Last night I was thinking how I'd do an at home menu top 8 free plus sesame free and still be able to pick everything up at the grocery store.
The FAS Family Special
Sweet & Sour Pork
BBQ Pork fried rice
spring rolls (deconstructed)
corn soup
S&S Pork
pork loin cubed
green, red, and yellow bell pepper cubed
carrot sliced on the bias for long oval shape
onion cut in thick square shape like bell pepper
can of pineapple with natural juice in cubes
strong tasting wine for cooking
mince garlic
white wine vinegar
salt to taste
pinch red pepper flake (optional)
cornstarch for coating and sauce
neutral oil like canola for pan frying
Cube bell peppers and onion, slice carrot, set aside in bowl.
Cube pork loin. Marinate in mince garlic and about 1 tablespoon of wine. Not too wet. Let marinate for 20 min turn occasionally in bowl.
Heat up oil in large stainless pan (or non-stick) when oil looks shimmery add bell pepper, carrot, onion to quickly stir fry. Only cook to crisp tender and when removing to plate don't pile up so veggies steam if that makes sense.
In sauce pan heat up canned pineapple juice until boiling, reduce by about half. Prepare about 2 tsp cornstarch with 2 tsp tap water in a cup, set aside. In reduced pineapple juice add, if desired, 1 tsp ketchup and pinch hot pepper flake. Add salt to taste. Sample sauce adjusting seasoning to taste. When satisfied with seasonings add 1 tsp white vinegar then add cornstarch slurry continuing light boil until sauce has thickened. Once sauce is done set aside in a gravy boat or similar vessel -- don't add to anything yet.
Pork should be marinated by now. Drain if pork is really wet otherwise dredge well in cornstarch. Fry pork cubes until done, set aside. The goal is to get crispy cubes.
There's two ways to make it to the table at this point: return cooled, fried pork cubes to hot dry pan, followed soon by pre-stir fried carrot, onion and bell pepper, then add reasonably dry pineapple chunks last. Quickly toss all to evenly heat then plate. Add sweet and sour sauce right before serving.
Or don't return all to pan, put on serving plate then then add sweet and sour sauce before serving. I'm a fan of "return to pan" which is what things like "twice cooked pork" means when translated. In either case you're waiting to add sauce before everyone tucks in to the food to keep it all crisp.
BBQ Pork fried rice
This is going to mock up char siu in the pan close enough for taste but avoid hoisin.
1-2 day old rice works best. Should be a little dried out.
small dice pork tenderloin
Salt, sugar, rice wine premixed in liquid form or Kikkoman brand aji-mirin.
minced garlic (optional)
a lot of green onion thinly sliced at bias for diamond-oval shape
some frozen pea and carrot cube mix
oil for frying. you can be generous with oil there's varieties of fried rice called "oily rice". depends on personal taste.
salt if desired, but not too much.
small cup of water in case you need to add moisture to mix
In a pan fry up the small dice pork tenderloin. When thoroughly cooked add wine/sugar/salt liquid to "candy" the pork mini-cubes. Cook until well coated and water has evaporated. Set aside to cool and dry.
Get a large pan to start the rice. I don't like limp green onion, I like them with sizzle, so I almost always bloom my green onions first in hot oil nearly fast deep frying them before I add the rice. Adding the rice should slow down the onion's cooking process. Old rice is dryer and doesn't stick together well which makes it great for frying but keep that cup of water handy.
Once you get your grains separating through frying and the rice is pretty even add frozen peas/carrots until heated, then garlic, then pork cubes, saving salt to taste at end if you think you need it.
spring rolls, deconstructed
I miss spring rolls but have put a pause on any making due to one child anaphylactic to wheat/barley. While I can't get the crisp taste of the wheat roll I can still get the taste of the filling so I make this sometimes. Depending on your veggie mix it makes a great vegetarian mushu filling.
plain old green cabbage
carrot
ginger root
salt
white pepper
oil for frying
optionals to add: shiitake mushroom, black "wood ear" mushroom, fresh mung bean sprouts, celery. Beware that much of the wood ear mushroom and shiitake are dried and treated with sulfites for anyone dealing with sulfite issues. Fresh mung bean sprouts should be trimmed and rinsed making them sometimes not worth the time.
Finely shred green cabbage and carrot and ginger. Heat oil in pan over medium-high then add shredded ginger until fragrant 20-30 seconds, then add carrot and ginger mixture. If you have a lot of veg cook half at a time to avoid steaming in pan. Fry until cabbage is no more than crisp-tender, add salt and white pepper to taste.
Corn soup
Any soup stock, homemade or instant
Can of cream corn
black pepper to taste
cornstarch slurry to thicken (optional)
thinly sliced green onion for garnish (optional)
Instead of trying to make an egg-free, sesame-free, soy-free and wheat-free egg flower or hot and sour soup, you can try some that don't have any of those ingredients to begin with. You take the stock of your choice and heat it together with a can of cream corn. Heat until you get the desired strength, add cornstarch slurry to thicken if you want the consistency, then add salt and black pepper to taste.
That's how I would do top 8 free plus sesame free using no special store ingredients. From there you can always add the allergens tolerated by other members of the family but in order to eat together sometimes it's worth going lowest common denominator.
Topic: Chinese Food - Recipes and Ingredients (Read 7183 times)
