"The (Martin) Yan Can Cookbook;" "The Pot and How to Use It;" "Vegetable Love" - Lemon Chicken, Tangy Sushi Rice and Lemon Light Carrots

Date I made these recipes – January 17, 2016 – still cold

The Yan Can Cook Book (As Seen On National Public Television) by Martin Yan

Published by:  Doubleday

ISBN: 0-385-17606-6; © 1981

Purchased at local library used book sale

Recipe:  Luscious Lemon Chicken – p. 93

The Pot and How to Use It – the mystery and romance of the rice cooker by Roger Ebert

Published by:  Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC

ISBN:  13: 978-0-7407-9142-0

Purchased at Barnes and Noble Used Books – Roseville, MN

Recipe:  Tangy, Stick Sushi-Style Rice By Devin Chalmers on November 2, 2008 6:18 A.M. – p. 95-96

Vegetable Love by Barbara Kafka with Christopher Styler

Published by:  Artisan

ISBN:  10: 1-57965-168-2

From my late friend Carol's collection

Recipe:  Lemon-Light Carrots – p. 188

For the record, it's still cold.  In fact, probably colder.  When I last peeked through my fingers at our indoor thermometer, I think it said -4 and that was midday.

You should also know that our kitchen, added after the house was built (1904), is not insulated.  Every single window displayed indoor frost.  Yes, that's right:  indoor.

So by all rights, I should have and could have made another comfort food dish just like last week's "fancy" chili except I decided I had held off on making my Asian meal long enough.  Besides, the use of lemon and lemon juice temporarily tricked me into thinking I was in a warmer climate.  Dream on.

In an "amazing but true fact" moment, all three of the dishes here worked well with each other.  And honestly, the Vegetable Love book just fell open to the right chapter to reveal a delicious carrot recipe. It was a sign, no?

Let's start with Martin Yan of The Yan Can Cook Book.  In the 1980's, well before the Food Network emerged, PBS hosted a number of shows from previously unknown chefs like Yan.  His book is named for his show.  As I found with his other books, Yan delivers a wide variety of Chinese dishes, all of which sounded pretty yummy to me.  The dish I selected was really tasty and the lemon sauce was light instead of cloying.  Sometimes I think the American versions of Chinese sauces come with instructions along the lines of "Make thick and goopy and by all means, add lots of sugar."  This is not that dish.

As I was making this dish, I thought about the first time I had lemon chicken and that was at LeeAnn Chin's, named after local Chinese restaurateur and cookbook author, Leeann Chin.

I've written about Leeann Chin before and how she turned a few family recipes into a culinary empire.   Back in the early 80's, she operated a couple of Leeann Chin restaurants before expanding the business to include several quick-service/take-out sites, and one of her famous signature dishes at all locations was lemon chicken. 

Leeann's lemon chicken is different from Martin Yan's as it is breaded and fried and then the sauce, containing sugar and corn syrup, is poured on top and not mixed in with the stir-fry.  If it's made fresh, it can be pretty divine.  But after she went the quick-service/take-out route it wasn't so divine.  If left to sit too long, the breading gets soggy and the lemon sauce recipe seemed to morph over the years from light and delicate to almost syrupy, at least to this palate.

And so even though I loved most of her other dishes, I feared my lemon chicken days over.

But then I found this recipe and I would make this again 1,000 times over.  The only small frustration with the ingredients – and it is small – is that the marinade calls for 1 teaspoon of "ginger juice."  Let's discuss!

A quick Google search told me I could buy a bottle of "ginger juice" at a grocery store but I'd be paying close to $5 for the bottle and that was ridiculous considering I only needed 1 teaspoon.

And so I then Googled "make your own ginger juice" and came up with several recipes.  My version was undoubtedly not the right one (dice up ginger, add water, voila!) but it worked for me.  Besides, it was for the marinade so it didn't need to be spot on.  At least this is what I told myself; purists may differ.

Luckily, you'll only have to marinade this for a half an hour and then you can get going cooking it in your wok.  I love dishes like this.

So that's Martin Yan's recipe and now let's discuss the book The Pot and How to Use It – the mystery and romance of the rice cooker by Roger Ebert.

I do so hope you remember Roger Ebert.  He became a household name to many when he and the late Gene Siskel, both film critics for competing Chicago newspapers, starred in the TV show, Siskel and Ebert At the Movies. 

When this show started up, I remember thinking that it was kind of quirky but it soon became incredibly popular, with viewers tuning in to watch the two guys throw down against each other.  I don't recall Ebert liking too many movies and the fact that Siskel usually liked something Ebert hated spurred them on into near fisticuffs.  Still, it was an entertaining show and I learned a lot about the movies.

After Siskel died, Ebert took on a new movie critic partner and all was well until Ebert was diagnosed with cancer.  He wrote this book while undergoing treatment (he died in 2013) which is amazing to me because a mere headache can wipe me out, never mind cancer.

It appears that this book was prompted by Ebert's desire to eat relatively healthy after his cancer diagnosis as well as a love of cooking things in one pot.  Others favor soup pots or casseroles but for Ebert, it was a rice cooker.  The beauty of this book though, is that it includes more than just basic recipes such as  "Seafood Jambalaya (p. 85)," "Chicken Spaghetti (p. 85)" and even "Oatmeal (p. 97). " And these were all fine and well and good but at day's end, I opted for the sushi rice to accompany my lemon chicken.   Yes, that was a totally predicable choice but it worked out really well.

This recipe – Tangy, Sticky Sushi-Style Rice (submitted by Ebert fan, Devin Chalmers) – could not be easier and yet, finding white sushi rice, as opposed to brown sushi rice (OMG – ugh!) turned out to be harder than I expected. Actually, let me clarify:  I could have easily gotten my hands on several pounds of sushi rice but I didn't need that much and so finding just the right amount proved to be the challenge.  Inexplicably, at least three stores I visited had brown sushi rice and I must confess that never, ever did I think that sushi was made with brown sushi rice.  Seems like a sin against culinary nature to me!

Happily, Whole Foods had a small package of white sushi rice containing just about the amount I wanted and so all was well with the world.  And, considering that Whole Foods' nickname is "Whole Paycheck," we got out of there for only a couple of bucks – score!

For the record, all of the recipes in this quirky book sounded great and Roger's commentary is hilarious so it was a total win-win purchase on my part.

This leaves us then, with our third cookbook, Vegetable Love by Barbara Kafka.  This thing is a "tome," containing 667 pages of vegetable recipes and then several more source lists.  Naturally, it weighs a ton and so do handle carefully!

Normally, selecting a recipe from a book this large would overwhelm but as I mentioned previously, the book just seemed to fall open to just the recipe I needed to round out my Asian meal:  Lemon-Light Carrots.   This dish – basically, slow-cooked carrots – is freshened up by lemon juice, lemon zest and Chinese five-spice powder.  We loved it.  But if carrots are not your thing, then by all means peruse the rest of the book for alternatives, broken out into the following chapters:  "Vegetables of the New World;" "Vegetables of the Mediterranean Basin, Europe and the Arab World;" "Vegetables of Asia and Africa," and "Citizens of the World."  The carrot recipe, found on page 188, was part of the "Mediterranean Basin, Europe and the Arab World" section and yet it fit perfectly with my Asian theme. 

And as with the other two books by Martin Yan and Roger Ebert, Vegetable Love's author, Barbara Kafka, is very well-known in culinary and cookbook circles.  Her cookbook, Roasting, is probably the most well known and yet you know what?  I don't have it.  I must rectify this forthwith!

Luscious Lemon Chicken – serving size not given but there was enough for two decent servings

½ pound chicken or 2 breasts, boned

2 ½ tablespoons fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons green onion

¼ cup soup stock

1 tablespoon wine

1 ½ tablespoons brown sugar

½ lemon, thinly sliced

1 teaspoon cornstarch solution (Ann's Note:  I guessed at the ratio and thought my solution was a bit too thin i.e. too much water to cornstarch but it worked.)

For the marinade

½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons wine

Dash black pepper

1 teaspoon ginger juice (Ann's Note:  you can buy this premade or make it like I did – finely chop or grind some fresh, peeled ginger, then add water.)

Cut the chicken into 1 ½ inch squares; marinate for 30 minutes.

Heat oil in wok over high heat and stir-fry chicken for 1 ½ - 2 minutes. (Ann's Note:  The chicken pieces were still pretty raw after 2 minutes so I cooked them for a few minutes more.)  Add the remaining ingredients except cornstarch and lemon.  Mix well and reduce heat to medium-low.  Cover and simmer for 1 ½ minutes.  Add lemon slices and continue to cook for 1 minute.

Thicken with cornstarch; garnish with extra lemon slices. 

Tangy, Sticky Sushi-Style Rice – serving size not given but I made about 2 cups (Recipe with notes from Devin Chalmers)

2-3 cups white sushi-style rice (short-grain) (Ann's Note:  Use the plastic measure that came with your rice cooker pot as the measure for your rice and not a regular measuring cup.)

5 parts rice vinegar to 1 part sugar with a bit of salt

Rinse white short-grain rice carefully.  The water should be clear, and long-grain rice is for Communists.  (Ann's Note:  I'm sorry to say, I feel the same way about brown rice!)

Add a little (maybe a third by volume) more water than rice.  Let it soak for a good half hour or so.  (Ann's Note:  I barely covered the rice and it cooked perfectly!)

Cook in the Pot.

While the Pot goes, prepare a solution of approximately 5 parts rice vinegar, 1 part sugar, and a bit of salt.  Call it a third of a cup total for 2 to 3 cups of rice.  Microwaves can help with this, or you can cleverly harness team from the Pot to assist dissolution.

Remove the rice to a large, shallow bowl-like thing.  Have a friend fan the rice while you drizzle the vinegar concoction and gently turn the rice.  (Fanning helps with the stickiness.)  (Ann's Note:  I put Andy in charge of the vinegar/sugar/salt mixture as well as the direction to "remove the rice to a large, shallow bowl-like thing."  Upon reading that, he snorted and then got out a large, plastic, not-so-shallow bowl-like "thing" a/k/a/ Tupperware and that was that!)

For extra fun: (suggested by Devin)

• Add (low-sodium? Perhaps) soy sauce and wasabi for a cheap cheap cheap alternative to waiting in line at a sushi restaurant.  All you really wanted was the soy sauce and wasabi, right?
• Make rice balls!  You can put thing inside them.  I suggest using a piece of plastic wrap to keep your hands clean if you're making more than a few.  Make a hole with your thumb to insert fillings – maybe something sweet, bits of pickle, anything.
• For added points shape your rice ball into a fat triangle and wrap with seaweed.  Eat while the nori is crispy.
• Rice balls are notoriously hard to keep more than a day; they dry out in the fridge very quickly.  I've had some limited luck microwaving them a bit.

 Lemon-Light Carrots – makes 5 cups; serves 8 as a side dish

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

10 medium carrots (3 pounds), peeled, trimmed and cut into 3 x ¼ x ¼ -inch matchsticks (Ann's Note:  OR—you can do like I did and buy carrots that have already been cut into smaller matchsticks for salads and then just keep an eye on your cooking time.  Worked like a charm!)

1 large sweet onion, thinly sliced

Zest of 2 lemons – removed with a vegetable peeler and thinly sliced into long strips (about 3 tablespoons)

1 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder

4 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

½ teaspoon kosher salt

Melt the butter in a nonreactive 4-quart pot over low heat.  Stir in the cayenne pepper.  Add the carrots, onion and lemon zest and mix well.  Cover the pot.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until the carrots are tender but not mushy and the onions have softened and turned light yellow, about 45 minutes.

Stir in the five-spice powder, lemon juice and salt and cook for 30 seconds more.

"Linda's Kitchen" by Linda McCartney - Chinese Egg Fried Rice - for Earth Day!

Date I made this recipe – April 26, 2015 – Belated Earth Day Celebration

Linda's Kitchen – Simple and Inspiring Recipes for Meatless Meals by Linda McCartney

Published by:  Little, Brown and Company

ISBN: 0-8212-2393-3; © 1995

Purchased at Arc's Value Village Thrift Store

Recipe:  Chinese Egg Fried Rice – p. 94

In last week's blog, I told you that the title and cover of the cookbook – Len Deighton's Action Cookbook inspired me to use that book.  This week, it was a song that inspired me; luckily, I also had a "matching" cookbook.

So on or around Earth Day this year, my favorite local radio station, 89.3 The Current, played Paul McCartney and Wing's song Junior's Farm.  Yes, after the Beatles broke up, Sir Paul, his wife Linda McCartney, and assorted other musicians formed the band, Wings.

So "Junior's Farm" led me to think about Sir Paul which led me to think of Linda McCartney which led me to think about her great success as a vegetarian cookbook author (and vegetarian product line creator) which led me to think about how vegetables are an important part of Earth Day which led me to think that this would be the perfect cookbook for the day.  The end.

Now I could just launch into a discussion about the cookbook itself but let's talk first about Linda McCartney, nee Linda Eastman.  I had always, always heard that she was related to the Eastman's as in Eastman Kodak (the photo film manufacturers) but according to Wikipedia, this is not true.  What?  Well burst a bubble why don't you, Wiki?  Still, Linda was an accomplished photographer and published several photos of famous rock and roll stars, including her husband.  In fact, she met Sir Paul while on a photography assignment in London. 

After the Beatles broke up (some fans never forgave Linda or John Lennon's wife, Yoko Ono for that debacle), Sir Paul started the band, Wings, and made Linda part of the group.  We won't go into the controversy (or, as the Brits say "con-TRO-ver-see") over that move except to summarize:  it didn't go over well.  Still, Paul McCartney and Wings was responsible for the following hits:  Live and Let Die; My Love; Band On the Run; Helen Wheels; and, of course, Junior's Farm.  So there you go.

According to Wikipedia, Linda became a vegetarian as far back as 1975 and by 1990, published her first vegetarian cookbook.  The book I used, Linda's Kitchen, was published in 1995.  That same year, Linda was diagnosed with breast cancer and passed away in 1998 at age 56. 

All of the recipes in this cookbook sounded and looked good although I drew the line at using "vegetarian mince" (meat substitute) or meatless sausages recipes.  I suppose I could have just left that item out but it just seemed easier to find something that was totally meatless.  And because Whole Foods had a special on fresh asparagus, I also added that to the other vegetables she called for.  I love asparagus.

You should know that Linda calls for margarine as a substitute for butter in a lot of recipes, especially desserts, and I get why she would do that, but folks, margarine has been proven to be awful for the body.  So if you decide to try out some of the desserts, see if butter will work just as well—unless, of course, you are truly vegan in which case, never mind!

As to my Chinese Egg Fried Rice, the only seasonings Linda uses are paprika (which I found puzzling) and soy sauce.  Although I used soy sauce sparingly, I did use it as you will need it to add a little punch to the dish.  But talk about feeling healthy!  This recipe calls for green onions, yellow bell pepper, carrots and snow peas and then I added asparagus.  I'm sure you can add more vegetables to this if you choose.

Another tweak I made to the recipe was to use a mixture of dark sesame oil and vegetable oil to stir fry the vegetables.  I love dark sesame oil and I think it enhanced the vegetables but that is just my opinion.  Linda recommends that you can serve this with her sweet and sour sauce on page 153 but I didn't want to goop up my rice with that type of sauce so I passed (but have included it just in case you want to go for broke).

So that's my Earth Day/Paul McCartney/Linda McCartney/Wings/Junior's Farm story.  Enjoy!

Chinese Egg Fried Rice – for 6 (with Sweet and Sour Sauce – optional)

Fried rice:

1 tbsp dark sesame oil

2 free-range eggs, beaten

1 tbsp vegetable oil

4 green onions, finely sliced

1yellow bell pepper, seeded and finely diced

1 medium carrots, cut in fine matchsticks

1 cup sliced canned water chestnuts (Ann's Note:  If I made this dish again, I would skip this.  Sure, they add crunch but they have no flavor.  None. Try celery instead.)

¼ pound snow peas, sliced diagonally

1-inch piece fresh gingerroot, peeled and grated

2 large cloves garlic, minced

1 1/3 cups long-grain rice, cooked

Soy sauce

paprika

Sweet and sour sauce (optional and also untried) (makes 1 ¼ cups)

2/3 cup pineapple juice

3 tbsp olive oil

¼ cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1 tbsp soy sauce or more to taste

1-inch pieced fresh gingerroot, peeled and finely grated

2 cloves garlic, minced

¼ cup fresh lemon juice

1 heaping tbsp cornstarch

Freshly ground black pepper

To make the Chinese Egg Fried Rice, heat the sesame oil in a skillet and pour in the beaten eggs.  Stir a little until they set like a thin omelette, then flip over to cook the other side lightly.  Turn onto a wire rack and cool.  Cut in thin strips.

Heat the vegetable oil in a wok until very hot.  Stir-fry all the vegetables with the ginger and garlic for 3 minutes, then turn the heat down and cook until they are tender but still slightly crisp, about 3 minutes longer.  Stir in the rice, mixing well, and season to taste with soy sauce and paprika.  Finally, fold in the egg strips and it is ready to serve.  Delicious with the sweet and sour sauce on page 153.

To make the sweet and sour sauce, combine the pineapple juice, oil, sugar, soy sauce, gingerroot, garlic, and 2 tbsp of the lemon juice in a saucepan.  Heat until the sugar dissolves.  Mix the cornstarch with the remaining lemon juice, add to the pan, and stir until the sauce is smooth and thick.  Season with pepper.  Simmer very gently about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

"Madame Wu's Art of Chinese Cooking" & "Dim Sum" - for the Chinese New Year

Date I made these recipes:  February 13, 2014 (for the Chinese New Year)

Madame Wu's Art of Chinese Cooking by Sylvia Wu

Published by:  Bantam Books Inc.

© 1973, 1975; 9^th printing October 1981 (paperback)

Recipe:  Barbecued Pork - p. 29, used in Barbecued Pork with Vegetables – p. 146

Purchased at Falling Rock Cafe, Munising, MI

Dim Sum - The Essential Kitchen by Vicki Liley

Published by:  Periplus

ISBN:  13: 978-962-593-528-7

Recipe:  Snow pea Shoot Dumplings – p. 52

Purchased at Arc's Value Village Thrift Stores, Richfield, MN

Good thing for me (and you) that the Chinese New Year lasts 15 days because I came in just under the gun. What can I say?  Sometimes, the schedule just goes off-road for a little bit but with 15 days at my disposal, I figured "I got this."

What I've also "got" is a rather warped sense of humor when it comes to book titles.  When my husband and I are feeling down, we often say to each other that we're kind of "woo."  So the minute I saw this book title, Madam "Wu's" Art of Chinese Cooking, I had to have this book.  Had to.  It did not disappoint.

If you Google Madame Sylvia Wu, you'll find that her website refers to her at the "Legendary" Madame Wu; that she opened her first restaurant on Wiltshire Boulevard in Santa Monica in 1959; that she entertained Hollywood's top dignitaries (she's pictured with the legendary Cary Grant on her book's back cover) and that she authored four cookbooks.  That is not a shabby resume. 

I liked Madame Wu's book a lot because it was pretty comprehensive.  There are several recipes in each category – Appetizers; Soups; Seafood; Chicken; Duck; Beef; Pork and so on, plus instructions on tea, where to shop, what to buy and even Chinese wines.  I decided on the barbecued pork simply because I like Chinese barbecued pork but had never made it.  But you should know that in order to make the Barbecued Pork with Vegetables, you will need to make the barbecued pork ahead of time and you will also need to reserve at least four hours for it to marinade.

To accompany the pork and vegetables, I pulled out a book titled – quite simply – Dim Sum.  Here, you can have your pick of recipes for steamed dumplings, fried dumplings, egg rolls, steamed pork buns (tempting, except I already decided on the barbecued pork) and other delectable goodies suitable for snacking.  I let my husband, Andy, make the final selection and he decided on the snow pea (and shrimp) dumplings and dang, they were yummy.  The sweetness of the snow peas and shrimp was perfect and was a great contrast to the tangy barbecued pork.

Now, as I mentioned the pork recipe calls for marinating at least four hours and then cooking the tenderloin in the oven and then adding it to the wok along with the other vegetables for the complete dish.  Well.  I thought I could pull off the marinade, tenderloin cooking and wok all in one night but I was running behind schedule and was feeling the stress.  And so when my poor husband came in and said "What time do you think we'll eat?"  I about bit his head off and served it back to him on a platter.  I know he was only asking because if dinner would be late, he'd have a snack.  I suggested – quite strongly – that he have a snack.  Quite strongly.  In the end, I made the pork tenderloin, wrapped it in foil and put it in the refrigerator for dinner the next day.

When the "next day" rolled around, I enlisted my man's help with the dumplings.  He has a nice touch with those kind of things and so he made the prettiest dumplings (after I combined all the ingredients) and I got to work on the main course.  And so together we made our meal, a rarity in our house, and the tension of the day before went away...and we were "woo" (or "wu") no more.

Barbecued Pork  - serves 4 (Note:  requires 4 hours or more of marinade time)

1 1-pound pork tenderloin, cut in two strips

¼ cup dark Chinese soy sauce

1 teaspoon light Chinese soy sauce

3 tablespoons catsup

1 teaspoon sugar

3 tablespoons Hoisin sauce

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tablespoon red wine

Make a marinade of soy sauces, catsup, sugar, Hoisin sauce, garlic and red wine and marinate the pork overnight, or for a minimum of 4 hours.

Preheat oven to 350F.  Place marinated pork strips on oven rack, with pan underneath to catch the drippings.  (Ann's Note:  Unless you want a messy oven, I suggest you skip this part and use a broiler pan instead.  Much easier to clean!)  After 20 minutes, lower the heat to 300F and brush both sides with the marinade and barbecue 20 minutes.  Brush both sides again, turn over and barbecue 15 more minutes.  Brush, turn over, and complete barbecuing after 15 minutes.

Remove from the oven.  (Ann's Note:  Proceed to the recipe below for Barbecued Pork with Vegetables.)  If pork is to be served as an appetizer, cut into thin strips.  If main course, cut into larger pieces.

Barbecued Pork with Vegetables – serves 4

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 ¼" slice ginger root

1 cup Chinese cabbage (use the tender center, wash thoroughly and cut into 2" lengths).  (Ann's Note:  Chinese cabbage is also known as Napa cabbage.)

½ cup chicken broth (or water) (Ann's note:  divide the broth; you will use ¼ now, ¼ later.)

½ pound snow peas (pull strings)

½ cup canned whole button mushrooms

½ cup canned thin-sliced bamboo shoots

½ cup canned thin-sliced water chestnuts

2 teaspoons salt

¼ teaspoon monosodium glutamate (optional)

1 tablespoon thin-sliced green onions with stems

1 pound barbecued pork, thin-sliced

1 ½ teaspoons cornstarch

Add 2 (out of 3) tablespoons of oil to a preheated wok over high heat.  Swirl ginger root around bottom and sides, then discard the ginger.  Add Chinese cabbage and stir-fry for 2 minutes, then add ¼ cup broth.  Cover and cook for 1 minute.  Uncover and add the pea pods, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, salt and MSG (if desired).  Stir thoroughly for 1 minute.  Spoon into a bowl and set aside.

Clean the wok, preheat and add 1 tablespoon oil.  Add the thin-sliced onion and the barbecue pork; stir-fry a few seconds.  Add the vegetables and mix well.  Blend the cornstarch with the remaining ¼ cup of broth and stir evenly into the mixture.  Using a slotted spoon so that the liquid remains in the wok, remove the pork and vegetables to a platter and serve immediately.  (Ann's Note:  I served this over rice.)

Snow Pea Shoot Dumplings – makes 15

4 oz fresh snowpea shoots, roughly chopped  (Ann's Important Note:  I could not find snowpea shoots so I used snowpeas instead and just made sure I chopped them so that they would fit inside a wonton wrapper.  We still loved this recipe.)

4 oz (raw) jumbo shrimp, peeled, deveined and coarsely chopped

2 teaspoons peeled and grated fresh ginger

3 teaspoons oyster sauce

1 teaspoon soy sauce

1 teaspoon rice wine

¼ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon Asian sesame seed oil

1 tablespoon cornstarch

15 wonton wrappers (round or square)

Blanch snowpea shoots (or snow peas) in a pan of boiling water for 1 minute.  Drain and refresh immediately in cold water.

In a bowl, combine snowpea shoots, shrimp, ginger, oyster sauce, soy sauce, rice wine, salt, sugar, sesame oil and cornstarch.  Using wet hands, mix until well combined.  (Ann's Note:  I used a spoon to mix and it worked just fine.)

Place wonton wrappers on work surface and cover with a damp kitchen towel.  Working with one wrapper at a time, place 3 teaspoons of filling in the center and brush edges of wrapper with water.  Fold three sides of wrapper into the center, forming a triangular shape.  Using your fingertips, press edges of wrapper together.  Cover with a damp kitchen towel and set aside.  Repeat with remaining wonton wrappers.

Line a medium bamboo steamer with parchment (baking paper).  Ann's Note:  we don't have a bamboo steamer but we do have a large fry pan that has a steamer tray so we used that (it sort of makes for a large double-boiler).  You can also use a metal steamer that you insert into a pan; just be sure to avoid getting the dumplings wet.

Once you line your steamer with parchment, half fill a medium wok (steamer pan) with water and bring to a boil.  Arrange dumplings in steamer, cover and place steamer over boiling water.  (Again, do not get the dumplings wet).  Steam for 10 minutes, adding more boiling water to pan when necessary.  Lift steamer off pan and carefully remove dumplings.  Serve warm with soy sauce.

"1980 Olympic Games in Moscow - Cookbook and Schedule of Events" - Stir-Fried Chicken

Date I made this recipe:  July 29, 2012 (for the Olympics)

1980 Olympic Games in Moscow – Cookbook and Schedule of Events – Favorite Recipes of Prospective U.S. Participants

Published by:  Wm. C. Brown Company Publishers

© 1979

Recipe:  (Cheeseman’s) Stir-Fried Chicken – p. 62

*Note:  This is one of my longer blog posts but just like the Olympics, it will (likely) only come around every four years so hang in there!

Right then.  So the 2012 Olympics got underway in London on Friday, July 27, with a right smashing Opening Ceremony that included a hilarious James Bond spoof featuring none other than HM, The Queen of England.  That’s right, the Queen of England.  Like most viewers, I must have played that scene back 3 times utterly stunned that it was the Queen, the real Queen and nothing but the Queen.  Who knew that HM had such a sense of humor?  Oh, and Daniel Craig (as James Bond) wasn’t too bad, either. (By the way, in an uncanny coincidence, my community band played music from the James Bond movies as well as John William’s Olympic Spirit this summer.)

So OBVIOUSLY with the Olympics at hand, I needed to find myself an Olympic cookbook, right?  Quite.  Well find it I did in of all places, the charming café/bookstore in my hometown in Michigan – Falling Rock Café – last April and yes, I’ve been holding on to it ever since.  I am nothing if not prepared for the global events!

For those of you who were around in 1980, you might recall that this cookbook is a bit of a head-fake as the Olympic team did not participate in the 1980 Olympics that year.  U.S. tension against the former Soviet Union was already on red-alert when Russia invaded Afghanistan and in response, President Carter decided to cancel our appearance at the games.  (Naturally, the Soviet Union followed suit and canceled its appearance at the 1984 games in Los Angeles and so tit for tat and phooey on all that!)  Let me just say that to this day, I believe this was the wrong decision. Aspiring Olympic athletes devote their whole lives and their bank accounts to make the team and punishing them on behalf of a nation is just wrong – on both sides.

Harrumph.  Any who…so here we are at the 2012 Olympics already and some of the 1980 athletes are now providing commentary on various events, like former swimmer Rowdy Gaines and gymnast Bart Conner.  And since I was a high school swimmer I was all set to make one of Rowdy’s recipes but changed it up at the last minute.  And here’s why:  about the same time that I pulled this cookbook off my shelf as a “must use,” the U.S. observed the 40^th anniversary of Title IX, allowing for equality for women in sports. And again, I can only shake my head and marvel how time flies.  And so I decided that this blog would be better served by a recipe from a female athlete and with that, let’s go “off-road” for a bit to talk about Title IX.

Title IX, enacted in 1972 (I was in 8^th grade) is a portion of the Education Amendment that established, in part, No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.  This applied to about every level of education including, thank goodness, sports.

And to my absolute amazement, my tiny junior high/high school, jumped on the bandwagon and started women’s sports.  I mean, we are talking about class sizes of just over 100 people per class; by contrast, my husband’s high school class was over 600. We probably barely qualified for Class C sports designation but there we were, in it to win it.  So bravo, William G. Mather High School, bravo!  (And yes, I know that the law said we must comply, but there’s “compliance” and then there’s “compliance!).

Well, this prompted me to go back to my yearbooks to track our women’s sports progress.  In 1972, there weren’t any women’s teams but in 1973 (freshman year), a Girls’ Tennis Team started.  A friend of mine joined the team that year and I joined a year later.  By 1974, we added the Girls’ Swim Team although unfortunately, I was sick the day the photo was taken and so you’d never know I was on it.

So a mere year after Title IX, we had ourselves two bona-fide girls’ teams.  By 1975, we added basketball and by 1976, we had a track team.  Not too shabby!  (For the record though, there is no word that sends me flying faster than someone calling me a “girl.” But that’s another story for another day.).

Now, before you pull out your pom-poms, let me just stress to you that equal opportunity to participate in sports did not equal an equal opportunity to get funding or support.  Oh no – in fact, quite the opposite.

The first year I was on the tennis team, we carpooled to our meets.  Yes, carpooled.  We didn’t have uniforms, we didn’t have managers, we barely had a locker room and you should have seen our city tennis courts – two of them, both with blacktop surfaces and set down by Lake Superior so flyaway tennis balls soon became swim-away tennis balls.  Our second team coach (the first coach was a woman), was also the boys’ wrestling coach and never, ever ceased to compare us weakling “girlz” to his he-man boys team.  He let us borrow his team’s warm-up jackets for meets but otherwise we were on our own.  The coach who followed him was a nice guy but I don’t know: is it a good thing to advise high school athletes that if you’re going to drink, drink Scotch?!!  Mind you, I was all for that but it did crack me up. 

As to the swim team, hahahahaha….well, we tried.  The good news was that our school had one of the very first school pools in the Upper Peninsula.  The bad news was that our school’s pool was not regulation and there were always weird drain problems that caused the pool water to turn various shades of green.  And I am not exaggerating at all.  In fact, when I think about swimming in that pool back then for gym class and swim team and lifesaving classes, I about turn green myself.

So anyway, for every one lap we did at a meet in a regulation pool, we had to do double or triple the laps in our pool.  We could not do a flip turn in our pool because the shallow end was truly shallow but we were allowed at meets to do kind of a half turn above water.  (So dorky and embarrassing but there it is!).  Although we got team swimsuits, for some inexplicable reason, we chose green and gold suits (Go Pack Go) even though our school colors were orange and black.  We did not get to use the wrestler’s warm-up jackets and so had a collection of various and sundry sweat shirts at our disposal.

We did not lift weights or do anything that modern athletes do to build strength and endurance and didn’t care.  In fact, and I say this with fondness, our attitude was pretty much cavalier then entire time we were swimming because we always knew we were outnumbered:  all the other schools had bigger pools, bigger staffs, and bigger athletes.  So we swam for fun and in some ways that made the experience all the more enjoyable.

As to funding, well, my first response is “What funding?” All the boys’ sports (football, basketball, etc.) got $10 a day for food; we got $5.  All the boys were properly attired, we were not.  All the boys went to meets by bus – the big kid’s kind – while we were eventually allowed to use a smaller half-bus to go to meets.  There was no booster club, no parental support (seeing as how our meets were during the day so parents could not attend) and very little interest.  I will however, give props to most of the male athletes in our school as they ended up embracing us in their own way and found many of our antics and experiences hilarious.  In fact, and it’s a long story, but my swim team nicknamed me “French Fries” and when the guys found out about that, they called me that as well.  I was never as popular in high school as I was that year.

And so, back we go to the budget-busting Olympics and my, my how times have changed.  While today’s athletes have their own financial struggles, I think they are nothing compared to what we went through.  Olympic teams nowadays have sponsors and endorsements and even, in many cases, professional athletes.  Can you imagine telling any female swimmer today that she gets $5 bucks for food?  No. 

And so I must confess that the times that I’ve heard women whining about being treated as second-class citizens compared to the men’s team, my blood boils.  In fact, I still recall the whining done by several high school girls’ hockey teams a few years back when they weren’t allowed to use the Xcel Energy Center where our professional hockey team plays for their games like the boys’ teams were.  WHAT?!!!  This is where my age is showing:  “In my day young lady, girls weren’t even allowed to play hockey.  We had to drive to our meets in the SNOW and then walk five miles to the arena….” (Actually true story:  my swim team was on its way to a regional meet in a nearby town that required us to drive along Lake Superior in blizzard conditions.  The famous “lake effect” was such that everything was just a sea of white including the white semi that was jackknifed across the highway.  Our bus driver swerved to avoid hitting it at the last second and we ended up in the ditch and had to wait for a bus tow-truck.  So much for that swim meet.  You want to talk about hardship, I’ll talk about hardship!)

So all this brings me back to why I decided to make a recipe from this book for this blog submitted by a female athlete instead of a male athlete, not only to kill two stones (the Olympics and Title IX) at the same time but also to talk about a subject that is near and dear to me.  And so today’s recipe is all about Gwen W. Cheeseman, a 1980 Olympic field hockey player, and her recipe for (Cheeseman’s) Stir-Fried Chicken.  And to really tie it to this year’s London events, the former Kate Middleton, now the Duchess of Cambridge was a field hockey player back in the day AND the last Olympics were held in Beijing, China and so it’s all good.  Women then, women now – hooray! (I am also happy to report that Gwen made the 1984 Olympic team and her field hockey crew won the bronze that year.  Well done!)

Despite my rants about the early years, I was quite “chuffed,” as the Brits would say to be a part of those high school teams and am glued to the set this year as I am every Olympics (save for the 1980 Olympics), reliving my almost-glory days!  I swam the backstroke for my team (first one in the water at every meet) both in the individual event and the 400 Individual Medley Relay (back, breast, butterfly, freestyle) and also swam the 400 Freestyle Relay, my absolute favorite event and sometimes anchored it.  They were fun times and the thrill of that competition never goes away even though the younger generation is now having all the fun in the pool.  And seeing all these young ladies on the podium?  Well…pass the Kleenex.

  

(Cheeseman’s) Stir-Fried Chicken – serves 4

2 large, whole broiler-fryer chicken breasts, skinned, halved, boned and sliced diagnolly into ¼-inch thick strips

2 tablespoons peanut oil

1 cup thinly sliced celery

1 medium green pepper, cut into think strips

¼ teaspoon ginger

1 pound fresh bean sprouts

1 5-ounce can water chestnuts, drained and sliced

½ pound fresh mushrooms, sliced

1/3 cup raw cashews, halved

1 chicken bouillon cube, or 1 teaspoon instant chicken bouillon

½ cup water

2 teaspoons cornstarch

¼ cup soy sauce

3 cups hot cooked rice

In a wok over high heat, heat peanut oil.  Stir-fry celery, pepper, onion and ginger in oil until tender-crisp, about three minutes.  With slotted spoon, slide vegetables up onto side of wok to keep warm.  To remaining oil, add chicken and stir-fry until meat turns white, about three to five minutes.  Slide vegetables back down and add bean sprouts, water, chestnuts, mushrooms, cashews, bouillon and water.  Blend cornstarch with soy sauce; gradually stir into wok and cook, stirring constantly, until mixture is heated through and thickened.  Serve over hot rice.  Serves 4.

Ann’s Note:  for some inexplicable reason, my grocery store was out of bean sprouts and so I used canned.  Do not do this at home!  I might as well have opened a can of La Choy Chop Suey, the taste was that bland.  Live and learn, people, live and learn.

"Piggly Wiggly Daily Health Menu" - American Chop Suey

Date I made this recipe: February 26, 2012

Piggly Wiggly Daily Health Menus by Arthur Leslie Wyman, M.C.A.
Published by: Wyman Food Service
© 1927
Recipe: American Chop Suey – p. 373

The last few weeks have been all about competitions, from movies to singing to grocery bagging - yup, grocery bagging.

I was all set to torture myself trying to find something to make for the Academy Awards when James Lileks, columnist for the StarTribune, (Minneapolis newspaper) found it for me. What a guy!

Lileks, also the author of The Gallery of Regrettable Food, writes a hilarious column in the “Strib,” and on February 17, he reported that we have a new national (grocery) bagging champion, one Stephanie Teteak from a Piggly Wiggly in Appleton, WI. (Congratulations, Stephanie!)

Before I go any further, let me say this about that: my husband remains proud of his teen-year’s service as a grocery bagger at a local grocery store. Late-night host,David Letterman, also a proud grocery bagger, annually features the winner of this prestigious contest. This honor is not to be scoffed at; bagging is hard work! (And not to brag but meet me sometime at the Rainbow Grocery store at Midway where I will impress you with my own bagging skills – self taught!)

Sure, in this year’s Oscar race, you had Meryl Streep v. Viola Davis and George Clooney v. Jean Dujardin (The Artist) but these are rank amateurs compared to grocery baggers, am I right, or am I right?

So when James did me the favor of talking about grocery baggers, I promptly threw all other Oscar night recipe hopefuls aside and went straight for my Piggly Wiggly cookbook. I am nothing if not prepared for these occasions.

You wouldn’t think it by looking at this book but it is huge in terms of the number of recipes listed. The author provides a breakfast, lunch and dinner menu for each day of the year and on average lists seven recipes for each day. That’s a lot of cooking, folks!

As you might imagine, it took me a while to go through this book to find something to serve. And to my surprise, I found that while many recipes seemed sorely lacking in spices, there was almost an overload of recipes featuring curry. Maybe it’s just me but I didn’t think curry was used much in 1927 cooking. I learn something new every day.

Speaking of learning, and before I get to more about the Piggly Wiggly cookbook, this past Saturday, a friend and I went to a Show Choir Competition – my first one ever – and boy did I learn a lot! (Why we went to a show choir competition is neither here nor there and is a story best told over cocktails!) This thing was nothing like the glee club competitions I was in while in high school; we were sorely lacking in costumes, dancing (and prancing), elaborate sets and men! I realize that times have changed but even the TV show, Glee, did not prepare me for what I observed, and that is that costumes have gotten pretty skimpy over the years. In fact, I almost had a retina-burning moment when some Catholic school girls dressed in an outfit that I can only describe as “Project Runway – Street Walker’s Edition.” I mean, Holy Mother of God – bright red, plastic (made to look like leather), skimpy and form-fitting? Across America, nuns are turning over in their graves!

At any rate, the competition was…enlightening…and I want to shout out to my favorite school group of the day – Southside Sensation – from South St. Paul High School in South St. Paul, MN. Although they didn’t place in the competition, they were the first group that made me sit up and take notice. And as an aside, ladies of Southside Sensation, may I just thank you profusely for NOT curling your hair? I’d had quite enough of the “Irish” hair experience by the end of the day, thank you very much.

Okay, back to Piggly Wiggly and James Lileks and grocery bagging competitions and recipes…after hours of serious review and contemplation, I selected the American Chop Suey recipe featured today. I warned my husband that this may be a letdown because the ingredients were skimpy and hardly anything to write home to mother about—pork, onion, celery, soy sauce and molasses. But you know what? This turned out to be pretty tasty and provided me with a nostalgic moment of ordering something similar to this dish when I first started getting Chinese take-out. Maybe Grauman’s Chinese Theatre-style take out (to tie it in with the Oscars, don’t you know)?

By the way, to bring the entire theme full circle, I just read an article in a local business magazine about Minnesota’s own, Jeno Paulucci, who made a fortune from selling brand-name foods such as Jeno’s Pizza Rolls and, wait for it, Chun King Chinese food. Coincidence? I think not! (Okay, one other factoid and then I’m done – one of the teams competing in the show choir competition was Totino-Grace High School. This school was named, in part, after Jim and Rose Tortino who owned Totino’s frozen pizza, a favorite in these parts.)

Okay, who wants some grocery-bagging American Chop Suey?!

American Chop Suey – serving size not listed
2 pounds lean pork cut in a dice (these days, grocery stores feature “chop suey” meat that is all chopped and ready to go)
1 cup chopped onion
2 cups thinly sliced white celery (I used green seeing as how I’ve never heard of white celery)
2 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons soyu (soy) sauce
One cup hot meat stock or water
2 tablespoons molasses
Dried mushrooms soaked in water or one small can mushrooms (optional)

For the chop suey place in a saucepan two pounds of lean pork cut in dice and two tablespoons of butter; stir over a hot fire until the meat is browned; add two cups of thinly sliced white celery and one cup of chopped onions, stir and cook three minutes.

Add four tablespoons soyu sauce and one cup of hot meat stock or water; mix well, stir in two tablespoons of molasses and simmer slowly for one hour.

Just before removing from the fire add two cups of cooked noodles, heat and serve in a border of steamed rice. Dried mushrooms soaked in warm water and added at the time the meat stock is added are a nice addition.

"The Chinese Cookbook" by Craig Claiborne and Virginia Lee - The Best Fried Rice

Date I made this recipe: November 14, 2010

The Chinese Cookbook by Craig Claiborne and Virginia Lee
Published by: J.B. Lippincott Company
© 1972 – Fourth printing
Recipe: The Best Fried Rice – p. 352-353

So I’m of the mind that if some is good, more is better and so if some Craig Claiborne was good, more of him and his delicious recipes was better – way better! And that’s how I came to cook from The Chinese Cookbook written by Craig Claiborne and Virginia Lee. And honestly, when that man says this is a recipe for “the best” fried rice, he was not kidding. This was so danged good that I honestly could have eaten it all in one sitting, with no apologies to my spouse whatsoever.

Now you may be thinking “So what’s the big deal? There are tons of Chinese cookbooks out there.” Au contraire, Pierre, there are now, but trust me, back when this was written, there just wasn’t a lot available.

And so as I discussed in last week’s blog, Craig once again broke ground, taking some of China’s best recipe and breaking them down into something that most Americans could make without too much work and for this I most heartily thank him.

So what to make, what to make? Lo Mein? Kung Pao Chicken? Chinese Pork Buns? (Oooo-I love Chinese Pork Buns!). All so good but I couldn’t decide so I threw the book over to my hubby and he said “How about the fried rice?”

The man is genius.

Here’s what I liked best about this “best” fried rice—it was not greasy. Not one little bit greasy, not one little bit overly soy-sauced and just oh so tasty. Like I said, Andy was in grave danger of going hungry for the evening because I could not quit shoveling (and I do mean shoveling—with chop sticks, naturally) this dish into my mouth. I think I came up for air now and then but am not sure.

And those of you without a wok have no fear—Target sells a perfectly decent one for not a mere $29.99 (and they threw in a wooden spatula to boot!). If all else fails, (and I’ve never done this) but use a large skillet or even a soup pot so you can rapidly stir the ingredients and mix things properly.

The only substitute I made in this dish was that I forgot to get peas but I had a frozen package of mixed veggies and used that instead. So there were bits of corn and green beans in the dish. Who cared? Oh—and the instructions to slice the shrimp in half lengthwise? Yeah, right. I chopped them into three pieces and that’s all there is to that.

Eat and enjoy. And speaking of enjoy, “enjoy” rhymes with “La Choy.” La Choy is an American company that produces Chinese food items and when I was growing up, this was as close as I was ever going to get to Chinese food without going to Chinatown…only of course, this stuff didn’t taste anything like Chinese food…but I digress. So show of hands, how many of you are old enough to remember the jingle for this (American/Asian) product “La Choy makes Chinese food...swing American!” (Perhaps you had to be there).

This dish doesn’t taste anything like canned Chinese food and for that you will thank me and Craig Claiborne and Virginia Lee.

The Best Fried Rice – yield 8 to 12 servings (unless you’re me in which case, one. One, big serving)
5 cups cold cooked rice (cooked at least one day in advance)
1 cup small raw shrimps, shelled, deveined, and split in half lengthwise
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons peanut, vegetable, or corn oil
2/3 cup cubed Chinese sausages (2 small) or cooked ham
3 eggs
½ cup cooked fresh or frozen green peas
1 tablespoon salt, approximately (Okay—only if you like eating salt licks will you like this much salt. We went with one teaspoon and that was plenty.)
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 cup fresh bean sprouts
½ cup chopped scallions, green part included

Flake the rice so that the grains do not stick together. Set aside.

Combine the shrimps with the soda and salt and let stand 15 minutes or longer. Rinse thoroughly in cold water and pat dry on paper toweling.

Heat the oil in a wok or skillet until it is almost smoking and add the shrimps. Cook, stirring quickly and turning them in the oil until they turn pin, about 30 seconds. Remove them to a sieve fitted over a mixing bowl and let them drain well. Return the oil from the drained shrimps to the pan.

Add the sausages or ham to the pan and cook just to heat through, stirring. Add the rice, stirring rapidly, and cook until thoroughly heated without browning.

Do the following quickly: Make a well in the center of the rice and add the eggs, stirring constantly. When they have a soft-scrambled consistency, start incorporating the rice, stirring in a circular fashion.

When all the rice and eggs are blended, add the peas and the salt, stirring. Stir in the oyster sauce and the cooked shrimps, tossing the rice over and over to blend everything. Stir in the bean sprouts and cook, stirring and tossing, about 30 seconds. Add the scallions and serve immediately.

"Hawaiian and Pacific Foods" - Green Pepper, Beef and Tomatoes

Date I made this recipe: November 16, 2008

Hawaiian and Pacific Foods – A Cook Book of Culinary Customs and Recipes Adapted for the American Hostess by Katherine Bazore
Published by M. Barrows and Company
© 1940-1947; seventh printing 1956
Recipe: Green Pepper, Beef and Tomatoes (Fan Keh Lut Tsiu Ngau Yuk) – p. 214-215

Even though I was a couple of days behind schedule, this recipe was made in honor of Veteran’s Day – November 11, 2008. You might ask yourself what on earth a cookbook of Hawaiian food has to do with Veteran’s Day but my answer is easy: my father, who served in the Marines on Iwo Jima, was stationed on Maui prior to leaving for Iwo (where he was wounded and received a purple heart). This cookbook was initially printed in the 40’s and so the recipes are authentic for the time that my father was in Maui--not that his camp necessarily served these foods. (But boy, if they did…)

Of course back thenthere was little development (if any) on Maui and according to dad, the camp’s conditions were pretty primitive (it was not for nothing that they called it “Camp Swampy”). Dad and his fellow Marines hiked up nearby Mt. Haleakala on a regular basis; these days, tourists coast down it on bicycles for fun!

My dad likes to mention that back then the big hotels on the island of Oahu were the Royal Hawaiian and the Ala Moana and that was about that. These days, those hotels are almost lost in the shuffle of development that has run rampant on the islands. Of course, to me, the Hawaiian Islands are still paradise to visit even if they are bumper-to-bumper with tourists.

I must admit to being surprised that this cookbook did not contain recipes for Spam (Spam is very popular in Hawaii) nor the Hawaiian lunch plate but maybe those items didn’t become popular until after publication. (I’ve had the lunch plate and it is outstanding even if it is not exactly heart-healthy. The lunch plate consists of a piece of meat, a scoop of rice with gravy on it and usually some macaroni salad - heavy on the mayo! Yum!!)

And while I’m not surprised that this cookbook contains many Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Portuguese and Filipino recipes (the islands are home to many an ethnic group), I am surprised that this recipe was included. The author often noted if a recipe was not authentic, yet I can’t help but wonder if this recipe was really authentic Chinese. Beef with peppers is something that I expect today in most “Chinese” restaurants but hey, it was included here so we’ll go with it.

This recipe was relatively easy to make and was fairly straightforward except for the instructions for making a “smooth” paste out of some of the ingredients. The paste I made was smooth all right—in fact, it was more of a marinade than anything but I went with it and it worked.

Another item that wasn’t clear was what, if anything, to do with the leftover chopped ginger. The recipe said to combine the ginger juice with other ingredients but it didn’t say how to dispose of the actual ginger itself so I added most of it to the recipe and it only enhanced the dish. (When in doubt, do not throw it out!)

Finally, the recipe didn’t say what to do with the beef (you cook the beef, then the veggies, and then serve) so I added the beef back to the veggie mixture and warmed up the entire dish for a few minutes over a low flame. I think the veggies could have used a few more minutes to cook but that’s my opinion.

And speaking of opinion, I know it’s hard to tear oneself away from the beautiful beaches of Maui, but if you are ever there, take a moment to go to the Marine Memorial where you can see photos of the old base from back in my dad’s day and the memorial plaques that are scattered throughout the area. It’s a lovely drive (although a little tricky to find) and a good way to honor all of our veterans who served our country so admirably. Ladies and Gentlemen of the armed forces (both former and current members), I salute you!

Green Pepper, Beef and Tomatoes – Serves 6
2 cups sliced green peppers (2 large peppers)
2/3 cup sliced onions
½ cup sliced round steak (are they kidding? I used about a pound, sliced thin. As if I had time to stuff the steak into a measuring cup!)
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon soya (Note: I’m pretty sure they mean soy sauce here but when I looked it up online, soya also refers to the soy bean itself. Since the recipe called for 1 tablespoon, I’m thinking they meant the sauce)
Dash of pepper
2 2/3 cups tomatoes (3 medium)
½ cup celery
1 teaspoon cornstarch
¾ teaspoon salt
¼ cup water
1 tablespoon chopped fresh or dried ginger root soaked in 2 tablespoons water

For the “gravy”
½ tablespoon cornstarch
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons whiskey or wine
¼ cup water
Dash of pepper

Cut the peppers into strips ½-inch wide and 1 ½ -inches long. Cut the onions into sections ½-inch wide and the tomatoes into eighths. Cut the celery and round steak into thin strips 1 ½-inches long. Mix the soya, cornstarch, sugar, ginger juice, and salt to form a smooth paste. (Mine was runny but it didn’t matter. Just toss your meat and throw it into a skillet or wok). Combine with the meat and fry in hot oil. When browned, remove the meat, and fry all the vegetables except the tomatoes in the same pan. Stir constantly and after 1 minute, add ¼ cup water and simmer for 2 minutes. Make a smooth paste of the ingredients for the gravy. Combine the gravy, tomatoes and cooked vegetables. Boil 2 minutes, stirring constantly. (Note: I added the beef back to the wok and heated it for another couple of minutes on low).

Serve hot. (I served it with rice).