Sunday, March 14, 2010

Moo Shu Pork Wraps


This is a great recipe if you want to try something fast, easy and different from your typical weeknight meal.


This recipe takes under 30 minutes, start to finish (hooray) and is very flavorful. If you've never tried cooking with hoisin sauce at home, I highly recommend trying out this recipe. I was surprised how much this dish tasted like it came from a restaurant!


If you are looking for a more low carb option, you could easily replace the tortilla wrap with a large Boston bibb or iceberg lettuce leaf.


Moo Shu Pork Wraps

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 lb ground pork
seasoned pepper (or fresh cracked pepper)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 inch fresh ginger, minced
2 Tbs reduced sodium soy sauce
About 1/4 cup hoisin sauce
8 soft taco sized flour tortillas (I recommend Mission's Carb Balance brand)
2 carrots, grated
2 cups bean sprouts
fresh cilantro

Procedure:

1. Coat a large skillet with a light amount of cooking spray, and turn on medium-high heat. Cook ground pork until browned, seasoning the pork with pepper before it is fully cooked.

2. Add the soy sauce, garlic and ginger, and cook for about 2 minutes more. Remove from direct heat, but leave in the warm pan while you assemble the wraps. NOTE: You don't want to burn the garlic or ginger, because this will give a bitter taste to the dish (or any dish, for that matter). Adding garlic and other spices towards the end of recipes ensures full flavor.

3. Begin to assemble your wraps. Heat the tortillas in the microwave (or on the stove, fancypants). Place about 1 spoonful of the hoisin sauce (or more/less depending on your taste) in the center of the tortilla. Add the sprouts and carrots, and top with the ground pork. Add a bit of chiffoned cilantro for an extra pop of flavor.

4. Wrap up and serve! How easy was this!? I suggest serving with stir-fried green beans, or if you need some more filling bulk to your meal, some jasmine rice.


Sunday, March 7, 2010

A Big Bowl of Fail: Tex Mex Macaroni and Cheese

It was supposed to be delicious. It was supposed to be easy.

IT was neither. It=Rachel Ray's Tex Mex macaroni and cheese recipe. Everything was going great--my pasta was boiling, my ground beef was cooked to perfection, my roux was a nutty brown, and my cheese was grated.


Then, the unthinkable happened. I added the required amount of milk and broth to the roux, and allowed it to reduce. I tried to get it to reduce. WHY WASN'T IT REDUCING!??! GAHH!?! I tried adding a bit of flour (cornstarch would have been better) to thicken it a bit, but the sauce just was. not. having. it.


I decided to press forward, telling myself, "maybe it's supposed to look like that." No. No, my friends, it was most definitely NOT supposed to look like that.

I added the cheese to the "sauce" and this awful emulsion occurred, the likes that have never been seen before in my kitchen.

This is what it looked like.


Needless to say, we ate leftovers, and I will not be posting the recipe...

Still, this was not as bad as this incident :).