Char Siu for Me and You!

A rare 9am rise last Saturday morning put me at the farmer's market relatively early, so I was able to catch the last of the day's ramps after waiting in a 16-person-long line.

I took the ramps home and threw them into a very healthy breakfast of duck-fat-fried potatoes extra-thinly sliced on my Lil Beni. I also definitely did not cut my finger on my Lil Beni. Huff.

My dinner date had requested pork for dinner, so as soon as I smelled the springy onion-garlic wafting up from the duck fat, I knew these had to go into a pork stir-fry, and as soon as I knew there was pork stir-fry in the future, I knew I had to make Char Siu (aka that bright red Chinese pork deliciousness).

The amalgamation of a recipe I decided on involved hoisin sauce, ginger, soy sauce, and maltose. Because these are ingredients available everywhere. Of course. 

 

But they are available at Asian Foods Express, which happens to very conveniently be located approximately 38 seconds from my apartment's front door, and which now happens, after this visit, to be my absolute favorite new foodie establishment in my already well-hung 'hood. They had everything I needed, including the quirky maltose (see above!) and this secret Lobo seasoning pack that turns the pork the requisite red in lieu of scary food coloring--it's a bunch of Chinese five-spice and... wait for it... beet powder! The best part was that the place is CHEAP.

The Meat Hook hooked it up with a couple pounds of pork shoulder, and the Char Siu sauce went all over it for a nice long saturating bath. 

 

With the power of television--er, internet blogosphere thing--I now present you with the final insanely delicious, I-want-to-eat-this-every-day result:

The original plan was a stir-fry with crap-tons of ramps, so the end dish was a sweet-umami Char Siu stir-fry with added shiitake and enoki mushrooms and snow peas over a bed of crunchy-chewy Chinese egg noodles. Stupid. Just stupid.

The Third Meal: Thank You, Monsieur Poulet

Tonight was a big clean-out-the-fridge success with my chicken wonton soup... the only ingredients I had to buy were basil and wonton wrappers. Then, I recombined my lemongrass, roast chicken, scallions, ginger, roasted vegetables, homemade chicken stock and egg into a double... no, triple-whammy! Dinner + lunch tomorrow + dumplings for an appetizer or snacky down the line.

First I simmered bits of lemongrass and ginger in the stock I had made from the roast chicken carcass. This infused a really lovely fresh flavor into the broth. Meanwhile, I made my wontons by finely chopping chicken with scallions and ginger and a little soy sauce and Chinese five spice. (I am verily obsessed with five spice.) The wontons get sealed with a bit of egg, and since I had extra, I dumped some into the filling mixture to hold it all together inside a bit.

After straining the broth of stringy lemongrass slivers, I plopped in the cute little dumplings and my leftover vegetables and waited until they looked good and cooked... the wonton skins turned more translucent than their original white (I think about 7 minutes if I had been counting). Then, as an afterthought, I whipped the last bit of egg into the soup, which gave it a most delightful egg-drop soup element, especially when it was garnished with fresh scallions to finish.

To drink, I slurped up some 2008 Selbach-Oster Kabinett Riesling from Whelener Sonnenuhr, which contrasted really well with the salty and green notes of the soup. Very pretty, easy, dry and light Riesling from the Mosel. Dancing.

 

Here's what comes later in the week...