Recipe Onslaught

Posting two days in a row, what will that crazy Pu do next? She'll continue to inundate you with Asian recipes, that's what (hey, blame MR, she actually asked for them)! To start, if you really get serious about experimenting with Asian food, there are a few things you should have on hand that will help you with your recipe creations. In my pantry/fridge I almost always have:
- Soy sauce
- Lime juice
- Hot chile sauce (usually Sriracha since I eat it on just about everything)
- Thai fish sauce
- Mirin
- Chinese cooking wine (also called Shaoxing)
- Rice wine
- Rice wine vinegar
- Tonkatsu sauce
- Sesame oil
- Peanut oil
- Canned coconut milk
- Green and red curry pastes
- Sichuan spice mix
- Chinese five spice powder
- Turmeric
- Garam masala
- Sesame seeds
- Sake
- fresh ginger
- fresh garlic
- Lemongrass paste (fresh lemongrass goes bad pretty quickly, this is not quite as tastey but much more economically sound!)
- Fermented black beans (black bean paste)

I could keep going on this list of essential ingredients, but these are some of the easiest to get your hands on. If you live in a large city or in an area with a large Asian community, you can probably find a specialty market where you can get the right produce (trust me, using galangal instead of ginger - the poor American's substitute - makes all the difference!) Even if you just have a few of these items, you should be able to make lots of yummy dishes you never thought could come out of your kitchen!

Here's the ultimate what's in the fridge, super fast and easy dinner. I make this (or variations of this) all the time (As I said before, I cook a lot of Asian food, so I have all of these condiments on hand, and I always have cabbage). You may know this dish as Chow Mien, but the correct pinyin transliteration is actually Chaomian, which literally means fried noodles. Enjoy!

Pu's Chao Mian:

1lb Chinese egg noodles
1/2 cabbage, shredded
8-12 shiitake or dried ear mushrooms, soaked, softened and chopped into strips
2 Tbsp peanut oil
1 tsp sesame oil
2 Tbsp dark soy sauce
1 Tbsp Shaoxing or rice wine
1 tsp Thai fish sauce
1 tsp sugar
about 1/2lb leftover meat sliced into strips (optional)

Cook noodles as directed on package.* Meanwhile heat oils on med-high heat, in a wok if you've got one. Add the cabbage and mushrooms and stir fry for 1-2 minutes or just until the cabbage starts to wilt a little. Remove the veggies and add a little more oil to the wok if it looks dry. Then add in the cooked noodles and the rest of your ingredients, except the meant, and cook for about 1 min. Then add in the reserved veggies and meat (if you wish) and stir fry for another min or so, and voila! The perfect 10 mintue meal.

And please remember, I cook for a family of 5, so adjust the recipe as needed! :)

*Hint - give them a cold water bath after you've taken them out of the boiling water. This will stop the cooking process and it will also prevent the noodles from sticking together and make it easier for you to stir fry them.