I was tired and lazy yesterday, but still wanted a decent meal. Sliced a loin pork chop up into matchsticks, marinated for a short while in Shao Hsing wine and corn starch. Tossed the pork in the wok, and roll-cut some nice asparagus. When the pork colored, removed it from the wok, and tossed in the asparagus. Stirred it for a while, then added a small amount of water, and covered the wok. Stirring occasionally. While the asparagus was still very crisp, added the pork and some store-bought Black Bean and Garlic Sauce. About two teaspoons worth. It was delicious. About 15 minutes total prep/cook time.
That sounds good and I have everything except asparagus, but I do have a lot of veggies to be stir fried this week. I’ll give this a try.
I’m a soup lover and my favorite when living in N.Z. was pumpkin soup. I found a pumpkin similar to the ones in N.Z. in an Asian market so I made some soup yesterday. Our pumpkin will work, but the flavor is slightly different. I found this recipe that looked good, and it indeed was very good:
Roasted Pumpkin Soup
Ingredients
Serves: 4
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 butternut pumpkin, peeled and cubed
1 carrot, peeled and cubed
1 potato, peeled and cubed
2 cups chicken stock, heated
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 tablespoon thyme
½ tablespoon crushed black peppercorns
sour cream to garnish
Preparation method
Prep: 15 minutes |Cook: 40 minutes
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place all vegetables, garlic and onion in a medium sized baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with thyme and roast till tender, about 30-40 minutes.
2. In batches, blend roasted vegetables, chicken stock and pepper. Add additional stock as needed to reach desired consistency. Stir all batches of blended soup together in a bowl and serve immediately topped with a tablespoon of sour cream.
My note: I used larger pieces of pumpkin and removed the skin after roasting (much easier). I used a full carton of chicken stock (32 oz) because I had so much squash. I also used my food processor while the soup was still quite thick and added the bulk of the stock after returning the soup to the pot. I omitted the potato and sour cream, and added a cup of cream. This recipe is a keeper for me.