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