Egg Fu Yung - It's what's for dinner

Tonight I had to come up with another creative dinner to use up pork roast.  I was leaning towards Chinese, since we went Mexican last night.  It popped into my head that I remembered seeing an Egg Fu Yung recipe in my Mom's recipe box, and I remember her making this on occassion and really enjoying it as a kid.  So I went about searching for her recipe, and somehow, somewhere I have lost it.  I really hope it shows up, because I'd like to try her version.  Instead I proceeded to search the internet for inspriation.  I discovered that this is a great recipe to use up leftovers, and there's a great sauce to disguiese all those leftover flavors you're tired of eating. 

Egg Fu Yung (there are many different spellings) is pretty much an American food created by American Chinese chefs.  I've read that it's based on an authentic Chinese dish, one of which is called Fu Yung Egg Slices which is from Shanghai.  The name itself is Cantanese.  (I just love the Chinese, their food has so much history - I think they should start teaching food history like they teach art history).  My personal history with the dish, is it was something my Mom would make when I was a kid, and I remember loving it.  When I think back, I think it was one of those easy fast food dishes she made when she didn't feel like cooking, and it was a great way to use up the leftovers from the Chinese take home food we occassionaly had.  A great way to use up her leftovers, and a kid friendly dish, and dad would eat it too. 

Since I couldn't find her recipe, I did some research and came up with my own Egg Fu Yung.  I scrambled together 8 eggs (for 4 people, intending to have leftovers for lunch).  Then I cut up about 1/2 cup of leftover pork roast (you could use shrimp, chicken, ham, steak, etc) 1/2 cup of bean sprouts, 1/2 cup chopped mushrooms, 1/2 cup onions, 3 scallions, and one garlic clove.  I sauteed all the vegetables except the garlic for just under a minute, then added the garlic.  Then I added a mixture of 1 tbsp of soy sauce and 1 tbsp of corn starch, and the meat,then sprinkled it all with 1 tsp white pepper and 1 tsp salt. 

Then I made the sauce.  4 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tbsp saki, 2 tsp corn starch and I cooked until thickened.  Then I stirred in a couple tsp of oyster sauce. 

I put about 1/2 cup of the scrambled egg in a small pan and added about a 1/4 of the vegetable/ meat mixture.  I cooked until it was pretty much cooked through and browned on one side, then flipped it and cooked it long enough to brown on the other side.  I served it with a small smear of the sauce (it's pretty strong - it's good, but a little goes a long way). 

A little side of raw sugar snap peas, and we had a quick, easy and healthy dinner for the night. 

Big Jimmy Bob's Hobo Soup

I have a good friend, who I'll call Annie Oakie, owin' to her proud Oakie heritage, who is married to a man, who I understand is one of the best BBQers in our county. I haven't had a chance to try any of his grilled treats, but I can't agree that he's better them my man, but that will be a story for another day. We'll call Annie's hubby, Big Jimmy Bob. Now, Big Jimmy Bob gets a wild hair now and agin' and a couple a days ago one of those wild hair's struck him in the kitchen. I heared tell a story about Jimmy Bob's infamous Hobo Soup.


Now this ain't no canned slop, this is some special stuff, of which I am the proud recipient of this special recipe, which I am about to share with you. Enjoy!

Jimmy Bob's Hobo Soup:

Use all leftover vegetables and potatoes from the corned beef your mother in law brought over to share.

Throw in the leftover chicken from your bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken (Colonel Sanders would be so pleased.) Don't bone or skin. Just toss the whole shebang in.

The leftover KFC biscuits that came with your chicken.

Half a box of elbow noodles, or whatever noodles you have laying around

Several chicken boullion cubes and what ever seasoning that floats your boat, to taste

And to top it all off, add that corned beef your mother in law brought over, disregard your wife mentioning how much she's been craving a corned beef sandwich. She won't mind, really "What the Hell".

Put all these ingredients in a giant stock pot and cover with water. The biscuits will most likely float to the top, but don't let this concern you, they'll be just like dumplings when it's all done. The soup will appear alarmingly thick, but don't let this worry you. Your belly will be nice and full after a hardy bowl of this soup. When serving this to guests or family be sure to warn them to watch for chicken bones while eating.

I understand that Annie has not yet had a chance to taste this ambrosia of the hills yet, but Big Jimmy Bob says you just take one bowl, add water, and it's finger lickin' good! I bet it is!

Bon Appetite!

Waste Not Want Not - Homemade Chicken Broth

A few days ago I roasted a chicken, then used the leftovers for enchiladas. So today, I used the carcass to make chicken stock. As the saying goes, "waste not want not."

Why take the time to make chicken stock? First of all, it's easy, second, it's a great way to use up vegetables in the fridge that are close to going bad, still safe to eat, but not really good enough for anything but broth, third, you're using the whole animal, and fourth, homemade chicken stock has far less sodium then canned, and far more nutrition; collagen, niacin, riboflavin and calcium and plain ol' tastes better.

The only downfall to making your own stock is time. But that's workable. Plan your roast chicken around your day off. On the day you're off throw your stock ingredients in a pot with some cold water, bring to a boil and simmer for 4 hours. If you're a vegetarian and could care less about what to do with a chicken carcass you can still make a good veggie broth, putting all of your odds and ends of veggies from your fridge in a pot with water, spices, peppercorns and some kosher salt and simmer for 2 hours and you have a great veggie stock. Again, waste not want not.

What you need to make Chicken Stock:
1 chicken carcass
2 to 3 carrots
2 to 4 celery stalks ( great way to use up those little stalks you never use up)
1 onion quartered
2 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed.
1 bay leaf
10 to 15 peppercorns
a sprig of thyme
a few pieces of fresh oregano
4 or 5 leaves of fresh sage
several springs of parsely
8 quarts of water

Bring to a boil and simmer for 4 hours. Strain, cool and place in containers. The broth should keep for 1 to 2 weeks in your fridge and for up to 3 months in your freezer. If you'd like a darker richer broth, roast the bones for 40 minutes in a 450 degree oven before making the stock.

Enjoy your stock!

Turkey lungs? Wow! Who knew?

I was checking out one of my favorite blogs today, Chris Cosentino's Offal Good and I saw that he had a post on cooking Turkey Lungs. Now talk about using the whole animal. No waste there. I also learned that the U.S. doesn't allow the sale of turkey lungs for some unknown reason. Yet another food item being taken away from us by the government out of fear. We're so silly here in the U.S. with our bizarre fear of foods. Anyway, check out Chris's Turkey Lungs. It's pretty cool.

Using up leftovers

I had a half head of napa cabbage and some leftover sausage in my fridge last night and I was wondering what the heck I was going to make for dinner after spending the last five hours peeling and coring apples for apple pie filling and apple chutney. Well, here's what I came up with:
It was yummy!
Cabbage and Potato Soup

• 2 or 3 tblsp olive oil


• 1/2 head napa cabbage thinly sliced


• 3 large potatoes sliced in 1/4 inch pieces, peel on


• 1/2 lb cooked pork sausage (I used Gourmet Signature roasted red bell pepper and carmelized onion sausage)


• 1 can black eyed peas drained and rinsed


• 1 small yellow onion thinly sliced


• 4 cloves garlic chopped


• 5 cups chicken stock


• 1 tbsp Mexican oregano


• 1 tsp dried marjoram


• 2 tsp dried thyme
• pinch of allspice
  


• Parmesan cheese

1. Heat olive oil


2. Add chopped potatoes and large pinch of salt and cook on medium high covered until softened, about 8 minutes. Stir occasionally.


3. Stir in onion and garlic. Cook until onion starts to turn clear.


4. Add stock, canned black eyed peas, cooked sausage and spices. Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes.


5. Stir in chopped cabbage and cook until it has softened, about 10 more minutes.


6. Salt to taste. You'll need more or less depending on whether you used homemade or canned stock.


7. Serve up topped with Parmesan cheese.


8. This is a hearty soup and is great with some crusty bread. It makes great leftovers, as we found it tasted even better the next day.

Cabbage Potato Soup @ Group Recipes