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. 

Pork Tacos

Well, I still haven't posted my Thanksgiving leftover recipes.  I hope to soon, since they could be useful for Christmas leftovers as well.  Speaking of leftovers, I was lucky enough to come home with some leftover pork roast from my in-laws.  I didn't have to cook Christmas dinner this year.  My sister's in law had that honor and did a fantastic job.  They did give me the honor of allowing me in their mom's kitchen long enough to bake an apple pie, which my father in law said was one of the best he's ever had.  That was my best Christmas present ever.  (Especially since it was my mom's recipe - I send a thanks to my mom in heaven.)

The huge meal the SIL's put together left far too many leftover's for my father in law and mother in law to deal with, so they were kind enough to send us home with a few things, including the rest of the pork roast.  The first thing I thought of was TACO's.  I found this great recipe at For the love of cooking: Pork Tacos with Fresh Pico de Gallo and Gaucamole and modified it to my needs.  I sliced up 4 of the chops off of the rib roast into bite size pieces.  I sliced up a quarter of a large red onion and sauteed it until it was soft.  I added the pork and about a half teaspoon each of cumin, smokey paprika, chili powder, garlic powder, and onion powder and some salt and fresh ground pepper.  I added a half can of black beans and let it simmer while I made a pico de gallo consisting of 2 large tomatoes, a little over half a large red onion, a chopped garlic clove, a couple tablespoons of chopped cilantro, one chopped fresh jalapeno, 4 finely chopped radishes, some salt, the juice of half a lime, a sprinkle of chili powder and a sprinkle of smokey paprika.  I then made a sweet salsa for my kids consisting of one mango, 2 tablespoons of cilantro, 2 tsp on chopped onion, 1/4 cup of chopped bell pepper, a tsp of sugar ( the mango was quite tart), a pinch of salt, a pinch of chili powder and smokey paprika, and a squeeze of lime juice.

I then attempted to make my first homemade corn tortillas.  They were not a success, but not a complete failure either.  I used 1 cup of masa flour combined with 1/2 tsp salt.  I combined that with 1/2 plus 1/8 of boiling water that had 1/2 tsp of lard melted in it.  I had to add about 3 more tablespoons of hot water to get it to what felt like the right texture.  I formed it into 6 golf ball size balls and covered it with seran wrap.  Here is where I went wrong.  I let it sit a little too long and it got dry, so when I fried them, they were a little too dry, and not useable for tacos, but still tasted quite good.  I don't have a tortilla press, so I put the balls between two pieces of plastic ( cut from a gallon size freezer bag) and I rolled them out with a roller.  I also needed to roll them a bit thinner to get a manageable tortilla.  One thing I did realize. This is doable.  This could be a short learning curve and it won't be long before I have good homemade tortillas.  I will be practicing this process again soon.

Fortunately I bought corn tortillas as a backup (they worked better, but didn't taste quite as flavorful as the homemade ones).  I heated them, topped them  with the meat and bean mixture and the salsa of each person's choice.  I also put some fresh avocado on each, some cojito cheese, some pickled jalapeno on mine, and some sour cream on the kids.

This turned out to be a flavorful way to use up leftovers, as well as a nice change from what we'd already enjoyed on Christmas.  You just can't go wrong with pork tacos!

Busy Weekend

So, this weekend, rather than take the time to post about our dining in Reno I spent the time getting our finances together and recovering from our Christmas splurge and to do the big bulk buying/ stocking up for the kitchen. With all the crazy Nostradamus shows on and the bad economy news it seems like I'm jumping on the "oh crap" band wagon, but I'm not, really. This is just what I do. I love to shop for groceries, I know, I'm weird. I love having a full freezer of meat, ice cream, pizza dough various homemade stocks and other staples. It makes me feel safe. It must come from having parents who grew up during the depression and lived through WWII. I consider myself lucky to have picked up their frugalness.

I also felt inspired by the Homesteading Housewife's post about batch cooking breakfast burrito's which I tried on a micro level and was super pleased with the results. So after I got home from my trip to Winco/Costco/Grocery Outlet I proceeded to make 20 some odd buckwheat applesauce (used my own homemade canned sauce) pancakes and set them up to freeze for breakfasts throughout the next couple of weeks. I also engaged my bread making machine in some pizza dough creation while I was cooking up pancakes. I now have two big balls of pizza dough in my freezer just waiting to be thawed, covered in sauce, cheese and leftovers from the fridge (so much cheaper then buying the tube of dough, the Boboli things which are nasty, doing take and bake from a place like Papa Murpy's or having it delivered, which isn't an option where I live. Gotta love being rural). Then I proceeded to separate and seal up all the different meat I bought with my trusty Foodsaver so that the meat was all in manageable levels for our family. I hope to do more breakfast burritos plus some dinner burrito's. Tomorrow the slow cooker will be pulled out and readied for a pork rib roast and I'm leaning towards some kind of Mexican recipe. Something we can eat with refried beans, rice and warm tortillas, and then I can take the leftovers and freeze in burrito's or set aside for tacos for lunch.

Man! I'm on food fire!

Offal

I've found a new favorite web site
Offal Good.com

Written by Chris Cosentino, a chef at
Incanto in San Francisco.

As you can see by what he's holding in his hands here, he's all about cooking offal. Actually, what he is about, and I think this is really cool, is using the whole animal. No waste. He's also about humane farming of these animals as well. So, now that we're venturing into our own world of raising animals for food, I find this guy to be a real inspiration. I would like to follow his credo; no waste. I'd like to show respect to the animals we are raising for food, by using all that I can to feed us. That's how my parents grew up, and I'm thankful that I have the opportunity to try to live that way and teach my children to respect the animals that feed them and to feel a connection to their food. When they get that hamburger at McDonalds, they'll be able to picture the cow it came from, unlike so many Americans who don't have a damn clue.
We've recently slaughtered a pig, and we will get our first chance to try cooking/eating offal soon, starting with the heart. So let's hope Chris will have a good recipe and some how to's posted for our adventure into the world of offal