Sichuan pork and pumpkin stir-fry over crispy noodles

I found this recipe on a fellow blogger website - thanks 3 Hungry Tummies - but had to make some changes to make this a bit more of a full meal, with some extra greens, larger quantities, and some improved methods. As I mentioned in the beef and bok choy over crispy noodles recipe, this is an extreme comfort food dish for me, but even more so than the beef and bok choy version, this one has the noodle I remember but adds some new and intense flavors that make this dish really satisfying. It's spicy, sweet, savory, salty, warming, crunchy, chewy - there's a lot going on here.

I really recommend trying the noodles in the air fryer, which helps them come out perfectly. I tried many times in a pan or wok, but the hot air really gets this the right level of crispy throughout, in a way that could only be achieved by deep frying otherwise.

• 1/2 lb frozen lo mein noodles, cooked till al dente, drained, refreshed with cold water and drained again
• 1/2 lb wedge of pumpkin (less than half of a pie pumpkin's worth), peeled and diced
• 1/2 lb ground pork (coarse if you can get / make it)
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• a small knob of ginger (appx 1 tbsp), chopped
• 10 dried Chinese chiles
• 2 cups chopped bok choy or other Chinese greens, stems and leaves separated, cut into 1/2" strips
• 2 tbsp of doubanjian (hot bean paste)
• 2 tbsp of oyster sauce
• 1/2 tbsp light soy + 1 tsp for marinating
• 1/2 tbsp of dark soy
• 2 tbsp of sugar
• 1/2 tbsp Chinese cooking wine + 1 tsp for marinating
• 1 cup of chicken stock
• 1 tbsp cornstarch dissolved in 1 tbsp water, for thickening + 1/2 tbsp for marinating
• 1 tsp sesame oil, for marinating
• 1/4 tsp white pepper, for marinating
• 4 spring onions, cut into 2 in lengths then cut lengthwise
• 1/2 tbs of Sichuan peppercorn, lightly roasted and crushed/ground
• Canola oil, for stir-frying.

Cook the lo mein noodles per the instructions, then rinse, drain, and toss in 2 tbsp neutral cooking oil like canola. Follow the process from beef and bok choy over crispy noodles.

Dice the pumpkin and prepare the garlic and spring onions.

Marinate minced pork with the smaller quantity of light soy and Chinese cooking wine, the white pepper, and the smaller quantity of cornstarch. Toss to coat, allow to sit 5 minutes, then add the sesame oil last to seal in the marinade slightly while cooking.

Pre-heat an air fryer to 385 F for a few minutes, then make a small noodle cake no larger than the area of your air fryer, and not more than a few noodles thick, and throw in for 8 minutes. Once browned, remove, and repeat with remaining noodles. This should make 2-3 patties, but scale up as desired.

Fry the diced pumpkin in canola oil over high heat until slightly charred. Remove to a bowl. Add more oil, then brown the minced, marinated pork with a little more oil when the wok heats up again, breaking up large lumps as you go. Remove to the bowl with the pumpkin.

Reheat the work over medium-high heat, add more oil, and quickly stir-fry the bok choy stems for a minute or so until starting to char slightly. Add the chopped garlic, ginger, and Sichuan peppercorns with a little more oil and stir-fry for 30 seconds. Return the pork and pumpkin to the wok, but push out to the sides. Add in the dried chiles and hot bean paste and cook until the oil turns a little red.

Incorporate the pumpkin and pork into the stir fry and toss on high heat for a minute, adding the sauce base (sugar, light soy, dark soy, cooking wine, oyster sauce) at the end.

Add stock, bring to a simmer, cover, and cook until the pumpkin is tender, which could be 5-15 minutes depending on the pumpkin. As the pumpkin is nearing doneness, add the bok choy leaves and stir to incorporate. Thicken with the cornstarch slurry, bring to a boil to ensure the cornstarch does its job, and add in the spring onions.

Pour the spicy sauce over the crispy noodles and enjoy.

Chinese Pork and Mustard Green Soup

In a lot of authentic Chinese restaurants, you might come across a pork and mustard greens soup. I tried it recently, figuring it would be exotic. It wasn't. Bland, floating in artificial chicken broth, the greens just looked up at me plaintively and forgotten, as if saying "is this how it all ends?"

To which I say "no." This is the day your life truly begins, mustard greens. Because I have scoured the far-off land of the internet in search of a better recipe that will avenge your death. A recipe with more than four ingredients, that might elevate our lowly mustard greens to something more satisfying, more vibrant, and certainly more memorable. I found it in Bon Appetit's coverage of this dish and, being the first recipe I had seen with more than a small handful of the most obvious ingredients, gave it a try.

What was produced was arguably one of the finest soups I have ever made. Light, simple, yet remarkably flavorful, this soup delivered an exotic aroma and a complexity that was almost surprising, given the speed with which it was produced and the simple ingredient list. I highly recommend seeking out a few key ingredients - true Sichuan peppercorns, half decent chicken broth, and fresh baby mustard greens, which can be found at farmer's markets around this time of year, and which deliver the appropriate amount of bitter tang and crunch that you won't get from spinach, kale, or any of the other soup-friendly greens. Go with a low-sodium chicken stock like Kitchen Basics, or make your own, which will be even better (and also even lower in sodium).

Update 5/25: Now having made this dish a few dozen times, I revised this process to get maximum heat into the pork to aid in browning without burning the spices and aromatics. Also, this is equally good with turnip greens, which you may end up with if you grow turnips or get a bunch from the farmer’s market and have the tops left over. We blanch our greens in 4 cup batches and throw that whole pack right into this soup, which is really helpful for making the most of spring and fall harvest.

Left to right - homemade Chinese chicken stock with ginger and scallions, browning the pork just after spices were added, and prepared noodles tossed in oil (in this case wheat-based)

Chinese Spicy Pork and Mustard Green Soup
Modified from Bon Appetit, Jan. 2014

Updated May 2025

• ½ pound ground pork
• 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
• 2 teaspoons finely grated peeled ginger
• 1 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns, crushed
• ¾ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• ½ teaspoon cumin seeds, coarsely chopped
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• Kosher salt and freshly ground white (or black if you don’t have it) pepper
• 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 bunch mustard greens, torn (about 4 cups)
• 4 scallions, white parts in 1” lengths, green parts thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon Thai fish sauce
• 8 oz. wide rice noodles
• 1/4 cup unseasoned rice vinegar or black vinegar, for serving

Depending on preference, toast and grind the dried spices - Sichuan peppercorns, chile flakes, and cumin.

Mix ginger, Sichuan peppercorns, chile flakes, and cumin in a medium bowl. Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add pork and green onion white parts and cook, stirring and breaking up with a spoon, until starting to brown, 4-5 minutes. Reduce temperature to medium if the pork is frying well, otherwise leave on medium-high to keep moisture out of the pan. Add ginger/spice mix and cook for another 1-2 minutes to incorporate. Just before adding broth, reduce heat to medium and add minced garlic, stir, and cook for no more than one minute, avoiding burning it.

Add broth and bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until flavors meld, 5 minutes. Add mustard greens, soy sauce, and fish sauce and cook, stirring occasionally, until greens are tender, 5–8 minutes; season with salt and white or black pepper.

Meanwhile, cook noodles according to package directions; drain. If desired, rinse noodles until cool, drain, then toss in either a neutral oil or a garlic- or shallot-infused oil. Divide noodles among bowls and ladle soup over. Garnish with green part of green onions. Serve with a small bowl of vinegar tableside, possibly with Japanese togarashi seasoning as well if you want more kick.

Pork with Chinese Yellow Chives

Chives - let's talk about them. How many kinds of chives can you name? Is it one - the tiny ones that you buy in little plastic packs and put on baked potatoes? If so, then congratulations - you are officially an ignorant American, like me! As it turns out, there are multiple varieties of chives, and while surfing the internet I came across this recipe that looked like it would help me further unravel the Mystery of the Unnamed Produce that I usually encounter at the asian grocery store. My journey into madness learning about garlic chives spanned multiple weeks and was very informative, so I'd like to share, in the hopes that you, the hungry reader, can better jump into the world of proper produce selection.

These are the correct chives - gau choy (right), and gau wong (left)

First of all, I had to make this recipe twice. I was so excited about the prospect of buying "asian chives" (which isn't really a thing, they're actually called "garlic chives": Allium tuberosum) instead of American chives (which I will refer to as baked potato chives, or BP for short: Allium schoenoprasum), that I grabbed the first thing that looked like chives at the asian store and got the heck out of there. This led to a disappointing, bland dish, which gave me pause to do a bit of digging and discover that there are actually 3 kinds of Chinese / garlic chives you can get from the asian grocery store, all of which are from the same plant, and all are about 12 - 18" long packs of thin-stemmed green (or yellow) things:

1. Flowering chives (gau choy fa). These have a rounded base and the purple / green buds at the top, and look like a larger version of BP chives. Apparently they have much less flavor than the others.
2. Standard garlic chives (gau choy, kow choi, jiu cai, nira) are broad, flat leaves that are much more delicate than the flowering variety, and are much more edible as a plant when stir-fried quickly. Both of these have a very pronounced garlic flavor, though these are almost similar to ramps in their consistency.
3. Yellow chives (gau wong, jiu huang, kow won, "albino chives") are like white asparagus - grown without sunlight by heaping dirt on them, they don't develop chlorophyll, so they never turn green. They also are milder in flavor, and taste more like onions than potent garlic. They're also significantly more expensive - $15 / pound near me!

Let's look the other way about how I completely ignored the recipe the first time I made this, purchasing gau choy fa and hoping for magic, when all I ended up with was a plate of pork and tree stems. Instead, we'll focus on the second version of this dish, which ended up being a culinary rockstar - packed with garlic flavor and vibrant colors, yet inherently simple in its construction and very authentic in its rustic components.

These are flowering garlic chives. Not at all the correct chives, these were woody and bland

The incorrect version looks decent, but it's not what the recipe intended

Blackberry Chutney over Pork Medallions

If you're lucky, where you live is berry season right now.  You're probably seeing them popping up in the grocery store on sale - $2.99 for a 6 ounce tub, trucked in from nobody knows where (aka Mexico).  But a better alternative is getting up to a farm to buy them right off the bushes, or even to pick your own.  We went up this weekend and bought 10 pounds, adding to our 10 pounds of blueberries and 5 pounds of black raspberries from an earlier trip.  You may think that this sounds like too many, but I assure you, it is not.  We now have blueberry jalapeno jelly, raspberry jam, blackberry preserves, blackberry muffins, enough frozen berries to make smoothies through the year, and this gem.

Worried for about 5 minutes that maybe we went overboard with the blackberries, we went looking for recipes.  Good old Martha Stewart came through in a pinch, bringing us an assortment of about 20 different recipes ranging from desserts through drinks, with one savory dinner option.  This dish, pork medallions with a blackberry chutney, caught my eye, since I am a huge fan of the sweet / savory pairing, as well as the meats / sweets pairing.  The recipe looked easy, and we even had a couple of shallots lying around, so it was calling to us.  And the result was fantastic - tart, sweet, and with mellow caramel undertones from the molasses and sauteed shallots, we loved the blackberry chutney so much that we're trying to figure out what else we can serve it with.  So I have chosen to rearrange the name of this dish to showcase the chutney, which was by far the star in tonight's dinner.  It came together quickly, and had a short ingredient list, although you really do want good fresh berries, so some of the ingredients can be a bit fussy.  Don't make any substitutions beyond that, and you'll do really well with this dish.

If you can find it, get a pork tenderloin.  Not loin, that's too big and tough.  Tenderloin will do you well, and will cut up and cook easily.  We couldn't get our hands on one tonight, and used pork sirloin instead, which I think is a great runner up.  Otherwise, we followed Martha's recipe verbatim, which I reprint here.

Just a small fraction of the local blackberries we picked ourselves this weekend

Thai Pumpkin in Red Curry (Kaeng Phet Fak Thong)

This is a great dish to make in the fall, which is actually when I made this, despite taking forever to post it.  I had always wanted to try making a pumpkin curry after I tried one at the very excellent Thai X-ing, an off the beaten path restaurant literally in someone's living room in Washington, D.C.  The pumpkin curry dish surprised me with how much flavor it packed in - the standard pungency of a curry sauce, but with the smoothness and slightly sweet and nutty overtones from the stewed pumpkin (in that case, acorn squash).  So the first fall that came around, when fresh squash reared their heads, I made it a point to try this out.

I highly recommend kabocha squash to make this dish instead of other squash or pumpkins.  It holds up well, is fairly easy to work with, and seems to be the traditional gourd preferred by many Thais, in addition to being one of the mystery orange vegetables in an order of Japanese tempura.

Don't be misled by the name, this dish is non-vegetarian given the addition of some boneless pork to round out the protein content of the dish.  After all, squash and pork chops seem to go together, so why not pork with squash curry?

Thai Rice Porridge with Pork (Jok Moo)

Two months ago, we went to Thailand.  On our second day, we were introduced to jok (pronounced like "joke"), which is basically the Thai version of congee, which is the Chinese version of rice that has been cooked into oblivion.  Jok may have been one of our favorite hidden gems of Thai cooking - a hearty, savory, salty, warming bowl of deliciousness with a variety of ingredients that were all delicious when paired together.  In Chiang Mai we found a vendor selling huge bowls of this for about a dollar, with a freshly poached egg and some fried noodles in it.

A cheerful jok vendor in Chiang Mai

I start here with a fairly basic recipe - rice porridge with pork meatballs.  I adapted a number of recipes to get what we thought was the right blend of flavors, and really like this process, which I think I will stick with as my basic method and adapt some of the ratios and times in the future.  It is probably the fastest way to get this done from start to finish, and adds layers of flavor at the right times.  Hopefully you will enjoy this Thai treat, and spread it further around the globe.  Make sure you get the two or three crucial ingredients for this - broken rice, white pepper, and Maggi seasoning.

Thai Rice Congee with Pork (Jok Moo)

Modified heavily from Thaifoodstyle by my recollections of Thailand

Serves 4

• 1 cup broken jasmine rice
• 2 cubes chicken bouillon, or 1 quart pork stock
• 2 quarts water, or 1 quart if using pork stock
• 2 cilantro roots, or 10-15 stems
• ½ lb ground pork
• 1 tbsp cilantro leaves, chopped finely
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• 3 tbsp fish sauce, divided
• 2.5 tbsp soy sauce, divided
• 1 tsp ground white pepper
• 2 tbsp Thai cilantro, finely sliced (optional)
• 2 spring onions, green part only, finely julienned
• 1/2 cup ginger, julienned, or baby ginger strips in brine
• 1 medium shallot
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 4 eggs (optional)
• White pepper, for plating
• Maggi sauce or Bragg's Liquid Amino, for plating

Start by bringing 1 quart of water to boil with 1 chicken bouillon cube, or 1 quart pork stock, with 1 cup of broken rice.  Reduce heat to a simmer and allow to cook for 30 minutes, stirring periodically.

Once the rice is boiling, make the meatball mixture: season ground pork with chopped cilantro leaf, 1 tbsp fish sauce, ½ tbsp. soy sauce, cornstarch, and ground white pepper and mix well.  Allow to marinate for at least a few minutes, then form into small meatballs appx 0.75 - 1” in diameter.

To cook the meatballs, boil 1 quart water on medium-high heat and add coriander root.  When the water is boiling, add 1 cube chicken bouillon, allow to fully dissolve, and boil meatballs until they float, appx 2 minutes.  Remove with a slotted spoon to a plate, and add remaining 2 tbsp soy sauce and 2 tbsp fish sauce.  Let boil for 5 minutes, then keep on a bare simmer.

 

At this point, the rice in the other pot should have absorbed most of the liquid.  Add 2-3 cups of the boiled pork cooking liquid and stir to incorporate.  Allow rice to cook to a soupy consistency, appx 60-75 minutes.  If rice mixture isn’t thin enough, add more of remaining meatball cooking liquid. If including, fry the shallots in hot canola oil until crispy, 1-2 minutes, and allow to drain on a paper towel.

If including eggs, crack them into the boiling rice mixture towards the end and let them sit, undisturbed, for up to 8 minutes.  A runny egg will only take 4 minutes. Alternatively, use my new favorite trick of soft cooking the eggs in a sous vide setup. I'm still dialing in the numbers, but so far it's landing on 145 deg F for 45-60 minutes.

To serve, ladle into bowls sprinkled with spring onion (finely sliced), shredded ginger, and ground white pepper.  Plate with Maggi sauce or Bragg's Liquid Amino tableside.

If you want to get more exotic with this, go ahead and add the some fried shallots, crispy fried noodles, and cilantro leaves (regular or Thai variety).  These are all nice additions.  And for some reason, they like to eat this with fried bread alongside, so consider either some Navajo fry bread or just some plain donuts.  There, don't you feel multicultural now?

The current build as of June, 2016 - sous vide poached egg, fried shallots hiding behind the cilantro somewhere.

Italian Braised Pork Ribs with Tomatoes

Tired of your average BBQ ribs?  Looking for something new?  Search no further, I have the answer for you!  Trust in the Italians, those masters of piquancy and lovers of all things tomato (even though European explorers discovered tomatoes here in the Americas in the 1500s and introduced them to Italian cuisine only 600 years ago, but that's not the point).  There is a Roman dish called Italian Country Style Ribs, which I pull from the book Roma: Authentic Recipes from In and Around the Eternal City.  Don't worry, I looked at the reviews and you're not missing anything by not running out to purchase this book.  Let me rework this recipe that was reposted anyway, and you'll reap the rewards without trying to chase down the book.  I have modified it to avoid the use of the oven, and instead rely on my favorite of cooking methods - the pressure cooker.  If you are scared of the pressure cooker, first, shame on you, and second, you can bake at 350 F and wait around for dinner, and think about what you could be doing with those extra 2 hours of your life if only you were more courageous (I'm looking at you, Mom).

Italian Country Style Ribs with Tomatoes
From Roma: Authentic Recipes from In and Around the Eternal City

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 3 pounds country style ribs
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 28-ounce can Italian plum tomatoes with purée or juices
• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
• 1 medium carrot, diced
• 1 rib of celery (with leaves), diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary (or 1 tablespoon fresh)
• 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 cup dry red wine
• parsley, for garnish

Pat ribs dry with paper towel and season on both sides with salt and pepper. Heat olive oil over medium-high flame in a heavy cast iron skillet. Brown the ribs well on both sides, turning them a couple/few times, about 10 minutes total. Avoid crowding them in the pot. Meanwhile, pour tomatoes into a bowl roughly chop them.

Transfer ribs to a plate and reduce heat to medium. Add onion, carrot and celery to pot and cook for 5 to 6 minutes, stirring frequently to avoid burning. Stir in garlic, rosemary and paprika and cook until fragrant, about 45 seconds. Add wine, scraping up any brown bits, and cook until it’s almost evaporated, about 3 minutes. Dump all of this into your pressure cooker along with the ribs and any accumulated juices, arranging them in a single layer as much as possible. Pour chopped tomatoes and their juices over the ribs, working them in around the meat with a wooden spoon. Tuck the bay leaf into the tomatoes. Seal the pressure cooker, or, if you're baking, cover the pot you're baking in and transfer to the oven.

Braise ribs until very tender, 40-50 minutes for pressure cooker or 2 to 2-1/2 hours in the oven, carefully turning them about halfway through the cooking process if you're baking. Transfer ribs to serving platter as best you can - they may fall apart, as mine did. Serve with the sauce, over pasta such as penne, rotinin, or farfalle. Garnish with parsley, and have at it.

Chinese Stir-fried Pork with Leeks

A simple recipe I found in Saveur magazine, lifted directly from there and then screwed up only slightly on my first attempt.  I will post the recipe ingredients as printed, with a couple of caveats in the instructions.  The recipe describes 'reverse stir-frying', where the vegetables are [atypically] cooked before the meat, then added back in.  I'll admit, I usually cook the meat first, but I don't think this is anything earth-shattering.

I wish I could tell you more about the backstory of this dish, because based on its short ingredient list, I picture this as coming from the countryside.  It's like the Chinese equivalent of a really good taco - throw a few things together, let the individual flavors really shine through, and don't get too fancy with anything.  It doesn't hurt that you're using leeks either, which are delicious in almost everything so long as you rinse the dirt out of them thoroughly.  The longer you can let the meat sit with the seasonings, the more flavorful the product will be.  I recommend more like 1-2 hours in the fridge at least, with the last 45 minutes left out to come closer to room temperature.

Simple, flavorful, rustic.  Not what you think of for Americanized Chinese food.  But really freaking good.

Recipe originally posted here Sept. 2011, updated on second attempt in Jan. 2013. Updated again June 2025 with revised instructions.


Stir-Fried Pork with Leeks (Cong Bao Rou Si)
From Saveur, December 2010

Updated 8/24/13: At the request of a fellow chef, I have doubled the marinade ingredients.

• 10 oz. boneless pork butt, frozen for 20 minutes and cut into 2" x 1/8" strips (thin is good here!)
• 2 tsp. Asian sesame oil
• 2 tsp. dark soy sauce (this is not just dark-colored soy sauce)
• 1 tsp. cornstarch
• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp. canola oil
• 1 leek, white and pale green parts only, cut diagonally into 1/4"-thick slices

In a medium bowl, combine the pork, soy sauce, cornstarch, sugar, and half the garlic; let sit for 15 minutes at a minimum, and don't refrigerate again unless you plan to let marinate for a while. After adding the other marinade ingredients, THEN add the sesame oil, otherwise those flavors won’t penetrate as well. And use dark soy sauce, not to be translated as "darkly colored normal soy sauce".  This is soy sauce with sugar or molasses added, which gives it a much sweeter and richer flavor, and also makes it more of a syrup.  It will also lend a much darker color to your finished product, make it so your food burns if you're not careful, and thicken a dish much more than regular soy sauce.

Marinate your pork in dark soy sauce, garlic, sesame oil, and a few other simple ingredients, and let it hang out.

While the meat is marinating, clean the leeks THOROUGHLY.  Leeks are infamous for hiding dirt in their many layers - I typically cut through the stem enough to get a sprayer in there, but since this recipe wants whole rings, I went a different route.  Just slice off the green tops (maybe the top 1/3 of what's shown below), the bottom 1/4", and then slice into your rings, breaking them apart slightly so the pieces are all loose.  Now rinse the rings, and try to get as much water off as possible.  A salad spinner will come in handy here.


Leeks, soaking in water to clean them out a bit.

This is what you're left with after slicing and rinsing.  When you stir-fry these up, they should cook very quickly because of their thin cut.  Don't overcook them

To prepare, heat a 14" wok over high heat until wok begins to smoke. Add 1 tbsp. oil around the edge of the wok and swirl to coat the bottom and sides. Add the leeks and cook, stirring and tossing constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Transfer leeks to a plate and set aside.

Time to fry up some leeks

Return wok to high heat and add remaining oil around edge of wok, swirling to coat the bottom and sides. Add the pork mixture and cook, stirring and tossing constantly, until the pork is browned, about 2 minutes.  Really look for browning, and make sure the wok isn't too crowded, or you will end up boiling your meat in the juices it releases.  You want enough heat getting to all the meat that it quickly browns before giving up any moisture.  My wok gets hot, but not rocket hot like in a restaurant.  That would have helped even more.  NOTE: if you put the meat in and it sizzles like it's searing, this is good.  But if it starts to get quiet, that is bad.  It means your wok isn't hot enough for the amount of food you put in, which is probably more cold than it is in your average poorly sanitized restaurant kitchen, making things extra hard for you.  So do this - if you suspect that your wok isn't going to get the job done, just stop.  Take everything out, and get the wok as hot as it will get again.  Now add the meat back in, half at a time, and cook until done, setting aside the cooked meat in between.  You won't need to add more oil each time because the oil is still all over the meat.  This is what I did last night, and it worked out great.  Just remember to use all of your senses - sometimes cooking can involve listening just as much as watching.

I cooked the pork in two batches, to make sure it would saute instead of steam.  This gave it a much nicer color, and allowed the sugars in the dark soy to caramelize a bit (the black specks)

Add leeks back to the wok and add the remaining garlic and cook, stirring and tossing often, until just tender, about 1 minute. Don't overcook, or the meat will toughen.

If you want slightly more sauce, mix up another 2 tsp dark soy sauce, maybe 2 tsp light soy sauce, 1/2 tsp sugar, and a splash of sesame oil. Turn the heat down to medium to avoid burning this, add this sauce, and toss to combine. I’ve tried adding more cornstarch and broth, but this changes the dish immensely and the feel just isn’t right. Dry is good on this one to get the flavor of the leeks a bit more readily.

Return everything to the wok and toss to combine for a minute or less

Serve immediately, over rice.  Don't get crazy with the condiments, this is meant to be a simple dish

Korean Spicy Pork Barbeque (Daeji Bulgogi)

I'm starting to think that most street food, no matter what culture it's from, can be replicated at home.  I'm not talking about that certain special something that years of experience grants to these road warriors, but I am convinced that certain staple foods you can get in ethnic restaurants are easy to duplicate.  Hot on the heels of my pho experience, I attempted to make pork bulgogi - a Korean barbeque dish served in restaurants all over the country, and becoming popular here.  Restaurants are popular because either you cook the food yourself, or the food is cooked right in front of you.  And unlike the pho recipe from last time, I was able to cook this cheaper and faster than the restaurant alternative, and escaped being gouged for what is, if nothing else, just a glorified marinated pork dish.  The experience started me thinking: what other foods am I overpaying for, that I could make on my own?  So now what?  Cuban sandwiches?  Gyros?  Wait and see, I guess.

Cooking Korean bbq at home - you won't believe how easy this is

Kimchi Jeon (Kimchi Pancakes)

As I explore more ingredients from Asia, I've become curious about the different ways people use kimchi.  Pickled cabbage seems to be the lynchpin in a slew of different Korean recipes, used in everything from their Korean BBQ to fried rice recipes.  A Korean friend of mine mentioned that they make kimchi into pancakes, much like potato pancakes.  I had to try this.  And other than the fact that these came out a bit thicker than I was envisioning, they were unbelievably delicious, crisp, tart, and made for a great meal that probably could have been an appetizer for many folks had I not been so keen on destroying them in a small group setting.

How could these possibly be bad?!

Kimchi Jeon
Saveur, November 2009
Serves 4-6

These savory pancakes are flavored with ground pork and chopped kimchi.  This recipe makes about 25 small pancakes; you can also cook large ones that fit the bottom of the skillet and slice them into wedges.

• ¼ lb ground pork (I used chicken in a pinch once, but pork is preferred)
• 2 cups chopped cabbage kimchi
• 1 cup flour
• ½ cup rice flour
• 6 scallions, finely chopped
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 10.5 tbsp canola oil
• Kosher salt to taste

Combine ground pork, kimchi, flour, rice flour, scallions, egg, and 1 cup ice cold water in a bowl; whisk to combine.  Set aside to let rest for 10 minutes.

Chop up your kimchi.  I got mine at the Asian grocery store - you might be able to find it in the refrigerated produce section of a normal store.

Measure out the pork and green onions.

Mix all ingredients together to get a consistency that looks like chicken salad.  It's important to use ice water.

Working in 7 batches, heat 1.5 tbsp oil in a 12” nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  Scoop 4 2 tbsp portions batter into skillet.  Flatten each portion with the back of a spoon.  Cook until edges crisp, about 2 minutes.  Flip pancakes, cook until set, about 2 minutes.  Transfer pancakes to paper towels and wipe out skillet after each batch.  

I spread my pancakes out wide in the pan, making just a few large ones.  But you could do smaller, more human-sized pancakes

Serve sprinkled with salt, and garnish with a sweet and / or spicy dipping sauce.  I recommend a sweet chili-garlic sauce, but you could even do a spicy ranch if you were really desperate.