Ma Yi Shang Shu On A Bed of Baby Bok Choy

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Ma Yi Shang Shu translates to “Ants climbing a Tree” because the ground pork resembles little ants in a tree of rice noodles. If you are not a pork eater ground chicken or turkey could easily replace the pork. Lots of additional notes on this one so check the out after the recipe.

Recipe makes enough for four as a main course.

Ma Yi Shang Shu

What you will need:

For the noodles

  • ¼ lb. Chinese dried bean thread noodles
  • 2 Teaspoons sesame oil
  • 3 Tablespoons canola oil
  • 4 oz. ground pork
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 3″ piece of ginger, peeled and minced
  • 3 Tablespoons Chinese red chile bean paste
  • 2 Tablespoons light soy sauce
  • 3 Teaspoons Chinese rice wine (I used Mirin)
  • 1½ cups chicken stock
  • 2 tbsp. dark soy sauce
  • 3 Tablespoons Scallions, thinly sliced

For the Bok Choy

  • 1 Tablespoon canola oil
  • 2 heads baby bok choy, roughly chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1/2 cup chicken stock
  • salt & pepper

How it’s done:

  1. Place noodles and 4 cups boiling water in a bowl; let sit until soft, about 4 minutes. Drain and toss noodles with sesame oil; set aside.
  2. Heat canola oil in a 12″ skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork; cook, breaking up meat, until browned, 5–7 minutes. Add garlic and ginger; cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add paste, light soy, wine, and stock; bring to a boil. Add noodles; cook, stirring occasionally, until liquid is reduced by half, 8–10 minutes more, and stir in dark soy and scallions.
  3. Meanwhile in a separate 12″ skillet heat canola oil over medium high heat. Add bok choy and do not stir. I usually add the white stock to the bottom of the pan and the leafy greens sit on top. When bok choy begins to brown add chicken stock garlic and salt and pepper. Reduce heat to medium low and cover. Cook for 4-5 minutes until bok choy is soft and liquid has evaporated.
  4. Place bok choy in the bottom of a shallow bowl and place noodles over the top. Enjoy!

Notes!

*When peeling ginger don’t use a traditional vegetable peeler, use the edge of a soup spoon, you waste less ginger and don’t need as many band-aids.

*If you have the two different kinds of soy sauce in your pantry good for you, I had Tamari. Traditionalists are  snubbing me right now, but I loved this dish and my wife never new.

*This recipe calls for 2 heads of baby bok choy, when I am at the market the baby bok choy can be all different sizes. This recipe is for four, so if you pick up one bok choy and you think half of one is too much or too little for yourself adjust from there.

B.L.E.A.T.

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The Bacon, Lettuce, (Fried) Egg, Avocado, Tomato sandwich. It is not for the sheepish.

BLEAT

This is a great filling sandwich, it isn’t anything extremely special in terms of uniqueness. But I hope the takeaway is cooking really good bacon and fried eggs, which can be used for many different meals.

Recipe makes one sandwich.

What you will need:

  • 2 slices of your favorite sandwich bread, toasted
  • 3 or 4 slices of bacon
  • A leaf or two of red leaf lettuce
  • 1 egg
  • Half an avocado, chopped
  • A couple of slices of tomato
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • Condiments: What you lube your sandwich with is up to you, but I used a little mustard and mayonnaise.

How it’s done:

Most of this recipe is about the treatment of the bacon and egg, and you can use this method to make breakfast too.

Preheat the oven to it’s lowest setting, usually around 200F, and warm an oven proof pate in oven.

In a single layer place bacon in a large frying pan over medium low heat. You don’t want to actually fry the bacon, you want to render the fat out of the bacon until it starts frying itself. Bacon should take about 20 minutes to get nice and crispy. I still haven’t figured out the sweet spot for temperature on my stove so I am constantly moving the bacon around and flipping it. A heavy cast iron skillet goes a long way with bacon.

When the bacon has reached the golden brown crispiness you like place it on paper towels on the warmed plate in the oven and cover with another paper towel.

Crack an egg in all of that rendered bacon fat in the skillet and return to the heat. Spoon bacon fat over the whites of the eggs, salt and pepper to your taste, and cover skillet with a lid. My stove produces a medium easy egg in about 2 and a half minutes.

Assemble: I go for avocado on bottom, lettuce, tomato, bacon, and then egg. That way when you put the top piece of toast on top and break the yolk it has something to soak into and run down into.

 

 

Warm Rice & Shrimp Salad

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This is a simple recipe that came out of cooking what I had in my pantry and garden. It is an oddball in that it is both a salad and a hot dish in one bowl. I personally love the way lettuce wilts under a bed of rice.

Feeds two as a main course.

Warm Rice & Shrimp Salad

 

What you need:

  • 16 Frozen uncooked shell on shrimp, deveined and shells kept to the side
  • 1 Tablespoon Rice wine vinegar
  • 1 Tablespoon Mirin
  • 1 Tablespoon Soy sauce
  • 2 cloves of Garlic, minced
  • 1/4 Onion, sliced
  • 3/4 Cup White short grain rice
  • Water
  • 1 1/2 cups Tomatoes, chopped
  • 1/2 Avocado, cut into bite size pieces
  • 1/4 head Lettuce, roughly chopped
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Olive oil

Here’s how you do it:

  1. In a small stock pot saute the shrimp shells and onion and about a half tablespoon of olive oil over high heat until fragrant. Add about two cups of water, bring to a boil and then simmer for 20 minutes to make a simple shrimp stock.
  2. Meanwhile marinate the shrimp in the vinegar, soy sauce and mirin. Salt and pepper to taste.
  3. Wash and massage the rice real good until all of the starch is gone and the water you washing it in is clear. Strain the shrimp stock and combine 1 1/2 cups of stock with the rice in a small to medium stock pot over high heat. once the stock comes to a boil cover with a lid and simmer on low for ten minutes. After the ten minutes turn off heat and remain covered for another ten minutes.
  4. In the meantime over medium high heat saute the shrimp and tomatoes in two tablespoons of olive oil.
  5. Plate with the lettuce on the bottom of the bowl, rice, shrimp and tomatoes, then avocado.  Salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy!

A Caesar Salad

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The Caesar Salad is a Mexican dish striking to the core what a simple dinner is all about. Yes you read that right, it was invented in Mexico. And it is a dish featuring ingredients I hope you have laying around in the cupboards or there are leftovers you need to get out of the fridge before they go bad. My question to you is why is this one of the most expensive salads on a restaurant menu?

Feeds two as a main course.

*Please read my notes at the end of the recipe.

Caesar Salad

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • 1½ cups olive oil
  • 3 cloves garlic, peeled and lightly smashed
  • 8 oz. stale crusty Italian or French white bread, cut into 1″ cubes
  • 1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
  • 1½ tsp. Worcestershire sauce
  • ½ tsp. hot sauce, such as Tabasco or something better
  • 4 oil-packed anchovy filets, drained and roughly chopped
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
  • 12 oz. whole romaine lettuce leaves, inner leaves only
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten
  • 1 cup finely grated Parmesan

Here’s how you do it:

Heat 1 cup oil and 1 clove garlic in a 12″ skillet over medium heat. Add bread, and cook, tossing often, until golden brown and crisp, about 5 minutes. Remove garlic. Transfer to paper towels to drain, and set aside.

Rub remaining garlic over inside of a large wooden serving bowl, and leave some in bowl. Add juice, Worcestershire, hot sauce, anchovies, and salt and pepper, and whisk until anchovies are broken down. Add remaining oil, and whisk until just blended. Add lettuce leaves, and toss to coat in dressing; drizzle egg over leaves, and toss again until evenly coated. Add reserved croutons, Parmesan, and salt and pepper, and toss until evenly combined; serve immediately.

Notes!

*Add extras just before you add the egg. If you have some leftover grilled or baked chicken, shred it and add it. Have some frozen shrimp in the freezer, saute those in the oil after you take out the croutons. Olives, tomatoes, avocado, other cheeses, bell pepper, pasta, the list goes on. This is a great recipe to clear out some leftovers, it is designed to have extras thrown in. If you don’t throw in anything extra the  salad will be a little dressing heavy, so if you want to try it as is cut back a little on the wet ingredients. It is pictured above as is without the extras.

*Raw egg: I am okay with raw egg, salmonella comes from the outside of the eggshell so if you are afraid of poisoning yourself wash the shell really well. If you are super scared of poisoning others , blanch the egg in boiling water for 30 seconds and dunk in an ice bath.

*Shopping: I didn’t have leftover bread or anchovies around when I made this, I picked up a beautiful Como at the last chance shelf at the super market for under a buck. And I picked up a tin of smoked sardines when buying the anchovies. I cut off the crust of the bead and used them as crackers to eat the sardines while I cooked. Perfection!

* I cut the lettuce leaves up because I didn’t have those nice firm romaine leaves that you can get out of season. Romain in the summer ripens too fast and becomes jumbo green leaf lettuce. Caesar Salad is supposed to be a finger food. So if you get those long stiff romaine leaves, shave your parmesan instead of grating it and think of each leaf as a green taco. After all it is a Mexican recipe.