Double Cooked Pork - 回鍋肉

$1000+

That's the amount of money I spent on my car this month...

Two break roters..water pump...battery...those are not even that expensive,

At least half of that $1000 goes to labor...

Arghhh I'm stressed...

I need foood food FOOOOOOODDDDD!

Ingredients?

1 lb of pork belly (sliced)

1 box of stewed bean curd 豆干 (sliced)

1 stalk of scallion (chop into 2 inches in length)

1 teaspoon of Sichuan pepper (grinded)

1 teaspoon of grated ginger

1 tablespoon of spicy bean paste 辣豆瓣醬

3 teaspoons of fermented flour paste 甜麵醬

2 teaspoons of sugar

Extra virgin olive oil

Sesame oil

How?

Drizzle some olive oil in the skillet,

Toss in chopped scallions and cook for about 1 minute,

Pour the pork slices in after the oil turned sizzling hot,

When the pork slices are semi-cooked, transfer them to another plate.

Using the same oil in the skillet,

Add grated ginger, spicy bean pastes, grinded Sichuan pepper, fermented flour paste, sugar, and cook till the aroma comes out,

This should take less than 10 seconds.

Add the sliced bean curd and cook till it turned slightly brown color (from absorbing the sauce).

It's time to pour the pork slices back in,

Now you know why this dish is called "double cooked."

Give it a quick stir, let the meat absorb the sauce for a little bit too,

Drizzle a tiny bit of sesame oil over it,

Voila!

I can eat at least two bowls of rice with this dish,

Food makes me happy,

Let's hope that this double cooked pork can ease my pain from staring at the skinny wallet on the table.

Time to dig in!

Cindy's Rating: 8

Western Dumplings - with Sausage, Cheese, and Corn!

What do you eat when you don't have time to cook?

Why do I ask?

Because things are getting busier and busier for me,

There's no way that I'll have time to cook a big meal every time my stomach grumbles.

(Big meal to me = 3 dishes with rice or noodles)

I have to stock up some "instant" food at home to solve my empty stomach crisis,

Of course I can just drive somewhere for food,

But sometimes the only thing I wanna do after 8 hours of work is staying at home, doing nothing.

So starving or not,

I'd rather lay down on the couch with my soft and comfortable pajamas instead of driving around preying for a meal.

So what are my options?

Instant noodles? Mmmm I'm not sure if this is a health choice for me.

Canned soup? Sure, but only when it's on sale. Call me cheap if you want, but I don't feel like spending $4 on a small bowl of liquid.

What about frozen food? I don't mind munching on no preservative kind of frozen food once a while,

But there is one issue here,

It seems like that little box of frozen food can never fill me up,

The container is always huge...and it comes with almost invisible portion of food sitting in the middle..

So that's it? Nothing else?

How about dumplings?

That sounds like a good idea,

I can make the filling myself so that there's no need to worry about eating unhealthy ingredients,

What's even better is that I can just make a whole bunch and freeze them all,

Whenever I'm hungry, I'll just pop a few in a pot of boiling water,

My instant dinner can be ready in no time!

You can see my previous post for dumpling recipe here.

After making 80 dumplings, all my fillings are gone, but there are 10 more dumpling skin left,

---Taking a peek of my fridge---

You can see a light bulb suddenly popped out on the top of my head,

Let's use those leftover skin and make something....interesting!

Western dumplings with sausage, cheese, and corn filling-

Ingredients (for 10)?

10 dumpling skin

1 sausage (choose the flavor of your preference)

2 spoonful of corn

1 palmful of shredded mozzarella

1 palmful of shredded Parmesan

Extra virgin olive oil

Water

How?

First we remove the casing from the sausage,

Mix the meat with mozzarella, Parmesan, and corn till well blended.

You know how to make dumplings right?

If not, well, here's one video I found one on YouTube that might be a good help for you.

After making all 10 dumplings,

Let's prepare a skillet (use the one that comes with a lid),

Drizzle some olive oil and brush it evenly inside the skillet,

Place all the dumplings to the skillet, make sure they're not sticking with each other.

Now let's pour some water till about 1/3 of the dumpling is submerge in the water,

Turn the heat on and wait until it boils,

Once it starts boiling, put the lid back on, turn to medium heat, cook till no more water is present.

Make sure you use a spatula to scoop out the dumplings from the bottom,

That way You can be sure that the dumpling won't break,

So that you keep all the melted cheese safely inside,

And you can also get a crusty bottom!

It's an interesting use of Chinese dumpling skin,

Spring roll/egg roll skin can be used this way too,

Actually it's even better,

Give it a try sometime, I think it makes a perfect snack for kids!

Cindy's Rating: 6