Taiwanese Stewed Pork Over Rice/Noodles (滷肉飯/麵 - Lu Rou Fan/Mien)

My blog has not been very omnivore-like lately so I have decided to remedy that with this D-E-LI-CIOUS post about one of the best dishes known to mankind.  Yes, it is that good!  This is a traditional Taiwanese meal with pork belly as the big star so readers beware - this is really fatty & not for the faint of arteries.  

滷肉飯/麵 - Taiwanese Stewed Pork Over Rice/Noodles

1/3 ground pork

1/3 pork belly, cubed

1 tb garlic, minced

3 stalks green onion, diced

4 eggs, boiled & shelled (optional)

1 cup small fried tofu, halved (optional)

4 tb soy sauce

1 tb rock sugar (can be substituted with regular sugar if rock sugar is not available)

1/2 tb ground pepper (I prefer white pepper)

1 tb rice wine

1/2 tb sesame oil

1/2 ts five-spice powder

1 cup broth of your choice

rice or noodles of your choice

Makes about four servings.

- Stir fry ground pork & pork belly until just barely done.

- Add fried tofu if you are including it.  Traditionally there is no tofu but I love it & tossed it in.

- Add garlic & green onion until fragrant.

- Add soy sauce, rock sugar, ground pepper, rice wine, sesame oil, & five-spice powder.  Mix until everything is evenly coated with the powder.

- Place mixture to a crockpot along with the broth & eggs & cook on low heat for a few hours.  You can also let it simmer on low heat on the stove for an hour or so if you do not have a crockpot.

- Drizzle mixture over rice or noodles & enjoy!

Look at those amazing bits of fatty pork belly!

I added some zucchini & napa cabbage as my attempt to even out the unhealthy factor of the fatty pork.

Swiss Chard Frittata

The swiss chard at the farmers' market looked so bold & beautiful with its bright yellow, orange, pink, & red stems that I immediately snapped up a bunch with grand plans to make a frittata that same day.  Unfortunately (or shall I say fortunately?), the nice weather was beckoning me so I spent my day outdoors instead.  I live in the Pacific Northwest & the definition of nice weather is a day that is not sprinkling or more.  That means that if it is gloomy out but there are not droplets of water falling from the sky, you appreciate the day & spend your day outdoors.  And that was the kind of day it was & that is what I did.  

Back to the swiss chard.  I had forgotten about the chards until today when my stomach started rumbling during a conference call & frittatas require little guidance so I decided to make that for lunch & it definitely hit the spot!  Just in case my manager or coworkers read my blog, I'd like to clarify that yes I made this during the conference call but it requires so little effort because it is mostly an oven recipe...so do not worry!  I was still listening to the call & participating while the frittata was being made.  :)

Swiss Chard Frittata

1/2 large onion, sliced 

1 bundle of swiss chard, chopped into 1/2" slices

6 large eggs

2 tb milk

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded

extra virgin olive oil

salt, to taste

black pepper, to taste

- Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

- Using an oven-safe pan, saute onion in olive oil on medium low heat until the onions barely begin to caramelize.

- Whisk eggs, milk, cheese, salt, & pepper in a bowl while onions are cooking.

- Add the swiss chard & saute until the chards are wilted.

- Pour the egg mixture into the pan & make sure the wet mixture is spread throughout the pan evenly.

- Cook until the edges of the frittata begin to set.

- Place the pan in the oven for 10 minutes or until the middle of the frittata is set.

 

Uh oh, someone *cough* Kitsune *cough* is eyeing my lunch!

Challenge!!!

What am I getting myself into?!

First off, my roommate & I gave up eating & drinking out for Lent & I must say that it has been very difficult.  You would think that I would be healthier from not eating out but oh let me tell you - that is not my case!  I have been on a baking frenzy at home in an effort to appease my eyes, nose, stomach, taste buds, & brain.  (Posts on those baking adventures will follow in the near future.)  It is quite difficult to make batches for one person or two people so yes, I have been eating basically every serving I bake...down to the last crumb.  So yes, I have gained some weight.  It's definitely not a lot of weight, no more than ten pounds, but it's enough for me to worry about illnesses like diabetes with all the sugar intake I have indulged in.  So today one of my dear friends proposes an additional challenge for me.

A couple of my friends are on this mission to lose weight so they have put together a challenge where everyone puts the same amount of money into a pot & attempt to lose a certain amount of weight.  Once that weight is lost, the person must stay within one pound of their goal weight for 30 days.  Those who do split the pot but if everyone loses, the money goes to another friend whose sole role in the challenge is that she will gain that entire pot of money if everyone loses - meaning this friend is not participating in the weight loss challenge.  I have committed to losing 5% of my current weight & I don't know about my challengers but I have decided to lose it in a healthy manner.  I will workout & eat healthy so I thought it would be fun to blog about this little adventure & the healthy food I make at home since I am also not eating out for Lent.  

I know I should stick to relatively healthy meals during this competition so I decided to spoil myself for the last time.  So here is my last meal before the weight challenge starts tomorrow.  I had an egg & salad burrito (my effort to not be a complete fatty today), 2% milk, a slice of lemon bar, & berry goat milk ice cream.  Yuuuum!  

I definitely enjoyed every single bite of this meal!  

Alright everyone - It'll be a fun challenge to continue not eating or drinking out for Lent, lose 5% of my current weight, & use my creative juices to come up with healthy meals.  Wish me luck!

Chinese Egg Pancake (蛋餅 - Dan Bing)

Breakfast tends to be my favorite meal of the day - that is when I manage to wake myself up early enough to have enough time to make breakfast.  And of all the breakfasts, I love Chinese breakfasts.  I had gone to Taiwan this past October & my little tummy (which expanded quite a bit during the trip) enjoyed every moment of the trip that when I came back it had Chinese food withdrawal & threw tantrums at me.  My stomach & taste buds were not happy campers until I made Chinese egg pancakes, called 蛋餅 - dan bing.  蛋餅 is basically a savory pancake with green onion & egg.  It's a simple breakfast that is just oh so heavenly & should be shared with everyone so that they can all discover just how amazing it is so here's my version of 蛋餅.  Yummers!!

Chinese Egg Pancake - 蛋餅

1/2 cup flour

1/6 cup hot water, barely boiled

1 ts canola or vegetable oil or unsalted butter

1 stalk green onion, finely chopped

2 eggs

salt to taste

Makes 2 servings.

- Combine & quickly stir flour & water until just combined.

- Knead dough on a lightly floured surface for about a minute & let dough rest for a few minutes.

- Divide dough into two equal parts.  Take one part of the dough & roll flat on a lightly floured surface until the dough is about 1-2mm thick.

- Spread 1/2 ts oil onto the dough from end to end.

- Sprinkle salt & half of the chopped green onion onto oiled dough.

- Roll up dough into a long log & tightly wrap the log around like a coiled snake.

- Roll out the coiled dough into a flat circle until it is about 1-2 mm thick.

- Place pancake onto a heated & lightly oiled pan on medium-low heat.

- Cook for about 2-3 minutes or until the pancake begins to barely turn golden & flip to cook the other side & beat one egg while the pancake is cooking.

- Take the pancake out of the pan & pour egg into a lightly oiled pan.  Quickly swirl the pan to spread the egg on the bottom of the pan & place the pancake on top of the egg.

- Cook until the egg is done then roll the pancake up, place on a plate & cut into several slices.

- Eat immediately! 

 

Egg In The Hole!

I stopped by one of my favorite bakeries the other day and came out with one of my favorite breads - rosemary semolina bread.  It is one of the most perfect specimens of bread I have ever had!  There's so many things I can do with the loaf so today I chose to take a slice and make Egg In Hole Toast.  It was absolutely scrumptious and an egg-cellent way to start my day - protein, carbs and dairy.  I'm so glad with this route because I definitely needed that energy to keep up with 14+ children between the ages of 5 and 7 during Children's Worship.   


 
Doesn't the flecks of rosemary embedded in the bread and sea salt on the crust look scrumptious?





Egg In Hole Toast 

1 ts frozen butter
1 1" slice of bread
1 egg
2 tb Parmesan cheese


- Use a 1-2" round cookie cutter and stamp a hole into the middle of the slice of bread.  Take the hole out.  I like to collect the holes and stick them into the freezer until I have enough to make croutons or bread crumbs.
- Heat pan on medium-low to medium heat.
- Add butter and place the bread on top of the butter.
- Crack egg into the hole of the bread.
- Cook for 2-3 minutes depending on how you like your eggs.
- Flip toast over, sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top of the toast and cook for another 2-3 minutes.

 Ooey gooey Egg In Hole Toast!!!  Mmmm...I could eat another one right now if it weren't for the fact that my fridge is currently void of eggs.