixed Vegetables

I sort of recall a recipe for White cooked Pork.  The trick is to coat the meat with a marinade
including cornstarch.  I did this by putting the cornstarch into solution. I emulsified it in Chinese Cooking wine and sesame oil and adding the marinated pork after the Mixed vegetables (1 onion, 2 cubed Mexican Squash, fresh minced ginger, fresh minced garlic, and ½ of a red pepper diced) had cooked for about fifteen minutes and softened.  After the pork cooked I added 18 snow peas, 1 T. of soy, 3 T. of water, and 1 more T. of Chinese cooking wine to create a sauce.

I also cooked 1 cup of raw rice in 2 ½ cups of water with a sprinkle of dehydrated chicken stock.

 

When the rice and pork dish was ready we each served ourselves.  I drank green tea and Suzette sipped her drink.

We both liked the dish. It reminds me of Julia Child’s recipe for Scallops Provençal which, similarly, sautés vegetables and then sautés flour coated scallops and adds the scallops to the vegetables with wine to make a sauce. The coating integrates into the dish to make a sauce. It is a lovely and easy way to cook a very tasty dish, because the sauce is created from the cooking juices of the ingredients with a little help from a condiment such as Chinese cooking wine or white wine.

Texas Chili

Suzette wanted to start making the Texas chili tonight since we had all the ingredients.  She started while I was cooking dinner, which filled our kitchen with activity as we dodged each other.  She first chopped three yellow onions and a head of garlic in the Cuisinart and sautéed them in canola oil in a large pot.  She then added 6 lb. of 88% ground beef from Costco. When the beef was fully cooked Suzette added six 15 oz. cans of diced tomatoes and a lb. of quartered white mushrooms.  I added my last ½ T. of Pendry’s Texas chili mix and Suzette added some more chili mix we had.  Chili mix typically contains, onion, garlic, chili, cumin, and oregano.

I then opened the large can of red beans we bought last night at a Southwest Distributors and she added that plus some water.  She then set the pot of chili on the smallest burner to simmer. After dinner and after going to the building to inspect the day’s work, I tasted the chili and it was delicious.  Just a bit of spiciness on the back end. When we went to bed I put the chili in the garage.  It will take several more hours of cooking for the tomatoes and beef to go into solution and the mushrooms to cook and soften.

Suzette’s addition of mushrooms to her Texas chili is a unique recipe that I have never considered authentic, but Billy often cooks his Texas chili with Posole instead of beans.  Texas chili has apparently metamorphosed and been adapted into so many different variations, like Paella, that it is impossible to claim any recipe is authentic.  I think the recipe is derived from the cattle drive days from South Texas when the cooks would gather wild chili arbol (pequin) and kill a cow and make a stew with beef, beans and chili pequins.  My adaptation is to add tomatoes, garlic, onions, and oregano to the authentic recipe.

By the way, the market made a U turn today and regained its 1.8% drop of yesterday.  Apple announced earnings after the market closed and futures indicate an up day tomorrow again. I am just riding the roller coaster.

We went to bed around 9:30.

Bon Appetit