Monday, May 16, 2011

A Chinese feast

On the way home from seeing Wicked in Boise, we stopped at our favorite Chinese restaurant in Idaho Falls. It's just a little hole-in-the-wall place right next to the theater. We decided that we'd order for each other. I got Josh the Hunan Chicken (a little bland) and he got me Mongolian Beef. It was so good, it inspired me to find a recipe for my "new recipe" dinner yesterday. So I found a Slower cooker Mongolian Beef and an Egg Drop soup recipe. Both of these recipes were restaurant quality and they were excellent!! Here they are:

Egg Drop Soup

4 cups chicken broth, divided
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives (I didn't use any, it was fine)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 eggs
1 egg yolk

Reserve 3/4 cup of chicken broth, and pour the rest into a large saucepan. Stir the salt, ginger and chives into the saucepan, and bring to a rolling boil. In a cup or small bowl, stir together the remaining broth and cornstarch until smooth. Stir in the cornstarch mixture gradually until the soup is the desired consistency.In a small bowl, whisk the eggs and egg yolk together using a fork. Drizzle egg a little at a time from the fork into the boiling broth mixture. Egg should cook immediately.

Amount Per Serving Calories: 79 | Total Fat: 4.2g | Cholesterol: 163mg

Slow Cooker Mongolian Beef

1 pound flank steak, cut into bite-size pieces(I used Stew Meat)
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon minced garlic
3 large green onions, sliced diagonally into 1/2 inch pieces
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh ginger root
1/2 cup hoisin sauce

Place garlic, flank steak, soy sauce, water, brown sugar, ginger, and hoisin sauce in a slow cooker on Low. After 2 hours, add the onions and green onions. Cook on Low setting for additional 2 hours. Serve over steamed rice

Amount Per Serving Calories: 450 | Total Fat: 13g | Cholesterol: 47mg

Note: for this one, I omitted the sugar because the hoisin sauce is pretty sweet to begin with. To add some kick, I added about a tbsp of Sriracha sauce (hot chili sauce, you can find it and the hoisin sauce in the same section as the soy sauce). Next time, I would add a little more because there wasn't enough kick for my taste.