Shredded Pork and Mustard Green Soup

For my second recipe I decided to go with an authentic chinese soup. The shredded pork and mustard green soup caught my eye (page 300 of Nina Simmond's Classic Chinese Cooking). The recipe had some ingredients that I had never worked with before such as bean threads and Sichuan preserved mustard greens. Some of the ingredients had to be found in an Asian market but that story deserves an entire post.

The Ingredients Asssembled 

I started out by assembling ass of my ingredients on the counter. In the front right are the what we think are Sichuan preserved mustard greens and bean threads.

Chopped Pork in Marinade 

I chopped the pork into moderately thin slices I let it marinate. The ingredients in the marinade are: soy sauce, rice wine, sesame oil, and corn starch.

Assembled Vegetables 

While the meat was marinating I assembled my vegetables to later be mixed with chicken broth, soy sauce, sesame oil, mustard greens, and scallions.

Final stages

I assembled all of the ingredients ( including the pork) into a soup pot to finish cooking the pork and to soften the vegetables.

Final product 

After the soup was done I served It with some simple refried rice. The soup had an unusual taste, it wasn't bad but the canned mustard greens added a very sharp and peppery flavor. I thought that it had a very winter feel to it witch is always nice when approaching the colder seasons. I would give this a rating of 3 1/2 stars compared to the wontons.

  

Fried Wontons

While skimming through Nina Simonds' Classic Chinese Cuisine I stumbled upon a recipe for Fried wontons. I have always loved fresh dumplings and I had some experience with making steamed dumplings before. I Had never made fried dumplings before so I was excited to begin working.

The ingredients

I started by shelling and deveining the shrimp, which was then minced and mixed with minced water chestnuts, ground pork, and wonton seasonings: soy sauce, rice wine, sesame oil, ginger and scallions. 

Wonton mixture

I put about a teaspoon in each wonton wrapper and twisted them into dumpling shape. 

While forming the wontons, I was heating about six cups of oil in a Dutch oven. (The recipe says to use a wok, but we don't have one.)  The cookbook says to heat the oil to 350, but we don't have a thermometer, so I waited until the oil started to wink at me, and then tested with a scrap wonton wrapper.

Once they looked brown and crispy, I drained them on paper towels.

Then I made a dipping sauce of ketchup, rice vinegar, soy sauce, and sesame oil, thickened with corn starch.

The finished wontons were delicious!

China

This is the first week of my International Foods Project. I have chosen my first continent to be Asia and the first country to be China. I have always loved Chinese food (on the rare occasions that we order it). China, is such a large country that it includes several cultures and ways of cooking. The flavors are very different from those of American and European cooking.

I am cooking from Classic Chinese Cuisine by Nina Simonds. (1982)

Introduction to Cooking

When I was ten years old I was always hungry for sweets.  My mom rarely bought them because she had this crazy notion that they were bad for me. One day while getting turned down yet again for a request to go to Spud-nuts (the local donut shop) I decided to take matters into my own hands. I looked up a recipe for home made doughnuts.  My mom told me that hot oil was dangerous, especially when a ten year old handles it. So she said that she was going to help me with the frying. Soon after we got the ingredients I started to work on the batter. I found it strange to add things that didn't look, taste, or smell anything like a donut.

After the batter was complete I started to form my donuts into what I thought that they should look like. By this time I was exhausted, I was ready to give up and just forget about cooking in general but my love for donuts was too great. The oil was ready and hot and so with my slotted spoon I gently placed the donuts in. When they were brown and looked done, I put them in a cooling rack lined with paper towels to absorb the excess oil. 

When they were cooled I dipped the top of each doughnut in a home made chocolate ganache. I took my first bite of the new creation and a sense of accomplishment came over me. I knew that what I was eating would not be possible without my own hands. I didn't want to consume them all at once and waste them because I thought that the work that was put in deserved to be appreciated by preserving the proof of the work.  From that day on I always appreciated what I was consuming and not just blindly stuffing my face. Cooking has got me through many tough times and when many things seem out of control I will always have control over how my food tastes. 

Today I am fourteen years old.  I have met and worked with chefs and explored new recipes and techniques.  The reason for this blog is because in order to be a great chef I have to taste different food and develop my own style. I intend this blog to be a record of my food explorations and maybe I can even show it to the colleges I apply to.