Cooking: Chinese Food

I'd had a very full and fulfilling day in the ceramics studio and was finally hungry when I arrived home in the late afternoon.  I'd been craving dark leafy greens and tofu and wanting to make Mapo Tofu even though I've never eaten it.  I opted instead to make Food 52's recipe for Spicy Tofu with Pork which seemed simpler.  Whenever I cook Chinese food which is rarely, it's a production because of my unfamiliarity with spices and condiments.  I had bought some gorgeous emerald baby bok choy and snap peas, which I knew I would cook like Fuschia Dunlop does by blanching the vegetables and topping with chopped garlic and ginger before topping with hot oil and soy sauce.  I had also leftover sauteed cauliflower and chopped cilantro from my lunch chili.  I also bought baked tofu and a couple of Thai chili peppers as well as ground pork in anticipation of this dinner. I dug through my vegetable bin and also found half a shallot and two green scallions.

I also dug through my pantry and freezer in search of starch and opted for these Chinese wheat noodles instead of rice noodles or rice.  However, they were frozen which kind of affected my boil.

I should have thawed them, but oh well.  The package directions called for boiling them for no longer 3 minutes, and I wish I had boiled them instead for just 2 minutes so that they were more al dente.

I also blanched my bok choi and sugar snap peas in the same boiling pot after I strained my noodles.

Next I assembled all the bottles and jars of Asian ingredients:  hot chile oil, black bean chili paste, sesame oil, Sriracha, Shaoxing cooking wine, and soy sauce--which I basically mixed up in a pitcher as a sauce for my tofu pork.  I also readied some vegetable oil to heat and mixed up a slurry of a teaspoon of cornstarch and a couple tablespoons of water.

The actual cooking happens very quickly.  I don't have a wok anymore and used my dad's cast iron fry pan.  I browned the ground pork with the shallots and then added the garlic and ginger so it wouldn't burn.  The pan was getting dry, and so I added some bone broth along with the tofu.  And then added the savory sauce to meld with the meat and tofu and then the cornstarch slurry to thicken.  Once proteins and starch were ready, I then poured the heating vegetable oil over my green blanched vegetables.  I served all the components separately.  I didn't want the noodles to overcook into a starchy mess plus my cast iron wasn't big enough to stir fry with my version of Mapo Tofu.

Dinner was pronounced delicious by the hubs, and so this is a meal that will go into a bimonthly rotation.