ChristianM

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Yay, and a year sneakier, as Garfield would say ;-)

For Lunch I made Mapo Tofu. This version of Mapo Tofu is very quick to make. I suggest getting Mapo Tofu sauce from the supermarket, usually in the Asian section. One package of sauce, one brick of soft tofu, and optionally half a pound of ground pork. I use the Lee Kum Kee brand but the easiest one to find seems to be the House Foods brand that is a bag in a box. Any will do. I suggest adding thinly sliced scallions/spring onions/green onions or whatever you call them in your part of the world. :o) Brown the pork with no oil. Although the package says to use oil, there's enough coming from the pork. Add diced tofu, sauce, stir till thickened, add green onions, serve. This is the quick version, the more elaborate version takes a lot time to make and requires a lot of special ingredients.


For dinner I made Sesame Chicken, this time I stir-fried the chicken instead of deep-frying as I'm attempting to reduce the amount of deep-fried foods I consume.

I usually see what I have in the fridge or freezer and if it needs to get used soon I work with what I have. Most recipes use a lot of the same stuff over and over so I always get soy sauce, peanut oil, sesame oil, hoi...sin sauce and oyster sauce...I use cornstarch for thickening as it's healthier than flour and works best. My cast-iron wok gets used nearly every day, making these Asian dinners helps me get the vegetables in. I don't really like vegetables, but when I add them to the stir-fry they taste too good to refuse.

This recipe is similar to what I did on this one: http://chinese.food.com/recipe/szechuan-chicken-23340 As listed it seems they used half the amount of ingredients I used. They also list green and red bell peppers, which I used, but I also used fresh sliced red chilies and broccoli which was great! One more thing, I used two chopped cloves of garlic. That recipe doesn't mention it. Stir fry the chopped garlic for ten seconds before adding the veggies. And try peanut oil instead of vegetable oil as it is way healthier. If you have some soy sauce and cooking sherry you can make this.

This is a really easy side dish to make! This is how I made the bok choy:

1 large head of bok choy
1 tbsp peanut oil
½ tsp chili oil
...3 tbsp hot chili garlic sauce
1 cup chicken broth
1 ½ tsp cornstarch

1. Begin cleaning the bok choy by cutting off the bottom base. This separates the stalks so that you can rinse them individually. Rinse them in cold water, shake the excess water off, and then wipe them dry with a paper towel. The base of the bok choy can be discarded.

2. Cut the bok choy into 1 inch pieces. Slice the stalks as you would celery, and chop up the leaves.

3. In a large wok, heat both oils on high. Add the bok choy stalks and stir fry for 3 minutes. Then add the leaves and stir for another minute. Add the chili garlic sauce and stir for about 30 seconds

4. Add the chicken broth and bring to a boil.

5. Mix the cornstarch with just a little water so that it dissolves. Then add this mixture to the bok choy and stir until thick.

I'm a bunch of years out so I can eat whatever by now...




I used a little over a pound of pork loin chops, cubed into 1 inch pieces. No need to trim all the fat unless you are really watching the scale. ;-) Half green bell pepper and half a red bell pepper, cubed. Four slices of canned pineapple stacked and cut four times, half a chopped onion, one egg yolk and half a cup of cornstarch. This is to marinade the pork in. You can use shrimp instead of pork, too. ;-)

You'll also need rice vinegar, ketchup (organic preferred but Heinz is perfectly acceptable, believe me), sugar (I use Splenda instead and it tastes even better), and salt.

First, mix the Sweet and Sour sauce like this:

8 Tbsp of Splenda,
2 Tbsp cornstarch,
6 Tbsp of rice vinegar (use white vinegar if you don't have that)
12 Tbsp of water
8 Tbsp Ketchup
1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix in that order in a bowl. Now the marinade:


1 Tbsp cornstarch
1/2 Tbsp soy sauce (use Lite if possible)
1 Tbsp of Water
1/4 teaspoon of salt
and one egg yolk

Mix in a bowl, set aside while you tenderise the pork with the back of the cleaver (or chef knife, or jackhammer or whatever). Beat the meat senseless for about half a minute then cube it.

Put the pork in the marinade and mix it all up. Let it marinade for half an hour. An hour is better. Do it at room temp. Put the rest of the cornstarch on a plate and then coat the pork evenly.

While that marinades, cut the vegetables so they're fresh when you add them.

Now the fun part is coming up. You need to double fry the pork. Put 4 cups oil in a pot and heat on medium for five minutes. I use a cast iron chicken fryer by Lodge. Add the pork. After you're done adding the pork set the timer for 7 minutes. Remove the pork, no need for paper towels here because it's going back in. Raise the heat to high, wait 4 minutes and re-add the pork. After the last piece is in, count ten seconds and get the pork out.

Now the Wok part: I use a Lodge cast iron wok, it's amazing. I also use a Lodge cast iron frying pan if the batch is smaller since my wok is huge. You can use a frying pan if no wok.

Put a tablespoon of oil and heat on medium. Add the onion, stir fry it for one minute, then add the bell peppers and the sweet and sour sauce. When it boils, add the pineapple and the pork, stir till coated, stir for another 30 seconds and it's DONE!

Don't be scared of the deep frying, if you use a large pot and wait till it's really hot and add the pork slowly, the oil will sear the outside of the pork instead of soaking into the meat! This is actually the healthiest way. Just don't crowd the pan immediately because the oil temperature can go down and that's when it can get greasy. Panda Express people don't care, they overcrowd their fryers and their food has a completely inauthentic texture.

Wow that was a lot of typing, enjoy your Sweet & Sour Pork. ;-)

Just cried for half an hour over the series finale of "Medium", my favourite tv show. I still can't believe they canceled it. No more Patricia Arquette every week...and the ending was just so unnecessarily apocalyptic. I guess they really wanted to convey the idea of "it's over".

Yep, it's Patricia Arquette. I love love LOVE this woman. ;-) She's so hot.

One of my favourite shows and one of the funniest episodes of the series. German version.

Hottest Woman on TV

So even though everyone is raving about the finale of LOST, I'm just happy to know MEDIUM has been renewed for a 7th season. I love that show and it's one of the few shows I actually bother watching. Patricia Arquette is the hottest woman on TV, beating Cuddy from House in my opinion, and that's saying a lot. Her character of Allison DuBois is actually very different from the one the show is based on, thankfully.

The thing is, I don't tune in to see murders solved, that's just boring police procedural stuff. I like to watch her interaction with her husband Joe, who reminds me a bit of myself at times, and the children. The middle daughter Bridgette is a hoot, she's absolutely hilarious. The entire cast is excellent and the writers always add a lot of humour to every episode. One of my favourite episodes had Allison with the song "I Will Survive" literally stuck in her head blocking out everything anyone had to say.

Too bad they got rid of her 1990 Volvo 240 DL . That car was a character in itself and they should not have replaced it with that GMC Terrain. I think she'd have done better with a Jeep Liberty the same colour as the Volvo.