well I tried Asian cooking again tonight

[NMDemDist2]

my second attempt and the first one at making the sauce myself and not relying on bottled Plum Sauce

i read a few recipes but none were what I was looking for (matching what was in the fridge) so here's what I did

I had a boneless pork loin chop that I marinated as it defrosted in black bean paste and soy sauce. cut it into bite sized pieces (as I did with the rest of the ingredient list)

I had carrots
white mushrooms
yellow crook neck
zucchini
red onion
broccoli all cut to bite sized

put some red pepper flakes, about a TBSP of sesame oil and about 1 tsp dried ginger and mixed all that together and let it sit

heated up the wok with veggie oil and 1/2 tsp chopped garlic, when the garlic was brown I added the pork and cooked it not quite done then removed it and set it aside

a little more oil then the carrots, onion and broccoli for a couple minutes, then added the rest of the veggies with the sesame oil concoction, let those cook a couple minutes then added a cup of turkey stock (i didn't have chicken broth) some soy sauce and some fish sauce and let it cook down about 2 minutes, added the pork back in then added a mix of about 1 tsp corn starch mixed with water

cooked it all together for another minute, tasted YIKES!! salty and fishy! added a couple tsp honey and let it cook a couple more minutes (all the while doing the tossing/wok thing)

served over rice and garnished with chopped green onion and ya know? it was pretty darn good!

[Warpy]

1. First, go easy on the fish sauce

Second, when you're doing Asian cooking, heat the oil, then toss in your aromatics (garlic, ginger, scallion, dried peppers, etc) and stirfry just for a few seconds, just long enough to infuse the oil with their flavor. Don't brown that garlic, it makes it bitter.

Second into the wok is the meat or seafood you're going to cook. Keep everything moving so you're not doing things like burning ginger or browning garlic. (precooking meat by marinating in wine, egg white, and cornstarch and dipping it into hot oil is specified by a lot of cooking teachers, it's called "velvetizing" the meat and makes a big difference in texture)

Third, you do your firmer veggies like carrots, baby corn, broccoli, cauliflower, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, muchrooms, etc.

Fourth, your softer veggies like onion, cabbages, lettuces, summer squashes, etc.

Last, you do the soy sauce, a DROP of fish sauce (which I think you've just discovered), stock, and flavorings like chili paste or bean paste.

Thicken it all with cornstarch and water or stock.

After you turn the heat off, add the dark sesame oil. That stuff is very fragile and doesn't tolerate heat well. That's also when you add things like reserved chopped green scallion and toasted sesame seed to garnish.

Mise en place is the secret to Chinese cooking, having a series of bowls next to the wok so that you can add things fully prepared at exactly the right time.

Well, that and having a ready supply of paper towels to clean the wok out between dishes.

[NMDemDist2]

2. i did pretty close to that

but thanks for the additional tips and I did have the mise em place going on

i am pretty pleased all in all,and thanks again for the tips

once I added the honey it all came together really well :bounce:

[spindrifter]

4. Excellent tips, Warpy!

I had never heard the term "velvetized" for for different techniques to marinate the meat. I would add that it is easy to slice meat very thin across the grain if you do it when the meat is still a bit frozen. Thinly sliced meats cook really fast--you don't even finish them in the pan, as they will continue cooking for a while while you are working on your veggies.

[NMDemDist2]

5. i did slice it across the grain while still slightly frozen

after it defrosted in the marinade and it was very easy to work with that way

[Stinky The Clown]

3. Sounds like you did okay .... here's another tip ..... for the puerco ....

Slice the meat rather than cube it. It cooks faster and gets more of the infused flavors into it.

Warpy's dead-on about the marinating, too.

[NMDemDist2]

6. i sliced it across the grain first, then dear Mr. K asked me to make

then smaller so I divided the slices a couple times