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Thursday, January 10, 2013

Pork Lo Mein

I’m not sure I ‘d ever had this dish, but Madison ordered it the other day in a restaurant and our friend Ashley wanted to make it for us before returning to Purdue, where she’s working on her PhD.  She used a recipe from her America’s Test Kitchen Cookbook, but she opted for making fresh noodles.  While Ashley prepped for the dish, Bev whipped up a batch of pasta using the recipe from Mario Batali.

Here are the pasta makers at work - the Rowoco machine seems to do a good job.  After rolling it out to a thickness of 5, we ran it thru the linguini die.

Ashley got all of her ingredients prepped prior to beginning to cook and as best I can tell we should have invited the neighborhood – she made double the recipe below. 


Ashley used the cookbook, but I found a slightly modified version on the web at Laine’sRecipe Box so I didn’t have to type it from the book.  I made a few changes to Laine’s version to make it more like the cookbook.

Pork Stir Fry with Noodles (Lo Mein) - Serves 4

Ingredients:
3 T. soy sauce
2 T. oyster sauce
2 T. hoisin sauce
1 T. toasted sesame oil
1/4 t. five-spice powder
1 lb. boneless country-style pork ribs, trimmed of surface fat and excess gristle and sliced crosswise into 1/8-inch pieces
1/4 t. liquid smoke (optional)
1/2 c. low-sodium chicken broth
1 t. cornstarch
2 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed through a garlic press (about 2 t.)
2 t. grated fresh ginger
4.5 t. peanut oil
4 T. Chinese rice cooking wine (Shao-Xing) or dry sherry
1/2 lb. shiitake mushrooms, stems trimmed, caps cut in halves or thirds (about 3 c.)
2 bunches scallions, whites thinly sliced and greens cut into 1-inch pieces (about 2 c.)
1 small head Napa or Chinese cabbage, halved, cored, and sliced crosswise into 1/2-inch strips (about 4 c.)
12 oz. Chinese egg noodles (fresh) or 8 oz. dried linguine (we had 19 oz. of fresh pasta)
1 T. Asian chile garlic sauce

Directions:
1. Bring 4 quarts water to boil in Dutch oven over high heat.
2. Whisk soy sauce, oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, sesame oil, and five-spice powder together in medium bowl. Place 3 tablespoons soy sauce mixture in large zipper-lock bag; add pork and liquid smoke, if using. Press out as much air as possible and seal bag, making sure that all pieces are coated with marinade. Refrigerate at least 10 minutes or up to 1 hour. Whisk broth and cornstarch into remaining soy sauce mixture in medium bowl. In separate small bowl, mix garlic and ginger with 1 teaspoon peanut oil; set aside.
3. Heat 2 teaspoons peanut oil in 12-inch cast-iron or nonstick skillet over high heat until just smoking. Add half of pork in single layer, breaking up clumps with wooden spoon. Cook, without stirring, 1 minute. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until browned, 2 to 3 minutes. Add 2 tablespoons wine to skillet; cook, stirring constantly, until liquid is reduced and pork is well coated, 30 to 60 seconds. Transfer pork to medium bowl and repeat with remaining pork, 2 teaspoon oil, and remaining 2 tablespoons wine. Wipe skillet clean with paper towels.
 
4. Return skillet to high heat, add 1 teaspoon peanut oil, and heat until just smoking. Add mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until light golden brown, 4 to 6 minutes. Add scallions and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until scallions are wilted, 2 to 3 minutes longer; transfer vegetables to bowl with pork.

5. Add remaining teaspoon peanut oil and cabbage to now-empty skillet; cook, stirring occasionally, until spotty brown, 3 to 5 minutes. Clear center of skillet; add garlic-ginger mixture and cook, mashing mixture with spoon, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir garlic mixture into cabbage; return pork-vegetable mixture and chicken broth-soy mixture to skillet; simmer until thickened and ingredients are well incorporated, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove skillet from heat.
6. While cabbage is cooking, stir noodles into boiling water. Cook, stirring occasionally, until noodles are tender, 3 to 4 minutes for fresh Chinese noodles or 10 minutes for dried linguine. Drain noodles and transfer back to Dutch oven; add cooked stir-fry mixture and garlic-chili sauce, tossing noodles constantly, until sauce coats noodles. Serve immediately.

This is it in the bowl ready to serve but I didn’t get any plated shots.

We all enjoyed the dish but had differing reactions to it.  Bev thought it needed something and added crushed pepper to hers while I thought the spice/sauce mix overwhelmed everything else, so it is obviously very eater dependent.  One thing we all agreed on was the fresh homemade pasta was outstanding.

I'm now responding to your comments and hoping you will stop back by - photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

1/2/13 meal date

29 comments:

  1. I do believe you and Bev are a very good influence on Madison's palate if she ordered Pork Lo Mein. Perhaps she's become and adventuresome eater. That's not always easy for teenagers :)

    Homemade pasta - how fun. And your photos are back. Yea. Looks like all is good at your house Larry.
    Sam

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    1. Thanks Sam - Madison is willing to try and find she enjoys many more foods than before. She was convinced she didn't like tomato sauce until she scarfed down two helpings of Bev's lasagna.

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  2. I really need to try the pasta attachment for my kitchen aid. I bought it years ago, with a pasta drying rack and haven't done a thing with it!

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    1. It's definitely different than the dried or even the fresh from the store

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  3. We used to make a lot of homemade pasta years ago...too much, so that in one of our moves, I gave the pasta maker away. Regretting it now.

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  4. I need to get my pasta maker out - I haven't made homemade noodles in years!!
    Now you know my love for sauces...but, I'm a firm believer that although a sauce can make a dish, it can break it just as easily. It sure does look good though!!!

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    1. I can only imagine how good your sauces would be over fresh pasta.

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  5. I've used my pasta maker exactly once. You've inspired me to give it another try. I don't think I've ever had lo mein. it looks and sounds really good. I'm a little iffy about that 5-spice stuff. A little of that goes a long way. And good for Madison for being so adventurous in her eating.

    Go Broncos. I now own a Manning #18 Broncos T-shirt. Friday has been declared a day of Orange ... we're all to dress accordingly. If we win on Sat. this town will go BERzerk. Us Bronco fans have had some painful years.

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    1. I've not been a big fan of pro football for several years, but I've always been a big Peyton fan and will be watching and pulling for the Broncos.

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  6. way to go on the photos - and great job Ashley. There is nothing better than homemade noodles, fresh ingredients always makes a dish shine and this one looks stunning.
    I suppose most of the shots were taken at night - with a flash??? that is one of my biggest problems, food photography

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  7. After reading this, I need a pasta maker! You never know which way sauces will go.

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    1. I'd say you do. They work well and are easy to use.

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  8. This is one of my favorite Chinese restaurant dishes but I've never tried to make it at home. I have most of the ingredients so should give it a try. Homemade pasta would really make it special.

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    1. Cathy - Like most stir fry dishes, the cooking part seemed pretty simple once all of the ingredients were ready to go.

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  9. Larry, We've never made homemade noodles... This is an adventurous meal for sure. Lots of ingredients for sure. It's interesting re: the wide variance of input re: the finished product. Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

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    1. Dave - homemade pasta it like making bread for the first part, then it's just a matter of running it thru the machine.

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  10. Looks delicious --but OH the work which into that dish.. Hope it was worth it... Looks so good though... Makes me hungry.

    Stay DRY...
    Betsy

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    1. Betsy - It was worth it to me as someone else did all of the work :-).

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  11. This sounds wonderful! We had a version of this on chicken tonight. Love those Asian flavors.

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  12. This looks delicious. I'll bet all that hard work was well worth it.

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  13. Funny how the same dish can get such varied responses to it, isn't it? LMAO at your reply to Betsy, my thoughts exactly.

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  14. That must have been fantastic over the freshly made noodles and I love the collaborative effort :)

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    1. We definitely have to make more fresh pasta as it is just too good. I enjoyed taking photos and sittng back watching the ladies do their thing.

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  15. Between you and Dave (Inspired by erecipes), I am going to have to get that old pasta maker out of the back of my cabinet as soon as I get back to Lake Lure. Looks like you all had fun and the pork sounds delicious.

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  16. It sounds like your pork lo mein meal has inspired us all to get out our pasta machines and dust them off. There is nothing more enjoyable than a bowl of freshly made pasta, no matter what the sauce is. Good to see that you got your photos back on your posts.

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