Ingredients: |
Ingredients: 4-5 T Peanut or Canola oil
1 lb ground pork
1 lb fresh shiitake mushrooms
3-4 jalapeño peppers, ended chopped off, sliced lengthwise and deseeded about ½ cup
3-4 T of finely chopped fresh ginger about the size of two thumbs to the first joint
1 T dark soy sauce
2 T amontillado or oloroso sherry
Salt to taste
¼ to ½ cup of chicken stock or water
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Directions: |
Directions:Remove stems from mushrooms
Cut small mushrooms in half, medium ones in thirds or large ones in quarters.
To slice jalapeño lay cut side down and slice thinly crosswise
Shred or finely chop ginger
Chinese stir fry always starts with the wok or pan hot and dry; this is an exception and I start with cool pan to preserve juices.
Sauté and scramble ground pork and when it has lost its color (it will cook more later) put in colander and catch liquid in bowl
Return pan to high heat and add oil
Add peppers and ginger and stir fry for 15 seconds or so
Add mushrooms and stir fry until coated with oil about 1 to 1½ minutes
Add soy sauce and continue stir frying
At this point Hanna adds salt, I generally don’t
When soy sauce is stirred in, add the sherry and stir well
Add the juice drained from the pork and stir
Add the ground pork and mix well
Add chicken stock or water as necessary to create broth.
Serve immediately with rice and a cold beer
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Personal
Notes: |
Personal
Notes: Is your idea of comfort food a nice tuna fish sandwich or perhaps stir fried shiitakes with pork and peppers? For some folks it is the one, to some it is the other.
Hanna’s first visit with all the members of her new American family occurred at our Florida house. Every bedroom was full and Hanna and Erik were sleeping on an air mattress in the office. They were good sports about it and all was going well. At some point Hanna had her fill of all the western food and she went to the kitchen to make some of her own comfort food. To me this was reminiscent of the time 30 years earlier when Suzanne and I were in Iowa, a veritable paradise for pork lovers. After a few days of this heavy duty diet Suzanne went into rebellion, a fairly quiet version of rebellion, but a push back just the same. When I walked into the kitchen there she was with the can of tuna fish open and a sandwich underway. I think it was very satisfying for her and then it was back to meat and potatoes.
What Hanna cooked up was a little more complicated than a tunafish sandwich and a good deal tastier to her. On that day in Florida what Hanna could get her hands on was a bagful of shiitake mushrooms and 4 jalapeño peppers. We had staples of course, rice, soy sauce, sherry and fresh ginger. The result was amazing.
Let’s be clear. When Hanna joined the family our Chinese cooking quality went up a notch or ten. Out with the gloopy, saucy imitation Cantonese and in with the spare, drier, hotter dishes of Jian in her native Jiangxi Province. Jian is in the West Central part of Jiangxi near the mountains and relatively close to the border with Hunan. If you like Hunanese and Sichuan cooking you will love the cuisine of Jiangxi. Hanna’s dish was quick and spicy. If you cringe at the thought of 4 jalapeños you are a Western Wuss. Jalapeños are not that hot when you use your thumb to remove the seeds and membranes but you might want to be a bit careful where you put that thumb for the next few hours. This is not a problem for Hanna who chops the jalapeños, seeds and all, and fires up the whole kitchen.
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This recipe for Shiitakes with Pork and Peppers is from