Beef noodle stir fry

Today we made Kai's beef noodle stir fry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN8KsqM-a7o

This recipe is different from the rest featured in this blog because it uses noodles. We used Pad Thai rice sticks soaked in warm water for 20 minutes as per Kai's instructions. The ingredients for this dish are as follows:

2 cups rice sticks soaked in warm water
1/4 lb beef sliced
4 cherry tomatoes
1 clove garlic minced
1-2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp seasoning sauce
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 tbsp chicken stock

We still don't know what seasoning sauce is, so we used soy sauce in its place. Also, instead of chicken stock, a pinch of chicken bouillon cube mixed in 2 tablespoons of warm water was used. Adding soy from both soy sauce and dark soy sauce was a little disturbing. Dark soy sauce looks like tar but Kai's looked much thinner, so it felt like we weren't using the proper ingredients.

The ingredients were prepared and the noodles were allowed to soak for 20 minutes


First the beef was stir fried with garlic


Tomatoes were added along with soy sauce


The partially softened noodles were added to the pan


The meal was dished out and topped with bean sprouts and green onion


Ian slurps up his noodles


The meal wasn't perfect for several reasons. First, the noodles took about 5-10 minutes to soften in the wok, which allowed the meat to overcook and become quite tough. We had to add a lot of extra water too because the noodles kept drying out before they softened. The flavor was good but not delicious like the flavors in the beef and broccoli dish. We might make this again but try to soak the noodles longer and use less dark soy sauce or substitute hoisin sauce instead. This recipe deserves 5 out of 10 woks.

Stir fried beef with snow peas

Today's recipe was Kai's stir fried beef with snow peas.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_gz00JGN84

The ingredients are as follows
1 lb beef, sliced thin
1 tsp corn starch
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp chicken stock
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp vinegar
1 clove garlic
8 oz fresh snow peas
sesame oil

Kai did it again. We were very pleased with the flavor of the sauce and the crispness of the snow peas. Instead of chicken stock, we used a pinch of chicken bouillon cube in 2 tablespoons hot water. Snow peas were hard to find this time of year, but we tracked some down. Overall this recipe is most similar to beef with broccoli, but the end flavor is distinctly different.

First the ingredients were prepared and the beef was marinated for 15 minutes in soy sauce and corn starch


The beef was cooked and set aside, and then the snow peas were stir fried


The rest of the ingredients were added


The meal was served with jasmine rice


Ian approves


We really enjoyed this recipe and now I plan to grow snow peas in the garden this Spring so we can have fresh ones on hand. This recipe deserves 4.75 snow peas out of 5. It will serve 2-3 hungry Americans when accompanied with rice.

Chinese Moo Goo Gai Pan

Today we made Kai's Chinese Moo Goo Gai Pan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qORxPeuqNPw

As we learned from Kai, Moo Goo is mushrooms, Gai is chicken, and Pan is sliced. We recently became aware that 2 'Cooking With Wendy' blog subscribers lived nearby, so we invited them over to share in the experience of moo goo gai pan. We doubled the recipe and made jasmine rice to accompany the meal.

The ingredients are as follows
1/2 pound boneless chicken sliced
1 cup mushrooms
1 cup brocolli
1 clove garlic
2 tsp corn starch
1 tsp sugar
1/4 cup chicken stock
1 tbsp hoisin sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce

Instead of chicken stock, we broke a small piece of chicken bouillon cube into warm water. It was about 1/5th of a bouillon cube.

First the chicken thigh meat was sliced thinly. I'm sure chicken breast would also be good.


All of the ingredients were prepped and ready to be assembled


First the vegetables were stir fried


Then the chicken was cooked and the other ingredients were added


Served with jasmine rice and chop sticks


The table is set


Approval!


The meal was delicious and the flavors of the mushroom and brocolli blended well with the sauce. Our special guests also approved this recipe. If you serve with rice, Kai's recipe will serve atleast 2 hungry Americans (4-5 if you double the recipe). We plan to make this recipe again. The recipe deserves 8.5 out of 9 chinese cabbages.