Meat – Page 2 – Mama Lee is Cooking （咱家小饭桌）

Spaghetti with Meatball and Shrimp

By MamaLee | January 3, 2015 - 7:09 am |January 3, 2015 Meat, Noodle, Seafood

I was never a spaghetti person, until back a while ago, I have some spaghetti at a friend’s place. He cooked the spaghetti so good, I fell in love with it. I know my spaghetti tastes nowhere close to his cooking, but I’ll keep trying.

Ingredients:

spaghetti, pasta sauce, meatball, shrimp, garlic leaves, butter, chicken broth.

Methods:

1. Chop garlic leaves into small pieces.

2. Cook spaghetti by instructions, drain well, then mix with a little bit butter, set aside.

3. Meantime, pour some chicken broth and pasta sauce into sauce pan, bring to boil on medium heat, add meatball, bring to boil again, then add shrimp, keep cooking until shrimp change color.

4. Sprinkle garlic leaves, mix well.

5. Transfer to plate, serve when hot.

I decided to start a vegetable garden. After some work, now it’s almost set up and I planted some garlic about 2 month ago. It’s my first time planting garlic in soil, I noticed that the garlic is growing slow because of the temperature, but it looks much stronger, and looks very healthy. After a rainy morning, everything looks fresh and green.

怎样发面（干酵母版）

By MamaLee | November 3, 2014 - 8:09 am |November 3, 2014 Meat

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用干酵母发面其实不是很难，只要酵母的活性还在。

干酵母保存时间长了，效果会差些，所以如果长期不用的话，建议放入冰箱冷藏。

材料：

2 小勺/1 小袋酵母，2 小勺白糖，面粉适量

做法：

1. 酵母和白糖混合，用温水化开。然后静置，让酵母液表面充满气泡。

可以略微搅拌一下，让酵母融化的快些。

2. 把酵母液慢慢倒进面粉里，同时用筷子/叉子快速搅拌，让面粉变成面絮。

3、如果还有很多干面粉，可以再加一些温水。

剩余干面粉的多少决定了面的软硬。如果基本没有干面粉剩下，面团会很软。

4、把面絮和成一个光滑的面团即可。

Smoked Pork Sausage (Chinese Version)

By MamaLee | October 12, 2014 - 7:39 pm |October 25, 2014 Meat

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Somehow, I wanted to make some sausages for a while. I know the temperature is not low enough to make some real Chinese sausage, so I did a cheat version.

Ingredients:

15 lb ground pork, 1 cup rice wine, 1/4 cup salt, 1/2 cup sugar, enough sausage casing, 1 funnel.

Smoking: some black tea, a old wok, a separate rack

Method:

Make sausage:

1. Soak sausage casing in water.

2. Mix ground pork with seasoning.

The rice wine I use is not the regular cooking wine, but a homemade wine made with sweet rice. You can also use spirit drink such as vodka, whiskey.

3. Put sausage case on the funnel, then fill casing through funnel. Tie with thread or twist casing to separate.

Smoke:

1. Put a sheet of foil on the bottom a old wok (old enough that you wouldn’t regret if you damage it), then put some black tea on it.

2. Lay sausage one layer on the rack, put inside of wok, cover with lid.

3. Set wok on high heat, until you see smoke full of wok. Turn off heat, let it set until the wok get clear view again.

4. Repeat if needed, flip sausage upside down.

Try your best to do this smoking step outside. The smell is extremely strong.

Bacon Wrapped Asparagus

By MamaLee | October 8, 2014 - 4:58 pm |October 8, 2014 Meat

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I’ve been wanted to cook this for a while. Somehow, I don’t like the oven bake version, and I think pan fry would make it taste better.

Ingredients:

asparagus, bacon, toothpick.

Method:

1. Lay two pieces of bacon on cutting board.

2. Lay asparagus on top of bacon, then roll bacon over, cut bacon to proper length, push toothpick through asparagus, then chop asparagus to proper length.

3. Heat up frying pan, no oil needed, lay asparagus on top, fry until bacon is done.

4. Lay paper towel on plate, then transfer to plate, cover with paper towel, press lightly. Now it’s ready to serve.

Stew with Rib and Sauerkraut

By MamaLee | October 7, 2014 - 4:06 am |October 7, 2014 Meat, Vegetable

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This is my first time cooking with sauerkraut. There is something similar to it in China, it’s made of Napa Cabbage, not regular cabbage.

Ingredients:

sauerkraut, ribs, cellophane noodle, seasoning to taste, ginger root (optional).

Method:

1. Soak cellophane noodle in cold water, set aside.

2. Pour cold water into skillet, add ribs, add cooking wine, little vinegar, maybe several slices of ginger root or ginger powder. Bring to boil on high heat, then simmer for about 5 minutes.

3. Drain ribs, rinse with warm water, set aside.

4. Form sauerkraut into several balls, squeeze some juice out of it, so it won’t taste too sour.

5. Pour enough water into skillet, bring to boil, add cooking wine and little sugar.

6. Put ribs and cellophane into skillet, then cover with sauerkraut, bring to boil, simmer for about 10 minutes.

7. Add salt into skillet, and any other seasoning you like, such as pepper, soybean sauce, etc.

8. Simmer for another 10 minutes or until cellophane noodle turn clear.

9. Serve when hot.

Stew with Winter Melon and Ground Pork

By MamaLee | October 5, 2014 - 6:03 am |October 7, 2014 Meat, Vegetable

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When it’s getting cold, stew becomes my favorite dish. It always make you feel better when you have warm food on table.

Ingredients:

winter melon, ground pork, seasoning to taste.

Method:

1. Peel the winter melon, then cut it into half, clean inside and outside.

2. Chop winter melon into pieces.

3. Heat up skillet, add little cooking oil, cook ground pork until it’s not pink.

4. Add cooking wine, vinegar, soybean sauce, and little sugar into skillet, keep cooking until all the juice is gone.

You can add some ginger powder, too, if you like.

5. Add winter melon chunk into skillet, stir fry for several minutes, then add water, bring to boil, simmer for 10 minutes, stir, then another 10 minutes, stir, then until winter melon chunk look clear.

Cooking time varies, depend on size of the winter melon chunk.

Stir Fried Asparagus with Preserved Pork

By MamaLee | September 26, 2014 - 11:57 am |September 5, 2020 Meat, Vegetable

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I’m not a big asparagus person, but once a while, I miss it. I use to stir fry it with eggs. But I noticed that it makes eggs looks darker in my lunch box next day. So I decided to cook it with meat this time.

Ingredients:

Asparagus, onion, wood ear, preserved pork, seasoning to taste.

Method:

1. Soak wood ear in water for at least 1 hour, then clean and drain good.

2. Chop asparagus into inch-long sticks.

3. Slice preserved pork into thin slices.

4. Chop onion into cubes.

5. Heat up skillet, no oil needed, set on medium high heat.

6. Cook preserved pork for several minutes until the fat start looking clear.

7. Add onion to skillet, cook for several minutes until onion start getting tender.

8. Add some cooking wine and vinegar into skillet, mix well.

9. Add asparagus and wood ear, keep cooking for several minutes.

10. Add salt, pepper, and a pinch sugar into skillet, stir well.

11. Transfer to plate and serve.

To view this recipe in Chinese, please click here.

Preserved Pork

By MamaLee | September 25, 2014 - 6:53 pm |September 25, 2014 Ingredient, Meat

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Preserved Pork is very popular in South China. This is one of the main way to prevent meat from going bad before refrigerator exists.

To make preserved pork, most people would use pig belly. First, season pork with salt and pepper for 1-3 days, then add other seasoning such as rice wine, soybean oil, etc., then smoke it or air-dry it.

Of course, different area has different way to preserve meat. In country, lots of families hang treated pork above their stoves until they are ready to cook it.

I make it at home. Because I live in South, winter temperature is not low enough to let it air-dry, I have to let it sit in my refrigerator for days to let it dry. It’s not the original taste, but close enough.

Don’t be scared of the color, it comes from soybean oil.

Tortilla Burrito with Ground Meat

By MamaLee | September 10, 2014 - 3:26 am |September 10, 2014 Bread, Meat, Tortilla

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I love the uncooked tortilla. It’s so easy and convenient to cook with it. And it tastes good, better than cooked ones.

Ingredients:

uncooked tortilla, ground meat, egg, green onion, seasoning.

Method:

1. Chop green onion into little pieces, mix with a little bit salt, set aside for several minutes.

2. Beat egg well, set aside.

3. Season meat, then mix with green onion.

Use less salt, since green onion is salty.

4. Brush a thin layer of egg on a tortilla, then spread a layer of meat, then brush a layer of egg and roll it up.

5. Heat up the frying pan, add some cooking oil, pan fry the burrito until golden brown on medium heat.

6. Serve hot.

Black Fungus (Wood Ear)

By MamaLee | September 2, 2014 - 8:37 pm |September 5, 2020 Meat

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Wood Ear showing in picture is the ready-to-cook look. It’s one kind of dry ingredient, you have to soak it in water for at least an hour before you cook it.

Wood ear has different names in English. This name should be translated directly from its Chinese name. A lot of times, it’s called ‘black fungus’.

Below are the links from wiki: Wood Ear