So...whats for dinner?

Thank you all that have been thinking of me.  My brother does not have a home right now. I have sent him money and will continue to do so.  I have had the flu. I  have been thinking about treating another serious condition which would require 3-6 months off from work. But.... on the positive side... it's Mussles Friday with my girlfriends!  Susan, you will be happy to know that I dont stink quite as badly, and will be performing with 5 "select" haha violinists at a Christmas arts and crafts fair.  I have been practicing a little more.  I am still a hacker and always will be.  Love to all.  I'm sorry that I can't catch up.    

That took some time! But here you go.

This recipe is from Grace Young's Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge. This book is a compilation of recipes that reflect the huge diaspora of Chinese peoples. As the people settled all over the world, families adapted their traditional recipes with ingredients that could be found where they had settled. Broccoli was found in many places and was substituted for the many greens that are more traditional in China.

The basic recipe calls for 12 oz of meat and 12 oz of greens. You can vary your ingredients as you want, as long as it adds up to 24 oz. If you increase that amount, then simply increase the amount of all the other ingredients. Don't skimp too much on the oil. She has already reduced the original amounts substantially. You are coating the food with oil, not the pan.

I generally reduce the amount of meat and increase the vegetables and often substitute pork or lamb, and of course, napa cabbage. I have changed the cooking instructions to avoid copyright issues.

24 oz lean flank steak
1 tablespoon minced ginger
2 teaspoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons plus 1 tablespoon Shao Hsing rice wine or dry sherry [divided]
1 1/2 tsp cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons chicken broth [I often sub water]
2 tablespoons oyster sauce [this is essential!]
2 teaspoons dark soy [also essential!]
12 ounces broccoli florets and stems, cut into 1/4-inch slices (about 5 cups)
2 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil [peanut is tastier] [divided]
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon fermented black beans, rinsed and mashed [you can make without, but you will regret]
3/4 thinly sliced onion [cross cut like for fajitas]

cooking tools:
14-inch flat bottomed wok or 12-inch skillet
4 prep bowls
flat wood spatula or silicone spatula
stir-fry means to pull the food from under to flip the food. not just moving stuff about.

1. Cut beef with the grain into 2-inch-wide strips, then again into a 1/4 inch thick slice.

2. In a medium bowl mix the ginger, soy sauce, 2 teaspoons rice wine, cornstarch, salt, and pepper. Then add the meat and coat completely. Add the sesame oil and then stir.

3. In another bowl mix the chicken stock or water, oyster sauce, dark soy sauce and the rest of the rice wine.

4. Put beans and garlic in a small prep bowl.

5. Put onions in a small prep bowl.

4. Blanch the broccoli for about a minute. Drain when the broccoli is bright green. Shake excess water. [If you using carrots, same. If using cabbage don't bother.]

5. Make sure your mise en place is all ready and lined up in order of pan entry: peanut oil, garlic and black beans, meat, peanut oil, chicken broth mixture, onions. Also have a clean plate. This will all move very quickly.

6. Heat your wok or skillet over hot heat until a bead of water vaporizes within 1 to 2 seconds. Swirl in 1 tablespoon of the oil, swirling the pan to cover. Add the garlic and black beans, and then stir-fry for 10 seconds or until fragrant. Push the garlic and beans to the edges, and add the beef, being careful to make sure each piece is in contact with the pan. [Almost impossible, but try.] DON"T touch the meat for a full minute. The beef will have a chance to sear. Then stir fry for another minute. It should be browned but not cooked through. Remove to the plate.

7. Swirl in the other tablespoon of peanut oil and add the onions. Stir for about 30 seconds or until the onions are translucent. Add the broccoli and stir-fry for 15 seconds. Add the beef back to the pan along with any juices on the plate. Swirl the oyster sauce mixture into the wok and stir-fry about 30 seconds or until the beef is just cooked through.

Serves 2-3 as a main. Perfect with rice.

Julia in a PSA trying to prevent kitchen fires.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97WYhj9SZSQ

Wonderful Susan, thanks for the link!

Inspired,

Oh please! Join us... if there comes a time that you want to cook Chinese food at home [not the americanized stuff], and want a description of those ingredients just ask.

This thread is really more, what I ate for dinner. This is one thread on this site that makes me smile daily. Hope you enjoy it as well.

*susan*

Yes, Inspired, do join us! Culinary expertise is not a requirement, but you can certainly get inspired by some of the food items the ladies and Eric (currently away helping out in NY)have for dinner. We are a friendly non-judgmental group who happen to enjoy food.



Carole, my smoothies are basically made up of any combination of greens, nuts, and fruit that I like and have on hand. I make them in a Vita Mix which turns out a great smoothie, but my friends use any good blenders. I usually blend at least three raw veggies....e.g. kale, brussels sprouts, spinach, beet greens, carrots, baby lettuces (in your case you could add any of the greens you get from your CSA). I also usually add half of a raw beet since it makes the smoothie the most beautiful color! Then I usually add a cut up apple, some orange, always blueberries (now I use frozen ones), red grapes, always half a banana (I keep very ripe ones in the freezer)and any other fruit you like...like pineapple, pear, peaches, strawberries etc. I often add some protein with a few walnuts and then chia seeds. Add water, or coconut milk, or unsweetened cranberry juice and oj, enough to make it liquid enough to blend and add a few ice cubes, blend, and you have quite a tasty creation!



Now, all that said it is a production getting all those items together every AM (I used to be the queen of the fast yogurt breakfast, so this takes more time than I like) so I have taken to making enough for three glasses, and I cover them tightly and leave in fridge to use the next two days, hoping that I am not losing all the nutrients by doing that. I love that the smoothies really fill me up and stave off hunger for several hours. As DH says, you can "taste the goodness". Try making a few different combos to see what you like. With the ones I make you'd never know you are packing in all those veggies! Tastes mostly like fruit....tho one friend who tried one was not fond of the beet flavor she detected. I am fine with it and prefer that to the green gray color of a smoothie without a strong coloring "agent" . Good luck!

Deborye - you and Little Debbie do bear a striking resemblance...

Editing to add:  Debbie, my mom (and dad) cut my bangs straight across as well.  One of my early grade school pictures borders on ridiculous.  I think they kept cutting to try to even them out (but weren't doing too good on the "even" part) and they got shorter and shorter and shorter...  

Thanksgiving is a tricky holiday for me when it comes to food. My family has such long-held traditions that changing the menu involves loss. As I look around my table now, the people who loved the traditions, the ones who had pride in some random bloodline are passing. Only my mother is left. Thanksgiving is the holiday where I miss that generation the most. I miss the fact that our cousins are no longer present. The others around the table, have no expectations that the meal will stay the same year after year. I added nibbles before the meal about 8 years ago just to have someplace to add some new ideas. So I am trying to decide how much of this year's meal is tradition, and how much I can change. And then there is the vegetarian, so I have to make some dishes twice.

The turkey doesn't get changed. My mother roasted. I smoke. Well, my husband smokes the turkey over cherry wood that I collect in the mountains of NH from blow-downs. Gravy... I have some turkey parts to make stock early in the week; and then veggie stock so I can make my sister a vegetarian gravy. Creamed onions stay because I love them. Butternut squash because my mother brings them saving me some oven space. Cranberry chutney.... here is a place I might change this year. I don't do the "traditional" one already, so I can play here... suggestions? I bought some lovely cranberries from a cranberry farmer on the Cape last week. Green Tomato Relish which has already been made back in September. I love that acidic flavor with my turkey. Baked corn. This is not part of the family tradition but fits the holiday well. I processed 35 ears of corn in August and they are taking up a lot of room in the freezer. Time for them to get eaten. My husband's family traditions include mashed potatoes and some green beans. [So many carbs!]

But then I have to have "stuffing" which is not stuffed. In the past I have done a riff on the old sausage and apple with sage, and then a mushroom for the vegetarian. I am considering trying a dried fruit stuffing this year [http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2002/11/winter_fruit_and_nut_stuffing] but moving so far away from tradition and trying something new on T-Day makes me nervous. Has anyone tried this recipe? I will make the sage bread this weekend so it can get stale. [Yup, another carb!]

I am also considering a starter soup. Perhaps a lyonnaise onion which isn't heavy at all.

Dessert is easy. Three pies... pumpkin with whipped cream, blueberry with ice cream, and apple with cheddar cheese.

Would love any suggestions for a new cranberry chutney. The one I have made for the past few years has oranges, cranberries, sugar, cranberry juice, and spices. Today I need to make sure linens are clean, and start clearing out the kitchen for Thanksgiving Mode.

Drinks are local cider and wine with coffee after dinner.

*susan*

p.s. gosh... appetizers/nibbles would be a whole 'nother post.

p.p.s. And I forgot the baked beans, one with pork, one without. Really considering dropping this one this year.

Cute pics of Deb and Michelle! 

Susan, thanks for the stir fry recipe.  Could I come and eat it at your house, PLEASE?

Lacey, the color of food is important as an element of appeal, isn't it?  Do you put the orange peels and the apple core into the smoothie?  I would guess that you do.  My blender is the old-fashioned kind, actually belonged to my MIL.  It lives in a cabinet and seldom sees light of day.  I would have to invest in a better one.  That will have to wait until 2013, which isn't so far off.

Deb, OMG, you are little Debbie!



Susan, I know what you mean about family traditions. We go to my DH's sisters house on t day but I still have to cook at home on the weekend with all the traditional stuff. We HAVE to have dressing, mashed potatoes, turkey and gravy. Carbs and more carbs. Fortunately my DIL and I are the only ones who really like sweet potatoes so I make a sweet potato gruyere souffle. She is a chef so is quite open to new things unlike the rest of the fam. Other veggies will be an autumn succotash and roasted Brussels sprouts with a Dijon cream sauce. Desserts will be pumpkin

(of course) and blackberry pies.



I am spatch cocking the turkey this year so that will be an adventure.



Susan, I so envy your ability to find all those ingredients locally!

Forgot to add that although I do make a whole cranberry orange relish, we HAVE to have the jelled stuff in a can too.



Susan, would be very interested in your cranberry chutney recipe.

You sure did look like Little Debbie, Deb!

Michelle, I remember having those bangs in elementary school...and permanents. When my aunt went to beautician school I was her practice head! My stick straight hair never saw so many tight curls! I can still remember hating the smell and the tight pulling of the curlers, and being reminded by my her...."You must suffer to be beautiful". What a surprise when the outcome was not too satisfying!



Bedo, good to hear from you...sorry about your brother...sounds like DD keeps things lively!

I used to love mussels, and many years ago (circa 1980) when they were 29 cents a pound, I'd often make them with linguini on Friday nights...sometimes red sauce, sometimes white. Our three year old son loved them too, so we'd have a mussel family feast. Then one fine evening I started to break out in hives from them, and that was the end of my love affair with mussels. Had my quota! I'm glad that steamers are still okay.....

Michelle, I love your bangs photo!  

I guess I had a Little Debbie-like hat and I'm betting my bangs were short under the hat.  Gee, I've always had that deer in the headlights look (I didn't wear glasses so I don't know where those came from).  

===

Nancy, the sweet potato gruyere souffle sounds delicious!  

I grew up in an odd house. To be honest, I think the fact that her children had hair annoyed my mother to no end. Our haircuts involved being chased with scissors and she would hack it off. Curling? Never happened. My hair as a child looked like it was clipped with bush clippers and my curls stuck out at odd angles. During that time, long and straight hair was the thing. My head was never going to let that happen. I had my first professional haircut when I was 16 after moving out of her house. Sadly, they didn't do much better.

No school pictures to post either. My mother believed that school pictures were a money-grubbing scheme by schools [and she wasn't all wrong] and refused to give us the money to buy them. So much fun to see others though.

*susan*

Looks like that wind yesterday stirred up the surf a bit.