Thursday Dinner: Pork stir-fry and hot and sour soup

Tonight, I used leftover nappa cabbage to make light stir-fry. I like the "sour" part of hot and sour soup, so my soup is pretty sour. Reduce the amount of vinegar if you don't like sour as much as I do.



Pork stir-fry (for 2-3 people):
Lean pork (1/4 pound) - Put as much or little as you want. You could also use chicken.
Nappa cabbage (15-20 small leaves) - It shrinks down quite a bit, so put plenty.
Carrot (1)
Button mushrooms (1/2 pack)
Potato starch (3tsp)
Chicken stock (3/4 cup)
Garlic (3cloves)
Vegetable oil (2tsp)
Salt
Pepper

1. Slice up the pork. If it's half-frozen, it's easy to slice thinly. You can put frozen meat in the fridge in the morning, and when you come home, it's half-frozen.
2. Chop up the nappa cabbage leaves. Peel the carrot and slice it up. Slice up the mushrooms. Slice up the garlic cloves.
3. Heat pan (that has a lid) with vegetable oil.
4. Stir-fry sliced pork with salt and pepper until the color of meat changes but you still see some pink parts.
5. Add all the vegetables together. When everything is incorporated, add the chicken stock.
6. Put the lid on and cook for 30 sec to 1 min until the meat is cooked all the way through.
7. Melt potato starch in a small bowl with the same amount of water.
8. While the mixture in the pan is boiling, drizzle in the potato starch mixture. Keep stirring as much as you can because the soup will start to thicken.
9. Add salt and pepper for desired taste.

I served it with rice.

Hot and sour soup (for 2):
Egg (1)
Frozen spinach (1/4cup)
Chicken stock (2cups)
Rice vinegar (1/4cup)
Soy sauce (2Tbs)
Chili peppers (a pinch)
Potato starch (2tsp)

1. Put the frozen spinach in a microwave for about 30 sec. Squeeze out any juice/water.
2. Boil chicken stock, rice vinegar, soy sauce, and chili peppers together.
3. When the stock boils, add the spinach. Beat the egg and drizzle it little by little into the soup. As soon as you put in the egg, turn the heat down to low and put the lid on.
4. Wait for 20-30 sec.
5. Melt potato starch with the same amount of water in a small bowl. Add it into the soup while stirring.
6. Add more vinegar or soy sauce as needed.

I used frozen spinach and egg for this soup, but you can really put anything you want like tofu, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, chicken, etc.

---

Technorati Tags:stir-fry, sweet and sour soup