Ramen

So the sweet husband made the complicated Ramen broth from the Momofuku cookbook & then it was up to me to make the soup.  Luckily he had followed Momofuku's instructions and made the pulled pork already.  I took his fancy broth, added the bok choy from the bag, scallions, the pork, a touch of lime juice and fresh cilantro and made the family some soup.   We still had two gallon bags of ramen broth and a vat of soup after dinner was over (and no uncooked bok choy!)  Everyone over eight liked it, no one under eight tried it. 

Woon Sen

My 9 year old is a huge fan of her Thai aunt's noodle dish, Woon Sen.  For some reason, I have had a terrible time making it correctly.  The ingredients are not familiar enough to me to be able to wing it, but still after several lessons & email exchanges you would think I could figure it out.  Perhaps the language barrier was holding me back!  

Sophie spent a week with her aunt at the beach and came home determined to help me make it correctly.  We worked together & finally made it up to her discerning standards.   We boiled the ground pork in a little bit of water.  Soaked the "dried fungus" in water. Wow, does that fungus expand in water!  We mixed chopped onions, chopped (now undried) fungus, chopped cilantro, sugar and "vegetable seasoning" (MSG, i think), lime juice and fish sauce in a bowl, added the pork and then had to figure out if the noodles were to be boiled in the pork water or new water, we went with a combination of both & boiled the glass noodles.  Then we added them to the mixture in the bowl, adjusted the lime & fish sauce and Sophie declared it perfect.  The mixture, however, was not authentic because Sophie prefers it without thai chilies.  I added some to mine. 

Carnitas Casserole

Carnitas - I used cubed New Creation pork, salted it and cooked it slowly for several hours in orange juice, cumin and some Goya creole marinade until it fell apart.   The casserole is easy to assemble.  I put in a layer of prepared fresh salsa, because I didn't have time to make my own.  I used our local Heinen's supermarkets fresh salsa.  Then a layer of flour tortillas, then a layer of carnitas, then more tortillas, then a layer of Heinen's canned organic refried beans and white rice with cilantro and more carnitas.  I topped it off with a layer of shredded mexican cheese and baked it in a 350 degree oven.   Before serving, a corn and cilantro salsa, more of the prepared salsa and some sour cream top it all off.  Church function here we come!

Flank steak with sweet slaw

The cabbage awaits! I found a recipe on Epicurious for an Asian slaw (Flank steak with sweet slaw). I have a sirloin from Milgate farms which will have to do in place of the flank steak. It was great, as was the sweet slaw. 3 tbsp rice wine vinegar & 3 tbsp sugar, boiled with a hot pepper and some ginger, poured over 5 cups of cabbage, 1/2 cup of green onions and 1/2 cup of cilantro.

It was an excellent use of cabbage on a hot day. Fish tacos next?