Slow Cooker Beef Ramen

 I don’t know that I entirely get the ramen craze, although my daughter-in-law is a big fan. She enjoys all sorts of varieties, has different bowls, chopsticks, even a ramen Christmas tree ornament. She is a true “ramenite.” Me? I just think those noodles look small and wormy. I also don’t quite understand why (at least in my area) they sell them as a kind of soup that comes with a seasoning packet. Where I live, or at least where I shop, you can’t buy just a package of plain ramen noodles, you have to buy individual packets with the seasoning. I find that odd. At any rate, anything that can be made in the crockpot I am willing to try. This is a recipe that I adapted from one I found online, and I’m quite taken with it. It has a lot of flavor, a lot of vegetables, and has proved to be yet another way for me to make the use of my vast supply of shredded carrots.

Slow Cooker Beef Ramen

1 lb. ground chuck

1 c. shredded carrots

1 red bell pepper, sliced

2-3 scallions, rough chopped

1 T. Melissa’s minced garlic

½ c. low sodium soy sauce

1 t. cider vinegar

½ c. brown sugar

1 14.5-oz. can chicken stock

1 c. frozen peas

2 ramen noodle packets

Sesame seeds for garnish optional

Scallions for garnish optional

 Brown and drain ground beef, to the slow cooker. Top with carrots, red bell pepper, and scallions.

In a small bowl mix together the garlic, soy sauce, vinegar, brown sugar, and chicken stock. Pour the sauce into the slow cooker and stir to combine. Cook on low for 4-6 hours. Thirty minutes before serving add peas and dry ramen noodles (discard the seasoning packets). Stir to coat noodles. When the noodles are tender, serve topped with more scallions and some sesame seeds.

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Copycat P.F. Chang's Spicy Green Beans

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Despite the fact that P.F. (for Paul Fleming, in case you didn’t know) Chang‘s China Bistro is quite a popular chain amongst the vast array of Asian-theme restaurants, I don’t particularly care for it. It’s not that I haven’t tried to like it, I have, I just tend to think it’s overrated. That said, I do like their green beans...a LOT. Occasionally, I’ll get a taste for those green beans and whip up a batch. With this ubiquitous copycat recipe, there is absolutely nothing to it.  It makes a wonderful side dish no matter your cuisine, or a tasty meatless meal when served on top of a mound of rice.

Copycat P.F. Chang's Spicy Green Beans

 1-2 lbs. fresh green beans, trimmed and cut into 2" pieces

2 scallions, thinly sliced

½ t. red pepper flakes*

4 garlic cloves, finely minced

2 T. sesame oil

1/8 t. salt

1/8 t. freshly ground black pepper

 Sauce:

2 T. low sodium soy sauce

1 T. rice vinegar

1 t. sugar

¼ c. water

1 t. cornstarch

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

 Sesame Seeds

Red pepper flakes

In a small bowl, mix together sauce ingredients; set aside.

Heat a wok or large skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil, and allow it to heat for 30 to 45 seconds until just barely shimmering. Add garlic, scallions, and ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes. Stir-fry quickly for about 30 seconds. Add green beans and stir constantly until they’re almost fully cooked, three minutes. Push beans to the side, give the sauce a good stir, and add it to the skillet. Cook the sauce for 30 seconds; let the sauce come to a boil, then turn the heat to low. The sauce will thicken slightly. Stir the sauce into the green beans to coat. Cook beans and sauce for another 30 seconds, and then remove the skillet from the heat. Place green beans and sauce onto a serving plate or a bowl and garnish with sesame seeds and a few shakes of red pepper flakes. Serve.

 *Feel free to adjust down if you prefer a milder taste.

 Happy Meatless Monday!

 

 

 

Slow Cooker Brown Sugar Sesame Pork

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The other day a number of us were talking about slow cookers. Yes, that is but one example of some of the exciting conversations that I have had with people during the lock-down. I was surprised by how many of them had admitted to only using their slow cookers in the winter. Why? I asked them. It’s the summer when you don’t want to heat up the house. Sure, slow cooker fare tends to be a bit heartier and more filling, so perhaps more appropriate for winter consumption, but when we have hot days,  the slow cooker is my salvation.

This is a recipe that is super easy to put together, and very delicious. It is intensely flavorful with the sesame oil, seasonings, and soy sauce. It’s excellent when cut into slices and served on a bed of white rice alongside some roasted vegetables. If you prefer it for lighter fare, shred it and use it to fill tacos, or mound it on a sandwich bun. If the latter, I can attest that it is really delicious when topped with a pile of fresh bean sprouts and extra scallions.

Slow Cooker Brown Sugar Sesame Pork

Adapted from themagicalslowcooker.com

1 4-lb. pork tenderloin

½ c. reduced sodium soy sauce

½ c. brown sugar

2 T. sesame oil

2 T. white vinegar

¾ t. ground ginger

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 T. toasted sesame seeds

2 lg. Melissa’s shallots, diced

2 scallions, chopped, for garnish

Extra sesame seeds, for garnish

Stir together, in a medium bowl, soy sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil, vinegar, ginger, garlic, sesame seed and

shallots.

Place pork tenderloin into the slow cooker. Cover with sauce, and cook for 5-6 hours on low.

Asian Cucumber Salad

Yesterday I gave you an amazing recipe for barbecue sauce; if you haven’t seen that post you can see it here. Today I’m going to give you a delicious, light, summery salad, that, while it is Asian and goes well with all kinds of Asian foods, it also pairs wonderfully with any type of barbecue. Barbecue sauce can be rich, making food a bit heavy. That food needs to be lightened up with a salad, and this is the one. This is easy to make, light, refreshing, and so delicious, even people who aren’t all that keen on cucumbers are going to enjoy it. This recipe can be doubled, tripled, quadrupled, whatever you need to do to make it for whatever size crowd you happen to be hosting, works. I think you’re going to find it to be quite addicting. This is going to be my “go to” salad of the summer.

Asian Cucumber Salad

2 large cucumbers, halved lengthwise, seeded,

and sliced into ¼” half rounds
1 t. salt
¼ cup rice vinegar
2 T. granulated sugar
1 T. sesame oil
1 scallion, white and green parts, minced
1 clove garlic, finely minced
½ T. ginger root, finely minced
1 T. minced Melissa’s Fire Roasted Red Bell Peppers
1/8 - ¼ t. dried pepper flakes

Place the cucumber slices into a colander, sprinkle with salt, and set aside to drain for at least 1 hour.

Whisk the vinegar and sugar together until dissolved, then whisk in the sesame oil, scallion, garlic, ginger, pepper flakes, and red bell pepper.

RINSE (I cannot emphasize this enough! If you don’t rinse these thoroughly, your salad is going to be too salty.) the salt off the cucumbers, place into a large bowl, drizzle the dressing over, and toss to coat. Refrigerate for one hour prior to serving.

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An equally delicious cucumber salad, but with less zing is this Sweet Corn and Cucumber Salad.

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A Year of the Pig Table to Enjoy All Year Long

After I did last week’s post on my hutch, and saw how many piggy things I actually had, I thought I owed it to myself to put together a “Year of the Pig” table. Yes, I know Chinese New Year is over, but it will be Year of the Pig all year long, and this whimsical table can work year-round as well, particularly if you’re serving Chinese food.

The base of this table is simply yardage of fabric. I love this fabric, and cannot tell you how many times that I have used it, including at my mom and dad’s anniversary party years ago. I bought enough so that I would not only be able to cover the table, but make napkins as well, and you see them here in a pig napkin holder.

The white pig bowls are a new addition this year, and can be used in a variety of ways. They are oven safe, so can hold a delicious casserole (See Meal Plan Monday #10 for casserole ideas.), can be piled full of various forms of citrus fruit, or used as I have done here, lined with a napkin and holding a loaf of freshly baked Outback Steakhouse Bread (You can find that recipe here.).

I love the centerpiece, because like so many others, I have fallen onto the pitcher bandwagon. All three pitchers were a local purchase, from a favorite shop called The White Rabbit. They are reasonably priced, so you may want to check out their website here (I am in no way affiliated, I just love their shop.).

  Be whimsical, be fun, but most of all be yourself when you set a table. Allow your personality to shine through. Everyone will love it!
The alstroemerias (Peruvian lilies) add a soft touch to the center.

Each place setting is layered with first, a gold placemat, then a rhinestone-studded red charger, topped with lovely white plates, and then a chalkboard pig name holder.

Bamboo flatware is from Crate and Barrel, as well as the small white soup bowls, and Asian soup spoons. The tiny fish plates will hold pats of butter.

The Asian glassware I made myself and you can read about that here.

The two wooden pig bowls, stacked one on top of the other, I bought at a shop in Austin, Texas when Mr. O-P and I were working at the Harry Ransom Library at the University of Texas. The shop was going out of business so I got a great price. You can find them here.

Chopsticks are always fun, and you can get those inexpensively here on Amazon. I used to be able to pick up a single grain of rice with chopsticks, but these old hands don’t work as well as they used to, still, I can manage to devour a noodle bowl, the Spicy Peanut Noodles that I made last week in particular.

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Spicy Sesame Noodles with Peanuts

I thought I would round out the two-week celebration of Chinese New Year with this tasty noodle dish. After all, who doesn’t like noodles? It’s Asian pasta! This recipe looks more difficult than it actually is. I absolutely love it, and I kick up the heat on mine so that it is really spicy. I suggest a quarter teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes, but you can scale that back if you like. This dish is equally good cold as it is warm and I don’t know anyone who hasn’t loved it.

Spicy Sesame Noodles with Peanuts

1/2 lb. linguini
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon peanut butter
2 teaspoons Sriracha, or to taste
1” Melissa’s fresh ginger, grated
2 tablespoons sesame oil, divided
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 cup shredded carrots
4 ounces mushrooms, sliced
1 large cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup peanuts, rough chopped
2 green onions, chopped
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

Cook linguine according to package directions. Drain and set aside.

In a medium bowl combine brown sugar, soy sauce, peanut butter, Sriracha, and ginger; whisk to combine; set aside.

In a large stockpot over medium heat, add 1 tablespoon oil, and heat slightly. Add beaten egg and red pepper flakes, and stir to scramble the eggs. Once cooked, set aside with pasta.

Return stockpot to stove, heat remaining 1 tablespoon oil over medium heat. Add carrots, mushrooms, and garlic. Sauté over medium high heat for 5-6 minutes or until vegetables are cooked through.

Turn heat down to low, add pasta and eggs back to pot, then pour the sauce mixture over the top. Toss well to coat pasta and vegetables with sauce. Remove from heat, add peanuts, green onions, and cilantro; stir to combine.

Serve.

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A different kind of noodle bowl is this Easy One-Skillet Beef and Broccoli Ramen.

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Asian Lettuce Wraps

In the same way that I had never tried ramen before (and I told you about that in the post here), believe it or not, I'd never eaten lettuce wraps before either. I know, I know, this probably makes me weird, but it is what it is. Fortunately, I've now rectified that with this amazing recipe, by Food Network’s Sunny Anderson. This is the first Sunny Anderson recipe that I've ever tried, but it is certainly not going to be the last. These were absolutely delicious! I'm not going to lie to you, they're messy, but the taste is well worth the mess.

I adapted her recipe by adding some vegetables, grating and adding carrots and finely minced yellow pepper, not just for color, but also for taste and to add a little vegetable nutrition. This is going to become a regular staple around here, particularly during the summer when I want something lighter to eat, but don't want to sacrifice flavor. I can't recommend these highly enough. And now, I guarantee you I'm going to be trying many other versions of lettuce wraps. I'm hooked! 

Asian Lettuce Wraps

Adapted from Sunny Anderson

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

1 pound ground beef

2-inch piece ginger, peeled and finely grated

2 scallions, chopped

1 carrot, grated

½ cup minced yellow pepper

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/4 cup hoisin sauce

1/4 cup chopped peanuts

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 head Boston lettuce, leaves separated, cleaned and dried

In a skillet over medium-high heat, add the vegetable oil and sauté beef until brown. Stir in ginger, scallions, carrot, yellow pepper, garlic, soy sauce, red pepper flakes, and hoisin and cook for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and stir in the peanuts. Season with salt and pepper and serve warm wrapped in lettuce cups.

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Wow Us Wednesday

Wine’d Down Wednesday

Moonlight and Mason Jars
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Easy One-Skillet Beef and Broccoli Ramen

I'm going to tell you something that could possibly shock you. I've never told this to anyone before, so get ready. Are you sitting down? Okay, here it is: Prior to making this dish, I had never had ramen before. I know, I know, it's hard to believe. Even during the lean college days (and I do miss those lean days, if you know what I mean) I'd never had ramen. Truth be told, those wiggly little noodles kinda scared me. So, when I stumbled upon this recipe for what looked to be a tasty Asian dish that used ramen, I figured it was time to give it a try.

I cannot say enough about this dish. First of all, ramen, where have you been all my life? Second, I liked it so much that, my guess is, I'm going to be kicking rice to the curb. This made such a big difference in this dish, making it seem so much more authentic than all of those dinners that I served with rice. I know that rice is far more traditional, but here the ramen seemed to be.

I really had no idea what I was doing when I made this dish, and didn't know that you could buy ramen noodles in a package, so I ended up buying little cups of noodles, throwing out the seasoning packet, and just using the noodles. Yeah, my number two son straightened me out on this. Well, you live and learn. What I have learned is that I'm going to be using these noodles again, and again.

This is a great dish. Very tasty, appealingly authentic, lots of fun to enjoy with a pair of chopsticks, and one that I think your family will really gobble up.

Easy One-Skillet Beef and Broccoli Ramen

Adapted from Chelsea’s Messy Apron

 3/4-pound sirloin or flank steak (I used sirloin)

Marinade:

1/4-cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

¼ cup honey

¼ cup low sodium soy sauce

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

¼ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon Italian flat leaf parsley, chopped

2 packages (3 ounces each) ramen noodles

4 cups broccoli florets

3 tablespoons cornstarch

Prepare dish:

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 cup beef broth

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup low sodium soy sauce

2 tablespoons sesame oil

¼ cup oyster sauce

2 teaspoons minced garlic

½ teaspoon grated ginger

Salt and pepper

Green onions, red pepper flakes, toasted sesame seeds, to garnish

Thinly slice the steak, against the grain, into 1/4-inch thick strips and then into pieces two inches in length. Place the steak pieces in a large Ziploc bag.

To make marinade:

In a bowl, combine oil, garlic, vinegar, honey, soy sauce, pepper, salt, and parsley.  Whisk together and pour over steak in the bag. Seal and place in the fridge for at least 1 hour and preferably 6-8+ hours (no more than 12 hours). Flip the steak in the bag halfway through the marinating time.

Prepare ramen:

Boil a small pot of water and cook the ramen noodles for exactly 2 minutes. Drain and rinse in cold water.

Prepare dish:

Remove the flank steak and drain off any remaining marinade. Toss the steak to coat with the cornstarch.

Put 1 tablespoon oil into a large skillet set over high heat. Heat until the oil is shimmering. Cook beef in batches to avoid overcrowding, adding more oil, as needed. Cook without moving until the beef is seared, about 1-1/2 minutes. Continue cooking while stirring until the beef is lightly cooked but still pink in spots, about 30 seconds; transfer to a warm plate.

In the same skillet, add the beef broth, brown sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil, oyster sauce, garlic, and ginger. Stir and cook (uncovered) over medium heat until sauce thickens and reduces by about a third (5-8 minutes). You don't want to reduce it too much so it can still generously coat all the noodles and broccoli.

Bring the mixture to a boil. Once boiling, top the mixture evenly with the broccoli. (Do not stir in). Cover the pot with a lid and reduce the heat to low. Allow the broccoli to steam until crisp/tender about 3 minutes or to desired tenderness.

Remove the lid; add the cooked ramen and meat. Stir together and serve garnished with desired toppings.

PRINT RECIPE

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Dream, Create, Inspire
 Homestead Wednesday

Wow Us Wednesday

Wine’d Down Wednesday

Moonlight and Mason Jars
Full Plate Thursday

Thursday Favorite Things,
Home Sweet Home
 Grace at Home

Foodie Friday & Everything Else
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