September 8, 2018 Lunch – PPI Vietnamese Miso Noodle Soup
Dinner – Stir-Fried Pork, Beech Mushrooms, Onion, Napa Cabbage, and Water Chestnuts

I ate a 1/3 slice of bagel smeared with cream cheese and garnished with smoked white fish and slices of onion with a cup of green tea.

At 10:00 I rode to Montano

At noon I heated the pot of PPI  Vietnamese Miso Noodle Soup and added three Fried fish balls sliced and six mini chicken dumplings plus a bit of water.

I added minced parsley, fresh cilantro laves, lime juice, and hoisin sauce.  It was really delicious.

After lunch I PPI thawed three pork steaks for dinner. I thought of making the Roasted Pork Tapa with apples and onion, but when Suzette arrived she nixed that idea.  I suggested making a Pork stir fry with Napa cabbage, beech mushrooms, and sliced water chestnuts and she agreed to that.

Stir Fried Pork and Napa Cabbage

I thinly sliced ½ onion and minced 1 T. of fresh ginger root and a small head of garlic from our garden.

I also sliced in half four Napa cabbage leaves and then sliced each half into ¼ inch wide strips.

I cubed 1 lb. of pork steak into ½ inch cubes.

I then cut the roots off 3 oz. of white beech mushrooms and opened and drained a small 7 oz. can of water chestnuts.

I heated 2 T. of peanut oil in my wok and added the garlic, ginger, and onion plus 1 tsp. of chili garlic sauce and the cubed pork. I cooked those ingredients for several minutes until the pork turned white.  Then I added the mostly thicker white portion sections of cabbage and the beech mushrooms to the wok and cooked that a couple of minutes more.  Then I added the sliced green tops of cabbage and 1 tsp. Of sesame oil, 1 T. Chinese Cooking Wine, and 1 tsp of soy sauce to the wok and covered it to steam the ingredients.  I actually turned the heat off until Willy arrived at this point.  I mixed a seasoning sauce with 2 heaping tsp. of cornstarch, 1 T. of Chinese Cooking wine, 1 tsp. Of sesame oil, 2 tsp. of soy and about ¼ cup of water until the cornstarch went into solution.

When Willy arrived I heated the wok and added the seasoning sauce and in a minute or two when the liquid in the wok thickened, we were ready to eat.  I heated a contained of rice and a smaller container of cauliflower Couscous in the microwave.  Willy and I piled rice on a plate and then covered it with stir fried pork.  Suzette ate the Couscous with her dish.  Suzette is still avoiding carbs.

          This dish served with brown rice is similar to how I cooked for years when I was younger and lived alone and worked at Pier 1 as their corporate counsel in the early 70’s.  I would portion meat like the bags with 1 pork steak each and have a variety of vegetables like the beech mushrooms, green onions, and Napa cabbage and small cans of Chinese vegetables like the sliced water chestnuts and fresh garlic and ginger root and onions and make a pot of rice each week.  When I got home from work I would make a stir fried dish like tonight’s and heat some rice or stir rice into the dish, often with an egg, for a quick hot meal.

Willy demonstrated his new camp stove to us that burned wood.  It was lovely and the pictures of it burning twigs he showed us were impressive, especially when he showed us that it fit inside the smaller pot of his cook kit.

After dinner we watched Texas A &M almost tie Clemson and ate a bit of clafoutis.  When Willy left we soaked in the hot tub.  I was sore from my bike ride today.

Then we went to bed happily mostly free of pain at 10:00..

Bon Appetit