“Ravishing” is not a word I often use. But when I took my first bite of last night’s stir-fry of pork with preserved mustard tuber, that’s the word that leapt to mind. Inspired by a recipe in Fuchsia Dunlop’s book, “Land of Plenty”, it requires few ingredients and is super fast (once you’ve assembled the bits and pieces you need). I’m not going to post a recipe today, just wanted to share the concept: thinly sliced pork loin, mustard tuber, soy, Shiaoxing wine, scallion.
Dunlop spent years studying Chinese cooking techniques, traveling around that vast country and insinuating herself into restaurant kitchens both large and miniscule. Every one of her dishes that I’ve tried is both unique and distinct flavor and texture-wise.
My creative contribution to dinner was rice wrapped in Swiss chard. It’s supposed to be lotus leaves, but I couldn’t find them at my Asian market and ran out of time to find someone whose English would enable him/her to help me. Instead I used blanched chard. The resulting packets were somewhat delicate (requiring careful transfer from steamer to plate) but succulent nonetheless. Ingredients included enoki mushrooms, scallions, Chinese sausage, cooked rice, and some sesame oil. I would have preferred to use sticky rice, but couldn’t find any on short notice. That leaves another attempt with modified ingredients as something for another day.
Unlike the traditional rice packets served universally as part of a dim sum meal, the wrapper is edible (lotus leaf is not).
Dunlop spent years studying Chinese cooking techniques, traveling around that vast country and insinuating herself into restaurant kitchens both large and miniscule. Every one of her dishes that I’ve tried is both unique and distinct flavor and texture-wise.
My creative contribution to dinner was rice wrapped in Swiss chard. It’s supposed to be lotus leaves, but I couldn’t find them at my Asian market and ran out of time to find someone whose English would enable him/her to help me. Instead I used blanched chard. The resulting packets were somewhat delicate (requiring careful transfer from steamer to plate) but succulent nonetheless. Ingredients included enoki mushrooms, scallions, Chinese sausage, cooked rice, and some sesame oil. I would have preferred to use sticky rice, but couldn’t find any on short notice. That leaves another attempt with modified ingredients as something for another day.
Unlike the traditional rice packets served universally as part of a dim sum meal, the wrapper is edible (lotus leaf is not).
I know we have talked about this before..but what is muster tuber? I can't wait until you post the recipe...if you say it's that good I want to try it! Great idea with the swish chard rice packet!
ReplyDeleteYou lucky, lucky duck. Now I must Google this "mustard tuber" of which you speak.
ReplyDeleteSticy rice is just short grain or sushi rice
ReplyDelete